::Baby Gourmet::

Hey y'all!

Last week I posted about making Lennon's BABY FOOD. Being able to stay home with my little nugget has definitely made it easier to make her food, but really it's not hard to begin with. The only time consuming part of it all is waiting for the stuff to freeze. 

I thought I would share a few of the easy-peasy foods I make for Lemmon.

Broccoli / Green Beans / Peas :

I have found that buying these 3 frozen is much easier than buying fresh. I started off buying all of these fresh, but noticed the organic frozen varieties and decided it was just as good {I try to buy organic, but it's not the end of the world if I don't}. 

- 4 Simple Steps -

{1} Boil

Just follow the directions on the bag... EASY PEASY!

{2} Puree 

I currently have a machine that is a variation of the Bullet. When Lemmon was just starting to eat solids, I would be vary careful to make sure there were no chunks. Now she can handle some, as long as they are not too big.
Depending on how thick the puree is you may have to add water {I just use the water that the veggies were boiled in}.

{3} Freeze

I did my research when it came to freezer trays. This may seem silly, but there were many that had bad reviews about it being hard to get the food out. The kind I purchased {OXO Tot Baby Food Freezer Tray} is pretty much just a glorified ice cube tray with a lid, BUT I swear by it. It is easy to get the food out and pop in a freezer bag until you need it!

{4} Serve
Throw a cube in the microwave, until it is soft. Make sure the food is not hot. I usually test it by touching a tad to my lip. Definitely don't want to burn your little one's mouth!

Strawberries & Spinach:

These instructions can be used for more than just strawberries & spinach. Any soft fruit can be prepared in this way.

- 4 Simple Steps -

{1} Prep

Wash. Wash. Wash.

Chop.

 If you use smaller berries, you can get away without chopping, but it does make it easier to fit more of the larger fruit.

{2} Puree

No water needed when pureeing berries. Their delicious juices make them the perfect. 

{3} Freeze

{4} Serve

Since they are pretty thin when thawed, I mix it with her iron fortified oatmeal cereal. This gives it a thicker consistency and gives her bland cereal a better taste. 

Grilled or Roasted Veggies:

The last topic of this baby food craze. Grilling & roasting veggies give them a flavor that you can't get from just boiling. You have to be careful when roasting certain things, such as potatoes, that way they don't get tough. I personally LOVE crispy potatoes, but little Lemmon can't quite chew them, since she only has one tooth. 

I was so excited to find these BABY EGGPLANTS for a each whopping 10₵ each. They were almost too cute to eat... Almost.

- 5 Simple Steps -

{1} Prep

To peel or not to peel? To chop or to slice? Questions that have plagued the world for centuries... Well maybe not. I rarely do the same thing twice. As I always say to Mattie, "Use your best judgement". 

{2} Roast or Grill

In this case, I roasted the eggplants, but I plan on grilling them for her next time. 

It's super easy, just drizzle a little olive oil on them {spice them up if you want} and place them in the oven at 350° {or on the grill}. The time really depends on what kind of food it is. I flipped these eggplants after about 5 minutes, then let them cook another 5 minutes.

{3} Puree

{4} Freeze

{5} Serve

I happend to skip step {4} all together when I made these. Since they were so tiny, they didn't yield much. I served her some right then and put the rest in the fridge for the next day.

Baby Foodie

I love making her food and LOVE it even more when she gets excited to try new things!
Happy Sunday y'all!

::Yummy Tummy::

Hey y'all!

It seems that every once in a blue moon, I get a bug to post. Although, I'm definitely not complaining that I post infrequently because my reason is A-freaking-DORABLE! 

I mean... I can't get enough of this nugget!

Which brings us to today's post {and probably every post from here until the good Lord takes me}: Babies. Well, in today's case, baby food!

YUM!

Or not. 

The reason I say "Or not." is based on my experience with store bought baby food. At my baby shower, my lovely sister and best friend decided that the perfect game would be to blind fold my very pregnant self, make me taste baby food and guess what it was. Not only were these very common "flavors" unrecognizable to me, they almost* all made me gag {*Peas didn't make me gag. I do love peas!}. I mean, why would you want to feed your infant something that you couldn't choke down?

Another experience was buying some pouches for when we traveled. I always taste her food before her first time of having it, and I couldn't stomach how sweet this stuff was. Unfortunately, we were already at our destination, far away from my stock of baby food.

Since I am staying at home, I decided when Lemmon was 6 months to make all of her food. It saves on money for sure, it's super easy to make, but the main reason, is that I know what goes into it. One thing I didn't want was to give her fruit before she was 8 months old. VEGGIES ONLY! I'll explain why later.

Homemade Green Beans

She had green beans as her first veggie. Green beans twice a day, for 4 days. I have to admit, there were plenty of giggles over gags, faces, and the occasional shudder, but it passed. She began to enjoy the green beans. Her Ped told me that it can take 10-15 tries of a food before they know if they like it.  I can understand that going from only breast milk to this slightly thicker, very flavorful, most likely bitter veggie would be a game changer and take some getting used to. 

We held strong. 

On the fourth day, we introduced Purple Sweet Potatoes {I recommend these for everyone - slight bacon taste, awesome color, delicious when prepared a number of ways}.  The gags and shudders started all over again. It was a whole new texture and flavor she had never experienced before. Now they are one of her favorite veggies to eat. 

Anyways, back to the NO fruit part. My reasoning for this was not swayed by any  person or blog or nutritionist in particular. As I read about a million other mom's feeding schedules, I found that many held out on fruit for a while. Some even held out on the sweeter veggies, such as carrots, until right before introducing fruit. Since veggies are an important part of our household diet, I decided that I wanted to establish a "taste" for them. Of course, once I introduced fruit, she seemed to always  get more excited during that portion of the meal {mainly, because I cannot get it into her mouth fast enough}, but she always is willing and eager to eat her veggies first. 

Lemmon covered in in Green Beans and Kale when she was 6 mo. old!

The last of this "my way or the highway" talk going on here, is the NO sugar until she is a year old. When I say this, I mean no sugar other than fruit. This is honestly a personal decision based on my own hopes and dreams for Lemmon's future diet. I want her first processed sugar to be her birthday cake. After that, we'll probably just feed her fruity pebbles and candy bars for all meals. 

Kidding. Kidding. 

Honestly, there are times when I feel a bit like one of those crazy, health freak, my-kid-will-only-eat-grass-fed-lean-tofu-crap kind of moms. Well, thankfully for my sanity {and Lemmon} I am not that extreme. I do buy organic when possible, but it's not the end of the world if her green beans aren't organic!

Broccoli Rabe Snuggles! "Vegetables are friends AND food!"

I am in no way a nutritionist,  nor do I claim to be. I just did a lot of research on how other moms went about starting their kiddos on solid foods, as well as, spoke to a nutritionist and Lemmon's Ped for advice. I am not saying this will work for you, but it has DEFINITELY worked for me.