2.10.2009

I Made It Myself

For the curious, I'm still nursing Alice.  There are some bumps in the road as she is currently figuring out how incoming teeth work into the equation (correct answer: FOR THE LOVE OF GOD, DON'T GROW TEETH, KID).  And whatever you do, Dear Reader, don't google "milk blister."  You just don't want to be me right now.  Let's leave it at that.

Today was the 6-month appointment at the doctor's office, where I shared with the pediatrician that I am making Alice's baby food myself, and wanted to make sure Alice was ready for solid food.  She looked at me, and I could tell she was trying not to make a snap judgment, and then asked me how I made baby food.  I told her one of my best friends gave me some great tips after making food for her son, and I looked at some recipes online, and spent some time last weekend preparing a bunch of food ahead of time.  For the money, you get ten times as much food as the jars, and it stores in the freezer where I can thaw it when I'm ready to go.  When I shared with her how I did it, the doctor was amazed, and told me that she wasn't nearly as good a mother as I am.

Well.  Good mother = putting baked veggies in a blender?  Nah.  I'm just super cheap.

Anyway, it was very easy.  For anyone reading who wants to try it, I'm still the cockeyed optimist because I haven't tried to puree peas or green beans yet.  Sweet potatoes and butternut squash and apples were definitely a breeze, though.  I split the squash in half (length-wise) and baked it face-down in about an inch of water and baked it for an hour.  I then scraped out all of the squash and put it in a blender (with the leftover water) and pureed it until it was smooth.  Then I scooped out the puree into ice cube trays, covered it with plastic wrap, and put it in the freezer, and later put all of the frozen cubes into freezer bags.  One butternut squash made about a tray and a half of cubes.  I did the same thing with 2 baked sweet potatoes, and a 3-lb bag of red delicious apples from the crockpot (surprisingly, they all had the same yield).  

Dear Reader, no, it did not take a long time.  The longest part was waiting for the baking to be done.  I used all fresh food, and it was really easy - a good project for about 30 minutes of work on a Saturday morning.  I've made enough food to last quite a while.  And folks, if I can do it, it must be easy.

So tonight, with the blessing from the pediatrician, I fed Alice her homemade sweet potatoes for the first time and she gobbled them up, AND BEGGED FOR MORE.  Very satisfying feeling, to know she enjoys something I made that much.

Now, I am holding my breath for that first solid food diaper.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

No picture to accompany? :-) So glad she likes her food! Try avocado too, Wilson loves it.

Anonymous said...

Did you see where they have a recall on the exosaucer? It has some flaws that make it come apart and users are encouraged to check out the recall.

Jennie said...

While Evenflo has issued a recall on one of their exersaucers, the one we haven't isn't the same one. Thanks for mentioning it, though!