Norah O’Donnell’s meals for your baby and toddler

Video: Busy parents make time for ‘Baby Love’

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   >>> this morning on "today's" kitchen, we're going back to basics with nbc's norah o'donnell and her husband, they have three young children and busy jobs, but despite all that, they found a great way to give their kids nutritious meals without spending hours in the kitchen. that's a good idea. they're out with the new book " baby love ," delicious ideas for your baby and toddler. you both have busy jobs and yet you're making home made baby food . now i feel great about myself. how do you find time for this?

   >> it helps being married to a chef, no doubt. but when jeff started making these recipes and it just took an hour, i was like this is so easy, you got to tell people about this? he's like nobody cares , i said are you kidding? busy moms like me if they knew that it only takes an hour per week, this could affect people.

   >> i can get a lot of this stuff that's pretty good in a jar and it's not that expensive, what about my time?

   >> over six months we sort of calculated it in the book and you save about $400 during the six months.

   >> you're saving that much money. if you costed it out, a jar of pureed carrots.

   >> you know what's going to your kids food. this is cinnamon apple oatmeal raisen puree.

   >> it's absolutely delicious, it's like apple pie and it takes about eight minutes to make the whole recipe.

   >> are you starting with organic apples?

   >> we're starting with organic apples that way we don't even have to peel it which saves more time right there. we're going to cut up, we have got four apples right here, just easy cut them up. we toss the apples right into our four-quart pop. i'm going to let you do the apple juice here.

   >> in the recipe, you can use water or apple juice . you're using apple juice now, doesn't that add a little sugar to this?

   >> there's no added sugar in this apple juice , you're not going to be using kool-aide or anything like that. but a little extra calories for young kids, it helps them sleep a little bit more.

   >> did you research some of these recipes?

   >> to me the nutritional aspect is a big deal . starting your kids a healthy foundation for healthy eating , so throughout the book you see all these nutrition tips. apples are vitamin packed and processed food in a jar, it gets cooked so much a lot of the nutrients get cooked out.

   >> we have got the cinnamon in there, it really adds flavor. i think it's great that the recipe in the book have all sorts of different flavors.

   >> before going to work, i realized we had no food, i ran out and made it, take a shower and get to work.

   >> and then after that, what did you do, macromay a hammock?

   >> but the house smelled like apple pie . it smelled wonderful.

   >> how long do you cook this?

   >> about eight minutes.

   >> we're going to add the oatmeal and cook it for one more minute. and that will help thicken it up and make it a little richer.

   >> now you've cooked it for nine minutes and you take it out and put it on a food processor .

   >> make sure the top is on tight, we have had this disaster before.

   >> this is the most interesting part, you actually believe in getting your kids involved in the cooking so they start to understand how -- you have to turn that off, i can't talk over that. so they understand the healthier eating right?

   >> yes, like our kids, we taught them how to make pancakes, they crack the eggs and measure things out. so we're making pancakes so it's not egg mcmuffins all the time. you take this and you put it in an ice cube tray and then the idea is one hour every two weeks so you're not making it every single meal.

   >> what we do is i freeze it overnight, then i pop it out and put it in zip lock bags and the fruits and the vegetables will last six months.

   >> look at the colors and i guess it's because it's all fresh, but those colors are beautiful. did you ever eat these yourself?

   >> i do. i'm a total food junky and this is one of my favorites. this is a perfectly basic key. when we made this, look at this, compared to like peas in a jar. you can put like a pat of butter on this and a piece of fish on top.

   >> i'm sticking with the oatmeal raisin apple pie . by the

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