Meat and baby food - recipe help please....

I got a recipe from my WW Babies and Toddlers recipe book and it was a simple recipe of a steak cubed with carrots, sweet potato and other vegies boiled up and pureed.

Anyway I made this recipe up and Im not kidding - it smells like dog food. :( Its gross and I can't bring myself to feed it to her. I tried a bit tonight but she wasn't too keen and I was only too happy to give her something else ( she didnt eat that either so maybe she wasnt hungry!)

Anyway - please help with a nice stinky free recipe for red meat- maybe mince or steak that doesn't smell! Maybe I could add parsley or something although I don't think that it will make much of a difference. Or should I use veal? Would that still smell??

My DH made some motzarella stuffed meatballs and polenta for us for dinner tonight and I jsut fork mashed some for DD for her dinner and she LOVED it I made her heaps and she ate all but about four spoons of it. She also loved chunks of the motzarella on their own! I can give the recipe if you want it.

Oh thanks Kellie- can I start giving her things like onion (cooked obviously!) and cheese! Its so hard to know - at the moment we cook our dinner separately and she eats her food that I made the other day when I did a huge cook up - thank goodness it wasnt all smelly dog meat!
Maybe I could do little meatballs and add that to her mixed veges Ive made? So tricky!

Tan, I used to be worried about stuff like that too until one day a few weeks ago my DH gave her a WHOLE sausage and she ate it with out so much as a cough. I was so amazed because I hadn't even been giving her soft finger foods or anything. Lily's a little older than Izzy but not that much, so I think you could try her on chunkier and 'tastier' foods. I thought about it and being a childcare worker I have given babies of about 7-8 mths things like toast crusts and cooked carrot/banana fingers! You'd think I'd know that huh? But when they're are yours it's so different!!
I have started occaisionally giving her food that I cook for dinner, like rice dishes/pasta etc...I just fork mash her food now unless it's meat liek chicken chunks or steak, and she really loves them, I think cause it's not bland like the plain meat/vegies or fruit she usually gets :D Now I give her cheese chunks, really ripe pear bits, watermelon, cooked vegies sticks. She makes a mess but loves it!

Here's the recipe, it was really yummy. The only thing I was cautious with was the tomato sauce cause I havent given her tomato, I only gave her a little spoonful in it but she loved it.


350g beef mince
1 slice bread torn into tiny peices and soaked in milk
2 eggs
1/2 cup chopped fresh parsley
1 onion
4 cloves garlic (I only used 2)
saltand pepper to taste
200g smoked matzarella cut into 2cm cubes
400g tin crushed tomatoes
1 tbsp olive oil
Polenta

Mix the mince withthe bread eggs and parsley, half the onion, garlic and a generous sprinkle of salt and pepper. Without over working the meat, make them into meatballs, make an indent into them with your thumb and push in a cube of cheese then close over the hole.
Heat the oil in a pan and cook each ball until brown and put them aside. Add the rest of the onion and garlic and saute til brown. Add the tin of tomatoes and meat balls and cook on low for 30mins. Add salt and papper to taste.
Serve the meat balls over polenta cooked to the directions on the packet.

I was going to suggest a simple spag bol, Tan. Mind you, Kel's recipe looks delish! :)

Mmmm yummy! Thanks hun and you are right, I think I need to stop stressing and just start being a bit more relaxed about it all! So far she loves everything I give her - she didnt even pull a face at a bit of vegemite on her cruskit today like I thought she would, so I think it should be fine!

Tan, when Imran was that age he loved being allowed to gnaw on a lamb cutlet with a lot of the meat cut off.
He was never keen on being fed and didn't really start eating solids until he could self feed so the cutlet suited him perfectly because he could grip one end and chew on the other.

Once Charlie had been on solids for a bit & I'd tried him on most things he could have I just started giving what we were having if possible. Keeping in mind the definate no no's like nuts etc I try to cook something we can all enjoy. We also had meat balls the other night & I just mashed with a fork for Charlie. Tonight it was risotto, spag bol is another good one. Also apricot chicken. I add tuna to his food sometimes too.
Charlie has never like the pureed food, so I can simply mash with a fork & he eats it fine.

Tan I find using some lean lamb stewed with veges does not go stinky!! I just cook it all up then use a stick blender with the meat. I use onion etc, even put some garlic in his meals last week cause the girls had colds so thought garlic might hold off a snotty nose haha!! I still cook his meals seperate also as we have a lot of stirfrys, meat/salad etc. I need to do another cook up soon I think, have been slack and used all my frozen stuff. Good luck!!!

Last night I made up some meat loaf with mince, onion vegimite, toamtoe relish and other bits and served it up with mashed potato brocolli and cauli. I just mashed it with a folk for Olivia..she loved it. mmmm...I just made a whole batch of bland food yesterday too!!! Oh well:)