Feeding baby green beans & carrots.
I know that baby-led weaning is all the rage these days and, although we are doing some of it, we are also doing the old fashioned, tried-and-true mushy baby food. My mom fed me mushy baby food. My husband's mom fed him mushy baby food. And now Alice is having mushy baby food. And she loves it! Mostly. Last week I bought some in-season fruit and vegetables from the Farmers Market and made it into baby food for Alice. I looked at a few recipes but then realized making any kind of baby food follows the same basic steps.
Wash. Peel (if peel-able). Steam. Puree. Freeze.
I made carrots, green beans, and apples. She loves the carrots and green beans. The apples? Not so much. I think they are a bit too tart for her taste. I even tried tricking her by mixing the apple with a bit of banana. Nope. She still made the bitter beer face. I should've known she wouldn't like it as when I gave her a chunk of apple in her mesh teether, she scrunched up her face and pushed it away. Oh well. Maybe I'll try a sweeter variety of apple next time. Or maybe I'll wait till she can have spices and add a bit of cinnamon. In the meantime, I guess I'll be eating a bunch of pureed apples. Luckily I can bake with it, too.
Do you make baby food? What is your favorite kind to make? Carrots were a lot of work because of all the peeling (nitrates can gather in the peel, I guess?). I think I'll try making squash and sweet potatoes next.
Making a mess in the Bumbo. August 2012.
So cute! We started with sweet potatoes and pretty much got into everything from there. We added spices pretty quickly as well and the only one that had any problems was cinnamon, not from eating it but wherever it actually touched his face would get red for a few hours.
ReplyDeleteButternut squash was a favorite along with peas and every fruit imaginable. Yum!
Nolan makes the bitter beer face for almost everything..except hummus. yep, ick face for applesauce but not for hummus!
ReplyDeletewe do BLW and the only thing he really doesn't like is broccoli. He just throws it! we did sweet potatoes first as well. By now he has had almost everything except no eggs yet. He was pretty anti meat but I made him some mini turkey meatloafs last week and he ate a bit.
he still much prefers the boob over any food I offer him - which i know is normal but at this rate he will be BF when he is 10 ;)
We made all our own baby food and it worked great! Our little ladies ate local grown yummy veggies from day one and I'm so thankful I put the work in for it! If they don't like it just keep trying it. Sometimes it takes a dozen times trying it for before they like it.
ReplyDeleteWe have a LOT of success with sweet potatoes and root veggies. I usually try things a handful of times before giving up on a food I've made for babies. Sometimes just the shock factor alone makes them give me that wrinkled up putrid face. They slowly adjust. Sometimes. :)
ReplyDeleteOh my goodness!!! That last picture of her might be the cutest thing I have ever seen!!
ReplyDeleteI've never made baby food...because I don't have a baby!! I'll take all her apple ones if she doesn't want them;)
We tried and tried the mushy baby food with Emil, but he wasn't interested. He wanted the spices and grown-up food, so without planning to, we have been doing baby-led weaning.
ReplyDeleteA great easy thing to do with butternut squash is cube it pretty small, toss with olive oil, and bake in 400-degree oven for 30 minutes or so. Then you can either puree it or give her the mushy cubes once cooled-- it might keep her busy for a while trying to pick them up!
I wonder if you combined the carrots and apples if it would make a difference???
ReplyDeleteYou are such the Wiz in the kitchen. Making and freezing your own baby food. Move over Martha Stewart! I love her face with all the food all over her. She sure is enjoying her food.
ReplyDeleteAs a baby, you loved fresh peaches. We even gave you tomatoes (whole). You would hold them and suck on them. We had to be careful about the skin on the tomato, didn't want you to choke. I've got a picture of you with the tomato and one where you were trying to eat celery. xoxo