Contact Info
WIC Infant Food Recipes
WIC provides pureed, jarred infant foods and infant cereal until one year of age. As babies get older, they are ready for foods with more texture. They prefer finger foods over pureed foods. This page contains practical tips for offering the WIC infant foods to older infants.
On this page:
Ideas and Tips for Jarred Infant Foods
Storing Leftover Infant Food
Recipes Using Infant Cereal (suitable for infants over 6 months of age): Cereal Pancakes | Rice Pudding | Meat Balls | Baby Finger Puffs
Related pages:
Homemade Baby Food
Other WIC Recipes
Ideas and Tips for Jarred Infant Foods
Here are some ways to offer the WIC jarred infant foods to older infants:
-
Make table meats moister: Mix jarred infant fruits, vegetables, or meats with finely chopped table meats to provide moisture.
- Mix infant applesauce with finely chopped chicken.
- Add infant beef to shredded, slow cooked beef.
- Bake meatballs or meatloaf made from ground meat and an infant meat. Cut to appropriate size for infant.
More flavor: Add jarred fruit to infant cereal or to regular oatmeal.
-
Boost the nutrition: Mix infant fruits and vegetables with regular fruits and vegetables or other table foods that have been mashed.
- Add jarred peas to mashed potatoes.
- Try baked squash with jarred apple sauce.
-
Add-ins for main dishes: Mix infant vegetables or meats into main dishes that the infant eats.
- Stir in some pureed carrot to vegetable beef soup or stew.
- Add baby sweet potato puree to a pasta dish or cooked macaroni and cheese.
- Use a jar of vegetables as a sauce over rice.
-
Make a "dinner": Older infants might like mixed dishes. Add pureed infant meat to other foods to a make a dinner. See some suggestions below.
- Beef, peas, and small chunks of potatoes
- Chicken, rice, and small chunks of cooked broccoli
- Beef, squash, and macaroni
-
Easy snacks: Use jarred infant foods for quick snacks.
- Mix jarred fruit puree with yogurt or cottage cheese.
- Dip small pieces of soft fruit into fruit puree.
Storing Leftover Infant Foods
If you have placed a spoon in an open jar or container after it was in your baby’s mouth, you need to throw it out. If it’s unopened, unused, or untouched; it can be reused!
Store your leftover WIC infant food in small containers with a tight seal. This allows you to portion out just a bit at a time to avoid waste. You can refrigerate leftovers for 3-5 days or freeze them for up to 4-6 months. Use ice cube trays to make small cubes, once they are frozen, transfer the cubes to a freezer-safe bag. Labeling the bag with the date and what is inside is helpful.
Reheating
Completely reheat refrigerated or frozen baby food to at least 165° before feeding. Allow food to cool until lukewarm. Stir the food and test its temperature to make sure it is not too hot before serving to baby. Throw out any uneaten leftover food in the baby's dish or the serving dish.
Cereal Pancakes
1 cup flour½ cup baby cereal (rice or oatmeal)
1(4 oz) jar of infant bananas (may use another fruit)
1 Tablespoon melted margarine or butter
3 egg yolks (the yellow part of the egg)
¼ teaspoon cinnamon (optional)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract (optional)
1 cup water or apple juice
Instructions
Mix all ingredients except the water/juice in a bowl. Slowly add the water/juice to make a batter. Lightly oil a skillet or frying pan, and then heat it up on the stove. When skillet is hot, carefully pour about ¼ cup of the batter into the skillet. When the pancake starts to cook, it will form little bubbles on top. After you see a few bubbles and it starts to look dry on top, take a spatula and flip the pancake over so it can cook on the other side, about 2-3 minutes.
Allow it to cool before you serve it to your baby. If your skillet is big enough, you can make more than one pancake at a time.
Makes approximately twelve 4" pancakes.
Apple Rice Pudding
1 cup prepared infant rice cereal1 cup vanilla (or plain) yogurt
2 (4 oz) jars infant applesauce (may use another fruit)
1 teaspoon cinnamon
Instructions
In a large bowl, combine the rice cereal and applesauce. Stir in the cinnamon and yogurt, mixing well. Spoon the pudding into dishes and serve.
Meat Balls
1 ¼ pound lean ground beef or turkey or chicken½ cup baby cereal (rice or oatmeal)
1 cup of shredded white cheddar or mozzarella cheese
1 (4 oz) jar of pureed baby food vegetables.
1 egg beaten
Pinch of spice such as pepper, garlic powder, and oregano
Instructions
Place cereal and jar of vegetable in bowl and mix together until smooth. Add remaining ingredients to bowl and mix with hands until well combined. Scoop out small portions of the meat ball mixture and form into balls the size of small eggs.
Place the meat balls on a baking sheet and bake in a 400° oven until brown and cooked through (approximately 20-25 minutes). Wash your hands and kitchen surfaces well before and after working with raw meat.
Baby Finger Puffs
Spinach & Apple Puffs
1/2 cup rice cereal, single grain
2 large egg yolks
1/2 cup or 1 (4 oz) jar of pureed applesauce
1 cup spinach
2 tablespoon milk
1 tablespoon butter, unsalted
1 teaspoon baking powder
Sweet Potato Puffs 1/2 cup rice cereal, single grain
2 large egg yolks
1/2 cup or 1 (4 oz) jar of pureed sweet potato
1/4 cup or 1/2 (4 oz) jar of pureed applesauce
1 tablespoon butter, unsalted
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
Instructions for making either puff recipe
Preheat oven to 350 F and line cookie sheet with parchment paper.
Place all ingredients in a blender or food processor. Blend until smooth.
Pour batter into a plastic zip-top bag and cut a tiny tip off one bottom corner.
Squeeze the batter from the corner hole onto the lined cookie sheet in small dots.
Bake at 350 F for 10 minutes, then lower the heat to 250 F and bake 20 minutes more.
Remove from oven and allow to cool. Pick up the parchment paper to loosen the puffs and pour into a glass storage container. Repeat steps 6-8 until you've used up all the batter.