Butternut Squash! Pass!

So she loved another food! So far...she loves everything...I guess that's a good thing! Especially since I made about 48 servings of it!

Here is the "recipe"

Halve butternut squash, scoop out seeds and strings. 

Place in baking dish upside down with 1/3 inch of water.

Bake at 350 for 45-60 minutes, or until you can easily pierce it with a fork.

Scrape out insides and puree to desired consistency.

I froze the leftovers, and they are good for 3 months. 

I had to break out the big guns, the 9 cup food processor, since it was so much. It worked just great!

I added a tiny bit of water, but that was all it took. Olivia likes her food a bit "chunky" so whatever I make I have to add cereal to anyways. 

Happy Birthday!!

Happy Birthday Sabrina!!!

- Your Baby Food friends

Banana-cado

I decided yesterday that banana and avocado may be a winning combination. She likes both of those fruits, so I thought, hey, why not put them together!? She loves it!

This is the second combo food I have done. The first was peas and carrots. That was also a winner! 

And also, my kid has gone from not really caring one way or another about food a couple weeks ago, to eating 2 oz a day happily, to now eating up to 3 cubes (oz) at lunch and dinner! With oatmeal mixed in also! She may be an eater yet....the question is, how will we afford to feed her!!? 

Green Beans & Apricots

So this past week Drew has tried Green Beans & Apricots. First, the green beans. I was a little worried about the green beans because for the life of me I could not get them to "puree". The texture is hard to explain, not really chunky, but definitely not blended. Drew is not a fan of them either. Not sure if this is because of the taste or the texture. If I blend them with sweet potatoes he likes them a little better. I opted for the easy way out to make green beans. I bought a frozen steam bag (no salt added) and just popped in the microwave for a few minutes. Than, I blended them up in my food processor and added a little breast milk to help "puree" them a little better. I don't think it helped so I might skip this next time. I froze the left overs, they should be good for up to 3 months.

Now for the apricots. I bought a package of dried Turkish apricots from the produce section of my grocery store. I put them in a pot with a about a cup of water and brought them to a boil. I than boiled them for 10 minutes until they were tender. I blended them in my food processor, adding the left over water that they were blended in to help puree them. The apricots also have a strange texture. They never quit "pureed" but they did better than the green beans. They are very thick and sticky. I did freeze them, but they never got rock hard. They should be good in the freezer for up to three months. Again, Drew was not a huge fan of these, probably because of the texture. He likes them better when I mix it with his oatmeal.

Puffs vs. Mum Mums

First off, some of you may be asking what exactly are Puffs and Mum Mums?

Puffs are small finger foods made from grains by Gerber and come in a variety of different fruit and vegetable flavors. They dissolve fairly easily and are considered beginner snacks (for crawlers and toddlers).

Mum Mums are larger finger foods, like a biscuit, made of rice. They come in just a few different flavors and dissolve very easily.

Now for Drew's review. Let me first start off by saying that I was TERRIFIED of giving finger foods for the first time. Drew has had mostly purees and some chunkier versions of purees. Also, he doesn't have any teeth yet. He is such a good eater and has a good pincer reflex, that I thought I'd give it a try. We started puffs at 6 1/2 months. At first, because I was nervous, I'd break them apart. They are already small to begin with, but I thought just in case. Drew, with my help, ate them like this for a few days with no issues. I than began to give them to him whole.

This was great fun for both of us. He enjoys trying to pick them up and put them in his mouth. Right now he gets them in there about half the time. Drew seems to like the flavor (sweet potato) and gnaws on them pretty well. The only issue is that they are still difficult for him to eat and stick to him like crazy.


When I first pulled out the mum mum out of the wrapper I thought how in the world is Drew supposed to eat this. It is huge and thought for sure he'd have issues or choke on it. I was wrong. He immediately grabbed it from my hand and started chewing away. They dissolve very quickly and are easy for him to hold and eat. I think they are more flavorful than puffs too. They are much more messier than puffs. Because they dissolve so easily they are very sticky. Also, because hey dissolve so quickly they get everywhere; his face, hands, chin, legs, stomach, you name it. Mum mums are by far Drew's favorite food right now. I think he likes mum mums more than Sophie and that is saying a lot.


All in all, in Drew's eyes mum mums wins hands down. However, I believe that puffs makes great practice for picking up small food so I will continue to give him both for now.

Yay for Pears

Drew gives pears two thumbs up. I had never had a fresh pear before, believe it or not. I thought I'd just peel them and mush them up, without having to cook them. I am not sure if was the type of pears we bought or if they were just not fully ripe, or what; but they were a bit harder than I had anticipated. I bought organic green pears. I ended up peeling them, removed the seeds, chopped them up and put them in a zip lock bag with a little bit of water. I microwaved (steamed) them for about 40 seconds and than again for 20 more seconds. They were still firm, but had softened up enough to make it easy to puree. I transferred them to the food processor and added some breast milk to help thin them up a bit. I froze the left overs.Drew really likes them. So far we have given it to him by itself and sometimes we mix it with oatmeal.

Babyfood savings comparison

I wandered in our local Kroger last night for a few things. I realized it was CRAMMED with people and asked someone what was going on. She said "they are closing in an hour for good. The new one down the road is opening tomorrow. Everything is on sale!" Hmmm, sale....that is great. Too bad Olivia was tired already and I knew I only had limited time before a break down occurred. I was sad about that in the long run, because there were some great deals, but I had to get in and out. 

So I hurry to the produce where I see that all organic produce is 50% off! So I grab everything I could possibly make baby food out of. I got sweet potatoes, butternut squash, zucchini, and carrots. Not to mention white potatoes for us! 

I also went to the baby aisle, to find that the Gerber organics are $1.25 for Stage 1 (2 pack), and $1.45 (for 2) for Stage 2. Picked up a bunch of those too, for upcoming trips on planes. 

So I thought I would break down the cost after I made the sweet potatoes, since I bought those fresh and "jarred". 

So even though everything was on sale, I figure it's comparable since the fresh and jarred was on sale. 

Here's the breakdown. A serving is described as 1 oz apparently. 

Gerber Organics- .20 cents per serving

Homemade Organics- .06 cents per serving (Ummmm, and I ate some before I froze it, so it would have been less....)

Anyways, let's say your child eats a modest 6 oz of fruits or veggies (Mine eats way less than this now, but I know some kids eat more) a day, taken with this figure in mind, here is your monthly savings (4 week period). 

Gerber Organics- $33.60 a month

Homemade organics- $10.08

That's over $20 a month in savings!! And I think it would be more if I weren't so anal about organic. So who knows how much it would be if you just got regular!

Anyways, just a reason why I am so gung ho about this homemade baby food thing, one reason of many!

Avocado!

She loved it! I did puree it in the blender, because it was a bit harder than usual, and I added a bit of water. Olivia likes things a bit smoother, so that's why I did it. It worked out great. 

Anyhow, she loved it and I am excited, because I do too! 

A day in the life of Drew: Lunch

For lunch, we went out to eat. I took one 2 oz thawed cube of sweet potatoes and one 1 oz cube of thawed peas. We served the to Drew at the restaurant while they were still cooled (we took them there with a freezer pack to keep them cool). I basically mixed the two before serving it to him, which he seemed to enjoy. He ate probably 2 ounces total. He also had a 5 oz bottle(compared to the normal 6 oz). Between Breakfast and lunch he was nursed one time

A day in the life of Drew: Breakfast

Drew is about 6 1/2 months old right now. We are trying to get him on more of a real feeding schedule. This is what Drew had for breakfast this morning:

6:45 Nursed

7:30 Breakfast

1/4 banana mashed (a little on the chunky side) mixed with about 3 tablespoons (mixed) oatmeal. These are two of Drew's favorite foods and loves them just as much when mixed together. He ate all of this

1 sippy cup with 2 oz of water (not actually able to drink out of it, yet)

1 skinned, raw apple slice in his mesh food holder. This was mainly to re-introduce him to apples because he hated cooked apples before. He chewed on it for about a minute (not really eating anything) and didn't make any yuck-yuck faces, so I think he may like the taste of them raw. I also used a Fuji apple this time instead of a honey sweet.

Not so sweet potatoes

So we've been trying sweet potatoes over the past few days. At first, Drew did not like them, at all. After a few days he is indifferent to them. I doesn't have the bad reaction he does with apples, but doesn't have the same good reaction he has with bananas. He truly enjoys eating, so I think he just puts up with them. Like Olivia's try with sweet potatoes, we baked ours instead of steaming or boiling.

Two sweet potatoes, unpeeled
Prick with a fork several times
Bake at 350 degrees for about 45 minutes
Puree to desired thickness, adding water, breast milk or formula to thin them down


I actually used a mashed potato masher and mashed them by hand. This left them a little on the thick/chunky side. I thinned down the first few cubes that Drew ate and than started giving him the more chunky ones as the days went by making them more of a stage 2 food.

Can I warm my baby's food in the microwave?

As you know, with fresh baby food you have to store it either in the fridge or freezer after it is prepared. I am sure many wonder if it is OK to microwave baby food. I recently received a pamphlet in the mail from Gerber and it had this answer to the question....

Your baby may not have a preference for warmed foods, so it's not always necessary. But, you may want to warm refrigerated food to room temperature. Remove as much food as you think your baby will eat at that meal and place it in a microwave safe dish. Heat for only a few seconds at reduced power and warm to body temperature. Stir to eliminate any hot spots and always test before feeding your baby.

Gerber. (2009). Start Healthy Stay Healty [Brochure]. page 3:

Olivia eats!

I gave it a couple days, and then started trying food with her again. In the past few days she has miraculously started staying up longer before bed, so I decided to try it then, as she may be hungrier. (Not to mention I was trying to keep her occupied until a reasonable bedtime!)

Last night and tonight she ate a tablespoon and a half of oatmeal, and one cube of peas. I went with the peas and oatmeal since they are ones she for sure likes. She ate it all up! She may have even eaten more, but I still wanted her to nurse well before bed, so I left it at that. She has never before eaten more than a few bites of anything, let alone two servings of something! Also, I have been trying "new" foods earlier in the day, just to see what she will like, and she has eaten one cube of sweet potatoes each day for the last 2 days. 

I think she was having an off week anyways last week, and maybe she really just needed to get used to it. I didn't want to rush her, so I waited a couple days, and it was a good move! 

Just wanted to share. I am happy she is liking my food again. Now I'm almost out of peas!