I was one of those mothers who did not read a single book about raising a child, pregnancy and so on. I thought "it can’t be that hard", oh boy was I wrong!
When Josh was born, books and google became my best friends! The first six months were hard, I struggled to cook healthy meals as my recovery post-birth was very long! Hence when Josh started weaning, this was my turning point.
I thought "it can’t be that hard", oh boy was I wrong!
I quickly realised nutritious meals were so vital, not just for him but for all of us. Being raised as a vegetarian, I wanted Josh to have the same ethos as myself. When I was growing up, my mum always made an effort to cook Indian food every day. We knew who we were through food. We had a level of pride in our culture.
We started off Josh’s weaning journey with a mixture of baby-led weaning and spoon-feeding. One of his favourite foods was broccoli - and still is! After the first month of this, he became very bored of food and so I started the journey of recipe creating.
I was on a mission to transform the meals I had growing up into baby and toddler healthy meals.
I found he absolutely loved Indian food because of the wide range of spices, tastes and textures. I was on a mission to transform the meals I had growing up into baby and toddler healthy meals. During maternity leave, I started posting recipes on social media hoping they would help other mums.
Once I went back to work as an optometrist (a full-on 9-6 job in practice), I struggled again to cook meals for Josh and relied on children’s ready meals from the supermarket which lacked taste and texture. He started losing weight as he wasn’t eating. I used to go to the supermarket thinking why can’t the shelves have traditional mum-made Indian food that was suitable for babies and toddlers, thus My Veggie Bubba was born.
So why Indian food?
Traditional Indian meals are not like the meals you get served in a restaurant. They are made with reduced oil, high in protein and iron and are incredibly tasty. Each spice has a different use, from digestive to immunity. Indian food also contains lots of authentic vegetables native to India that are high in vitamins and nutrients.
When Josh started nursery, for a whole year he picked up so many bugs! I found increasing Indian food in his diet helped with his health, digestion and overall happiness.