I was asked recently about homemade baby food. My response was that I love making it and it is so simple. I know that their are a number of resources on the internet on how to make baby food, this is my take. I use wholesomebabyfood.com as a starting point, it has great lists of what to feed and when and recipes.
I have found that Lily is a lover of all things squash. This is how I do acorn squash.
Most acorn squash are greenish but this one happens to be orange. It looks very much like an odd shaped pumpkin.
I scrub it clean and then cut it in half lengthwise. I swear to you cutting this thing open was the hardest part of the whole thing. I had no idea how tough it was.
I then scraped out the seeds. Since making this one I have bought a set of grapefruit spoons at Target. (I couldn’t find them on the Target website. Those things are a life saver.
Then they went into a pan, flesh side down with an inch or two of water.
I cooked them at 400° for about 1 hour.
The flesh was nice and soft and the skin was a little browned.
I scraped all the meat into my little food processor and gave it a whirl. You might need to add some water to get it to puree nicely. I try not to add too much water at this point though. From here on out it is very much like making sweet potatoes.
Once its cooled I spooned it into an ice cube tray, wrapped with plastic wrap and froze it overnight.
I make butternut squash just like this too.
I have a different method of heating these up then most people that I’ve read. We have a microwave but we never use it.
In the morning I take out a couple of food cubes and put them in the fridge in the cup I use to feed Lily. They are usually mostly defrosted by the time I feed her dinner, although this method still works if I forget to take them out, it just takes longer. Lily only eats solids at dinner, the rest of the day she nurses.
When I’m ready to feed her I turn the water kettle on and put the food cup in a bowl. Once the water has boiled I fill the bowl with water and if the food needs to be thinned I add some of the hot water to it. I stir the food every so often and it heats it up in about 3-5 minutes.
I try to always keep some frozen green beans and peas around for the days I forget to take cubes out. That way I just cook the beans and peas according to the package directions, throw them in the food processor and then feed Lily.
As you can see this takes a few more minuted then opening a jar but I love the whole process of making my daughter’s food. And she loves eating it.
