.
Yes, indeed! Yesterday, Scoot and I decided that we were going to try our hand at making some homemade baby food. I've had the supplies for awhile, but haven't ever given it a go.Well, on this particular afternoon I had an overly ripe banana and some refrigerated blueberries and I thought to myself, "Let's just see how this works out."
I am a woman who is willing to do something more than once {in the kitchen} if it is fairly painless.
Painless being defined as: quick, easy, minimal clean-up required.
We started out with a recipe from this book {which I am starting to really love}
I found a recipe using my banana and blueberries, and pulled out my handy-dandy food processor.
{maybe this hasn't been used since I got it as a wedding present . . .}
Then, I placed my yummy blueberries in a saucepan on the stove over low heat. The recipe said to let them cook for about two minutes until the skin had just separated.
Once these are cooked, pour them into your food processor along with your banana {that you peeled} and grind to the desired consistency. I made mine a little chunky.
Once you have the final product, you have to have a way to store it, right? And it would be great to have it already in baby-sized portions, right? Well, the ice cube tray is the answer! Kidco makes these great ones with tops {which someone gave me} and they worked really well for what I needed. After the cubes were frozen, I popped them out, placed them in a ziploc bag, and labeled them with the date that they were created! If you're using the regular trays, just make sure that you put them in a ziploc bag while they're freezing to avoid those pesky germs.
So much fun that I might just make more! The food lasts for up to six weeks and it's a very economical {at least for us Stanfords} since we have a fabulous farmer's market less than a mile from our house. Plus, Gigi just brought us a whole box of peaches from the homeland. So we might be making some fun peach baby food soon! We'll just see how the Scoot likes it. What're your favorite baby food recipes?
{Boy, am I glad this is contained!}
Once you have the final product, you have to have a way to store it, right? And it would be great to have it already in baby-sized portions, right? Well, the ice cube tray is the answer! Kidco makes these great ones with tops {which someone gave me} and they worked really well for what I needed. After the cubes were frozen, I popped them out, placed them in a ziploc bag, and labeled them with the date that they were created! If you're using the regular trays, just make sure that you put them in a ziploc bag while they're freezing to avoid those pesky germs.
So much fun that I might just make more! The food lasts for up to six weeks and it's a very economical {at least for us Stanfords} since we have a fabulous farmer's market less than a mile from our house. Plus, Gigi just brought us a whole box of peaches from the homeland. So we might be making some fun peach baby food soon! We'll just see how the Scoot likes it. What're your favorite baby food recipes?
.
Posts
I made most of Gideon's babyfood, too. Especially the green veggies, once I defrost the cubes, I mix them with a bit of whole milk yogurt. Around our house, a spoonful of yogurt will make anything go down! He still eats veggie yogurt at 16 months and loves it, thankfully. Winter squash with applesauce and cinnamon, any fruit (and some veggies) mixed with a bit of oatmeal was/is also a regular. (Butternut squash with anything makes it that creamy "babyfood" texture - better than anything else I found). I introduced most vegetables by themselves or mixed wih another veg I knew he liked. If it didn't go well after several tries, I added a spoonful of applesauce or some other fruit I had frozen. Over time, I just reduced the quantity of fruit in it as he acclimated to the new vegetable. Also, if I saw grains on sale, I would buy oatmeal, quinoa, and/or millet and grind them up in my blender to use in place of the boxed oatmeal. I'd cook it up in 3 day batches to keep in the fridge, usually. For protein, I sometimes hard-boiled eggs and mashed up one yolk in with his oatmeal every day or two for protein (and I ate the whites). Meat didn't seem to "blend" well, so I skipped it. Sorry this turned into a primer on babyfood! Probably your book says it all. But, I loved making my own babyfood. Hope you have a great experience, too!
ReplyDeleteKristine R.
Kristine! That is such great advice! I've been trying to learn the whole balance of fruits, veggies, grains, proteins. Figuring out how much she needs of what each day is definitely a learning process. I love all of the ideas! Thanks for taking the time to share what you did. I know that it will help!
ReplyDelete