Adventures in Baby Food: Peaches

Peaches are another great food to start with if baby isn't quite 6 months. They're easy to digest, have a diuretic affect and act as a laxative. So if baby seem stopped up from rice cereal or another fruit/veggie, use these to get things going again :) Then everyone is happy (before becoming a mom I did not think I'd even be talking about these things!)

E loved the peaches. I really didn't doubt if he would like them though. He's liked everything we've given him so far. And he's a great eater. He lets you know when he wants more and and lets you know when he's done. He even is using his sippy cup in between "bites". This solids thing is getting more and more fun!

Source: Wholesomebabyfood.com



Peach Puree

• 4 small-medium organic peaches

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Cut peaches in half and take out the pits. Place peaches in a dish with 1" of water. Bake until soft or until the skin starts to peel up (roughly 20 minutes for me... shorter if the peaches are riper).

Let cool (I didn't wait for them to cool too much) and peel skin off. Place fruit in blender/processor and puree. Strain through strainer and, if needed, use cooking water to thin out or cereal to thicken up the puree.

Serve or store.



After feeding E his lunch I decided to make use of the mesh feeder we got with our food mill (still haven't used) and put an ice cube in there for him to gnaw on. It was GREAT! He loved it. And I didn't have to wipe him up too much from the puree because he had already sucked everything off by the time he was done with his ice cube!

Spicy Southwest

Let me preface this post by saying yes, I know what this looks like. But it was sooo darn good! And I didn't even follow a recipe. I can honestly say that this is a genuine, one of a kind recipe from me. And there are so many alternatives that I'm thinking about for the next time I make them.

All of the ingredients except for the avocado are ingredients that are always in my fridge or pantry. So this is a meal I can make again and again without having to worry about having all of the ingredients.

Next time I want to try topping them with enchilada sauce and setting out dippers for them... sour cream, salsa & guac. And maybe topping them with pepper jack instead. YUM!

Source: my head



Southwest Meatloaf Muffins

• 1 pound ground beef
• 1 can diced tomatoes with chiles (I used Rotel)
• 1 can corn
• 2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
• 1 egg
• 1/4-1/2 cup breadcrumbs (I used panko)
• Chili powder
• Cumin
• Red cayenne pepper
• Onion powder
  
• Salt and Pepper to taste
• Provolone cheese
• Avocado (optional)
  

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Mix all ingredients together well. Using a 1/3 cup measuring cup scoop out some mixture and fill a muffin pan.

Bake for 20 minutes. Pop meatloaf muffins out of tin and place in baking dish. Top with cheese and cook for another 5-10 minutes or until cheese is bubbling.

Allow to cool and serve with avocado. The avocado sort of cools off the spiciness if you use a lot of chili powder & cayenne pepper.

Adventures in Baby Food: Carrots

I was at Trader Joes yesterday and picked up a bag of organic baby carrots for dinner tonight. We just finished off the last of the pears so I decided to try them with E. They were a big hit! He easily ate two tablespoons. He was making sounds almost the whole time :) He really likes this solids thing!

Solids are getting easier and easier to prepare. I can't wait to start making large batches to freeze once I figure out what he likes and what he doesn't like. But so far he's liked everything.

And in a month or so I'll actually be able to start making things more fun... you'll see more "spiced up" recipes :)

Source: my head



Carrot Puree

• organic baby carrots

Steam carrots until soft. Puree in food processor. Strain puree into a bowl. Divide into separate portions and serve.

Yup... it's that easy.

Adventures in Baby Food: Pears

E has had a bit of trouble staying "regular" if you know what I mean. And today I had to deal with a not so fun situation... 5 days of not "going" leads to a fun mess for Mommy to clean up. So I went in search of a solution to our solid food problem.

A few lovely mommy friends I "chat" with suggested a few solutions. One of which was pears. I hadn't even had pears on my radar yet for baby foods and was sticking with a list I saw somewhere listing rice cereal, sweet potatoes, avocado, & bananas as good starter foods for 4-6 month babies. I was a bit hesitant to veer off this list because we started E on solids at 5 months instead of the recommended 6 months.

But I did venture off that list today and E loved it! He downed 1/2 of the puree I made and wanted more! I didn't give him more since the serving was roughly 1/2 a small pear. This equaled 2-3 tablespoons of puree. This is definitely easy to whip up... under 20 minutes to steam, puree, and serve!

Source: wholesomebabyfood.com



Pear Puree

• 1 ripe pear (or more if you are doing large batches to freeze)

Peel, core and dice pear. Steam pear for 10 minutes or until a bit soft. Place in food processor and puree until there are no lumps whatsoever. Put pear through strainer just in case (you don't have to do this but I did). Allow puree to cool a bit and serve to baby! Store any left overs in the fridge for up to 2-3 days.

Soon to be updated with a video of E eating the yummy puree!

Adventures in Baby Food: Sweet Potatoes

My sweet little boy is growing so quickly! He's been eating rice cereal for a week now and I thought he might like a little change. So I whipped up some sweet potatoes for him this afternoon to see how he'd like it. And he loved it! He was all grins and kept pulling the spoon in for more. I guess it was a success. We're going to stay with the sweet potatoes for now and than move on to avocados next weekend! Oh, the joys of baby food.

Source: Super Baby Food by Ruth Yaron



Sweet Potatoes for Baby

• 3 small sweet potatoes or 1 large
• food processor
• strainer
• breast milk (no, seriously... it's an ingredient :))

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Wash sweet potatoes thoroughly (use a vegetable brush if needed). Poke holes all over potatoes and place them on a cookie tray covered with foil.

Bake for 45 minutes and let cool. Once cool, peel and pop into the food processor. The skins literally fall off after you pick at them. Process for about 30 seconds to one minute and scrape the edges of the bowl to make sure everything is processed.

Once everything is processed very well and there are no lumps whatsoever place the potatoes into the strainer and press through into a bowl. I used a small spatula to scrape off the potatoes on the other end of the strainer. Discard the lumps, bits, and strings left over in the strainer.

Mix 1-2 tablespoons of the sweet potatoes with enough milk to thin out to the right consistency and serve to baby.

Store left over sweet potatoes in air tight containers for refrigeration (lasts 2-3 days). Or use a freezer method. Do not store with breast milk. We're considering buying these when we start doing large batches of food. But we want to make sure E likes what we serve him before making huge batches :)



All stored and ready for tomorrow and Monday



YUM!