Food of the week - CELERY (safe for babies from 6 months)

Celery is a great toddler food choice! It’s an easy snack to put in school lunchboxes, or take to work for an afternoon snack too. Often overlooked, it’s a great option instead of fruit because you can basically put it in your lunchbox and it won’t go off, soggy or brown before you eat it.

Celery is a difficult food for children to eat and you might find initially they will only eat it in soups, when it is cooked and blended. Unless you're one of those amazing mothers who takes all the strings off the celery for them! It’s easily added to juices, in fact I’m sure you’ve heard of the celery juice craze - in which some people drink nothing BUT celery (word of warning, it isn’t necessary to do this for health, and your children probably won’t love the bitterness of celery juice).

Celery is one of the lowest calorie dense foods on the planet. The main reason for this is because it is 95% water! What an incredibly hydrating food for your baby! 

The remaining 5% is very nutritious, making celery an awesome healthy option to add into casseroles and soups. Celery is low GI, it won’t spike your blood sugar, and will help to maintain stable energy.

Celery is good for your health

• Celery helps to reduce inflammation, aids digestion, reduces bad cholesterol and is an awesome snack for independent toddlers to dip it in some hummus or have with nut butter (both a popular choice in our house)

• Over a dozen antioxidants present

• Vit K, Molybdenum, Folate - necessary for healthy bone development, and healthy detoxification

• Gut health with their non-starchy polysaccharides (which actually give celery it’s unique shape and texture) – great for the digestive tract and feeding the healthy bacteria

Enjoying celery

• Celery is AWESOME raw, my son loves it with almond butter (though it's mostly him licking the almond butter off!). My husband puts cheese in (weird, right? but worth trying if your child is a cheese lover and you’re trying to get them to eat more vegetables)

• It is also a great additional for any soups, or making stock at home - you can put it in my bone broth recipe

• You might find toddlers and older kids can eat it chopped up small in salads

• I’m not a huge fan of steamed celery but the good news is that if you are, cooking it retains most of the antioxidants (unlike many other vegetables)!

• Fresh celery can be stored for 5-7 days before starting to go off