review | one handed cooks magazine

$12.95, available at Coles supermarkets, newsagents, or online.
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I had never heard of One Handed Cooks, until I stumbled on the magazine at the supermarket. The cover caught my eye, because the kids had just returned to school and the never-ending-lunchbox-refusal had started, and I was slightly burned out and looking for new ideas.

There's a variety of informative articles, from in season foods, to how to create tasting plates, and feed fussy eaters. There's money saving ideas, and themed recipe articles, too.

I liked that many of the recipes provided baby-, toddler-, and family-friendly options (although we're choosing to go straight for the toddler-versions, in line with our baby-led weaning philosophy) They're even easy enough to follow that Douglas is going to have a go at cooking this week!

I'll be on the lookout for this magazine next quarter. If you're looking for some baby-friendly meal ideas, maybe you need to try it, too.

our baby-led weaning journey

If you follow me on instagram, or the facebook page, you might have heard me mention baby-led weaning. I first heard the term when Natalie was a baby, but as she wasn't a big food eater until well over a year old, I never really looked further in to it. Riley was the same with food, prefering breast feeding to actual food. But Sophie started watching me eating around four months old. And at around five months old, she would reach for food I was holding, but was easily distracted away from it.

So I decided I needed to look into what baby-led weaning was all about, and whether it would work for us. And the more I read, the more I realised it was exactly how I introduced Chloe to food!

I started Sophie with cucumber, and we've worked our way through avocado, steamed carrot, steamed potato, steamed pumpkin, tomato, grapes (sliced in half) and watermelon (favourite).

Then we sat down to eat one night, and I realised I had nothing to give her, so I shared some of our mashed potato with her.

At this stage of the journey, Sophie isn't eating much of the food, although some things get chewed on more than others.

Roast pumpkin has been our hands-down best food. I roast it with the skin on (so it holds its shape) with a bit of garlic on it, and it ends up everywhere, including her mouth!

Our messiest food to date was fried rice. Not much ended up in the mouth, but I was tempted to call the hoover dog inside to clean it up! (Douglas helped me clean the mess up off the carpet)

These apple cinnamon breakfast cookies were the start of cooking-for-Sophie, not just handing her food from our plates. And she loved them! We've cooked several more recipes (and bookmarked more) from this website, and even the big kids are loving the food!

Baby-led weaning was the best decision for us!

For more information and recipes check out

Little Grazers
My Lovely Little Lunchbox
Toddler Tastes (hasn't been updated since Sept, 2013)
Your Baby Eats What?! (no updates since 2011)