Weaning Meals: Batch Cooking Ideas and a Week of Baby Food

Once your baby is eating three meals a day, cooking fresh for every meal is unsustainable for most families. Batch cooking once or twice a week transforms the effort — and babies genuinely don't mind eating the same thing more than once.

The basics of batch cooking for weaning

Equipment needed:

• A good blender or hand blender (for purée stage)
• Ice cube trays (for freezing small portions)
• Zip-lock bags or labelled containers for larger portions
• A steamer (or steamer insert for a saucepan)

The process:

1. Cook a large batch of a base ingredient (sweet potato, butternut squash, lentils, chicken)
2. Blend or mash in portions — some smooth, some with texture depending on stage
3. Pour into ice cube trays and freeze
4. Once frozen, transfer to labelled bags
5. Thaw overnight in fridge or from frozen in a pan with a splash of water

Portion sizes: Ice cubes are approximately 30ml each. At 6–7 months, 2–4 cubes per meal; by 9–10 months, 4–6 cubes plus finger foods alongside.

Batch cook staples (6–9 months, purée/mash stage)

Butternut squash or sweet potato base

Cook: Cube, steam until very soft (15 minutes), blend with a little water or baby's milk for smooth purée, or mash for textured.

Mix with: Chicken, fish, lentils, spinach, peas. Can be blended smooth or kept textured.

Makes: 20–24 portions from one medium squash.

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Red lentil dal

Cook: Sauté onion, carrot, and garlic in oil. Add red lentils (200g), low-salt vegetable stock (600ml), a tin of tomatoes, a little ground cumin and coriander. Simmer 25 minutes until lentils are fully soft. Blend or leave textured.

No salt. Use homemade or very low-salt stock, or just water for young babies.

Makes: 15–18 portions.

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Chicken and root vegetable

Cook: Dice chicken thigh (more flavour and more forgiving than breast), carrot, parsnip, potato. Simmer in water or low-salt stock until tender (30 minutes). Blend or mash.

Makes: 15–20 portions.

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Salmon and pea

Cook: Bake or poach salmon fillet until cooked through. Boil frozen peas. Blend salmon (skin and bones removed) with peas and a little water or milk.

Rich in omega-3 — try to offer 2x per week.

Makes: 8–10 portions from one fillet.

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Broccoli and potato

Cook: Boil small cubed potato until very soft (15 minutes), add broccoli florets for final 5 minutes. Drain, blend or mash. Add butter and a little baby's milk for creaminess.

Makes: 12–15 portions.

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Apple and pear purée

Cook: Peel and chop, simmer in a little water until soft (10 minutes). Blend smooth or mash. Freezes well; can be mixed with oat porridge or yoghurt.

Makes: 15–20 portions from 3–4 fruit.

A sample week of meals (8–9 months)

Monday

• Breakfast: Porridge with mashed banana and a teaspoon of smooth peanut butter
• Lunch: Red lentil dal (from freezer) with rice, finger food broccoli florets
• Dinner: Chicken and sweet potato (from freezer) with soft cooked carrot sticks

Tuesday

• Breakfast: Scrambled egg on toast fingers
• Lunch: Salmon and pea (from freezer) with baby pasta
• Dinner: Butternut squash soup (from freezer) with soft bread finger

Wednesday

• Breakfast: Greek yoghurt with apple purée (from freezer)
• Lunch: Cheese and tomato toast, cucumber sticks
• Dinner: Chicken, carrot and potato (from freezer)

Thursday

• Breakfast: Weetabix with warm milk and mashed strawberries
• Lunch: Hummus with soft pitta fingers, avocado pieces
• Dinner: Lentil dal with rice and soft cooked green beans

Friday

• Breakfast: Porridge with berry compote
• Lunch: Egg and soldiers (boiled egg with toast fingers)
• Dinner: Salmon, sweet potato and spinach (from freezer)

Weekend: cook and freeze next week's batch

Quick no-cook ideas (9 months+)

When you've run out of frozen portions or need something fast:

• Avocado + cream cheese on toast fingers
• Greek yoghurt, mashed banana, oats
• Ready-cooked puy lentils (Merchant Gourmet) with whatever veg you have
• Ricotta + mashed blueberries on small pasta
• Tinned fish (salmon, sardines, mackerel in spring water) mashed with cream cheese
• Homemade eggy bread — egg, milk, bread, fry in butter
• Baby-appropriate bits of your dinner (no added salt, soft enough to gum)

Freezing and safety notes

• Label all bags with date and contents
• Use frozen food within 1–3 months for best quality (sooner is better)
• Thaw overnight in the fridge or from frozen in a pan
• Never refreeze thawed baby food
• Heat to piping hot, stir thoroughly, and allow to cool to a safe temperature before serving
• Test temperature on your wrist every time — babies can't tell you if it's burning them