Please note I am not a dietician, and do not have any dietetics background. Whether these are ‘right’ I don’t know but its meals that I find balanced and healthy and which Serenity loves.

I am writing this as Serenity is 1 year, 4 months old. She can manage small lumps now, probably half the size of long grain rice. She has started to bring food to her mouth and bite down, although she cannot chew and swallow big pieces of food yet. I have tried as I think its important to try, but she has struggled quite a lot. We still aren’t under a new speech and language therapist who are usually the people that help with this but I’m sure Serenity will do it in her own time.

Below are recipes I cook for Serenity, she loves all of these. Inspiration is taken out of the books linked at the bottom and some we have improvised. All of these, providing you don’t use frozen meat are perfect for freezing and thawing.

Fish, Broccoli and Sweet Potato

• White Fish (cod fillets)
• Broccoli
• Sweet Potato
• Coconut Oil

• Boil Broccoli and sweet potato in the same sauce pan. I don’t add any salt to the water.
• At the same time, fry fish in half a teaspoon as coconut oil and make sure its thoroughly cooked
• Combine the fish and vegetables in a blender and blend. You may need to add some hot water to get the consistency right.
• I usually use two fillets of fish, a whole large sweet potato and a whole head of broccoli and this will make a good few portions. I will freeze this and thaw in the fridge when we need it.

Chicken, Spinach and Tomato

• Chicken Breast
• Coconut Oil
• Spinach
• Tomato

• Fry the chicken breast in a pan with half a teaspoon of coconut oil
• Add cherry tomato’s and spinach and cook down
• Add into a blender, add hot water or formula to increase the calories and to get to desired consistency, this meal is very low calorie.

Tomato Soup

• Garlic
• Tomato
• Peppers
• Carrott
• Onion

• Add all ingredients to a roasting dish and roast in the oven for about 30 mins, alternatively the air fryer works great.
• Put all into a blender and add any water or formula to get to a desired texture and calorie. Only add a bit of water to start of with as the tomato’s hold a lot of liquid.

Chicken Satay

• Chicken Breast
• Coconut Oil
• Red Pepper
• Spinach
• Peanut Butter
• Curry Powder

• Fry the chicken breast in a pan with half a tea spoon of coconut oil
• Boil the red pepper in a pan with hot water, no added salt.
• Combine the spinach, red pepper and chicken in the pan
• Add a tea spoon of peanut butter and a tea spoon of curry powder
• Add a little bit of water to cook down the peanut butter
• Combine in a blender, and add some more water or formula to get to desired consistency.

Thai Green Curry

• Chicken Breast
• Corriander
• Lemon Juice
• Green Pepper
• Spinach
• Green Beans
• Rice
• Coconut Milk (low fat)
• Coconut oil

• Boil the rice in some hot water for about 10 – 15 minutes
• In a sperate pan, cook the chicken in a small amount of coconut oil.
• Add some sliced green pepper and spinach
• In a separate pan, boil some water and add the green beans
• Once they have cooked, add the green beans to the pan, add lemon juice and a big bunch of sliced coriander. Add coconut milk bit by bit. This will take some guessing as you dont want to add too much to make the blended mixture too thin, but its best to cook it with everything else.
• Drain the rice, add to the blender and add the curry mixture to the blender also. The rice doesn’t blend well but the blades slice it up so it makes little lumps, so be weary of this. You don’t need to add rice, but just for a little more calories.

Beef Stew

• Stewing beef
• Coconut oil
• Sweet Potato
• Spinach
• Carrott

• Fry the beef in coconut oil, alternately roast or cook in the air fryer.
• Boil the carrot and sweet potato in a separate sauce pan.
• Add the spinach into the pan with the beef,
• Once everything is cooked and boiled, add to a blender with water or formula to get the right texture. This will take quite a bit of liquid to get to a smooth texture.

Spaghetti Bolognaise

• Whole-wheat pasta (Its not recommended to give pasta to babies before 1 years of age, this was some advice I had from my dietician. Also Pasta doesn’t blend, it chops up into small pieces that’s manageable now for Serenity)
• Coconut oil
• Low fat mince meat
• Mixed herbs
• Can of tomatoes
• Onions
• Carrot

• Boil the pasta in some boiling water
• In a frying pan, fry the mincemeat with a small amount of coconut oil
• Add finely chopped carrot and onion and fry till soft
• Add the herbs and a can of tomato’s
• Add to a blender with the pasta, this one is thicker and doesn’t really blend to sooth texture, but its good for the next steps.

Beetroot Pasta

I saw this recipe on Instagram and we tried it today and Serenity loved it!

• Whole-wheat Pasta
• Beetroot
• Garlic
• Small amount of chilly
• Feta Cheese

• Boil the pasta in boiling water
• Add the garlic, small amount of chilly and beetroot to a blender and blend.
• Once the pasta is cooked, drain and add to the pasta with some pasta water in the sauce pan.
• In a blender add the pasta and sauce mixture and a tiny bit of feta
• Add a little water or formula and blend to desired consistency. Again this one will stay quite lumpy.

Tips: I started of by picking a meat, some vegetables to have with sweet potato as it blends beautifully. So for example, Sweet Potato, Chicken and Cauliflower, carrots and peas, or Lamb, Sweet Potato and Tomato, Peppers etc. You may think some of these recipes are bland, for example I haven’t used a shop bought paste for the Thai green curry because of the added salt and ingredients I don’t know about. If I just use coriander and lemon juice its a really simplified version and its got no extra ‘stuff’ in it. I don’t use stocks in her food yet or add any extra salt.

Calories: I haven’t added any weights or quantities for these recipes as you can work with what you have and what your child’s recommended amount is. I started of working out calories for every meal so I could learn about the right portion sizes for Serenity without over or under feeding her. To be honest I am less strict with calories as I have learnt more about portions and healthy food. I work out the calories by weight. I find out what 100g is so for example the bag of rice I have is 155kcal per 100g. I will make a list of everything I have in the recipe, with the calories per 100g next to it. I will weigh everything I have and find the calorie amount based on the 100g figure I already have. Everything gets added up and then divided by how many equal portions I make.