As a rule, I avoid convenience foods. I visit the farmer’s market every weekend. I love to cook, and I hope one day my children will appreciate seasonal produce and healthy, homemade foods. And yet, when it was time for my 6-month-old daughter to start eating solids, I pushed the grocery cart down the baby food aisle and loaded up on jars of “Stage 1” pureed squash, sweet potatoes, and peas. My first chance to instill in Penelope an appreciation of good food had arrived, but here I was spooning strained, gray-green mush into her mouth. What happened?

A new book, “The Petit Appetit Cookbook: Easy, Organic Recipes to Nurture Your Baby and Toddler” (Penguin, 268 pages, $17.95), by Lisa Barnes, is written for parents like me, in search of more appealing culinary options for their young children. While the book urges parents to go organic, it also serves as a general guide to raising children to be healthy, open-minded, and adventurous eaters. And, Ms. Barnes argues, relying on baby food from the jar is not the best way to achieve that goal.

Ms. Barnes, who is based in San Francisco, founded the culinary service Petit Appetit to provide healthy foods to infants and toddlers. She presents compelling reasons to feed children homemade, as opposed to store-bought, baby food whenever possible. An obvious benefit: no artificial pesticides or fertilizers. Ms. Barnes cites a frightening Environmental Working Group report finding that suggests that “the greatest contribution to a person’s lifetime risk of cancer from pesticide residues occurs during childhood.” Organic foods also limit exposure to nitrites, help the environment, and, when purchased locally, support the community. Homemade foods retain more nutrients, she says, since they don’t go through the high heat and high pressure involved in commercial jarring.

Ms. Barnes warns of additives and thickening agents in some commercial baby foods, but I couldn’t find many examples of this at the grocery store, at least not in products aimed at the youngest babies. And she hardly mentions the existence of commercially jarred organic foods. However, freshness and taste alone seem reason enough to do it yourself: If the goal is to prepare a child to someday eat – and enjoy – “real” food along with the rest of the family at the dinner table, why start him off with unnaturally smooth, flat-tasting stuff from a jar?

The book’s recipe section is divided into chapters for six developmental stages, from the Beginners (4 to 6 months) to the Connoisseurs (3 to 4 years). Ms. Barnes notes that her book is no replacement for the advice of a pediatrician. Indeed, the cookbook includes some puree recipes based on ingredients that my own pediatrician has restricted for now, such as mangoes and melons. Thus “Petit Appetit” may be most useful to parents of older babies who have already been introduced to the basics. At the same time, Ms. Barnes presents some interesting puree ideas that probably aren’t available at the grocery store – pluots and zucchini, for example – and may not occur to many parents otherwise.

Ms. Barnes’s recipes for older children set the culinary bar high with offerings such as pumpkin polenta, fish tacos, and a beet salad with mint and balsamic vinegar that would win Alice Waters’s approval (and, hopefully, a child’s). Her goal in doing so is ambitious: preparing one dinner for the entire family, instead of catering to finicky palates. She goes so far as to propose roasted brussels sprouts as toddler snacks.

I tried a few puree recipes on Penelope, and she really did seem to enjoy roasted-and-mashed sweet potato over the duller, smoother jar version. She wasn’t so sure about the pureed carrots – with some ingredients, baby-food manufacturers may have the texture advantage. But pureed apricots were a hit, provoking plenty of lip smacking.

Making baby food is certainly not as easy as buying it, but I was surprised how little time it took. In some cases, I was able to cut cleanup time by using an immersion blender instead of the food processor.

I tested more advanced recipes on the adults in our house with mixed results. Gingered carrots with a splash of lemon juice were an invigorating side dish. However, the baked honey mustard chicken was a bit too sweet and overpowered by curry. I disregarded the recommended cooking time for this dish, which is nearly twice as long as it should be.

If feeding a 6-month-old is a fairly straightforward steam-then-puree process, and feeding a 3-year-old is not much different than feeding the rest of the family, then what does this book have to offer? The answer is encouragement, inspiration – and motivation to eat healthier. As long as I was taking the time to prepare fresh vegetables for our daughter, I found ways to work them into our dinners as well, instead of relying on salad-from-a-bag every night.

Parents who don’t mind taking a few extra steps in the kitchen will find that “The Petit Appetit Cookbook” offers many interesting, wholesome, and fun reasons to skip the grocery store’s baby food aisle. And they just might find that their own diets improve accordingly.

Sweet Potato Puree
(For children ages 4 to 6 months) From “The Petit Appetit Cookbook” by Lisa Barnes

Makes 4 servings
2 medium (7- to 8-ounce) organic sweet potatoes
Water formula, or milk

OVEN METHOD

Preheat oven to 425 degrees Fahrenheit. Prick potatoes with a small knife, and place on a baking sheet. Bake for 45 to 60 minutes, or until tender, and skin is wrinkled. Potatoes should pierce easily with a toothpick. Set potatoes aside to cool before handling.

Using your fingers, peel potato skin from flesh. Mash with a fork for thicker potatoes, or puree in a food processor with a steel blade until mashed. For a smoother and less sticky texture, add 1 to 2 tablespoons of water, formula, or milk, at a time. Add liquid and process until you’ve reached desired consistency.

MICROWAVE METHOD

Prick potatoes with a knife and place potatoes in a microwave-safe dish. Add 1/4 cup of water and cover tightly, allowing a corner to vent. Microwave on high for 3 minutes and turn potatoes over. Re-cover and cook for 3 to 6 minutes, until tender. Check for doneness, cool, and proceed with directions above.