Take Your Kids From Baby Food to Gourmet Foodies

Turn your kids into gourmet foodies by feeding them wholesome, nutritious and delicious food from the start. Learn how to do it with the help of Sonali Ruder’s latest book Natural Baby Food.

I received a free copy of Natural Baby Food, but was not compensated for this post. This post contains affiliate links. See below for full disclosure.

Have you met my friend Sonali Ruder? If not, it’s time for you to be introduced to her, especially if you have kids, are currently pregnant, trying to get pregnant, or may at some point in your life be pregnant or have children. You know what? Regardless of whether kids are part of your life you should get to know her anyway, because she’s awesome. And she has some pretty darn delicious recipes to share with you over at her blog The Foodie Physician.

Sonali is a healthy food blogger friend of mine, but she’s not just your run-of-the-mill food blogger. Sonali is a physician, certified chef, and cookbook author, not to mention a mom to her adorable little girl Sienna. Needless to say, Sonali wears many hats. While we haven’t actually met beyond our computer screens (yet!), I have no doubt that Sonali and I would be fast friends in person because we have a lot in common and we always seem to be on the same food page.

Sonali and I met a few years ago through The Recipe ReDux community and it’s pretty amazing how often we share similar recipes on our blogs. Take for example her Mexican Street Corn Fritters and my Corn & Basil Cakes or my Mediterranean Hummus Flatbread and her Mediterranean Socca Pizza. She even recently made my Grilled Avocados Stuffed with Corn & Black Bean Salsa (you can find her version here).

I’ve talked about Sonali before on the blog – you may remember my review of her Natural Pregnancy Cookbook, which included my Miso-Roasted Brussels Sprouts and Root Vegetables, a slight variation on her original recipe. And more recently I wrote about my five favorite Recipe ReDuxer recipes, including one of Sonali’s of course! Sonali’s recipes often pop up in my menu plans as well.

Today I am excited to share that Sonali has another new cookbook out and this one is a must-buy for all parents: Natural Baby Food: Over 150 Wholesome, Nutritious Recipes For Your Baby and Toddler. I wish this cookbook had been available when I was going through the early stages of feeding my girls – the first six months of their lives is a blur to me and I don’t really remember everything I did when it came time to feed them table food other than making it all myself!

Natural Baby Food is a fabulous resource to help you get through the first year of feeding children. (Another resource I highly recommend for feeding kids is Fearless Feeding.) The first part of the book is all about when, how, and what to feed your baby and about making homemade baby food. The second part of the book is filled with recipes from the first purees to adding more flavor and texture to your baby’s food, and finally to meals for “big kids” ages 12 months and up.

I especially love that Sonali advocates for adding herbs and spices to baby food and she has a great chart showing the flavor profiles and pairings for these various flavor boosters. She also gives sample menus for different age groups, which I think is super helpful for new parents who are unsure of how often and how much their babies should be eating.

For parents with older children, the recipes Sonali shares later in the book are great for the whole family. My husband just asked me the other day to make her Zucchini Fries, which are in the finger foods section. And one of the soup recipes included in the book is actually one of mine! I’m honored Sonali wanted to include my Parsnip Pear Soup, a recipe my kids, my husband and I all love! Who says adults don’t eat baby food?! They sure do when it’s this gourmet!

I don’t think Natural Baby Food would be complete without my favorite recipe of Sonali’s – Baked Falafel. As I mentioned in this post, I’ve made many falafels before, but Sonali’s is by far my favorite. You may have even seen her falafel balls make an appearance on my girls’ plates a few months ago on Instagram!

You can get the Baked Falafel recipe on Sonali’s blog, but I do highly recommend getting the Natural Baby Food book for more amazing recipes to feed your kids – and yourself! Trust me, with these recipes, your kids will be foodies in no time!

Do you have a favorite recipe to feed your kids?

Share it with me in the comments below!

Disclosure: This page contains Amazon Affiliate links. If you purchase products through these link, your cost will be the same but I will receive a small commission to help with operating costs of this blog. As always, all thoughts and opinions are my own and I only recommend products I truly believe in. Thanks for your support!