Baby Food Adventure

Having just finished stocking up my first load of homemade baby food it made me very thankful.  When Gracie was a baby and made it to the pureed baby food time, I was back to work.  Granted it was part time, but it wasn't always easy to carve out time to make her food, but sometimes I did it.  I learned some techniques from my mom (like freezing it in ice cube trays and storing in freezer bags after) and set to work.   I remember my first batch being so awful!  I resorted to store bought food sometimes, mostly due to lack of confidence.  That's when I realized how short the pureed food period really is!  I mean, by the time they are the recommended 6 months to start...and you get through trying all the different foods, it seems like they are ready for finger foods! And with Charlotte ALREADY having two teeth and several more well on their way, finger foods are not TOO far off in her distant future.  Now I have more confidence with purees.  I am determined not to buy any off the shelves this time around because why should I have to?  I have no excuse not to make every bit on my own.  Pull up my boot straps and get out the blender.  I found a great site on Pinterest and it gave me that boost to get started.  I got some extra fruits and veggies at the store to get started.  I decided to start with apples, pears, carrots, sweet potato, peas, and green beans.  I didn't plan all that well because I didn't buy extra ice cube trays.  Tim came home from work and went to get some ice for a drink and instead, found applesauce.  Oops!  The whole process is so easy...a big pot for apples and pears...medium pot with steamer basket for carrots, green beans, and peas, and the oven for sweet potato.  Everything gets prepped, thrown in whatever cooking item, and then blended after it's cooked.  I did add cinnamon to the apples and pears, and cinnamon and vanilla to the sweet potato (that was a suggestion from the new website and it smelled heavenly).  Then, it got spooned into an ice cube tray (or when I ran out, into a cupcake tin with a liner) until it was frozen, popped them out and put into labeled freezer bags.  You know what I learned?  *It is super easy and actually pretty fun
*You feel like June Cleaver, especially if you're wearing an apron during the process
*"Real" baby food with no added junk makes the most vibrant colors!  Carrots are BRIGHT orange, peas are BRIGHT green, and sweet potatoes are actually yellow, not orange.  Even though my baby food making day probably only made enough food to feed Charlotte for a week (once she begins eating it) it was all worth it.