My Baby Food Making Extravaganza!

  Ok, so we were very VERY low on baby food and my husband had been saying to me all week that we needed to get more stuff to make. I went to Sendik's (local high end grocery store) and got a bunch of items, in fact I may have gone over-board! Balin is 8.5 months now so he doesn't need smooth purees, but I still enjoy making baby food for him. He loves just about anything we give him, actually I don't think we have found anything he doesn't like.

  I usually go to Pick N Save to get a majority of my groceries, but to be honest, I haven't been impressed with the quality of their produce. Sendik's is good quality, sometimes you have to pay extra for that quality. But, they had organic broccoli on sale this week $.50 cheaper than non- organic! Their fruit generally looks and tastes better too. With that being said, I wanted to mention buying produce in season. Yes, you can get just about anything all year round as our grocery stores usually get items from place like Chile or Mexico. I have not been able to find peaches, even at Sendik's. There are reasons for this, primarily that cases of peaches are very expensive for the grocery store to buy making it even more expensive for the consumer, therefore it's not worth it for them to spend the money when no one is going to buy. For all of you "Pinteresters" out there, you may have seen this chart, and yes, I know it's from the UK, bit it's good general guideline for when fruits and vegetables are in season: http://pinterest.com/pin/44191640063565117/

The Before...

 So, as I said, I went a little overboard. Oops! I made carrots, asparagus, broccoli, sweet potatoes, butternut squash, lentils, and garbanzo beans. :) I pureed these to a chunky consistency since he is older now and can chew a bit. Now, I started at about 1 pm and finished at about 5:30. It sounds like a long time, but we ran out of containers and I had to send DH out for more and I had a teething little guy to contend with. In a previous blog entry, I talked about the containers I use. I use Glad 4 oz storage containers. They are BPA free and dishwasher, microwave, and freezer safe. They are also a lot cheaper than containers dedicated to baby food.

The containers we use look like this. The small round ones are 4 oz Glad containers and the rectangle ones are Ziploc 9 oz containers. Target was out of the Glad 8 oz containers.

The After...

When it comes to deciding whether to buy dried items vs. canned, such as garbanzo beans, I always get dried. Canned items have lots of salt in them to preserve freshness, even if you get the low sodium version. You can also opt for frozen. I generally get frozen lima beans, steam and puree or dice them. As a general rule of thumb, stay away from anything canned for your child. It isn't hard to bring beans and legumes from a dried state to rehydrated state, I will talk about this in my next blog entry. :)

Eating woes during teething

My son is 7.5 months old and has 9 teeth. He got his 1st one at 3.5 months. It has been non-stop teething since. This past week started out miserably. He was irritable and in pain and inconsolable. We noticed he wan't eating his food very well. We thought maybe he was sick, after all, he was congested and pulling on his ear a lot. The ear pulling was a little concerning, but not enough to rush to the dr. He was drooling everywhere and gnawing on everything. 

We tried to give him finger foods, but he was just not interested. And hot foods, forget it! So we came to the conclusion he must be teething again. We decided to try some cold items with him. Greek yogurt was an awesome choice. It's healthy and full of protein and good bacterias. Plain greek yogurt is the best choice for baby. You can then add your own fruit puree to it. I think the coolness of the yogurt and the fact that he doesn't need to gum it helped him to eat. Also, just plain old cold pureed fruits worked pretty well for him. This may not be the same for all babies, but it's worth a shot! Just think of what you'd want for a sore tooth, cold or hot?

Also, mesh feeders with frozen apple chunks have been our friend lately. You can put just about anything in these things and it's safe for baby because they can't get anything besides juice and small food particles out of it. Here's a link to some on amazon- http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000GK5XY2/ref=ox_sc_act_title_5?ie=UTF8&m=ATVPDKIKX0DER. They are worth the cost!

A versatile recipe for fruits and veggies.

Here's my step by step process for making pear puree. The same technique can be used for apples, squash, and peaches.
I used 6 pears this time around, you can use as many as you like.


Step 1: Preheat oven to 375.

Step 2: After rinsing your fruit, cut the top and bottom off the pear. Cut it in half and scoop out the seeds.

Step 3: Place on cookie sheet and pour in about a cup and a half of water. Water will help steam the fruit.

Step 4: Place in oven and bake for about 45 minutes or until tender enough to poke a fork through.

Step 5: Pull the pears out of the oven and let cool enough to handle.

Step 6: With a spoon, scoop the fruit out of the skin or peel the skin off of the rest of the fruit.

This is what your pears should look like when peeled-

Step 7: Puree with immersion blender or food processor or food mill.

Step  8: Puree until smooth.

 That's it! You are done. Remember you can use the same technique with apples, peaches, and squash. From here, put into your storage containers and freeze. You can season with some cinnamon, about a 1/2 tsp for 6 pears should be enough.

For a little flavor variety, mix pureed apple and pears, or pears and squash together. 

Fruits: 4-6 months

Avocado is an awesome choice for a 1st fruit! It's little prep work, no cooking and extremely healthy. All you have to do is scoop it out of the skin and mash it, again, no need to cook it. Avocado however doesn't freeze nicely, it will turn brown and not look attractive. It's something that you want to prep right when you are going to use it because it will brown from oxidation.


Bananas are much the same as avocado; little prep and no cooking needed. You can heat them up a bit in the microwave to help soften, if need be.


Pears and apples are another great choice. I leave the skin on, cut them in half, scoop out the seeds, and bake on a cookie sheet with about 1/4 inch of water in the bottom. Bake until soft, let cool and puree. You can puree these 2 fruits together or separately. We like to mix a bit of cinnamon into individual servings for a bit more flavor. I'm a big believer that if you start children young on eating more robust flavors, that they (and you) will benefit in the future by not being picky eaters. http://wholesomebabyfood.momtastic.com/tipspices.htm, a great article on using spices in baby food.


Steamed or baked peaches are another sweet treat for baby. Cook, either method, until soft. I suggest cooking with the skin on and scooping the meat out of the skin, it's a lot less work that way. Seasoning peaches with cinnamon is good too. Vanilla is another good choice. A little goes a long way! A pinch or 2 of cinnamon and 1/8 tsp of vanilla is all you need at 1st because it's such a small portion.


Here's a decent chart from the same website above on freezing items.
http://wholesomebabyfood.momtastic.com/baby-food-freezing-chart.htm. I don't agree with it on avocado, apples, or pears. I wouldn't freeze avocado, at all. I've not had apples or pears turn brown as the chart suggests. 


Also remember again to buy seasonally. Peaches might not be available now, I've checked 2 stores and they didn't have them. I wouldn't suggest using canned fruits either, they are loaded with sugar and preservatives.

Foods for 4-6 Months (Veggies)

Green Bean Puree-

1 pound of fresh green beans or frozen

Steps:

1. Clean & snap green beans (Skip if using frozen.)
2. Steam until tender
3. Place into your choice of appliance for pureeing and begin pureeing. Use a sieve if needed to get rid of the hulls.
4. Add water as necessary to achieve a smooth, thin consistency (If freezing, do not add water, when veggies freeze, they change in structure and can become more watery after they are thawed. Add water AFTER thawed if need be.)
OR
5. Cook frozen green beans (watch for salt) according to package directions

*I use frozen especially because green beans are out of season and frozen are just as good as fresh. Frozen veggies are picked at peak ripeness and then steamed and flash frozen to retail optimal nutrition.

Butternut or Acorn Squash Puree
1 acorn or butternut squash


Steps-
1. Cut acorn or butternut squash in half, scoop out seeds
2. Place halves face down in a pan and cover with an inch of water
3. Bake in a 400 degree oven for 40 minutes to 1 hour - be sure the “shell/skin” puckers and halves feel soft then scoop squash “meat” out of the shell
4. Place squash "meat" into your choice of appliance for pureeing and begin pureeing.
5. Add water as necessary to achieve a smooth, thin consistency. Again, if freezing, skip this step.


Sweet Potato Puree-

Baking Sweet Potatoes for Baby Food:
1. Wash and poke holes in sweet potato with fork then wrap sweet potatoes in tin foil - do not peel for baking/microwaving.
2. Place in a 400 degree oven and bake for 30-60 minutes or until soft
3. Remove skins by slitting the sweet potato lengthwise when cooled then scoop out the "meat". Use a liquid from your preferred source to puree or thin the sweet potatoes.
*I prefer to bake it, it's less work, less time and produces just as good of a results as boiling or steaming.

Boiling/Steaming Sweet Potatoes for Baby Food:

1. Peel sweet potatoes and cut into small chunks
2. Place chunks into a pan with just enough water to slightly cover potato
3. "Steam" boil until tender, be sure to check on the water level.
4. Reserve any left over water to use for thinning out the sweet potatoes if desired. Once again, do not add water if freezing.

Don't be afraid to use spices either! A little cinnamon in your pureed squash smells tasty and will give your child a new flavor experience!! Other good choices for spices are nutmeg, ginger, and curry. A pinch or two is just enough.

Also, remember the rule for introducing new foods is to feed the same thing for 4-5 days to make sure there are no adverse effects. http://wholesomebabyfood.momtastic.com/4daywaitrule.htm

This also gives your child time to get accustomed to eating the solid food. And remember, it make take your child up to 15 tries to actually like something, so don't give up right away! Our son gagged a little at 1st but we were persistent in him trying things, and now he loves a lot of different things, even asparagus (eww) and spinach!

There is NO need to add salt or sugar to baby food either!!!

The ages and stages.

  So, you are ready to feed baby homemade food, where do you start? One helpful tip our family Dr. gave us was to start with veggies. Why veggies? Simply because almost any baby will love fruits because they are so sweet. We started our son at 4 months with rice and squash. Rice is just a filler, really. The reason we start with such items it to get baby used to moving things around in his mouth. There really is no nutritional value to rice.


  I have been asked about nitrate levels in items such as carrots, beans, and squash. I hadn't heard much about this, really, but here's a wonderful article from a very resourceful website: http://wholesomebabyfood.momtastic.com/nitratearticle.htm. After reading the article, you take away from it that the likelihood of your baby developing nitrate poising is very, very low and that commercial baby foods DO contain nitrates, as they are a natural part of the vegetable and cannot be removed!


  So, what foods can you start your baby on and when? Here's a list form that awesome website above.


VEGETABLES:


4-6 Months:
 -Green beans
 -winter squash i.e. butternut and acorn
 -sweet potato


6-8 Months
 -carrots
 -cauliflower
 -parsnip
 -peas
 -pumpkin
 -zucchini and summer squash


8-10 Months
 -Asparagus
 -beans (legumes)
 -beets
 -broccoli
 -corn
 -cucumber
 -eggplant
 -lentil
 -potato
 -spinach
 -tomato
 -parsnips


FRUIT:


4-6 Months:
 -Avocado
 -Apples
 -Bananas
 -Peaches
 -Pears
 -Prunes

6-8 Months:
 -Apricot
 -Mango
 -Pumpkin


8-10 Months:
 -Blueberries
 -Cherries
 -Cranberries
 -Grapes
 -Kiwi
 -Melons
 -Papaya
 -Persimmon
 -Strawberry




*please keep in mind that these are only suggestions from the website. Use your best judgement in making and giving baby food to your child. Only you know your child. My son loves asparagus and potatoes and he's only 6.5 months. Other websites have other suggestions as to when to start your baby on certain foods. Also, be sure to speak with your Dr. as they may feel your child is not ready to start solid foods. 
  Items like broccoli or spinach are extremely fibrous and you may want to wait before giving these to your baby. It will create a lot of gas and make him uncomfortable. Don't introduce these items right at 4 months.


Again, I love this website for basic info: http://wholesomebabyfood.momtastic.com/index.htm. Please use as a resource only and talk to your Dr. if you have questions or concerns.

I want to make my own baby food, but I don't know the equipment I need.

It's very simple! As mentioned before, you don't need a fancy baby product to do it. You can use one but I've heard some negative things about them. 


You will need:
-A pot for steaming in or a veggie steamer (don't run out and get one if you don't have one, the pot works just as well). Don't use nonstick, the immersion blender WILL scratch it!
-A stove, if not using a veggie steamer (or an oven if baking)
-A vegetable peeler
-A sharp knife
-A spoon for scooping seeds
-An immersion blender or food processor (I really love the immersion blender, it's a lot less to clean than the whole food processor)
-Sink and water to wash your produce
-Storage containers (these are what I use: http://www.glad.com/products/food-storage/containers/mini-round/)
- extra bowls for pureeing in, if needed. Don't use aluminum bowls as they are reactive to acids. Stainless steel or glass is ok.


A helpful tip if using an immersion blender and an old fashion pot to steam veggies in: Steam your veggies, strain the water off the veggies, put veggies back in the pot and use the immersion blender to puree right in the pot.


Keep in mind, veggies and fruits do not need to be steamed only, you can bake items too. I did baked apples, with the skin on and pureed the whole thing, skin and all.