First Foods.. Friday! Crunchy Baby Food Maker? You Bet!

After a successful week of homemade sweet potatoes, it was time to move onto some homemade pears! Carter nom noms his way through fruits AND veggies these days and I can't wait to add more to his solids repertoire. He's growing into such a little man!

It amazes me how few veggies and fruits can make so much baby food! Just so that you have a better idea of what I'm talking about, I went ahead and baked four average size sweet potatoes in the oven, pureed them in the Magic Bullet with a touch of filtered water and filled nearly two-and-a-half empty ice cube trays. Alongside the pototoes, I baked four large apples, skin and all, once cooled, peeled the skin off, threw them in the Magic Bullet and filled nearly an entire ice cub tray! Four skinned and steamed pears, steamed in our counter top steamer and then pureed in the Bullet, filled an entire ice cube tray and then some. I also went ahead and sliced four avocados, slipped them into freezer bags and will introduce those mixed in with a little applesauce once we're acclimated to pears and apples!

Once the fruits and veggies are frozen into perfectly Carter-sized one-ounce cubes, I pop them from their ice cube trays and dump them into quart-sized freezer storage bags. I then label them with the date they were made and pop 'em back into the freezer! The next time I run to the grocer, I plan on picking up some fresh green beans, a few bags of steamfresh peas and some butternut squash! Yeah, solids!

I can't stand the thought of cooking, but making my own baby food is SUCH a blast! I used to desperately yearn for the Beaba: Babycook, thinking that it was an absolute necessity if I was going to be making my own baby food, but truth be told? I'm getting by just fine with our Oster Steamer and Magic Bullet. I'm sure I could whip out my Cuisinart food processor, but it's rather large for the job and truly the Bullet does just fine. Just in case there were any of you Mommas out there who, like myself, thought you may need a fancy shmancy baby food steamer or food press in order to be able to do this.

Before attempting to make your own, I would do your research though. I learned some very interesting things in my attempt to become chef-savvy. Did you know that you should never make your own baby food carrots, as they contain too high levels of nitrates in their natural pureed form? If you're interested in making your own baby food, here's a great resource: Wholesome Baby Food.

As you can see, pears were a raging success! Happy baby food-making!