Update on Peas

So I tried peas again... and it was about time as my sweet girl has been eating lots of bananas, pears, and sweet potatoes... not exactly the most balanced diet!

This time I was DETERMINED not to try to get the peels out - if I keep doing that, I'll never make them. I have to be realistic with myself, and I know that if something is too much trouble, I won't repeat it very often. For example, I'm almost always happy to make chocolate chip cookies from scratch - I have it down to a science: I have all the ingredients on hand, I can keep the mess to a minimum, and they're very good for my marriage :) I don't, however, make cheesecake every day... too.much.trouble. I don't want peas to be my new cheesecake, ya know?

Anyway, I tried the blender today, and I think it was a good fit. I just cooked the bag of frozen peas (according to package directions), drained (regret that part - more on that later), and stuck them in the blender. I ended up with a pretty good puree - especially for a child who is almost 8 months, but I would feed these to any child over 6 months who has some experience with solids.

The package only told me to steam the peas in 1/4 c. of water, so I didn't have much water to drain off after cooking. I do wish I had just dumped this water in with the peas because it had some flavor and nutrients after the cooking, and I ended up adding probably the same amount of water to get an easier puree. I found that short spurts of blending coupled with some stirring got me the puree I'd been looking for. With the food processor, I was ending up with what were basically chopped peas... with the blender, I got more of what I had hoped for all along.

At last, I had enough to fill my ice tray - and a little more to stick in the fridge for tomorrow!

Sweet Potatoes

I think what I like best about sweet potatoes is that the process of making sweet potatoes for my girl is quite similar to the process of making them for myself... and they've become such of a favorite that I recently made 40 oz of sweet potatoes at one time.

So how did I do it?

1. Wash and dry sweet potatoes

2. Prick several times with fork

3. Wrap in foil

4. Bake at 350 until tender (probably an hour - depends on size of potato)

After that, I allowed the potatoes to cool, peeled the peel off (comes off very easily), stuck them in the food processor and pureed away. They puree very well and can be frozen with no added liquid.

One note on the consistency of the sweet potato: I do not thin before freezing for a couple of reasons. First, I like to mix sweet potatoes with apples - deeeelish, and the apples are liquidy enough to make the sweet potatoes less pasty. Second, if I decide to just feed sweet potatoes, it is easy to thin them right before feeding. Just a little bit of water, breast milk, or formula does the trick.

As Easy As No Bake Cookies

Or perhaps easier.

One of my favorite baby food options is "bananacado." Why do I like it? Because it is soooo easy - and delicious. Typically I'll take half an avocado and half a banana and mash those together. That ends up making more food than my girl usually eats, but let me assure you she eats every bite. With most of her baby food residing in the freezer, it's nice to have some options that don't require any sort of preparation, esp. when the freezer stock is low...

I told my mom that my girl eats avocado, and she said she'd never heard of a baby who eats avocado. I said, "well, she loves it." Mom's response? "What's not to love!" Agreed. I love avocado - and it's even better with banana.

The Wonderful World of Pears

Yummmmmm. My girl might not get any of her pears because I might eat them first! It's like applesauce but maybe even better...

Let me first say that apparently you do NOT have to cook pears. They tend to be soft when ripe (think Harry and David around Christmastime - those are my favorite). I cooked mine on this first attempt for a few reasons: 1. I'm really not all that familiar with pears - they're not on my everyday shopping list 2. Some of the pears I got seemed more ripe than others 3. I didn't want to wait while they ripened more in my kitchen - I was ready to give it a try. Another reason to cook would be if this is one of your baby's first foods; Cooking helps to break down the sugars and gives your baby's tummy a little break in that way.

I pealed and cored the pears (I core by cutting into quarters and basically scooping the seeds out) and stuck them in my steamer. I let them steam for probably 30-45 minutes so that they'd be really nice and tender. I pealed, cored, and cooked, and then my daughter went to bed, so I didn't puree them until this morning (my house is small, my food processor is loud... you get the picture).

First of all, when I was transferring the pears from the bowl to the processor, I discovered some sort of delicious syrup they had formed (again, yum), and I made sure to put that in with the pears. I mean, why should I deprive my child that fruity deliciousness? (insert anti-sugar argument here).

I had saved the water from steaming in case I needed to thin, but I didn't need to thin at all. They pureed perfectly and easily, and I can't wait to make them again. My girl hasn't tried them yet, but if she doesn't like them, I know someone who does :)

Ok, off to try to resist the temptation of baby food... which is probably why I like making my own. The stuff in the jar has never really tempted me...

P.S. I bought 5 fairly small pears, and they made about 20 ounces of baby food. I was impressed. I got more out of 5 pears than 5 apples which surprised me.