Im writing about pears today to convince my beautiful friend to make these for her baby son who started eating solids yesterday. Her son also happens to be my uber handsome godson (I am not biased, its simply a fact of life). Its so exciting when you start introducing solids. On the one hand you feel like you finally just mastered nursing or bottle feeding and suddenly you need to start a whole new system. But on the other hand, you get to introduce your baby to the world of flavours and tastes and textures. Just remember to take your time, don’t worry too much about quantities and portions, just try new flavours, let your baby take the lead and just enjoy the process.

Pears are a great first food. Not only are they naturally sweet but they are also a good balance to the iron in baby cereal if you are starting with that.

My sister is a pro at roasting pears, she adds vanilla into the mix and it seriously makes a difference. Roasted pears are so delicious. I mean really delicious. You should probably make two batches, one for the baby and one for you. I have never managed to not eat half the tray before they make it into the blender.

Ingredients (makes approx 16cubes) 

3 large ripe pears (peeled)

1/2 tsp vanilla or cinnamon (or both)

Method

Preheat the oven to 170C

Peel the pears, quarter them and then core them

Place them cut side down into a oven dish

Sprinkle with cinnamon or vanilla

Pour in enough water to come up 1/2 of the way up the pears

Place into the oven and roast until they are soft (approx 25-35 mins)

Either mash or slice for stage 2 eaters or puree for stage 1