I just don’t know if I can call this baby food if the adults gobbled up these baby meatballs with mango glaze just as fast as the babe. Camille has now entered the phase of ‘I only wanna eat what’s on Mama’s plate.’ So, it looks like Mama’s diet just got a whole lot less mini chocolate cake and a whole lot more veggies. Ugh. If you need me, I’ll be stuffing chocolate in my face during nap time. So! Meatballs. Every kid loves meatballs, right? Baby meatballs are tender and easy for them to chew, perfect for baby-led weaning. Mamas love meatballs because they’re great for sneaking in veggies. For the record, I’m against hiding veggies from kids; I think it contributes to miseducation. Teach a kid what something is, and they just might like it. In our case, the best way to get Camille to eat something is to show her how we eat it. I talk about this a little more in my ebook that contains 15 recipes for baby food recipes! Click the link above to access it. In the case of these mango-glazed baby meatballs with sticky coconut rice, it was sooooo easy to show her how much we loved gobbling them up. This dinner came together in 25 minutes last night (I photographed the leftovers this morning), because I cranked the oven to 500 to bake the baby meatballs. I use ground dark meat turkey or ground chicken thighs, so the meatballs don’t dry out in the oven. Once the baby meatballs were baking in the oven, I got the rice going. After putting a lid on the rice, I had a few extra minutes to make the mango glaze. I pureed 2 cups of frozen mango chunks (Camille’s favorite!), added a little splash of molasses for depth, and tossed the meatballs in the glaze when they came out of the oven. So quick and easy!
Rice is tricky for Camille to eat because she absolutely insists on feeding herself, but hasn’t quite mastered the spoon-to-mouth technique. So, for lunch today, I served the rice cold. Cold rice clumps together and is easier for little fingers to pick up. Success! I want to mention that I serve these meatballs dusted in sesame seeds, which can be an allergen to kids. If you have any nut allergies in the family, I would ask your pediatrician before serving sesame. For what it’s worth, we have TONS of nut allergies in my family, but my pediatrician told me to give her peanut butter anyway. It was scary the first time we did it. We pulled the car out of the garage and mapped out the fastest route to the hospital. We are so relieved to have a kiddo without nut allergies. My heart goes out to Mamas who deal with this on a daily basis. If you’re looking for how to cook chicken for baby food and other meat purees for baby, check out my ebook called Hip Hip, Purée! Recipes for Feeding Bébé!
