Banana Baby Food

Banana's are the easiest food for making baby food by far. They are extremely portable as you can just drop a couple in your purse or diaper bag for feeding on the go. They come in a nice peel that comes right off and they are baby ready with a few mashes of your fork. They're also cheap. I got some at the farmers market for .49/lb. Brayden, who I swear is teething and has been for a while with no toothers to show for it, took a slice of banana and gummed it while I prepared bottles. It was a great way to keep him busy and satisfied.

As the babies get older, their are many fun things to make and do with bananas. Click here to see and get some great recipes and tips (for this and any other food).

Sweet Potatoes

My camera died. So I will post the pictures later. For now, here's an update on the baby food making.

Mom gave me 4 HUGE sweet potatoes for the babies. With about 12 oz of formula added to the potatoes, they made a total of 5 1 /2 ice trays. That's appx. 66 servings of sweet potatoes! I use them 3 servings at a time, so knock that down to 22 servings for us. Still, that's a lot.

I washed, peeled, cubed, steamed, drained, and let the potatoes cool off. Then I dumped a few in my blender. WHY?! I guess because I was thinking baby food = blender. I don't know. After a failed mess in the blender. I got out my electric hand mixer (like one uses to make mashed potatoes, duh!) and added roughly 12 oz of formula and viola, it was done. I spooned it into ice trays, froze over night and then put the cubes in a freezer safe tupperware.

For some reason the sweet potatoes take a minute in the microwave and the pears only take 30 seconds... But it's that easy!

I've since read that you should not peel the sweet potatoes, but instead leave the skin on while steaming so that you retain the extra vitamins and them scoop the 'meat' of the potato away from the skin. Live and learn.

!

dice

mash

freeze

Homemade Pear Baby Food

The boys are 4 1/2 months old and I think they are ready for food! The doc gave us the go-ahead, but also said it's not yet necessary. So, what did I choose to do? Wait.

Here comes a Mommy confession: I chose to wait a little longer because it's SO much work to feed 3 babies food with a spoon. Especially since they can't sit up on their own yet. I know, I know. You don't have to say anything. I'm awful. I should say that I chose to wait so as not to rush them along... but that's not the real reason.
Then, Mom brought over these yummy, sweet, huge, perfect pears from her tree. And while I wanted to eat them all up myself, I decided this was the perfect opportunity to make my first batch of baby food. (FREE)
It was SO easy! It took less time than it would have to go to the store and pick it up. I also have the comfort of knowing there was nothing but pears in their pears. I wish I would have made Taylor's baby food looking back. oh well.

Here's what I did.

I washed, quartered, peeled, then diced the pears

Then I steamed them. I put a tiny bit of water in the bottom of the pot and covered them for about 20-30 minutes. Then, more by default than design, I let the pears slowly cool on the stove. I think I'll do this every time because it turned out so well. After they were cooled, I drained them, and poured them in the blender for about 30 seconds.

Then I just poured it all into ice trays and froze overnight. I have some milk storage bags I didn't get to use, so for right now, my baby food will get divided into those. When I run out of those, I'll just place them in a Tupperware bowl. I've read that pureed foods like this for babies are good for 3 months. So, I'll be sure to put a piece of masking tape with the date, and not mix batches!

Oh, and of course I tasted it. It's very good. Just like applesauce, but pears. Great texture!

- Homemade baby food adventure 1 -

A success!