Tuesday, March 16, 2010

Try It Out Tuesday: Homemade Baby Food... Part 1

Have you entered the Abigail's Hope Designs Giveaway Yet? Check it out HERE until March 18.
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This is Part 1 of 2... next week I will be doing a book review and giveaway on this subject... as well as addressing any questions/comments that come up after today's post!!!

Now that my little girl is old enough to start eating "solids" I have decided that I will be making my own baby food for her. I have been working on this for a few weeks now... and rather slowly because she isn't eating much more than rice cereal.

So far I have made sweet potatoes, apples and pears. She has also tasted avocado (raw) and banana (raw). The rice cereal she is getting is a box variety and we are using the same kind she got in the hospital. Once we run out of that variety, I might consider making my own rice cereal as well!

I had a food processor from my wedding registry... and it has admittedly gotten little use! So, I was pleased to have a reason to dust it off and give it some jobs. I have found that making baby food is super easy and it fits right into my cooking time.

For most fruits and veggies, you simply steam the food, blend it up to the desired thickness (you can add the cooking water to thin it) using your processor and then freeze the puree in ice cube trays. Once frozen, the cubes of food can be stored in the freezer for quite a while... and then to use them, you can thaw them in the fridge or simple microwave them!

There are certain foods that are rich in nitrates (dangerous for baby)... and you have to be careful about those foods (like carrots and spinach). Otherwise, the process is incredible simple.

I am curious to know your experiences with making baby food! Do you have any recipes you love or your kiddo loves? What about recipes you or your kiddo hated? Any tips or tricks you have found? Any favorite books on the subject?

1 comment:

Lisa Chaffee said...

My favorite book is Cooking for Baby. My favorite website is www.wholesomebabyfood.com This website is such a great reference. Between the book and the website I get all of my questions answered!
Jackson is not a big fan of peas but if I give him peas and carrots together (a little bit of each on the spoon) he'll eat it up! He has two favorite foods so far, pears and peaches. I have been using these as sort of a dessert/reward after he eats his veggies. He isn't very enthusiastic about eating his veggies, so I like to give him a little reward after he finishes them.
If you make homemade carrots, the nitrates cook out into the water so you just need to add fresh water when thinning instead of the cooking water.
Lisa