Nourished Beginnings Baby Food: Nutrient-Dense Recipes for Infants, Toddlers and Beyond Inspired by Ancient Wisdom and Traditional Foods

by Renee Kohley

Nourished Beginnings Baby Food is a natural fit for the traditional, whole-food diet and way of life made popular by the Weston A. Price Foundation and the associated book Nourishing Traditions. Renee Kohley, founder of Raising Generation Nourished and a mother who has raised healthy three daughters with this approach, packs 100 nutrient-dense recipes for babies of all ages into the book, along with tips to help readers be successful. To introduce your baby to solids gently, try a soft-boiled pasteurized egg yolk with nutrient-dense grated liver and sea salt, or pureed peas with nurturing homemade bone broth and grass-fed butter or steamed berries with coconut butter. As your baby gets older, you can introduce more diverse flavors and textures like Roasted Root Vegetable Soup, Grain-Free Breakfast Biscuit or Grassfed Beef Stew with Marrow. To transition into toddlerhood and a full, well-rounded diet, you can begin to incorporate grains, nuts, legumes and natural sweeteners with dishes like Soaked Quinoa Granola, Asian Stir Fry with Rice and even an occasional treat such as The Perfect First Birthday Cupcake. Most of the recipes serve baby and the whole family, so you can nourish more hungry mouths faster, easier and even cheaper. With the recipes for this traditional, whole-foods approach, your child will develop an adventurous palate and good eating habits to carry them through life healthfully.

Genres: Parenting, Cookbooks, Food, Cooking, Nutrition

210 pages, Kindle Edition

Published October 4, 2016

Reviews

[Leah · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow, this book is fantastic. I've been interested in traditional foods or Weston A. Price diet for a while and I've started including several aspects into my life but have been too overwhelmed to go all the way. Nourishing Traditions by Sally Fallon is a hefty book after all. Kohley makes it seem so simple! I absolutely love the baby food ideas. They made my mouth water! This is a wonderful book for parents of babies and adults interested in traditional foods. I also really appreciated that all the soaked grain recipes include soaking instructions in the recipe instead of elsewhere in the book. Very user friendly. This book is beautiful, straightforward and full of good stuff.

[Lara · Rating 1 out of 5]

Our doctor said to start feeding our 4-month old food, so naturally I freaked out and put every baby food book in the library on hold. This is the first one I looked at, and...what the hell? The first recipe is for peas with bone broth, butter and sea salt. Uh...okay? The next one is for carrots with tallow or lard and sea salt. The third one is for zucchini and marrow with bone broth and sea salt. This is cleeeeeearly not the book for me. First of all, vegetarian. Second of all, even before that, tallow and lard and bone broth and marrow are not things that have ever been in my house. Thirdly, I mean...I thought I was just supposed to squish up bananas or something? This stuff all just seems fancy and complicated, which I DEFINITELY do not have the time or energy for right now.

There are some family recipes that look pretty good, but they look like regular cookbook type recipes, so I'm not sure what they're doing in a baby food book. Really the baby section is only about a third of the book.

If this book works for you, like it obviously does some, awesome! I do not get it though. I'm sending it back to the library and will keep looking for something less meat fatty and more simple.

[Erin Stuhlsatz · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ah, the good old Weston A Price, again. I actually thought this book had lots of really good recipes, but I always have to read anything from these folks with a grain of salt. In this case, everything I've read about feeding babies has said to avoid honey, added salt, and added sweeteners. Pretty much every recipe in this book contained added salt. There were quite a few finger food recipes that I'm excited to try with our baby, and I like how the author explained easy ways to incorporate things like bone broth and healthy fats into your baby's diet.

[Terri-lee · Rating 5 out of 5]

The only baby feeding book you'll ever need honestly. I'm sending all my others off to the thrift store. I will still purchase the Nourishing traditions book of baby and child care as it is more comprehensive, I think them together will be perfect. That's the only fault with this book, I wish it were longer/had more recipes. But what IS in it is excellent info. No need to tweak any of the recipes to suit a proper diet, the author lines up with the Weston a price foundation guidelines perfectly. The drink section was cool too, had never thought of broth being an actual drink, and the "teas" are such a good idea. Also loved the basics section that teaches some simple kitchen skills needed to create nutrient dense meals for babies and toddlers. If I were to buy a baby food book for a new mum friend, this would be it.

[Sara · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5/5 Simple, may be a good introduction or reference book for those not as familiar with cooking from whole foods. Most of the baby recipes were essentially "blend x vegetable/fruit with bone broth or butter." The family recipes were pretty unremarkable and not worth it to get a physical copy of this book, in my opinion.

[Leticia · Rating 4 out of 5]

4/5 only because I wish it would have mentioned purees and cereals that could be blended with bm/formula for young infants. Some of these seem like they would be harsh on a young baby's belly and would be better for babies closer to 1yr old.

[Stephie · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was nervous to ask for this book, thinking it might be all pureed foods (especially after reading some reviews), but I am SO glad I did! Not only to these recipes sound delicious, but they are made with things I already typically have on hand. Bravo!

[Shiloah · Rating 5 out of 5]

Hands down best baby and children's cookbook.

[DestinyVasquez · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent resource for full health fats , bone broths, and easy recipes to make your baby happy

[Susannah Shmurak · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wish I'd had this book when my kids were born!

​Renee's commitment to and love for nourishing whole foods comes across in her new book as it does in her ​wonderful blog. Each page reminds us about the benefits of traditional foods like bone broth, healthy fats, and probiotic-rich eats like sauerkraut and kefir that most of us came to much later in life. Lucky are the little ones who are fed using some of these recipes! I also loved her section on beverages and supporting kids' health with gentle herbs like nettle and chamomile. She makes all these health-promoting ideas seem doable, even to a busy parent.

She reminds us that there's no reason everyone can't eat the same food at the dinner table and gives us a roadmap for making healthy and delicious foods to please everyone. While this book has tools for those with very young babies, it also has great recipes and tips for feeding the whole family nourishing, healthy foods. Renee's book will certainly forward her mission of helping us raise Generation Nourished!