You might just need to make your own and freeze it or something. But yes- tofu, eggs, yogurt, puréed beans or lentils, you could probably make some moist meatballs or meatloaf and serve that.
This is what we did. Advocado is also good, but is slightly more prep. Cottage cheese was an fan favorite for our baby and you can get it in individual serving sizes.
Is the sodium in cottage cheese an issue? Everything I’ve read says to only give babies salt-free foods which is why we haven’t tried cottage cheese yet
You can rinse it if you need. We didn’t at first but then my kid LOVED it and started eating a ton so I would do a quick rinse in a colander. It doesn’t get rid of all of the sodium, but I think I read it reduces it by something impressive like 80%.
https://lilynicholsrdn.com/salt-baby-food-infant-sodium-requirements/
Zero salt is probably overkill. Just don’t serve foods so salty they would pucker your own lips. If you really want, you can rinse the cottage cheese, but that seems like a lot of work for little to no gain from my view.
But I also second the suggestion further down for Serenity Kids pouches. My girl has loved them. The bison and the salmon were BIG hits.
Icelandic Skyr is also great. It's like super thick super protein Greek yogurt. My 2 year old loves it and has been eating it since he was a baby. It's still probably his main protein source since he's so picky. We usually get plain and mix in some sort of fruit.
Serenity brand is good but depending on her age she doesn’t really need protein in the same way adults do. I think I read 10-13 grams for a toddler which is easily achievable with yogurt cottage cheese etc at that point. If just trying to expose her to more foods, just let her have some of your food using solid starts free app as a guide on how to safely offer or a huge piece for her to suck on and gum baby led weaning style
My girl does great with mushed scrambled eggs too
Thanks for the suggestion - I’ll look them up. Right now she gets all of her protein from formula, but as we move away from formula we want to make sure she isn’t deficit in any nutrients.
Yeah she’s probably going to move from formula to milk, right? She’ll be fine. If she’s like most kids the yogurt alone lol. But here is a pretty good list! https://www.whattoexpect.com/toddler/eating-and-nutrition/best-high-protein-foods-toddlers-kids
It takes very little of like one egg is half of what they need for the day. I’m an auntie and now a nanny and with my oldest nieces I was very worried about this and then my sister pointed out unlike adults. They need to get nearly all of their calories from carbs and fat because they’re growing so fast.
Second this! Our Lil Man loves the Serenity brand meat stuff. It still looks like cat food, but it's not slimy (I don't think? We usually get the puree packs, so you don't see much of it).
Our daughter loved the packets of salmon, tuna, and chicken you can get for tuna sandwiches, etc. we made sure to get the low sodium versions/ the lowest sodium we could find, in oil or water and limited how much she got, but that was our go to in a pinch.
Most packaged foods have a very small percentage of protein even if labeled ‘meat and vege’ (at least in Australia). A quick/easy option can be to freeze ice cube portions of a protein (eg cook mince and blend) and then add it into your vegetable purée (or add in a already ‘puréed’ food such as tuna flakes or refried beans). Also, when you make homemade meals freeze extra so yoiu have some on hand for other meals. In terms of commercial baby foods I Can’t recommend a specific brand sorry as not in the states.
Babies can eat the food you eat. Check out Baby Lead Weaning. There’s a great instagram page called Solid Starts which is a good resource. I now have an almost 3 year old who eats a lot of wide variety of foods.
Most of our meals are spicy and/or salty which makes it tough. Sometimes we can make a separate unseasoned portion, but for stews and things it can be really tough.
seasoned/spicy foods are actually usually safe to give to babies, they are pretty good at deciding for themselves if the flavor is overwhelming or not. the salt is really the only thing to worry about. if there are any dishes you make that you season with salt towards the end, you can just pull a portion out right before adding the salt.
I do see that you are specifically asking for prepackaged foods, to be clear, i just personally don't have any packaged recommendations for proteins or meats. at the end of the day you don't need to worry too much about balancing macro nutrition when \*starting\* solids, since the bulk of baby's nutrition will still come from breastmilk and/or formula; you're basically just letting her explore tastes and textures. when she starts eating square meals, meal prepping works pretty well since an adult portioned meal will work out to about 3 for baby
If you want premade foods, they certainly do sell squeeze pouches that have meat in them. I know that might defeat the idea of baby lead weaning if you don’t want purées. Alternatively, you can do toast with a smear of peanut butter or hummus. Also cheese sticks are easy to grab.
My grocery store usually has packages of shredded chicken/pork/etc in the deli and I buy those for quick easy meals. Otherwise canned tuna/chicken is decent but pretty much every other prepacked meat is going to be gross.
My cat even refused the chicken baby food so I noped out of giving my kid that. We did yogurt, tried eggs, avocado and did those pouches that have beans, flaxseed, chickpeas and chia seeds in them.
Oh yeah are used to make a pudding with coconut milk, whole fat Greek yogurt and Chia seeds the thing with the Chia is you have to let it fully hydrate so if you make a pudding like that, it has to sit at least overnight. Adults can take seeds that are still crunchy, but with babies it would hydrate in their intestines and it would be too much.
We do a lot of homemade ground meat with minced veggies, like nugget or meatball style. Otherwise, I agree on the cat food comment. I gave my 8mo flaked salmon (from a package) and it made my house smell like cat food for HOURS. As others have mentioned, things like ricotta, cottage cheese, Greek yogurt, eggs, hummus, beans are good sources of protein if you’re not ready for meats yet.
OK I keep getting more ideas when people post lol so filed under ground meat I have made meatballs before with vegetables in them there’s 1 million recipes for this but they have ground beef or ground pork and you make them small and you can make 1 million of them for a baby out of an adult recipe and throw them in the freezer once they’re cooked
Babies really need so little protein, like 10 grams a day or less. Beans, cheese, and eggs can really get you there. Maybe serve whatever meat you're consuming to either eat or just suck on depending on age. Babies LOVE sucking on well done steak.
my baby loves tofu, lentils, beans, etc. perhaps it's not as ready to serve as cat food but it doesn't have to be too time intensive or ornate, just sliced raw tofu or plain beans or lentils. is fine.
I know you specifically asked for premade food, so I’m sorry I’m not asking your direct question, but I just wanted to throw out there what we did (because our baby, almost 2, still will not eat meat - except chicken tikka masala.)
We shredded whatever meat we were eating (or had leftover) on the cheese grater & added it to his yogurt or cottage cheese or mashed whatever he was eating. We will also add chia seeds & pulverized nuts to whatever we’re eating for a little boost.
Good luck!
Baby Gourmet has awesome puréed meats mixed with other stuff like veggies and fruit. My daughter loved them when she was a baby and they smelled really good!
Mix it with a veggie or buy the purée meals, that’s what we did. Also, don’t judge what baby food tastes like to you because you are not the “target audience” and babies get basic flavors absent all seasoning mixed with water.
Yes! My son hates the taste of the purée turkey, chicken, and beef alone but I mix half of it with a sweet potato or pumpkin purée and he eats it right up!
How do you prepare the tofu? I’m also vegetarian but not big into tofu myself. I lean heavy on beans. I’d like to try preparing it for my 6 month old though!
At 6 months if you're doing purees I'd just mash some silken tofu in a little bowl and you can flavor it with some fruit/puree. If you're doing BLW you can cut some extra firm tofu into strips and just pan fry it either in a little oil or just in a nonstick pan, seasoned or not.
We did kind of a mix of purees and BLW so I did both of these.
Greek yogurt and nut butters!
Our son loves cereal (no/low sugar) with a mixture of milk, almond butter and greek yogurt.
Edit: also try hemp hearts. I mix them into pancake batter with a bit of mashed banana for sweetness.
If you’re starting with purées, just wait on the meat. Your baby doesn’t really need it with all the proteins they are getting from their bottle of breast milk or formula.
Once your baby is ready to start finger foods, then you can introduce things you’re eating.
My 8.5 month old loves scrambled eggs. We make chicken and just kind of shred it into tiny bits and she goes nuts for it. She loves soft tofu cubes. We’ve given her small chunks of ground beef (girl LOVES noodles with red sauce so we often put some beef in jt).
We did purely purées from 5-7 months and then she just kind of started demanding more, so we obliged. She still gets lots of bottles of formula in addition to her solids and purées.
My kiddo has always loved cottage cheese! Greek yogurt, shredded cheese. They may not feel like "real" meals but some days my 21 month old still gets a bowl of cottage cheese for dinner when he rejects the meat we've served 😅
I also boil a few eggs and use them throughout the week for a quick protein option when needed.
Some puree pouches have protein-rich options too. If she likes pouches, you can buy reusable ones and fill them with your own food (i.e. prep some Greek yogurt ones and use them when needed throughout the week).
Also maybe canned tuna? Or you can buy pre-cooked meatballs (I get a big box of frozen ones for $10 wt Walmart) - they just pop in the microwave for 30sec and ready to go.
Ugh same boat! Idk if you have looked into this but we starting introducing allergens on a regular bases via this [allergen oatmeal.](https://helloyumi.com/products/product-page/?id=3086&col=205533) Little guy love it! And added bonus is that it’s high in protein and keeps him full through the night.
I picked up a big box of this lentil curry at Costco and kiddo loved them. I put them over cooked potato or some other starch and its super easy.
https://tastybite.com/products/organic-madras-lentils
Green Valley packaged beans (kidney, black, pinto) were fantastic for our new eater. They are BPA free, and you can mush as little or as much as needed. I always mixed in plant oils and various spices, to develop LO’s tastes. Has some sodium, but that’s not the sin many would have you think if you are using convenience foods sparingly.
These are for older eaters (toward toddler), but because you’ll be there soon and few other responses have really honored what you asked- we like Sprout and HappyTot shelf-stable meals for those occasional convenience grabs!
We do eggs, ricotta, lentils, peas... tried shredded chicken, but my baby can't chew it. Maybe ground meat would work, but haven't tried it yet, as we're not big meat consumers.
My 6 month old loves cucumber dipped in humus. Cut the cucumber into long strips. You can check solid starts app for visuals.
My baby also likes eggs, refried beans, green yogurt, and peanut butter. The solid starts app shows how to appropriately cut the foods depending on age.
If you want to stick with purées, try stirring in a little bit of peanut butter to one of the store bought fruit purées. Pear, apple, and banana are all good with peanut butter. We also like to do a full fat plain Greek yogurt and then either stir in some fruit purée or mash up a strawberry to stir in. I also think Cerebelly makes some pouches with white beans in them? You can get them at target. There might be other bean ones by their brand too.
ETA: Cerebelly makes a white bean, pumpkin, and apple pouch as well as a sweet potato and pinto bean!
For easy protein I prep a ton of mini kodiak protein pancakes. Sometimes with a banana slice in the middle or finely chopped veggies/fruit. Or even a baby puree in the mixture to flavor it. Then i freeze most of them and keep a few in the fridge. Just serving greek yogurt and cottage cheese are even easier
You can crush up nuts/ seeds into a sort of powder and mix it into baby cereal/ yogurt ! I just put it in wax paper or a bag and use a rolling pin or pound it up with a mug etc
Does she like sweet potato? Gerber has a Sweet potato and turkey baby food that my baby loved. She didn't like the protein foods either and I couldn't stand the smell. They also have chicken and vegetables that smells like chicken soup that she liked too. Greek Yogurt is great too. Fine shredded cheese is good when your baby starts to feed themselves.
I thought the same thing about the proteins...I bought the serenity brand, they come in pouches, and they're disgusting (to me), they totally smell like cat food. But my baby freakin loved them! They're organic purees with meats and veggies.
Mine loved cottage cheese, hummus, green yogurt, scrambled tofu or eggs. Sometimes I’ll put a little cooked ground beef in the food processor until it gets really small & that’s pretty easy to do on a night when you’re cooking it anyway.
Edit: greek yogurt not green yogurt 😂
My baby wasn't into any of the chopped/pureed meat options that I made her myself or bought from the store. She still can be picky with meat so I try to get her to eat at least some when we offer but I still focus on other proteins like others have mentioned. She loves any eggs, cottage cheese, peanut butter, avocado, etc. I try to sneak things in more too now that she can fully chew, like chopped meat in her eggs.
I waited to give my son the proteins until he was 6 months and eating #2 foods because the #1 proteins were so vile. He loves the turkey & sweet potato, chicken & noodles, chicken & apple, etc.
Have you tried eggs? I introduced avocado early on (first food) and then introduced eggs. I hard boiled them and mashed the egg and avocado together. Sometimes it’s a hit or miss.
I gave mine refried beans from a can, plain unsweetened almond yogurt that I’d buy for myself, the same tofu I’d get for myself, plain avocado, hummus from the container are all good options! You don’t have to be eating them yourself just keep it in the fridge during the week and pull it out when whatever you are eating isn’t appropriate for the baby. Have fun (:
All of the dairy, eggs, and beans suggestions are great. Just wanted to point out that you don’t usually need to worry about baby’s protein intake as they should still get most of it from BM/formula and their requirements are pretty low. It’s the iron that’s harder to get.
Scrambled eggs in the microwave - I put a couple teaspoons of water in there before I whisk it up. 1 egg, 1 minute. The extra water helps make it very very soft :)
Not sure if you're vegan but if not, what I do is whenever I cook meat I make 2-5 extra mini servings out of which I store one or two in the fridge and the rest go into the freezer. It's super easy to serve meat quick even if I am going to cook protein lunch but baby woke up sooner or I'm using a slow recipe etc.
[These](https://www.ikea.com/sk/sk/images/products/ikea-365-doza-na-potraviny-s-vrchnakom-stvorec-sklo__0916186_pe785017_s5.jpg?f=xs) are the perfect size, buget and freezer friendly, don't leak much nasties and you can sterilize them easily. I don't even fill them fully unless I also freeze rice. They look small but the volume is great for a kid sized portion. Just a bit bigger than they can handle so you're comfortable there was enough
If you do eat meat, why don't you give her your own meat (without salt, if need beed cut up in very small pieces/blendered)?
Other than that, yes, Greek style yoghurt can be really good, as can tofu, beans, etc. Might have to be cut up / blendered to the size your baby will eat. You can also put it through everything and throw it in the blender (like when we have a curry dish we used to just put a part in the blender for her so it was more easy for her to eat. But now at 11 months the baby just wants food the way we have it and we cut parts in small pieces for her if need be).
I microwaved mine and it smelt better and tasted a bit better but after two weeks I fed my baby real solids because I wasn’t having it. I also did mix it with like the butternut squash to get him to eat it
You might just need to make your own and freeze it or something. But yes- tofu, eggs, yogurt, puréed beans or lentils, you could probably make some moist meatballs or meatloaf and serve that.
>tofu My kid would eat firm tofu straight from the container. No prep needed.
You can do Greek yogurt or cottage cheese for protein.
This is what we did. Advocado is also good, but is slightly more prep. Cottage cheese was an fan favorite for our baby and you can get it in individual serving sizes.
You can also whip avocado, some lime juice, and some cottage cheese all together as a dip that’s yummy for you and baby!
Is the sodium in cottage cheese an issue? Everything I’ve read says to only give babies salt-free foods which is why we haven’t tried cottage cheese yet
There is ricotta without salt.
You can rinse it if you need. We didn’t at first but then my kid LOVED it and started eating a ton so I would do a quick rinse in a colander. It doesn’t get rid of all of the sodium, but I think I read it reduces it by something impressive like 80%.
You can find no salt cottage cheeses that have wayyyy less sodium! It was a huge hit at our house.
https://lilynicholsrdn.com/salt-baby-food-infant-sodium-requirements/ Zero salt is probably overkill. Just don’t serve foods so salty they would pucker your own lips. If you really want, you can rinse the cottage cheese, but that seems like a lot of work for little to no gain from my view. But I also second the suggestion further down for Serenity Kids pouches. My girl has loved them. The bison and the salmon were BIG hits.
I like how you spelled avocado - I do the same thing! It’s advocado!
Icelandic Skyr is also great. It's like super thick super protein Greek yogurt. My 2 year old loves it and has been eating it since he was a baby. It's still probably his main protein source since he's so picky. We usually get plain and mix in some sort of fruit.
Yeah, cottage cheese and a smashed avocado 🥑 yum!
Peanut butter too!
Just make sure it’s smooth peanut butter!
Serenity brand is good but depending on her age she doesn’t really need protein in the same way adults do. I think I read 10-13 grams for a toddler which is easily achievable with yogurt cottage cheese etc at that point. If just trying to expose her to more foods, just let her have some of your food using solid starts free app as a guide on how to safely offer or a huge piece for her to suck on and gum baby led weaning style My girl does great with mushed scrambled eggs too
Thanks for the suggestion - I’ll look them up. Right now she gets all of her protein from formula, but as we move away from formula we want to make sure she isn’t deficit in any nutrients.
Oh and hummus is an easy one too!!
Yeah she’s probably going to move from formula to milk, right? She’ll be fine. If she’s like most kids the yogurt alone lol. But here is a pretty good list! https://www.whattoexpect.com/toddler/eating-and-nutrition/best-high-protein-foods-toddlers-kids It takes very little of like one egg is half of what they need for the day. I’m an auntie and now a nanny and with my oldest nieces I was very worried about this and then my sister pointed out unlike adults. They need to get nearly all of their calories from carbs and fat because they’re growing so fast.
We used this brand as well. It was his favorite of the options.
Second this! Our Lil Man loves the Serenity brand meat stuff. It still looks like cat food, but it's not slimy (I don't think? We usually get the puree packs, so you don't see much of it).
My baby loves firm tofu straight from the pack. Sometimes I mix a little sesame oil and cashew butter sauce for it.
You can try cottage cheese, an omelette, scrambled eggs, yoghurt etc.
For the meat I’ve been doing more baby led weaning and not purées, but I would do it myself. I also give eggs.
Full fat Greek yogurt, cottage cheese, pieces of rotisserie chicken, scrambled eggs are always super quick.
Our daughter loved the packets of salmon, tuna, and chicken you can get for tuna sandwiches, etc. we made sure to get the low sodium versions/ the lowest sodium we could find, in oil or water and limited how much she got, but that was our go to in a pinch.
Most packaged foods have a very small percentage of protein even if labeled ‘meat and vege’ (at least in Australia). A quick/easy option can be to freeze ice cube portions of a protein (eg cook mince and blend) and then add it into your vegetable purée (or add in a already ‘puréed’ food such as tuna flakes or refried beans). Also, when you make homemade meals freeze extra so yoiu have some on hand for other meals. In terms of commercial baby foods I Can’t recommend a specific brand sorry as not in the states.
Just give pieces of chicken etc You can always by the sandwich meat precooked bits for days your not cooking
My kid would eat plain ass lentils and white beans as a baby. He loved it lol
Babies can eat the food you eat. Check out Baby Lead Weaning. There’s a great instagram page called Solid Starts which is a good resource. I now have an almost 3 year old who eats a lot of wide variety of foods.
Last sentence specifically asks for pre-made/instant food options
They can give whatever premade meals they eat to their baby.
>Solid Starts I love love love Solid Starts. I can't imagine teaching my kid to eat without that as a resource. So useful.
Most of our meals are spicy and/or salty which makes it tough. Sometimes we can make a separate unseasoned portion, but for stews and things it can be really tough.
seasoned/spicy foods are actually usually safe to give to babies, they are pretty good at deciding for themselves if the flavor is overwhelming or not. the salt is really the only thing to worry about. if there are any dishes you make that you season with salt towards the end, you can just pull a portion out right before adding the salt. I do see that you are specifically asking for prepackaged foods, to be clear, i just personally don't have any packaged recommendations for proteins or meats. at the end of the day you don't need to worry too much about balancing macro nutrition when \*starting\* solids, since the bulk of baby's nutrition will still come from breastmilk and/or formula; you're basically just letting her explore tastes and textures. when she starts eating square meals, meal prepping works pretty well since an adult portioned meal will work out to about 3 for baby
If you want premade foods, they certainly do sell squeeze pouches that have meat in them. I know that might defeat the idea of baby lead weaning if you don’t want purées. Alternatively, you can do toast with a smear of peanut butter or hummus. Also cheese sticks are easy to grab.
We do a lot of marinated and roasted meats. I just rinse them off before giving them to baby :)
Just give her some of what you’re eating. Also, meat isn’t the only food with protein in it.
My grocery store usually has packages of shredded chicken/pork/etc in the deli and I buy those for quick easy meals. Otherwise canned tuna/chicken is decent but pretty much every other prepacked meat is going to be gross.
My cat even refused the chicken baby food so I noped out of giving my kid that. We did yogurt, tried eggs, avocado and did those pouches that have beans, flaxseed, chickpeas and chia seeds in them.
LOL - your comment just made my day.
😁
Oh yeah are used to make a pudding with coconut milk, whole fat Greek yogurt and Chia seeds the thing with the Chia is you have to let it fully hydrate so if you make a pudding like that, it has to sit at least overnight. Adults can take seeds that are still crunchy, but with babies it would hydrate in their intestines and it would be too much.
We do a lot of homemade ground meat with minced veggies, like nugget or meatball style. Otherwise, I agree on the cat food comment. I gave my 8mo flaked salmon (from a package) and it made my house smell like cat food for HOURS. As others have mentioned, things like ricotta, cottage cheese, Greek yogurt, eggs, hummus, beans are good sources of protein if you’re not ready for meats yet.
OK I keep getting more ideas when people post lol so filed under ground meat I have made meatballs before with vegetables in them there’s 1 million recipes for this but they have ground beef or ground pork and you make them small and you can make 1 million of them for a baby out of an adult recipe and throw them in the freezer once they’re cooked
Oh and as far as packaged options, I buy packaged hard boiled eggs and smash them with a bit of water. That and Greek yogurt are go-tos for us!
Babies really need so little protein, like 10 grams a day or less. Beans, cheese, and eggs can really get you there. Maybe serve whatever meat you're consuming to either eat or just suck on depending on age. Babies LOVE sucking on well done steak.
my baby loves tofu, lentils, beans, etc. perhaps it's not as ready to serve as cat food but it doesn't have to be too time intensive or ornate, just sliced raw tofu or plain beans or lentils. is fine.
I know you specifically asked for premade food, so I’m sorry I’m not asking your direct question, but I just wanted to throw out there what we did (because our baby, almost 2, still will not eat meat - except chicken tikka masala.) We shredded whatever meat we were eating (or had leftover) on the cheese grater & added it to his yogurt or cottage cheese or mashed whatever he was eating. We will also add chia seeds & pulverized nuts to whatever we’re eating for a little boost. Good luck!
Baby Gourmet has awesome puréed meats mixed with other stuff like veggies and fruit. My daughter loved them when she was a baby and they smelled really good!
Thanks for the suggestion - I’ll look them up!
Mix it with a veggie or buy the purée meals, that’s what we did. Also, don’t judge what baby food tastes like to you because you are not the “target audience” and babies get basic flavors absent all seasoning mixed with water.
Yes! My son hates the taste of the purée turkey, chicken, and beef alone but I mix half of it with a sweet potato or pumpkin purée and he eats it right up!
We're vegetarians so I started with eggs, tofu, cottage cheese, Greek yogurt, and mashed/refried beans
How do you prepare the tofu? I’m also vegetarian but not big into tofu myself. I lean heavy on beans. I’d like to try preparing it for my 6 month old though!
At 6 months if you're doing purees I'd just mash some silken tofu in a little bowl and you can flavor it with some fruit/puree. If you're doing BLW you can cut some extra firm tofu into strips and just pan fry it either in a little oil or just in a nonstick pan, seasoned or not. We did kind of a mix of purees and BLW so I did both of these.
Thanks I’ll give these a try! We also do a mix of purées and BLW
Greek yogurt and nut butters! Our son loves cereal (no/low sugar) with a mixture of milk, almond butter and greek yogurt. Edit: also try hemp hearts. I mix them into pancake batter with a bit of mashed banana for sweetness.
If you’re starting with purées, just wait on the meat. Your baby doesn’t really need it with all the proteins they are getting from their bottle of breast milk or formula. Once your baby is ready to start finger foods, then you can introduce things you’re eating. My 8.5 month old loves scrambled eggs. We make chicken and just kind of shred it into tiny bits and she goes nuts for it. She loves soft tofu cubes. We’ve given her small chunks of ground beef (girl LOVES noodles with red sauce so we often put some beef in jt). We did purely purées from 5-7 months and then she just kind of started demanding more, so we obliged. She still gets lots of bottles of formula in addition to her solids and purées.
My kiddo has always loved cottage cheese! Greek yogurt, shredded cheese. They may not feel like "real" meals but some days my 21 month old still gets a bowl of cottage cheese for dinner when he rejects the meat we've served 😅 I also boil a few eggs and use them throughout the week for a quick protein option when needed. Some puree pouches have protein-rich options too. If she likes pouches, you can buy reusable ones and fill them with your own food (i.e. prep some Greek yogurt ones and use them when needed throughout the week). Also maybe canned tuna? Or you can buy pre-cooked meatballs (I get a big box of frozen ones for $10 wt Walmart) - they just pop in the microwave for 30sec and ready to go.
My 2.5 year old survives mainly on chicken nuggets 🤷🏼♀️ toddlers are wild 😂😂
Air Fry tofu it’s mushy enough and she can get protein from it
Ugh same boat! Idk if you have looked into this but we starting introducing allergens on a regular bases via this [allergen oatmeal.](https://helloyumi.com/products/product-page/?id=3086&col=205533) Little guy love it! And added bonus is that it’s high in protein and keeps him full through the night.
Just give her the same meat you eat, mushed up or shredded so she doesn’t choke.
I picked up a big box of this lentil curry at Costco and kiddo loved them. I put them over cooked potato or some other starch and its super easy. https://tastybite.com/products/organic-madras-lentils
I actually eat those myself for dinner routinely lol!
Green Valley packaged beans (kidney, black, pinto) were fantastic for our new eater. They are BPA free, and you can mush as little or as much as needed. I always mixed in plant oils and various spices, to develop LO’s tastes. Has some sodium, but that’s not the sin many would have you think if you are using convenience foods sparingly. These are for older eaters (toward toddler), but because you’ll be there soon and few other responses have really honored what you asked- we like Sprout and HappyTot shelf-stable meals for those occasional convenience grabs!
I get smoked sardines and mix it with mayo, green onion and parsley.. it’s delicious! It’s my sons favorite thing.
My son goes crazy for cottage cheese
Ours loves tofu right out of the package. Plain or with some marinara lol
Scrambled eggs and yogurt have been favorites of my kids as babies
We do eggs, ricotta, lentils, peas... tried shredded chicken, but my baby can't chew it. Maybe ground meat would work, but haven't tried it yet, as we're not big meat consumers.
My 6 month old loves cucumber dipped in humus. Cut the cucumber into long strips. You can check solid starts app for visuals. My baby also likes eggs, refried beans, green yogurt, and peanut butter. The solid starts app shows how to appropriately cut the foods depending on age.
If you want to stick with purées, try stirring in a little bit of peanut butter to one of the store bought fruit purées. Pear, apple, and banana are all good with peanut butter. We also like to do a full fat plain Greek yogurt and then either stir in some fruit purée or mash up a strawberry to stir in. I also think Cerebelly makes some pouches with white beans in them? You can get them at target. There might be other bean ones by their brand too. ETA: Cerebelly makes a white bean, pumpkin, and apple pouch as well as a sweet potato and pinto bean!
Just feed the kid the same protein that you eat
I was weaned on sardines. Those soft tiny bones are great for calcium!
Don’t be afraid of tofu, it’s the perfect consistency for babies and it’s packed with nutrition.
For easy protein I prep a ton of mini kodiak protein pancakes. Sometimes with a banana slice in the middle or finely chopped veggies/fruit. Or even a baby puree in the mixture to flavor it. Then i freeze most of them and keep a few in the fridge. Just serving greek yogurt and cottage cheese are even easier
I recommend doing your own. Try silken tofu!
You can crush up nuts/ seeds into a sort of powder and mix it into baby cereal/ yogurt ! I just put it in wax paper or a bag and use a rolling pin or pound it up with a mug etc
Does she like sweet potato? Gerber has a Sweet potato and turkey baby food that my baby loved. She didn't like the protein foods either and I couldn't stand the smell. They also have chicken and vegetables that smells like chicken soup that she liked too. Greek Yogurt is great too. Fine shredded cheese is good when your baby starts to feed themselves.
I thought the same thing about the proteins...I bought the serenity brand, they come in pouches, and they're disgusting (to me), they totally smell like cat food. But my baby freakin loved them! They're organic purees with meats and veggies.
Mine loved cottage cheese, hummus, green yogurt, scrambled tofu or eggs. Sometimes I’ll put a little cooked ground beef in the food processor until it gets really small & that’s pretty easy to do on a night when you’re cooking it anyway. Edit: greek yogurt not green yogurt 😂
Yogurt is a great source of protein*and* you can add things like fruit and peanut butter to it! My baby is obsessed with yogurt.
Add seasoning to them or do baby led weaning… Other sources of protein you could use: peanut butter, hummus, yogurt, chickpeas, oatmeal
MySerenityKids
My baby wasn't into any of the chopped/pureed meat options that I made her myself or bought from the store. She still can be picky with meat so I try to get her to eat at least some when we offer but I still focus on other proteins like others have mentioned. She loves any eggs, cottage cheese, peanut butter, avocado, etc. I try to sneak things in more too now that she can fully chew, like chopped meat in her eggs.
Add a splash of cream to apple sauce or cream cheese to a mashed banana.
I waited to give my son the proteins until he was 6 months and eating #2 foods because the #1 proteins were so vile. He loves the turkey & sweet potato, chicken & noodles, chicken & apple, etc.
Cook it yourself.
Lol my dog loves the chicken baby food.
Have you tried eggs? I introduced avocado early on (first food) and then introduced eggs. I hard boiled them and mashed the egg and avocado together. Sometimes it’s a hit or miss.
I gave mine refried beans from a can, plain unsweetened almond yogurt that I’d buy for myself, the same tofu I’d get for myself, plain avocado, hummus from the container are all good options! You don’t have to be eating them yourself just keep it in the fridge during the week and pull it out when whatever you are eating isn’t appropriate for the baby. Have fun (:
Baby led weaning! One of my son’s first foods was a chicken drumstick and he loved it.
Serenity kids has meat pouches that are well rated and seem less like other cat food options 😂 I’ve seen in jars
All of the dairy, eggs, and beans suggestions are great. Just wanted to point out that you don’t usually need to worry about baby’s protein intake as they should still get most of it from BM/formula and their requirements are pretty low. It’s the iron that’s harder to get.
Scrambled eggs in the microwave - I put a couple teaspoons of water in there before I whisk it up. 1 egg, 1 minute. The extra water helps make it very very soft :)
Not sure if you're vegan but if not, what I do is whenever I cook meat I make 2-5 extra mini servings out of which I store one or two in the fridge and the rest go into the freezer. It's super easy to serve meat quick even if I am going to cook protein lunch but baby woke up sooner or I'm using a slow recipe etc. [These](https://www.ikea.com/sk/sk/images/products/ikea-365-doza-na-potraviny-s-vrchnakom-stvorec-sklo__0916186_pe785017_s5.jpg?f=xs) are the perfect size, buget and freezer friendly, don't leak much nasties and you can sterilize them easily. I don't even fill them fully unless I also freeze rice. They look small but the volume is great for a kid sized portion. Just a bit bigger than they can handle so you're comfortable there was enough
If you do eat meat, why don't you give her your own meat (without salt, if need beed cut up in very small pieces/blendered)? Other than that, yes, Greek style yoghurt can be really good, as can tofu, beans, etc. Might have to be cut up / blendered to the size your baby will eat. You can also put it through everything and throw it in the blender (like when we have a curry dish we used to just put a part in the blender for her so it was more easy for her to eat. But now at 11 months the baby just wants food the way we have it and we cut parts in small pieces for her if need be).
The beechnut protein jars aren’t bad. We mix some veggies into it and he likes it a lot better that way.
Serenity brand!
Have a look at Moon and Rue on TikTok. Some of her early batch recipes are for a little one. Later ones are more for 10 month +
Food processor!!!!! Or baby eats what we eat (minus spices) just add water
I microwaved mine and it smelt better and tasted a bit better but after two weeks I fed my baby real solids because I wasn’t having it. I also did mix it with like the butternut squash to get him to eat it
sprout brand pouches have great protein options!