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3/20/2012

Operation Baby Food: I'm up for the challenge!

I love spending time in the kitchen cooking up all sorts of new recipes.  Now that Easton can eat solids he gets to partake in eating mommy's culinary creations!   This is extremely dorky but it's so important to me that Easton grows up with a good palate, because I refuse to have a picky eater on my hands.   I'm trying to expose him to fresh healthy foods.   Am I going to let him eat Cheetos and cupcakes when he's old enough?  Of course!  BUT I feel like starting him on fresh food instead of processed will help him appreciate good fruits and veggies.

I thought for weeks about what his first food would be.  Savory or sweet?!  I toyed around with doing sweet potatoes but I heard about kids turning orange from eating too many orange foods (not going there just yet).  Then I thought I know, Avocado!  But my own mom looked at me like I was crazy and what baby would want their first food to be an avocado?  I finally settled on Butternut Squash which was also my husband's "first food" as a baby.

I was so excited I bought these fancy little baby Tupperware containers in bright colors to store the food, and got everything prepped. (I paid way to much for these but when you're an excited new mom buying baby's first food containers- you just toss it in the cart and throw budgeting to the wind).   I lugged out the food processor from it's dusty hideaway above the cookbooks and got to work.

Step 1: Peel and chop.   I opted for the busy mom "food prep" and bought a bag of pre-peeled and cubed squash.  So this step was more like, "Cut open the bag". ;-)

Step 2: Steam.  Again- I took the easier route and used a ziplock microwavable steam bag.

Step 3: Puree.   I put the steamed squash in the processor added a little water and presto!  Baby food.

pureed pears
Step 4: Taste.  Here is where I found out that I didn't steam long enough.  Whoopsie!   Totally gritty mess.

To say the least I had to scoop all of my gritty baby puree back into the steamer bag- resteam and repuree.  (Ok- I actually had to do this about 3 times because I obviously do not understand how long it takes to steam a butternut squash.)

Step 5: Cool and feed to baby.  Easton looked at me like I put a spoonful of doggie doo in his mouth.  I had to laugh.  He eventually came around!   Though the squash wasn't a huge hit he is loving, sweet potatoes (and has not turned orange), apples, pears and bananas.  Next up peas, then peaches.

peas and peaches
apples and sweet potatoes
I learned a great tip (Thank You Sarah Lake!) to ditch the expensive little containers and freeze the food into ice cubes trays.  It's the  perfect portion and you just store them in a ziplock.

sure I would love to eat dinner in my Elmo bathrobe!

 Easton Update: 6 month checkup: 19.5 LBS (must be loving the baby food) and 29.5 inches long.

3 comments:

  1. Love reading this! Thanks for the shout out... Glad the ice cube tray worked for you! I've started putting all the cubes of one food type in the same Baggie too instead of putting 2 in each Baggie! Just a tip for others...unthaw in a bowl not the Baggie bc you loose a lot of food trying to squeeze it out of the Baggie unthawed! :-). Miss you guys hope to see you soon!

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  2. carly thank you for always making me laugh with all your stories, after a hard day it makes all the stress stuff just go away. pics of Easton are so adorable as he always is. love ya mom

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  3. Love your paragraph about when you're an excited new mom you just throw it in the cart and throw the budget out the window! I've done this several times with random things and laugh at myself later. :-) I also work full time and am trying to make most of my son's baby food. I'm not a cook at all and am finding it quite easy! I make one new thing each weekend and the pacing seems to be working out. A great tip I've learned via pinterest is to use silicone ice cube trays which makes getting the cubes out a little easier. I save baby food jars from the times we have used some store bought and thaw the cubes in those then it can be heated and served right from the jar. My little guy is 8 months old so it will be fun to follow along with your blog!

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