Adventures in Baby Fooding

 

I began making food when Scarlett was about four and a half months. I always planned on exclusive nursing until she was six months, but since I was given a load of squash and zucchini by Texan's grandparents, who have a massive veggie garden, I got an early start and planned to freeze the veggies until her half birthday. But at about five and a half months Scarlett showed signs of being ready. She tried to pull anything I was drinking away from my mouth, and when I held a slice of watermelon in front of her, she shoved it right into her little mouth and made quite a surprised face at the sweetness and coldness, I assume. Then she went back for more.

 I started with a steamer basket, peeling and de-seeding the veggies, and steaming them until they were soft enough for a fork to slide right through.

I had never tried to de-seed a squash or zucchini. It turns out there are a ton of seeds, so basically just assume you're going to lose 1/3 of the veggie to the de-seeding process. (Pile of seeds above). The recipe I found in my baby food book called for a pinch of basil. But I hate basil and I don't see the point of really making the food all herb-y as long as baby enjoys it. And these vegetables tasted great on their own.

 Here they are post-steam. They are kind of translucent. This took about 20-30 minutes depending on how much squash I put in the steamer, and baking is also a good method which is good at maintaining nutrients. 

 I had to take a break from Baby Fooding during our move, so Scarlett went quite a few days just having breast milk. Then when she got more and more excited during food time, I caved a bought ready-made baby food. I found a form of the Beachnut brand called JUST. Basically if the front of the jar reads "pears," then the ingredient list reads "pears" as well. No extras. Coincidentally, she hates pears. So, Texan ate them,

I have one left we haven't tried yet. 

When we moved into our new house I was lucky enough to have my mom and her best friend in town to set up my kitchen for me. So I began baby food production right away. During VBS week at church, someone had harvested a ton of giant zucchini from their garden and left them on the volunteer snack table. I took one home and saved it for just such an occasion. 

To give you an idea of how huge this zucchini was, a regular-sized one makes a single portion of baby food once peeled, seeded, steamed, and puréed. This one made SEVEN! 

Today I made something very special and tasty: roasted vanilla peaches. 

I began with these: one pound the sweetest and most perfect peaches I have ever tasted. 

I peeled, pitted and halved them. Then I put them in an inch of water with a drop of vanilla at 400 degrees for about 20 minutes--until the peach was falling apart at the touch of the fork. Then I puréed them, adding a bit of the roasting water to thin them out.

 The reason the portions are smaller is because I haven't deluded the peach at all, and if I had done them full, I would've only gotten two portions which would've meant she would be eating an entire peach in one sitting. 

Two peaches made five and a half portions. I saved the half for Scarlett to have as dessert after her zucchini at dinner tonight. The rest went in the freezer for this week. 

For breakfast I put a twist on hard-boiled egg yolks. My sister advised me to try yolks as her first protein. I took two yolks--babies cannot have whites--and puréed them in my magic bullet with 1/3 of an avocado and a bit of hot water. I tried to use pumped breast milk, but I find that since I don't pump often anymore I really only make enough for Scarlett's appetite. Supply and demand. So I use water. But if you have excess breast milk, I would suggest using that since it's so nutritious! Anyway, the yolk and avocado mixture turned out to be the consistency of a light mousse. And even though I hate eggs, I ALMOST wanted to try some! Scarlett gobbled it up and I loved knowing that she was getting good protein and healthy fats in her belly first thing in the morning. 

This is her eating just yolks for the first time. The consistency is too thick, so I originally added water, but I thought how gross that is. Watery egg yolks. That's where the avocado idea stemmed from.

You may be wondering what I did with the rest of the peaches I bought. Well, Texan gobbled one up, then I sliced one up and put the slices in the freezer for Scarlett to enjoy in her feeder. And I plan on eating the last one for breakfast tomorrow morning!

Her two new top teeth will thank me later. They are taking so long to pop through, and she loved sucking on a nice cold peach slice while I cooked for her. 

In other news, this tiny pink scraper is perfect for getting the last precious tidbits out of the bottom of my big blender, which I use when making bulk meals.

I hope this gives some insight into Baby Fooding for all my new mom friends. It really takes hardly any prep and gives great peace of mind knowing exactly what your baby is getting. And I can't wait to sample those roasted peaches later!

Tomorrow: Carrots and peas, and a little more, please!