This post is sponsored by Plum Organics.
With all the delicious foods in the world, I’ve never understood why we often limit babies to plain, bland tastes.
Seems to me that if we want our little ones to mature into adventurous eaters with curious palates, we ought to offer early exposure to a variety of different – yet still baby-friendly – flavors.
This is how most of the world feeds their babies, actually.
In India, babies eat curried lentils. In Mexico, they get rice and beans – and fruit that’s seasoned with chile powder! In Thailand, new eaters nosh on coconut rice with stewed veggies and ginger.
When I became a mom, I knew I wanted to offer my babies a wide variety of flavors and foods early on. This just felt right to me, given the large role food and cooking play in our family’s daily life.
Among Lucy’s first few foods (after 6 months) were…
Pureed peas with mint:
Wild rice with sweet corn and a dab of mild tomatillo salsa:
Root vegetables cooked in broth with sage, later mashed up with soft pasta:
She loved it all!
When we were out and about or traveling however, I often felt like my only options were plain baby foods (fine, but she didn’t care for them much) and table food from a restaurant (flavorful, but usually too salty or sweet for a baby).
Luckily, there are some great new portable baby food options available now – perfect for moms like me who want some exotic flavors but in a convenient format.
Plum Organics has a new line called World Baby, which offers four veggie-based blends inspired by the flavors of Italy, Mexico, Thailand and Morocco.
I’m particularly excited about the Italian blend, since my family loves Italian food and it’s hard to find a marinara sauce or pasta dish that’s low enough in sugar or sodium for a young eater. This little meal includes simply zucchini, sweet potatoes, spinach, tomatoes, pasta, extra virgin olive oil and basil.
Can’t wait to try this out on my next little one just a few months from now 🙂
GIVEAWAY ENDED
Win a Plum Organics World Baby Kit
Simply leave a comment below with your favorite ethnic food memory or experience and be entered to win this cute little World Baby Kit. Inside the mini suitcase are each of the new World Baby flavors for your little eater to explore.
Winner will be randomly selected on Monday, May 26th. Good luck!
This post and giveaway are sponsored by Plum Organics. All thoughts and opinions are my own. Thank you for reading and helping to support Eating Made Easy.
23 Comments
Amy
May 21, 2014 at 3:19 pmI love brown rice and black beans with salsa mixed in. So simple, but delicious.
Waheeda
May 21, 2014 at 3:40 pmThe first time I had Thai food my ears started steaming from the spicy ness but I still thought it tasted good 🙂
Kaylin @ Enticing Healthy Eating
May 21, 2014 at 3:45 pmI don’t know if this qualifies as technically “ethnic” because it was still in the U.S., but I visited a really authentic little Mexican taco restaurant near my college a couple years ago and had my first beef tongue taco! And I loved it! Delicious.
Amelia Winslow
May 21, 2014 at 5:00 pmI’d say that definitely counts!
Amelia Winslow
May 21, 2014 at 5:00 pmHahaha, but yum none-the-less!
Michelle Wiederhold
May 21, 2014 at 5:12 pmIn Costa Rica we had this amazing lunch in this local woman’s backyard. It was amazing, white fish, beans rice and some type of orange drink… All for $4. We felt so “local.”
laura
May 21, 2014 at 5:18 pmThis is so great! expecting baby #1 in Sept. and totally on board with all this!
Amelia Winslow
May 21, 2014 at 5:20 pmThat sounds amazing, Michelle! I studied abroad in Costa Rica and fell in love with lunches like that too. Yum.
Rebecca G
May 21, 2014 at 5:20 pmI don’t get to try true ethnic food very often BUT when I visited my brother-in-law in Lansing we ate at a little Thai restaurant and it was delicious! I just made sure to avoid the really spicy dishes. Haha!
Cori
May 21, 2014 at 5:24 pmI love black beans and rice thanks to a trip to Costa Rica where I learned how to make them at home.
claire
May 21, 2014 at 5:49 pmLove mexican, thai, and indian, the spicer the better. I gave my son all sorts of flavorful things and he loved it. He loves things that have good flavor and spice. I am not sure if it is luck as a good eater or just that I give him a variety of things for him to try, some things he likes other he does not. Usually the more ethnic and flavorful foods he likes better than my blander cooking.
Kel
May 21, 2014 at 6:37 pmMy first taste of mexican was in junior high when my dad worked with a gentleman who was an amazing cook. They had us over for mexican — loved it from then forward! I realized how bland we were eating.
Brooke B
May 21, 2014 at 7:23 pmI also wanted my daughter to not just eat bland baby food. I would add cinnamon and nutmeg to her oatmeal, sweet potatoes, bananas, and other fruits. She also loved garlic added to her vegetables! She now loves a lot of different foods like hummus and I swear it’s because she ate more flavorful food when she was a baby! I am due with another daughter in September and can’t wait for her to try these new plum baby foods!
talar yost
May 21, 2014 at 7:40 pmi am armenian and grew up in a home eating lots of traditional middle eastern foods. can’t wait to introduce all these foods to my new little guy!
Samm
May 21, 2014 at 8:16 pmMy favorite baby food moment was when Gus was about 7 mo. We had fed him plain mashed veggies of every sort. We went camping and someone made curried lentils. He loved it! It was that ah-ha! moment where we realized he loved flavor as much as we did.
Betsy
May 21, 2014 at 8:31 pmI’m so glad that a product like this was finally created, what a great way to get babies used to all types of food. My parents regularly took us to Indian, Thai, Mexican, etc. restaurants growing up. My favorite flavors as a child were ginger and coconut.
Dana
May 21, 2014 at 9:01 pmCosta Rican breakfast! Love gallo pinto and salsa lizano.
Amelia Winslow
May 21, 2014 at 9:29 pmLove that story!
Anu
May 22, 2014 at 9:47 amWe have been giving our 10 month old milder versions of our food (Indian) and she loves it!
Ruby
May 23, 2014 at 3:19 amI am Filipino and come from a family of chefs so I was introduced to ethnic foods early in life. Growing up, our special treat on our birthday was being able to request a favorite dish for dinner. That has carried into adulthood now where my brother and I still make special requests whenever we visit our parents. They always ask, “What day will you be here and what do you want me to cook?” My baby is 6 months old and I can’t wait to share all the wonderful flavors that are out there with her!
Theresa N
May 26, 2014 at 11:47 amOur daughter liked eating the pizza crust when she was teething.
Sara Floyd
May 27, 2014 at 7:48 amI love beans and rice mixed with vegetables, so good!
Kellea
August 14, 2014 at 6:33 pmMy first try of Jamaican food was is college. Loved it since. Nothing has compared to that first bite of curry chicken or jerk chicken.