Often in winter, adults do not remember fragrant salads, useful and appetizing vegetable stews, and the main vegetable on the table is potatoes. But dishes from vegetables are extremely necessary for the full development of our kids. How to be?
Summer in the package
The children's menu will not be balanced in the absence of cabbage, carrots, beets, spinach, and other vegetable crops. And at the present time this problem is successfully solved by freshly frozen vegetables, such preparations you can safely do yourself in the summer-autumn period. If you do not have time to prepare, look in the store for what suits your baby, and learn how to choose the right product.
Comprehensively study the packaging: pay attention to the date of manufacture, the rules and conditions of storage, shelf life, recommendations on the time and method of preparation. Set aside the package of vegetables if you notice that the product has stuck to the packaging, the vegetables inside are an ice block or the package itself is wet. All this indicates the non-observance of storage conditions: the product was thawed and frozen several times.
Frozen vegetables can be stored in your home in the freezer for a long time - all kinds of cabbage, asparagus, Bulgarian pepper, root vegetables, green peas, spinach can be stored for up to a year. But tomatoes, cucumbers, salad leaves with frost are not friends. If you plan to freeze the food yourself, keep in mind that they should all be fresh, of the best quality. Before freezing, thoroughly wash them, if necessary, clean, rinse and dry again. For convenience, it is possible to pre-cut vegetables - small or large - depending on what dishes you plan to use for them. Pack your semi-finished products in packages or use a "frost-resistant" plastic dish. If necessary, sign your workpieces so that you can not turn the bags in meditation, wondering what is there - spinach or dill.
Please note that in modern models of refrigerators there is a mode of fast freezing at the lowest temperatures - do not forget to read the instructions in advance and prepare your freezer, then you will be able to store more vitamins in vegetables. Cooking vegetables better without preliminary defrosting, throwing into boiling water. If no temperature treatment is expected, defrost the product in a microwave oven or place it in a cold store after having been watered.
Of course, frozen food is inferior to fresh, just removed from the garden, but still, this way of harvesting allows you to save a significant amount of useful substances (with proper freezing, only 20% of vitamins are lost) and this option is better than using greenhouse vegetables. According to dietitians, freshly prepared dishes from frozen vegetables contain more (!) Vitamins, microelements and nutrients than reheated dishes from fresh ones.
Potatoes we litter the baby
As for children who are just beginning their acquaintance with vegetables, it is better for them to prefer special "canned" food, taking into account the unfavorable ecological situation, the specialists of the Institute of Nutrition recommend using it for up to a year.
Later the child will grow older, the defenses of the body will increase, immunity will grow stronger - and it will be possible to transfer the crumbs to a common table. After all, our kids need only fresh daily dishes, and not yesterday's soup. Such a diet for a young mother, who already has a lot of worries, is difficult to provide. From a jar the child can receive the useful, various, high in vitamins and other useful substances qualitative food. If for your own reasons you still intend to cook your baby yourself or suddenly there was no store supply - strictly observe the sanitary and hygienic norms when processing and preparing vegetables.
Cooking Rules
1. Any vegetables should be thoroughly washed, cleaned and re-rinsed.
2. To lay vegetables for cooking you need to boil water, but it is more useful to cook them whole and for a couple.
3. Finished vegetables thoroughly wipe through a sieve, at first even twice or thrice, they can also be passed through a meat grinder or grinded in a blender. In a word, you need to try to achieve a homogeneous texture.
4. Oil, add milk to a slightly cooled dish, salt limit, or even better - do not add.
Terms of introduction of vegetable complementary foods
In accordance with the recommendations of Ukrainian pediatricians, vegetable lure begins to be introduced to artificial babies at 4.5 months, and to children who are breastfed after 6 months. Vegetables significantly enrich the baby's diet with vitamins, carbohydrates, fiber, pectin. Vegetables and the preceding fruit purees are very similar in composition, but they also have some differences: vegetables contain more vegetable fibers, salts, proteins, so they require a little more effort of the child's body to digest them, in addition, they contain less sugars.
An important component of vegetables - fiber, stimulating the work of the intestines, preventing constipation, which is often found in modern children.
Where to begin?
Begin the familiarity of the baby with vegetables experts recommend with any one product, preferably with zucchini. The fact is that it has a fairly delicate structure, hypoallergenic. As the first vegetable can make and cauliflower. To establish friendly relations with each of the vegetables, take 7-10 days to assess how the child perceives a new product, to track any changes, including the nature and frequency of the stool.
Then you can enter cauliflower, broccoli, potatoes, carrots, pumpkin. Later do not forget to introduce the baby to celery, eggplant, squash, asparagus. As the vegetable ration is expanded, offer mixed mashed potatoes, taking into account its taste preferences. If the child does not like pure vegetable purees, try to "hide" vegetables in fruit or add them to the porridge.
Remember that vegetables are an indispensable product on the table of any child and adult. As the baby grows up, the need for a thorough grinding of the products will disappear, you will grate them on the grater, then cut - in this form, more useful substances will remain in the dish.
Gradually include in the children's menu dishes from legumes - green peas, green beans, but with an eye on the state of the baby. These products are digested and absorbed by the body worse than others, often their use has to be postponed to 2-3 years of age.
Since the year you can offer your child salads from raw vegetables (up to 30-40 grams a day), children must be rubbed for one and a half years, then finely chopped, closer to 2 years, and a larger cut will do. Salads fill with unrefined vegetable oil and a few drops of lemon juice.
Delicious menu
We offer different varieties of vegetable dishes, taking into account the age characteristics of the kids.
For children older than 5-6 months
Puree from cauliflower
Take:
100 g of cauliflower;
breast milk (mixture).
Preparation:
1. Boil the cabbage in boiling water (even better - cook a couple) for 5-10 minutes.
2. Drain the water, leaving part of the broth, mash with a mixer or blender, you can optionally add breast milk or a mixture, salt is better not to add. In the same way, you can prepare mashed potatoes from a squash or pumpkin (it can be baked in the oven).
For children over 1 year old
Soup puree from vegetables "Merry company"
Take:
200 g of frozen vegetable mixture;
a bunch of fresh greens (dill, parsley)
butter or sour cream.
Preparation:
1. In the boiling water, put the frozen vegetable mixture, boil the vegetables until soft.
2. 5 minutes before cooking, add finely chopped greens.
3. Remove the vegetables, rub through a sieve, add broth in the mash, season with sour cream or butter.
Cutlets "Sun"
Take:
2 small carrots;
1 egg;
2 table. spoons of wheat flour
Salt.
Preparation:
1. Wash carrots thoroughly, clean and grate on a fine grater.
2. Stroke the egg and mix, add flour and mix again, you can slightly add.
3. Prepare cutlets for a couple, later, when the child grows up, it will be possible to fry such cutlets in a frying pan (but not earlier than 3 years).
4. Serve with sour cream or unsweetened natural yoghurt.
For children over the age of 1.5 years
Carrot pudding with breadcrumbs "Ryzhik"
Take:
1.5 kg of carrots;
1.5 cups of sugar;
100 g of crushed white breadcrumbs;
6 eggs;
1/2 cup of raisins without pits.
Preparation:
1. Wash carrots, cook, clean and wipe on a fine grater.
2. Add the sifted rusks to the resulting mass.
3. Separate yolks from proteins, rub with sugar and slightly warmed butter.
4. In the yolk-oil mixture, add carrot puree, raisins (or other sliced dried fruits).
5. Whip the whites in a strong foam and gently enter in a mash. Salt to taste.
6. Then carefully (without breaking the air texture) put the mass in a greased form and bake in the oven for 1.5 hours at 200C.
Carrot cookies "Zaykin's joy"
Take:
1 kg of carrots;
4 eggs;
2 table. spoons of vegetable oil;
2 cups of sugar;
zest;
1 lemon;
2 cups;
flour.
Preparation:
1. Wash carrots, boil in salted water, clean and wipe through a sieve.
2. Pure the puree, add eggs, vegetable oil, sugar. Stir, add lemon zest, whisk with a mixer.
3. Pour the sifted flour into the resulting mass, knead the dough.
4. Roll out a cake with a thickness of about 1 cm, cut into squares.
5. Put the cookies on a greased baking sheet and bake for 15-20 minutes at 250C.
Successful to you and culinary experiments!