Here's a site that might help you..

Go do a bit towards the bottom middle and it has a note on rice and pasta.

I understand your desire to give him good "food".

My boys all loved broccoli as babies. And all three still eat it.. 2 still only eat the "flowers" off and leave the stems. (They are 14 and 11.)

A favorite casserole that they EAT UP..

Cooked rice, layered with cooked chicken, and broccoli, then a white sauce is poured over with a bit of cheese melted in it and more over the top..and baked until bubbly.

I made this the other night 9x13 pan..GONE in 2 hours..the whole pan..

Smaller dices for "little" people..great finger or toddler fork meal.

Here is a link that might be useful: Freezing Baby Food

The pasta will freeze better if it doesn't have the sauce on it or if it's not sitting in sauce. It is the ice crystals in the sauce that can make the pasta (or rice) mushy.

Just the other night I fixed a small container of a commercially frozen dish with rice, peppers, tomato sauce and ground beef. The rice and peppers were in a pile in the container and the beef/sauce were in a separate pile beside the rice. You were to heat the container, then stir the two together and heat again until hot. This "frozen dinner" was actually pretty good - like stuffed peppers w/o the hassle of actually stuffing the peppers. So I think I will try to make my own version of this.

You could try freezing a mound of the pasta and a mound of the sauce separatly, then packaging them together. A child this young might like orzo (rice shaped pasta) or small elbows to eat rather than large noodles.

Teresa

I buy the mini pastas by Barilla..

These would definitely be perfect for a toddler.

olychick, I freeze some sauced pasta without trouble, mostly things like lasagna and cannelloni. I've frozen spaghetti, though, and it's....OK. Not spectacular, but OK. I find that the sauce needs to be very thick and that helps some with the "watery" problem with pasta.

Annie

Thank you all! I do make it very thick for him as he doesn't yet have spoon/fork skills (and if they keep feeding him pretzels and sliced olives, he'll never get them, lol). I buy small whole grain organic shells for him; they are a good size, I will try freezing some both ways - I never would have thought to do it separately. I freeze the sauce already for me to feed him and just cook pasta fresh each time, but they will never do that.

Thank you, Terri, for the idea of chicken/broccoli casserole. I give him all that separately, but I could maybe freeze some portions of that casserole. If anyone has any other great ideas for baby friendly veggie loaded food, I'd love to hear them.

Olychick, that's a wonderful thing you are doing for your grandchild but I have to say, I agree with your son on the tofu.)

He's a baby....he really doesn't care that the pasta isn't al dente....just that it's not dry and tastes good.
Iw ould make the sauce not so thick to freeze and make sure the pasta isn't over cooked....just aldente or a little before....it will absorb some more moisture in storage and in warming and become softer.
Sou8nds to me like the mother wasn't ready to take responsibility for a baby....buy them the book "I'M YOURS, FEED ME".
Your son obviously has done some research to learn that soy can present some problems for babies....but he also should learn that too much salt isn't good either.
But...outside of the salt, pretzels are just crackers....and olives contain good oils and are indeed a vegetable....and I am sure his formula contains some iron.
Cook him up some carrot chunks....kids love them, cooked peas, bits of raw peeled tomatoes, cooked brown rice with some parmesan cheese for flavor.
Make some good whole wheat bread fortified with dry milk and a bit of flax seed meal and make him some small bites. He obviously loves strong flavors, so make him some "dip" out of cottage cheese, garlic, blue cheese and parsley....let him dip his tiny bread bites into it and cooked veggies.
Make him some ice cream....load it up with dry milk and fruit....yogurt is also good and easy to fix.
Good luck.
Linda C

Here's some more places to look for ideas.
Wholesome Foods for Toddlers

Breakfast and Snack Ideas

Meals and Snacks

and just one more..
Organics for Toddlers and recipes

Thank you for all the helpful suggestions. I'm pretty clued in to what to feed him and have no problems when I have him - I really was looking for things that I could fix and freeze in small portions for THEIR freezer that would be healthful for him.
I make spanakopita pretty often and he'll eat that and doesn't care that the phyllo is soggy after freezing - but he's recently been tested for egg allergy (along with nuts, peanuts) so I don't think I can give that to him anymore. I make him organic turkey meatballs with spinach and took those over for their freezer; then they started buying the costco precooked ones which I imagine are high in sodium. They didn't know to freeze after opening and were feeding him for a couple of weeks from the open package (because the pull date was about 3 weeks from the purchase date). It's lucky he didn't get food poisoning, because they don't cook them before eating either. I even have taken cooked frozen vegetables (because I figured they wouldn't cook them before feeding them to him). See what I'm dealing with? Or rather my grandson is?

I don't really cook casseroles anymore and never have frozen them, so that's kind of what I'm thinking I need so he can have a taste of real food sometimes.

Lindac, I don't think anyone is really prepared for a baby. I feel they have equal responsibility for his needs - not just my DIL. Neither of them cook and neither wants to. They are the most wonderful parents in every other way.

thank you for the links Terri. I'll check them out. And thank you all for letting me vent about this!!! I figured a group of foodies would understand.

olychick,, it'll be easier when he gets bigger, then you can cook together. The Princess is 7 and one of her favorite foods are breads. I bought her a GoodWill bread machine for $7 and now she makes bread for her lunches with butternut squash and white whole wheat flour. Bruvver is 5 and he makes pizza dough, I measure the dry ingredients into a ziplock bag so he just dumps in the water up to the mark I've made on his "special" pizza making cup, pours the contents of the bag in on top and presses the button. The Princess also makes muffins but her Mom has to help her put them in and take them out of the oven and together we make pumpkin pancakes to freeze and reheat in the toaster.

They both like Sol's zucchini pancakes so maybe a latke/pancake/fritter kind of thing? Use them to wrap the filling of choice.

Annie

If you have a blender, smoothies might be a good choice. You can make them and freeze them in ice cube trays then into a Ziplock. The parents could take a couple of cubes out. They defrost quickly and taste good.

Smoothies are great because you can mask all sorts of greens and veggies in them. Baby spinach is awesome because other than the green color, you can't taste it and it's full of iron and other nutrients. And I find kids are much more receptive to a green smoothie if you call it a name like "monster" or "zombie" smoothie. :) Protein powders can also be easily added. I like hemp or brown rice protein.

Good luck, I think it's a great thing that you are doing.

If he does show up as an egg allergy double check if that's chicken only...I know more kids/people that have the "allergy" that can eat duck eggs or other fowl eggs just fine. Or limited..like 2-3 a week versus every day.

Eggs are such a wonderful "protein & nutrients" of food..especially yard raised birds. ;)

Get a few popsicle molds and make up those smoothies.

The one my boys make is super simple. I pre freeze a chunked banana and a handful of organic or garden strawberries in baggies. They plunk that in the blender, blop in yogurt either plain or vanilla. If using plain they add a "pour" or squeeze of honey or agave. Then top it off with milk to the consistency they like.

Some of the baggies have some blueberries in them too.

They don't like peach or nectarine in them, but I do.

They love raspberries or other "seedy" berries..but I don't.

We don't put veg in them...but we didn't start this when they were babies.

Oh and I really love Odwalla's Super Food Juice...it would be a great thing to use as the "liquid" too or freeze it in ice cubes and use it to "freeze" up milk and yogurt.

And then there is the "pizza rolls" I make..

They LOVE them.

I make Lou's Pizza Dough but...

I've changed it up a bit.

1 c warm water
1 spoon of honey
2 1/4 t yeast
pinch of Real Salt
1 T of EVOO
3 c flour I use 2 cup Organic AP and 1 c Organic WW

Proof yeast in honey and water.
Add in salt and oil..then stir in flour.

knead until dough is smooth..
Let set while I get things together.

My boys like it with homemade pizza sauce..simple as a can of tomato sauce, fresh minced garlic, fresh cracked pepper and a sprinkle of italian seasoning. Simmered for about 10 minutes to "Plump" the italian seasoning.

Then nitrate free pepperoni or sausage and cheese. Usually a combo of mozz and cheddar..but really whatever might be in the fridge.

Spread out dough like for a cinnamon roll in a rectangle..smear on pizza sauce, place on filling..and roll like a cinnamon roll..cut to desired thickness..

Bake in 400F oven until golden. They eat them hot and room temp. They get major oohs and ahhs when they take these in their lunch box or to the pool.

I've also done Montery jack and taco "seasoned" meat and leftover broccoli and cheddar.

For little fingers I'd divide the dough in half and do them up..makes "smaller" rolls.

They freeze fine too.

oh and I was looking for something else and the below blog popped up..I will steal a few of these for my "tween and teens" lunch boxes!

Here is a link that might be useful: Toddler Tastes Blog

Annie1982, I LOVE the idea of a bread machine for him when he's a little older! Now, that's a great way to get him invested in the outcome of his food. He loves anything with buttons to push...maybe he'll get one for his 2nd birthday. Any tips on brands to look for?

Terri, those sound terrific - I don't know if I could freeze and take to their house tho' - I'm afraid the parents would eat them all the baby would never see them! But I'll make some for serving at my house and it will be fun when he's older to have him help make them. I decided to teach him to cook asap, so he can fend for himself.

There were some good ideas on that blog, too. I already make him chicken nuggets but I use greek yogurt as the binder and roll in organic Wheatabix crushed up. Add seasonings and sometimes some fresh ground parmesan, too, to the crumbs.

Chi83, thanks for the ideas, but I probably won't do smoothies because his parents live on protein bars and protein powder smoothies, so I think they'll have that covered. Lucky (?) he's allergic to nuts or they'd be giving them to him now. Their smoothies won't be healthy like yours but I think I'll stick to food he has to chew. But maybe next year I'll use your recipe and make frozen smoothie pops for summer for him.

Thank you all!