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Baby Food Trays

With Thanksgiving around the corner, many of us are planning our menus. What will it be this year – traditional fare or something new? Whatever it may be, effort and care will often go into the preparation. After all, it’s a special day that centers around a special meal.

So why not also make it just as special for your little one? Which would you prefer on Thanksgiving Day – a meal processed months ahead of time or one that was made from fresh vegetables and produce? If you’ve never made your own baby food, please take a look at an earlier post I did on how easy it really is, not to mention a lot less expensive than what you buy in stores.

Did you know that so many fruits and vegetables can be made easily by just steaming them in a steamer basket and then pureeing them? Why not consider giving your baby any of these listed below on Thanksgiving Day? (Remember to always give your baby a new food for 3-4 days in a row to test for allergies – this will mean planning ahead if your child has not had any of these foods yet.)

Simple steamed vegetables:

• sweet peas
• sweet potato
• broccoli
• green beans
• carrots
• cauliflower
• corn
• parsnips
• pumpkin

Or, make some combinations:

• carrots and squash
• apples and squash
• carrots and parsnips
• corn and sweet potatoes
• cranberries and apple juice

To make turkey:

• Saute 1/2 cup of chopped carrots and onions in olive oil.  Brown 6 ounces of boneless, skinless turkey breast in the same pot along with a little bit of low-sodium chicken broth. Simmer until the turkey is cooked. Puree to the consistency you want.

If your baby is a vegetarian, for protein sources, you can serve any of these:

• tofu
• egg yolk
• quinoa
• cheese
• beans
• yogurt

For dessert, how about some:

• steamed apples and cranberries
• steamed apples
• rhubarb and apples
• pumpkin and apples

So consider a home-made meal for your baby’s first Thanksgiving – you just may end up sticking with it long after the holiday is over.

Let me let you in on a little secret, Rob is a trained chef. Jealous yet? If not you surely should be because the food he makes is out of this world! So when the time came for Lucy to be able to eat solid foods it was pretty much a given that we would make her food ourselves, which means Rob would make her food (hey, I'm determined to put that culinary degree to good use).

I mean, honestly, why buy jarred baby food? It's expensive, often has added sugars and preservatives, it isn't fresh and...did I mention it's damn expensive for those tiny jars? In my mind it is so much easier, fresher, healthier and cheaper for you to make it yourself. Do you need anything special? No, not particularly. There are several products out there that help in making baby food, like the Beaba Babycook, which will run you upwards of $130, and you can stock up on Silicone Baby Food Freezer Trays from iPlay that will run you over $7.00 or you can work with what is in your kitchen.

Now, our kitchen happens to be pretty well stocked with all sorts of fabulous culinary tools, most of which I have no idea how to use, so for some people it may be easier to purchase actual baby food making products. But for us all we needed was a stainless steel food mill and some silicon ice cube trays that I scored for $3.00 a piece at Ross (Sidenote: I feel that it is important to use the food grade silicon trays as there may be BPA in regular plastic ice cube trays.)

It's almost too easy to even devote a blog entry to explaining actually making the food, but I have some super cute pictures of Lucy eating so I figured I needed to write this up as a precursor to the adorableness that is going to follow.

What you do:

• Buy veggies and fruits, preferably organic (we went to our local Farmer's Market, bought what was on sale at New Seasons (a local organic market) and stocked up Costco bulk organics as well used what was in our own backyard). Lucy's favorites were mangos, avocados, bananas, sweet potatoes, winter squash, green beans, peas, apples and pears (stay away from citrus!). If its the winter, as we are heading into now, and lots of the above are out of season then look to the organic frozen foods section, these are just as good and are often all ready for cooking and pureeing!
  
• Prep veggies or fruits. This means peeling, putting, chopping and steaming (if applicable, mostly for veggies).
• Puree veggies and fruits, we started out by mashing with a potato masher and then running them through the food mill (I'm sure a blender works as well).
• Younger babies = puree more and add water if necessary (the water from the steamed veggies is great to use). Older babies = forgo the food mill or blender and just mash well so that they will have some lumps to be able to practice chewing (make sure foods are small and soft still and always, always watch while baby eats).
• If babies are older try some fun combos of veggies and fruits that you've already tried in the past (to be sure there are no food allergies). Lucy LOVED Mangos and Avocados (we called them "Manacados"), which were SO good for her and funnily enough Rob's nieces who are 4 and 10 loved that concoction too when we made it for Lucy while on vacation. See what your baby likes and mix it up a bit!
• Put food into silicon trays and freeze (perfect baby serving size!). When fully frozen transfer to gallon freezer bag (you can reuse these, no need to use a new one every time) and suck out the air with a straw to keep freezer burn away.
• Voila! Servings of fresh fruits and veggies for baby!

Saving money on fruits and veggies not only enables us to buy organic but also gives us the extra money to buy the other "staples" that Lucy enjoys. She LOVES her HappyBellies Oatmeal Cereal and Multi-Grain Cereal, which she gets twice a day. She also loves to eat her Nancy's Organic Whole Milk Yogurt. I originally fed her a flavored baby yogurt until I realized that it had added sugar in it, which I really don't think she needs, she gets enough natural sugars from her fruits. Lately we've been having whole grain (dry) toast with sliced pears for lunch, which is a recent development that she just adores. Also, we've been trying more "real" foods for dinnertime. Last week she has tiny bits of chicken breast, some mashed potatoes and chopped sauteed zucchini, the next day she had (soft) brown rice and broccoli...and she loved it all. She still eats her homemade food, but she is growing up so quickly and trying more big girl foods! I will say Lucy still nurses about six times a day. I'm going to try and keep it up until she's at least a year, she also drinks water and wants absolutely nothing to do with juice so we stick with breastmilk and water!

Here's my big girl eating her big girl food:











Next time we make veggies and fruits I'll take a picture of the process. I wish I had some for this post but they're on my old computer and I just wanted and excuse to post our latest eating adventures pictures!

What about you, dear readers, have you tried making your own baby food yet? If not, is there any details that I'm leaving out? Let me know!

Coming up, a Friday Giveaway!