It’s all about food. How exciting is it to be able to introduce your child to different foods?  First you introduce rice cereal, then soft foods. Eventually you are ready to make the jump to harder foods.

With each of these transitions come new trips down the baby food isle at the grocery store.  Once a mystery, you get intimately familiar with the variety of goods offered on that isle as your little one progresses through the stages.  With the transition to full solids, it is easier to bypass that once treasured isle.

As kids grow, however, there are many reasons to revisit that isle and pick up a few jars of pureed goodness.  Purees provide a shortcut for cooking and an easy way to add veggies to your child’s favorite dishes.  After all an open jar of pureed veggies will last two to three days in the fridge.

If your toddler is like mine, maybe he pushes veggies off of his plate, or spits them out all over making your table or countertop a masterpiece reminiscent of Jackson Pollock. Is there a budding artist in your midst – maybe, but is there a mess – definitely.

Time and time again those little jars of babyfood have helped me make sure my budding artist is getting some veggie goodness.

Here are a few ways that I use those little jars of pureed veggies:

• Add them to breads like pancakes or biscuits.

• Spread them on quesadillas.

• Add them to mac n’cheese.  The color of pureed carrots or butternut squash is the perfect camouflage.

• Mix in some pureed vegetables with your scrambled eggs in the morning

• Add them to smoothies.

• Use vegetable puree as a dipping sauce.  If your little one is like mine, he is obsessed with dipping things. So, let him dip away while enjoying some veggies.

• Add some pureed veggies to some sautéed garlic and call it pasta sauce. Lathering puree over tortellini and topping with cheese works like a charm.

So, on your next grocery store run, maybe visit that babyfood isle and pick up a few jars of puree. It’s worth it.

Feel free to weigh in and mention your favorite ways to use jarred babyfood in the comment section. In the meantime, happy cooking and be sure to check back for more ideas on feeding little ones.

First Published June 27, SonomaNews.com http://www.sonomanews.com/News-2011/Timesaving-tip-cooking-with-babyfood/