Easy Homemade Hamburger Helper - how to make it baby friendly!
If you grew up enjoying hamburger helper, you'll love this healthy version - plus, tips to serve it to your baby.
Hamburger Helper *sigh* how nostalgic? Like, seriously!
You're in for a treat today because it's recipe sharing time! And today, we're SO EXCITED to share insights on how we recreate our friend Ashley's recipe for Homemade Hamburger Helper to be a bit more baby friendly.
If you don't already know her, Ashley has an amazing blog, The Recipe Rebel and she's local to where we live and mama to three little ladies, which is extra fun!
As a reminder: You don't need to make separate food for your baby! Here's an example of how you can make a one pot hamburger noodle dish for the whole family with a couple adaptations for your baby. If a one pot type of recipe is for you, we've also done that with this tender pull apart sumac spiced beef and our sofrito beef beans and rice!
But first, we actually really love this recipe for a wide range of reasons. It contains beef which is a good source of heme iron, the type that's more easily absorbed by humans. It's pretty normal for parents to feel apprehensive about offering their baby meat, but this recipe makes it really approachable.
Step One:
Get the recipe for Easy Homemade Hamburger Helper from Ashley, the Recipe Rebel. You can use any pasta shape that works for your little one based on their age and stage
Step Two:
Follow these adaptations to make them baby friendly!
Baby Friendly Easy Homemade Hamburger Helper
Instructions
- Make the recipe as instructed here but follow these omissions/substitutions:
- Only use a small pinch of chili flakes and omit the salt.
- Use frozen chopped spinach and sodium-free beef broth.
- When choosing a pasta, make sure to look for one that has been iron-fortified. Just look for iron on the Nutrition Facts label!
- Once the dish has been made, remove some for baby. Then stir in the salt for the older family members!
- Since this recipe uses smaller macaroni noodles, this will work best for a baby 9 months and older!
Notes
Want to know how to make any recipe baby friendly?
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Made this last night and it was great! Thanks!
Awesome! Happy to hear you enjoyed it 🙂
Forgot how much we love this recipe. I use a wide range of noodle and it works great every time. I also like to add in extra veggies and my kids don't mind.
A favorite recipe in our house. We use frozen spinach at the end and add in extra.
We love a one pot meal!
Love this recipe! Love that we can add in veggies!
This stays on repeat at my house! Liked by toddlers, kids, adults and works great for lunch leftovers at work!
Music to our ears! Thanks for trusting us with this recipe and the adaptations to make it safe for baby!