Bananas and Avocados

Two fruits that do not need to be cooked are bananas and avocados. Both of these fruits may simply be mashed with a little water, breastmilk, or formula (or with nothing at all for older children). Ella LOVED the banana despite the fact that I HATE banana (I can't even stand the smell, so it is a big step for me to feed it to her). She kind of liked the avocado, so we'll keep trying that one. Perhaps I'll mix the banana and avocado together next time (as suggested on www.wholesomebabyfood.com).

The one thing I don't like about the banana is that I feel like I'm wasting quite a bit. Ella doesn't come close to eating a whole banana (even within the day) and I don't like them. If my husband is around he'll eat them, but if not it goes to waste. This isn't an issue with the avocado, because unlike bananas, avocados are one of my favorites (what can I say, I live in Texas and LOVE guacamole!). The wholesome baby food website suggests freezing the avocado in slices, but I haven't tried that yet.

Test 2: Butternut Squash

Earlier this week I decided I'd make the butternut squash I picked up. Once again, I checked out the recommended cooking methods on www.wholesomebabyfood.com. I sliced the butternut squash in half (which was not an easy task - I think next time I'll wait until my husband is home and get him to do it for me), scooped out the seeds, and placed the halves of sqaush in a glass pan filled with about an inch of water. I baked the squash in the oven for about 40 minutes, until the skin puckered up, and the flesh was easy to remove from the squash. I scooped out the flesh into my food proceesor, added a bit of water, and within a couple of minutes had a big batch of butternut squash. I portioned the sqaush out into the ice cube trays, froze it, and removed the frozen squash a couple of days later. Getting the baby food out of the trays was a little tricky at first, but I figured out that a steak knife around the edge of the cube works well. The cubes defrosted nicely in the fridge. I picked up some Rubbermaid Easy Find Lids (x-small) to use as baby food containers. They are a great size - I simply put a cube in the container and defrosted in the fridge overnight. So easy!

Ella LOVES the butternut squash. She likes it a ton better than the apples, which was encouraging to me, since she didn't like my first attempt at baby food that much. :)

Test 1: Applesauce

Yesterday I picked up several different fruits and veggies to make into baby food for Ella. I got apples, squash, carrots, avocado, and bananas. I plan to simply mash the banana and the avocado up when I'm ready to feed her as these don't require cooking. As for the other fruit and veggies, I plan on cooking them, freezing them in ice cube trays, and storing them in the freezer until I'm ready to use them. My plan is to make a bigger stash of each fruit or veggie so I don't have to make the food too often.

I started with the apples today, mostly because I figured they would go bad quicker than the squash or carrots if I was a little slower in getting around to converting them into baby food. I read up on how to prepare the apples on www.wholesomebabyfood.com, and I decided I would boil them until soft, blend them in the food processor (with a little bit of the cooking water to thin it out a bit), and then freeze the puree in individual one ounce servings in the ice cube trays. It was SO incredibly easy! The hardest part was definitely peeling the apples. The whole process, from start to finish, was also really fast. I thought it might take a long time for the apples to get soft once I started cooking them, but they ended up only taking a few minutes. Once the apple purees are thoroughly frozen, I'll pop them out of the ice cube trays and into a freezer ziplock bag for easy access down the road.

I was slightly disappointed in the amount of applesauce I was able to get from my apples. I used four gala apples (I think - maybe it was five - I should have paid better attention), but it looked like a pretty good quantity in the pan. Once they were cooked and pureed, I only had enough applesauce to fill up one ice cube tray and then one small serving for Ella to eat tonight. I was expecting twice that amount. Oh well, I'll know for the next time I prepare them! Perhaps next time I'll bake the apples to try a different technique. Overall, I'm very pleased with the ease of making the applesauce.

Wholesome Baby Food Website

I plan to start actually making some baby food next week. I'm so excited to let Ella try foods that I wouldn't have access to if I wasn't making my own food. We've just about made it through all the stage 1 foods available at Target (there might be others available at other places, but Target is the easiest for me to get to). On that note, I've stumbled across a great web resource that I plan to use as a guide regarding preparation and storage of baby food. I haven't gotten to explore everything on the site yet, but it seems to have a TON of good information.

www.wholesomebabyfood.com