More Baby Food

I'm two months in to homemade baby food making, and I still love preparing all of little man's food for him.  Just look at how pretty these purees are!

From top to bottom, left to right, potato-carrot-corn, strawberry, broccoli, mango, nectarine-strawberry, parsnip, cherry-banana, carrot.

Some other purees I've made that he's loved have included strawberry-blueberry, mango-banana, and blueberry-banana.

One of my baby food making books says that purees containing bananas aren't suitable for freezing.  I couldn't think of a reason why Gideon couldn't eat previously frozen bananas, other than freezing then thawing bananas changes the texture.  Little man LOVES banana containing purees.  (If I want to make just plain banana, I smush a banana with a fork and serve.  I don't prepare plain banana puree in advance).

Some tricks I've learned along the way with my most recent batches of food-

-Corn needs to be processed through a food mill or pressed through a sieve before freezing for texture.  I should've done this when I prepared english peas, as well.

-Strawberries are in season, so I've made multiple strawberry-containing purees.  It's a huge advantage of homemade baby food making- prepare what's in season for a HUGE cost savings!

-Nectarines peel easily if the peels are scored on the bottom, the nectarines are placed in boiling water for a minute, and then removed and placed immediately in ice water.  The skin just falls off.

-Peeled nectarines are slippery.  

-My dogs really like nectarines.

A few days ago I was in Target, and a mom walked past me on the baby aisle saying she was looking for mango baby food.  She continued to explain how mango was her son's favorite, but she had a really hard time finding mango puree.  This past week mangos were 10 for $10 at Publix, so for four dollars, I made six to eight servings of mango baby food, without having to search high and low for it!  Yet another homemade baby food advantage!

I think his current favorite is the cherry-banana.  The first time he tried it, he tried to steal the bowl away from me and grab the spoon.  See?

Bless him, if only I had a spoon-straw.

I'm looking forward to trying some new recipes in the coming weeks.  I'd really like to try making a puree from kale, and I can't wait until peaches are in season.