Recipe: Baby Food (Peas)

As a new mom, my wife is very particular what she feeds the boy, and as a new dad, I am always wondering how to afford all the new budget items babies bring.

When practical (especially during the summers when the wife is not teaching) we find making our own baby food makes the wife happy because she controls the ingredients, and makes me happy because it is much cheaper as well as being better quality.

So as the boy grows we are introducing new foods –so the first question is when can you start feeding peas to your baby?

As always I am not a doctor, so ask the pediatrician, but we started feeding WT peas at about 6 months. – peas are sometimes sold as a “first food”, but it can cause gas in some babies, and we wanted to wait a little while as gas problems runs in the family (even if we blame the dog)…

When making your own baby food you have a couple options, and cooking up fresh peas is obviously the healthiest choice, but not the easiest. Using canned peas is much easier (and normally cheaper), but since canned peas contain a lot of salt and sugar we think it negates the very reason we are cooking our own baby food.

We compromise and use frozen peas. They are economical, available, and less processed than canned peas.

Peas are not usually sold by variety, although many varieties DO exist.

Peas are a great source of nutrition for your child because they are rich in protein, fiber, vitamins, and minerals (including iron, vitamins A and C, vitamin B1, folate, and phosphorus)

To Turn Peas to Baby Food

Simply puree the cooked peas in a food processor, with a little of the cooking water or even a little homemade vegetable or chicken broth.

We like to use our OXO food mill to make baby food, and have done several videos on it, but, because the little bits of the skin tend to be hard to break down, Pea puree is somewhat difficult to get completely smooth we find the food mill does not do a good job.

The best way around the problem is to pass the puree through a very fine mesh strainer, which should filter out even the tiniest bits. Or use this tip from Andrea, one of our visitors…

I was able to get a smooth puree without straining by using a blender on the fastest setting and letting it run for two minutes or so. Add a little water so it really gets moving and the skins will puree.

Now that the boy is a little older and prefers to eat what we eat, Cooked peas can make a great finger food for older babies – a bowl of cooked peas can keep our WT busy, and the small size helps build hand eye coordination which he will need to help his daddy with “projects”. Just make sure to only use cooked peas, as uncooked peas are a choking hazard.