Not Your Average Baby Food: Beef Tenderloin with Red Beets, Onions, and Ginger

We’ve been doing baby led weaning since introducing solids at 7 months (although she wasn’t interested until 8 months). Although it was quite messy in the beginning and required a bath after almost every meal for the first few months, I’m glad it’s the route we chose. Now, at a little over 14 months, I can plop Faye into the Stokke Tripp Trapp, wrap a dish towel around her neck (yep, dish towels secured with a rubber band are my go-to because they catch way more bits, pieces, and juices than any bib I’ve ever come across), hand her a fork and spoon, and place her food and glass of water down on her silicone mat and she is good to go. With 12 teeth and a strong independent streak, Faye is one self sufficient little champion of an eater.

I’m super tired and in lots of pain these days, so I’m looking for meals that are nutritious, tasty and quick to prep. This past month I’ve been finding that if I give Faye veggies separate from her protein, she will just eat the protein and leave the veggies on the plate to get cold and withered. Therefore, I’ve been trying to either incorporate them into one dish or give her the veggies first. With this simple 10 minute to prep dish, I’ve done the former.

Beef Tenderloin with Red Beets, Onions, and Ginger

Time: about 10 minutes from start to plating

Makes 1 serving

• 2 Tbsps olive oil
• 1 small red beet
• ¼ of an onion, diced
• ½ inch ginger, peeled and grated (I use this ceramic grater)
• 2 squeezes of a lemon
• 3 pinches of iodized salt
• ½ tsp tamari
• 0.10 lb pasture raised beef tenderloin
• ½ Tbsp butter

Chop the ends off of and peel one small red beet. Cut the beet into ⅛’ slices, then cut those slices into ¼” sticks. Heat the 2 Tbsps of olive oil in a small frying pan over medium. Toss in the beet sticks and diced onion into the hot oil as they are ready, stirring occasionally with a wooden spoon to prevent the food from sticking to the bottom of the pan. Add two pinches of salt, two squeezes of lemon, grated ginger, tamari, and cook until the beet and onion are tender.

As the beet and onion cook, prep your tenderloin by thinly slicing it in pieces your little one can eat without your assistance. When the beet and onion are tender, add the tenderloin and one more pinch of salt to the pan. Cook for a minute or two (until the pink is no longer beating you over the head, but not so much so that you kill the poor piece of meat), turn the heat off, top with ½ Tbsp butter and stir.

Plate and enjoy!