Thursday, September 11, 2014

Baby Food Purees

Made more baby food for Barrett tonight. It made me want to jot down a quick list of what I've made, and how he's liked it.

Gotta love food that's gorgeously photographed... at night... with poor-quality phone camera... on an old cookie sheet!

They say you're supposed to start them on only one ingredient at a time, in light of possible food allergies. I didn't do this with Barrett. Why? I guess it boils down to knowing my child and our combined family histories, and proceeding cautiously. However, I did only give him one blend at a time in the beginning.

I taste everything as I make it, before it goes into the freezer. I figure if I think it's gross, I wouldn't feed it to him. So far, he seems to prefer the savory blends over the sweeter ones. I use a potato base for these - I think it adds a nice texture, flavor, and substance.

On the savory side:
Broccoli/Potato - white potato (peeled), covered in homemade chicken stock and simmered until soft, processed with leftover steamed broccoli from dinner, egg yolks, and a bit of cream, butter, and salt (he LOVED this - it was one of the first foods I gave him and he ate like half a cup in one sitting)
Veggie Soup - Potato, carrot, celery, and kale, covered in chicken stock and simmered until very soft, processed with leftover steamed broccoli from dinner, egg yolks, and a bit of cream, butter, and salt (LOVED this too)
Potato/Kale/Pea - Potato (peeled) and frozen kale covered in chicken stock and simmered until very soft, processed with thawed-from-frozen, rinsed peas (I throw the peas in with the very hot potatoes and kale, so they cook somewhat but don't get yucky), egg yolks, and a bit of butter and salt - LOVES this

On the sweet side:
Sweet Potato - steamed, blended with coconut oil and a dash of salt (Surprisingly, he's not that into it - he'll eat it but he doesn't demand more. I've made it with butter, too - same response.)
Apple/Zucchini/Spinach - apple (cored, peel-on, diced fine) steamed with diced zucchini in apple juice for 8-10 minutes, processed with fresh spinach, coconut oil, and a dash of salt
Carrot/Nectarine - carrots, simmered in an inch or so of apple juice, processed with thawed-from-frozen peel-on nectarines (I froze them a while ago when they got too ripe in the fridge) and a bit of coconut oil
Basic Apple - cored, peel-on apples, diced fine, simmered in apple juice until very soft and pureed very well (I thought I could process it but the peels were too obnoxious - but once I pureed it, they blended in fine) - he likes this a lot
Nectarine/Yogurt/Banana - Thawed-from-frozen nectarines (peel-on) processed with plain full-fat yogurt and a couple bananas from the freezer (added when I thought it might be too tart) - I probably won't make this one again because it's pretty soupy.

Banana/avocado - 1:1 ratio of banana and avocado, blended smooth (this can't be made ahead)

Around eight months, I'll probably start adding venison or chicken to some, and pureeing it less and less as we go.

I pour a portion into a sandwich-sized bag, label, and freeze. I then take the solid block, hack it into chunks, put into a new bag and re-label and date. Sometimes I'm too lazy to re-label (since this usually happens as I'm getting a meal to the table). Don't do that!

Then, come mealtime, I nuke a couple of chunks until warm. That's it!

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