As well as fellow mummy bloggers, parents worldwide and personal friends, my family also read this blog. They’ll know better than anyone how useless I am in the kitchen. I only learnt the difference between a boiling pan and a frying pan 3 years ago, and I once famously set off a fire alarm in my old flat trying to cook asparagus (over 50 people were evacuated from their homes as a result).
Yes, I am officially useless. In our house, Craig does all the cooking. I manage to keep my self alive by grazing on anything that doesn’t need to see heat to make it edible throughout the day.
When I mentioned I’d been approached to review Indian Super Meals – Baby and Toddler Cookbook, Craig ears pricked up. He’s a bit of a Spice King so was instantly intrigued by what Dexter can try at 8 months.
We trialled the downloadable version which was great as Craig could follow the recipes on his iPhone and there was no physical book to get covered in muck. As eReaders / tablets have been all the rage over the past few months - we’ve caught the eBook bug and were pleasantly surprised how easy this one was to follow.
The weaning advice in the book is excellent. I was also very pleased to see that the book catered for all young mouths - from gently mashed food, to fingerfoods (when they get a little more confident), to self feeding toddlers. The information on SuperSpices was fabulous and innovative. We all know that avocados and blueberries are packed with antioxidants but we’ve since discovered that half the contents of our spice rack are also - result!
All recipes have been created with babies and toddlers in mind without salt, sugar or chilli, and they’re suitable for little people from 7 months onwards. These 60 recipes are literally rammed full of vitamins and minerals so are perfect for introducing your baby to healthy, nutritious and tasty food. It’s all too easy to whip up the traditional cottage pie, blend it down for baby, and forget that he / she might need an extra bit of kick to make it really delicious - I mean we can add mayo, tomato sauce, brown sauce to ours to make it how we like it!
Dexter tried the Sweet Potato, Apple and Dhal Curry as he can’t get enough apple, and absolutely loved it (I’d post a picture but it’s looks so rubbish mashed down to Dexter-friendly proportions!). The Coconut Chicken Curry was also gobbled down with zero complaints. I’ll admit that Craig used the opportunity to introduce me to different flavours too. He kept popping back and forth from the kitchen with a spoon to make me taste it. It was seriously yummy so I’m glad he did.
As for the instructions - well I asked Craig and he has no complaints. To be honest, Craig rarely sticks to a recipe and you’ll see him add all kinds of things to our food - but as he was conscious he was cooking for Dexter he left it to the expert. We’ll both admit to being over-cautious with Dex’s food and it’s hugely helpful to have such a great virtual cooking companion to reassure you that baby will be fine. Thanks Zainab.