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Erin Franco

Baby food

Humble Handmaid

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2010 8 Jul

Since Gabriel started eating baby food, I’ve quickly come to realize that the cost of those colorful little cubes and jars of perfectly pureed baby cuisine is quickly adding up!

I’ve also realized that my seventh-month-old son eats way more fruits and vegetables than his parents do. That’s going to change. This week, I spent a lot more time than usual in the produce section of Kroger, purchasing a sweet potato, snap peas, green beans, peaches and several other veggies and fruits. I felt sort of embarrassed, adventurous and wholesome all at the same time. My vegetable reportoire used to consist pretty much of peas, corn, green beans and salad. Now I’m breaking out the cookbooks and challenging our taste buds, because I want to feed good and healthy food to my family! Adventures and news on that front sure to follow on the blog.

So, Michael and I  have decided (well, I convinced Michael) to start making most of our own baby food. Before doing any reading or talking to friends, I started out last week with the idea that I could just puree anything I wanted to and feed that to Gabriel. My first few tries were sort of pitiful. I tried using my little Cuisinart chopper to puree some leftover apples. Gabriel wouldn’t have any of it, and I couldn’t get them to quite get that creamy puree texture. It did not occur to me that maybe I should cook them first. I also tried my little Cuisinart on some watermelon and strawberry, which Gabriel didn’t like so much either. In the end, it took a kindhearted and knowing comment from my friend Lucy for me to realize that I should try steaming and cooking things before I set the little Cuisinart on them.

I realized that, if I was going to start making my own baby food, I’d have to get out of my comfort zone and start using some of those kitchen appliances that people give us for our wedding and holidays that I laugh about inside because I don’t think I’ll ever use them. See the heavy duty Duo Pressure Cooker With Steam Basket Insert below. It’s a beast.

 
Motherhood is making a grown up woman out of me. I actually found the instructions manual, sat down and read through it, and figured out how to use this thing. And then I steamed some carrots and a sweet potato. After I finished cooking those vegetables, I had the genius idea to try my Magic Bullet for the puree-ing part. It worked great! I had colorful-Gerber-jar-quality carrot and sweet potato mush for Gabriel. 
I felt unnecessarily proud of myself. 🙂
So Gabriel has been chowing down on my homemade baby food all week, but today I realized it’s been all vegetables he’s been eating, so I took out the peaches and made those for him today. He LOVED them still warm from cooking. 
Don’t you just love the cute little food cups I bought? They just snap closed and they have vegetable pictures on them and you can store them in the freezer in a neat little tray! Except for the fact that they don’t actually snap very well. Don’t buy the $9.99 pack of these from Babies R’ Us. I learned my lesson and will continue to learn it as I have to tape down the lids every time I use them. 

And Gabriel liked the green beans with breadcrumbs, olive oil, salt and pepper and some light seasonings that I made for dinner a few nights ago (I just Magic Bulleted a few for him as well.)

Just another cute picture I’m tagging on to this post: 
Gabriel’s high chair, where he is subjected daily to his mother’s latest baby food creations. Coming soon: meat!
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Hi there!

I'm a south Louisiana girl, Catholic wife, writer, speaker, and mother of six. Since I started my blog way back in 2009, life has been a roller coaster of babies, plot twists and a plane crash or two. I've been chronicling things here as I've been learning to love and suffer and laugh and trust in the goodness of God in the ordinary and the extraordinary--with a little espresso and a lot of Divine Mercy. Read More…

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