Baby Beef Stew

I started writing this post on April 5 and just remembered about it!

When I made this according to the recipe on wholesomebabyfood.com, my Epictutie Little Joy did NOT like it AT ALL. Perplexed by her very sour review, I tried it I did not like it at all either. It was just too bland, esp the potatoes. After freezing this giant batch, I was frustrated because I did not want it to go to waste. After several weeks, it hit me---SPICE IT UP!!!! So I thawed/heated some, added a dash of garlic powder and basil...SUCCESS!!!

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup cubed cooked beef (or ground beef; I would use ground beef if your baby does not have as many teeth to grind with)
• 1 peeled potato
• ¼ cup shelled fresh or frozen peas
• 1 peeled carrot
• 1 stalk of celery
• 1/4 cup uncooked pasta (try ditalini as it's small and makes for great finger food.)
• 4 cups of water
• Dash of garlic powder and basil leaves or other seasonings you think would be yummy; I would add these to each individual serving rather than the whole batch

Steps:

1. Wash vegetables thoroughly
2. Chop veggies very fine.
3. Simmer the veggies in water for 20 minutes or until softened
4. Add the pasta and cook for 10 minutes longer or until very soft. Drain but save the water as a beef stock for other uses.
5. Mash or puree the mix until it is of a consistency adequate for your baby.
6. Serve Warm and add seasonings.

Yield: Sorry, I dont remember exactly but I would say about 10 servings for a 10-12 month old.

Storage: Freeze one serving size in a sandwich bag and place all the individual servings in a freezer bag for 2 months or so.

Difficulty: 3 out of 5; lots of chopping to do which always makes the difficulty higher since I am usually occupying Little Joy at the same time. Overall not too hard though, just lots to chop.

Epicutie Rating: (see right side of page for descriptions)

BEFORE adding seasonings: Sour Puss

AFTER adding seasonings: Yummy in the Tummy

All ingredients chopped and ready to add water to simmer

Simmering veggies and beef

Just before serving (without seasonings, hehe)