Week 6: Baby Food and Failures

Dear Fellow Family Cooks -

Things in my kitchen are either fabulous, bland, or horrific.  I can think of the tagine successes or the time that I accidentally pepper-sprayed the house by burning a Pyrex full of a hot spice rub on the burner.  That was fun.  Tonight I attempted southwest-style meatloaf and it was...not our cup of tea lets say.  Classic is so much better - and by classic I mean my sister's recipe!  Family food is fabulous food. And then there is baby food.  Bland, bland, bland.

I've had quite a few questions about making your own baby food.  Is it easy? Yes.  Is it time consuming? Can be.  Is it expensive? Not at all!  Here is how I make it work:

Two zucchinis, two carrots and thirty
minutes later!  Three cups of mush.

1. I buy produce from the "discount" aisle.  Like I've said before, its cheap and if you cook it right away there is no real issue with the produce.
2. I dedicate an afternoon or at least a two hour block in my day to making baby food. If I am cooking in the crockpot the prep is easy but it takes hours to cook.  Good thing is you can forget about it until the buzzer goes off.  If you are working on the stove top you have to be able to check in on things frequently.

This was twelve prunes and it made
two cups.  You have to add lots of H2O!

3. I fill a steamer basket full of chopped fruits or veggies and put 3 cups of water in the bottom of my small soup pot.  Then I steam away the fruits for about ten minutes or the veggies (root vegetables take longer) for about fifteen minutes.  Blend in my blender and then pop in the fridge or freezer.  With a whole basket full I can freeze one weeks worth of stage 1 purees and then put another weeks worth in the fridge!
4. I aim to make two weeks worth or at least ten days.  That way I can rotate through different foods by using my stock pile in the freezer.  If you don't want to make all your own baby food (I don't make meats because that's gross) then at least make prunes.  Baby food prunes are a royal rip off.  I can make two cups worth of baby prunes with just a handful of dried prunes!

Now that Micah has hit the "third stage" foods we are really trying to rotate in more finger foods.  And trying to more coarsely chop things.  And trying to add in spices.  Tonight he loved having raviolis from Vallarina's Pasta Shop - red sauce and all!  So its always an adventure.

Today I toast to your family's good eating - even if it doesn't work out or is just veggie mush!
Melissa