With Shirley, I bought all of our baby food. When Richardboy was about 9 months old it occurred to me that I could make my own. This time around, I've learned some lessons and now can make as much food for Brynn as possible! I'm not sure it's worth the effort with fruit, but we shall see.
I recently acquired half a bushel of green beans and about five pounds of broccoli.
So, I cleaned the green beans and steamed them until they were very fork tender (you're looking for very little resistance to the fork (it's worth mentioning, I avoided the "forking tender" temptation here.)) in a big steamer pot. In two smaller pots I steamed about two cups of broccoli and a Fuji apple (cored, not peeled). Then, in this handy dandy steamer my mom gave me, I steamed five carrots (chopped, not peeled) in only four minutes!
Really cool.
Once everything was forking tender (I just. can't. help myself.) I combined the carrots, apple and broccoli in the food processor with about an eighth of a cup of water and let 'er rip until it was the consistency of baby food. I then spooned 2-tablespoon portions into snack-sized ziplock bags for the freezer. Then I rinsed out my processor and dumped in all the green beans. This batch didn't require any water since they had an awful lot of water in them and on them.
Each batch yielded about ten 2-tablespoon-sized servings.
I'm really excited about how easy this was and how prepared I feel for the future! It will still be about two months before she will be ready for this food, but it does more good waiting in the freezer than going rotten in the fridge.
I separated out some portions for my niece, Charlotte, who is almost eight months old. I can't wait to see how she likes all of it!
Next I hope to do pears, parsnips, carrots and sweet potatoes.
Since you stuck with me through this long, boring post, I will share a cute picture of Brynn "helping" me with the food processor. She thought it was noisy and fun—which, it was.
The final product.
The happy helper.
4 comments:
So I thought I would share that Alyse has used ice cube trays to do the portioning and freezing. It makes for easy portioning, then we put them in bags from there.
Hi Jared! I did that last time. I figured this way I'd save myself a step and they'll thaw quicker this way. It's all a grand experiment. I may change my plan next time.
You are doing forking awesome. I can't help myself either.
Thanks for sharing about your baby food experiment, Erin! That steamer is really cool.
Brian and I also make our own baby food. We use the ice cube tray method and we also use old baby food jars (we got some store-bought baby food at a baby shower). So far, I've enjoyed making my own baby food! I've never tried to mix foods, though. That will be next.
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