Peaches

I'm not going to lie, making peaches kind of sucked. They're slimy, messy, and not exactly easy to pit or peel. Once they were cooked and puréed they were really runny, more like the consistency of soup than baby food. In hindsight, they were probably over ripe when I bought them (which is probably why they were on sale) even though I selected ones that were firm to the touch. I solved this problem by simply adding a couple of spoonfuls of rice cereal after I warmed up the serving she was about to eat, just to thicken it a little bit.

Five large peaches made 21 1 ounce servings. And let's be honest, peaches are fun. Not only did Scout love the taste, but it gives me an excuse to relive my childhood by belting out a little Presidents of the United States of America while I feed her!

Pears

There are 2 varieties of pears that are suggested for making baby food; anjou and bartlett. Bartlett pears were on sale this week, so that was a no brainer. The preparation of the pears was VERY similar to when I made apples, so it almost felt as though I had done it before. Again, I was a little worried that they would turn brown before I could cook them, but I wasn't as neurotic about it as I was before.

Six pears made 21 1 ounce servings for my freezer stash. I think Scout liked the pears better than apples because they weren't as sour, or at least her face indicated that they weren't. :)

Sweet Potato

Yesterday I made Scout sweet potatos. It was easy enough; peel, chop, nuke, and mash. One thing I noticed though is that they came out VERY thick and starchy. I ended up adding more water than the recipe called for in an attempt to thin them out, but I still think Scout had a hard time digesting them because she did NOT have a good night last night! In the future I'm going to add breastmilk to try to thin it out even more. I also have to be a stickler and keep trying to get her to drink water while she is eating, which seems to be an impossible task at the moment because the girl just does not understand the concept of a sippy cup.

One sweet potato made 14 1 ounce servings. I think it's almost time for us to invest in a bigger freezer...

Apples

My biggest worry when I started making apples was how on earth I was going to peel and cut up 6 apples fast enough so that they didn't turn brown before I had a chance to cook them. I know I could have gone the lemon juice route, but I didn't really feel comfortable doing that because I didn't know how Scout's tummy would react to something so acidic. Surprisingly enough, they didn't even START to turn brown by the time I was done, despite the fact that I'm a total clutz with a knife and it took me forever! I think the reason for this may be the variety of apples I was using. My baby food bible said to use either golden delicious (apparently this variety causes less gas in babies, which is always a good thing) or a combination of golden delicious and granny smith, which would obviously more tart. Again, because I am a total wuss, I opted for just golden delicious.

Six apples made 35 1 ounce servings, which is not too shabby. Scout seemed to like them. She made a little bit of a sour face, but she ate them all, so it couldn't have been too bad!

Peas

I'm sold on this whole making my own baby food thing. Have you ever seen a jar of peas in the baby food section of the grocery store? Newsflash, they are not supposed to be that colour. I made peas for Scout today and they were actually green! Not brownish-green or olive green or baby poop green, but a bright, fresh, healthy looking green! It's a freaking modern day miracle! From here on out, every time I think about complaining about making food, I'm going to say to myself "Remember the colour of the peas?"

As an added benefit, 1 bag of frozen peas cost me only $1.99 and made 28 1 ounce servings and took less than 10 minutes of my time. I'm struggling to find a reason NOT to make my own baby food at this point.

Banana - Take 2

Okay, I think the problem yesterday was a texture thing. Let's face it, mashed banana can be kind of, well, slimy. So we decided to give it another shot today, only this time I mixed in some breastmilk to thin it out. It was a success; she ate it all!

Banana

It doesn't get much easier than banana, or so I thought. Step 1, peel banana; step 2, mash banana with fork; step 3, feed banana to baby. The end, right?? Wrong. Step 4, clean up banana that was immediately spit out by baby; step 5, continue to mash banana with fork; step 6, feed banana to baby; step 7, repeat step 4; step 8, give up on fork, get out hand blender, and buzz the hell out of banana; step 9, repeat steps 3 and 4; step 10, give up.

Despite being a monkey, Scout apparently does NOT like bananas.

Butternut Squash

Okay, first off all let me say that I'm glad I started with squash. Everything has to seem easier after that, right? The fact that I managed to keep all my fingers after trying to cut through that sucker is a success in and of itself! Peeling the skin off of it wasn't exactly a walk in the park either. Needless to say, I did it and I survived and it really wasn't as bad as I was expecting it to be.

I guess I should say at this point that I'm a direction follower and not really the "winging it" type, so I've enlisted "So Easy Baby Food" by Joan Ahlers and Cheryl Tallman as my baby food bible. I'm not going to blog about it a la Julie and Julia, but it does seem to be a pretty good reference. It suggests what foods to introduce when and gives suggestions regarding flavour variations to add and foods to combine with each other. In the book, all of the foods are prepared in the microwave, so the recipes are super fast and easy. I'll admit, at first I was turned off by the idea of preparing my baby's food in the microwave, radiation poisoning and such, but as it turns out, the food actually retains more nutrients that way because it uses less water.

Anyhoo, 1 butternut squash prepared 14 1 ounce servings, which is way cheaper than buying it in jars, and Scout absolutely loved it! She even cried when it was all gone.

Time to stop procrastinating...

Okay, I'll admit it, I've been putting off beginning to make my own baby food.  To tell the truth, I'm a little intimidated.  I'm not exactly a wiz in the kitchen, and making my own food was a big part of our financial survival when it came to having a baby on my mat leave salary.  If it turns out I can't do it, well, nobody likes to admit defeat.

The fact is, Scout's been on rice cereal now for about a week and she seems to be doing well, so it's time to move on to bigger and better things.  Let the adventures in baby food begin!