Thursday, May 20, 2010

Adventures in Baby Food




I don't make all of Oliver's baby food. For example, I don't make his peas or green beans because it seems like too much of a hassle to run it through a sieve to get all the bits out. Also, I don't make any meats for him because it grosses me out.

However, I make most of Oliver's baby food. I bake squash, I boil apples, I steam carrots. The easiest foods to "make" are bananas and avocados. All you have to do is mash the fruit part, and that's seriously it. Easy as pie!

Here are photos of the two most recent meals I made for Oliver. To make the carrots, I chopped them up into pieces and then steamed them until they were soft. I used some of my milk when I pureed the carrots because I read that they're more nutritious when eaten with a little fat. A baby food recipe book I have recommends using butter, but I'm reluctant to give Oliver any cow's milk products because of his issues in the past. Anyway, other than the timeliness of the chopping, it was very easy and convienent. I make a bunch at once and freeze it so I can just pop it out and resteam it or microwave it later.

To make the banana, I cut it in half, peeled it, and mashed it with his baby spoon. For younger babies, you can puree it so it's completely smooth, and you can even add milk to it. Banana doesn't freeze well, so I just mash half a banana on demand. It's so easy! Right now, bananas are 46 cents a pound, so there's really no rationalization for buying a jar for 60 cents.

2 comments:

Missy said...

I never bought babyfood for Jack, either. Just mashed up whatever we were eating a bit. That and Mama's milk got him through his first year. :-)

whirledpeas1129 said...

Now that Oliver's tried a lot more food items, I think I'm going to start pureeing some of our meals for him. I don't want him to have too much soy, though, because I heard it can simulate estrogen in the body, and we eat a lot of soy products and tofu. One of my favorite dishes, though, I got off of allrecipes.com. You boil penne pasta in vegetable broth and simmer that with some peas, broccoli, garlic, and carrots, and then you top it with some parmesan cheese. I think I might puree that dish (minus the cheese) for Oliver's first shared meal with us!