Food for Baby

Did I mention to you that I am making Truman's baby food? Does that make me a crazy person, to add one more thing to my 'To Do' list or does it just make me more of a crunchy tree-hugger mama? Not sure, but I really do love it and it doesn't take that much time at all.

This is the website that is my 'Bible' of sorts when it comes to making baby food. Tons of ideas and tips and recipes for the babes and it's really well organized.

We started veggie purees right at six months and although our first choice of peas were an epic failure, we kept plugging away. In fact, I thawed all of the original peas and re-pureed them to see if I could get them smoother. I did, in fact, smooth them out but alas, Truman still hates peas. Guess we'll have to mix them into something else eventually.

So far I have made: peas, butternut squash, sweet potato, avocado, bananas (hasn't tried them yet), apples (hasn't tried them yet), and peaches. I also bought carrots and green beans, instaed of making them, because I heard both of those are very hard to make smooth enough and it was a lot easier to let Gerber do the dirty work. :) Truman loves all of the veggies except those nasty peas and we just started fruits, with peaches being our first pick, this week. Of course he has a sweet tooth like his parents and already scarfs the peaches down like none other.

What works for me: I make a big batch of a few different foods at one time. For instance, I made apples, peaches, sweet potatoes, and squash on Sunday night. They looked so pretty while baking I had to snap some pics:)



I picked Braeburn apples this time around and hope Truman likes them as much as I do! We are waiting on apples and also bananas so that he doesn't get too constipated. His bowel movements deserve a whole separate post but I'll spare you the deets. Let's just say we will stick to peaches for a bit. :)


Millions of peaches, peaches for me...


And squash is one of his top picks, for sure. It makes a TON of frozen cubes, too.


Ice trays, ice trays, who has the ice trays?


All of the foods (except bananas and avocados) need to be cooked somehow and usually baking is the best way to preserve the nutrients. We add just a bit of water to a pan and then put the foods face down in it, skin and all (for the sweet potatoes just poke holes in them and wrap in tin foil). Then you either put the whole thing in a sweet Magic Bullet or scoop out the 'meat' part and just blend that smooth. Pop the puree into ice cubes, let them freeze, then pull them out and store in ziploc bags. Voila--homemade baby food. You can thaw the cubes out in the fridge or even in the microwave if needed. Easy peasy.

I will usually add some water as I blend the foods but not too much--I tend to water it down right before I give it to Truman, so when I freeze it the food is still pretty thick. You can even add breastmilk to thin it out or sometimes once you thaw the cubes it naturally thins out by itself so no need to add anything at all. If it's too thin I usually add a bit of rice cereal or oatmeal cereal to thicken it up. It just depends on the food, I guess.

We tried using our nice Cuisinart blender but it was so big and bulky and hard to clean that we bought a Magic Bullet and I love using it for baby purees. It's the perfect size and cleans up easily, plus it gets the purees very smooth (ie no gagging for baby boy).






See this random giant sweet potato? Yeah, it didn't cook fast enough and I was ready for bed before it was ready that night, so we popped it half cooked in the fridge. I think this is hilarious and random so I took a pic. And then the next day I tried to re-cook it fully and it never softened up so I tossed it and stuck with just one tray full of s.potatoes. No biggie.


And the final result? Lots of fun little baggies-o-purees. I love all the colors. And yes, I froze banana puree and know that makes them a bit brown. Not too worried about it. The avocado also froze well, too, if you were wondering.








Any questions?

Because there is no posting without Truman pics let's move onto a few food-related videos, shall we?

Carrots (store bought!) were a huge hit. So was blowing raspberries while eating them.


Amoxicillan was NOT a big hit. In fact, he hated the bubble gum stuff. It's really quite funny now but was rather stressful at the time.


And this has nothing to do with food, but it's a super-cute video and I sound totally deranged in it. So maybe it will brighten your day a bit, too.

And no, his Halloween outfit is NOT a monkey outfit. I was referring to a every-day outfit with monkeys on it and he thought I was hilarious. But his Halloween costume has arrived and it's going to be totally badass. Top secret for now!

(Still working on that 'traveling with baby' post too, now that I'm a seasoned vet and have flown with Truman on two round-trips including one way by myself with a sick baby. Lots of tips to share)