Busy mother-of-three and founder of Planet Organic, Renée Elliott knows from experience how important it is to introduce our children to the wonderful flavours and textures of good quality, healthy food at a young age. In her new book, Renée reveals the recipes which she uses with her three children, tips she has learned through her experience as a mother and the array of health benefits available to your child through good quality foods.

Whether you’re weaning your baby at 4–6 months or cooking for your toddler or young child up to age 5, Renée’s recipes show you how to use highly nutritious ingredients to create fabulous meals your children will love. With an emphasis on natural and organic foods, she guides you every step of the way. There are tips on everything from introducing new foods into your baby’s diet to ensuring that the ingredients and equipment you cook with are nutritionally and environmentally safe. Meal planners, tip boxes, dietary symbols and notes on food preparation and storage make cooking for babies and toddlers even easier. Best of all, the delicious recipes will enhance your children’s growth, health, behaviour and happiness – and create healthy eating habits to last a lifetime.

This book features over 100 recipes from purees to party foods and pancakes to pies.

• 4-6 month olds - a gentle collection of purees to ease the transition to solids:  includes favorites like apple, banana and carrot as well as artichoke heart, amaranth and quinoa
• 6-9 months – combining flavours and moving from one meal a day to three: tantalize your baby’s taste buds with rice & mango breakfast, buckwheat & carrot, chicken & courgette or venison & parsnip
• 9-12 months – now is the time to get your child chewing their way up from lumps to solids: a breakfast of berry & oat porridge to lunchtime saucy stir-fry or supper of pollock with green beans, there are great dishes that you will enjoy, too
• 12-24 months –at this age your child has all the chewing skills they need: give them the fuel to keep up their increasing energetic lifestyles with a great selection of junior meals like spelt french toast, creamy rustic soup and best beef burgers
• 2-3 years – with a mature digestive tract, your child can now eat what you can, so the recipes here could be bulked up for the whole family: try chilli non carne, make your own sushi, or pork with gherkins
• Party foods – it can be difficult to know what to make for the toddler party but Renée has some great treats that kids will love including mini pitta pizzas, sesame & raisin bread balls and spelt cake (made the healthy way with fruit topping or decadent butter cream frosting for a gorgeous birthday treat)

THE PLANS
Each section includes a 7-day recipe plan (with interchangeable recipes) to help you balance out both the tastes and nutrition for your child based on their age.

• 4-6 months – in the first two weeks have milk (breast or bottle) for breakfast, mid-morning, mid-afternoon and evening then have one delicious puree for lunch along with a teaspoon of seed oil and milk with another fruit or vegetable puree at tea
• 6-9 months – start the day off with a mixture of grain and fruit purees, 2 teaspoons of seed oil and milk, enjoy a mid-morning snack of milk, for lunch possibly buckwheat & carrot, another snack of milk mid-afternoon, a tea of beef & cauliflower with an evening drink of milk to finish off
• 9-12 months – your baby’s expanding skills and palate will enjoy a breakfast of cornflakes, followed by a mid-morning bottle, lunch of saucy steam-fry, amaranth puree with seed oil and some warm water, a mid-afternoon drink of milk, with a tea of grilled onion chicken and warm water, before finishing the day with another drink of milk
• 12-24 months – now is the time to wean your child off breast milk (or formula) so you can start the day with a breakfast of spelt french toast, a mid-morning snack of fruit (dried or fresh), a lunch of fried egg on rye with celery sticks, a mid-afternoon snack of low-salt popcorn and a tea of tuna pie