Chef Tara Anderson created a baby food business to provide healthy options for moms on the go: Hilary Schleier
Vegetarian chili verde, smoked salmon stew, Syrian spiced lamb and vegetable lentil ragout. These sound like menu items from a new gourmet restaurant, but they’re not. These items are from chef Tara Anderson’s new baby food line. Each meal, which is home-cooked with love by Anderson’s expert hands, is delivered right to her clients’ front doors, ready to be served in their kitchens or tossed in the refrigerator for another day. Anderson says she designed the prepared meals with busy, health-conscious moms in mind. “This is the solution for people who don’t have time, resources or knowledge to cook healthy meals for their kids,” she says. Like most good ideas, Anderson’s business, Half Pint Palates, started with a need in her own home. When Anderson’s daughter, Vivian, was a baby, Anderson made all of her baby food. One week last year, the family went on vacation, so Anderson picked up some food from the store to take on the trip. Once there, Vivian refused to eat the food, and when Anderson tried it, she found out why. “It was really gross,” she explains, and says she threw it away immediately. The disappointment spurred her thinking: How many moms feed their little ones store-bought baby food because they don’t have the time or know-how to make their own? Wouldn’t it be nice to have healthy, easy-to-prepare options that taste good? “I want my kid to grow up in a generation of kids that like to eat and eat healthy,” she says. So she got to work creating recipes for healthy meals, snacks, juice and more. In March, she opened for business through her website, where clients can order food to be delivered weekly right to their door. “I would have loved to have had something like this,” Anderson says.
Visit halfpintpalates.com to see Anderson’s menu items or to place an order.
