I want to tell you a secret that the Gerber Baby doesn’t want you to know.
Shh …
Are you listening?
Baby food is just food. That’s right, I said it.
BABY FOOD. IS. JUST. FOOD.
I actually remember myself, a year or so ago, referring to someone as “the kind of person that makes his own baby food.” I’m sure it was a euphemism for being kind of granola.
I take it back! Because, what I didn’t know THEN, is that making baby food is THE EASIEST THING IN THE WORLD.
I picked up this really cool baby food cookbook at the Providence Medical Center’s Nursing Boutique called “The Best Homemade Baby Food on the Planet” by Karin Knight, R.N., and Tina Ruggiero, M.S., R.D., L.D
It starts with a couple short chapters on why it’s good/easy/delicious to make baby food at home and some of the basics. Making your own baby food guarantees you know exactly what’s in the food. Also fresh and fresh-frozen food is more nutrient-rich than shelf-stable food. Plus it’s quick, frugal and easy. Nothing like saving a little money.
The recipes in the book are broken down into chapters by age starting with 6 months, which is the recommended age for starting solids by the American Academy of Pediatrics. What I think REALLY caught my eye is that most the recipes take just 10 minutes to make. Ten minutes.
Many of the recipes are pretty much: peel, chop, boil until soft, puree, feed to baby. That’s it. There are even microwave versions if you’re not into stoves. Some don’t even require cooking at all. Thinking about buying banana or avocado baby food? You just paid someone to peel and smash a banana for you. Oh, and probably add some stuff to make it shelf stable. That’s all it takes to make banana or avocado baby food: peel, smash, serve.
Out to lunch early in the week, babykins was practically trying to swipe my fork out of my hand, so I asked the waitress to bring me a side plate with a couple slices of avocado on it. With a little smash of the fork I had fresh, homemade baby food that my son was leaning into the spoon to gobble up. It seems avocado is his favorite so far. This week we tried avocado and banana and then got really nuts with avocado-banana combined. Or as my cookbook calls it, “Double Whammy Banan-y.” Sounds weird, but he seemed to enjoy it.
So far, I have stocked my freezer with sweet potatoes, butternut squash, applesauce and golden beets. Most of those things didn’t require a recipe, but it’s nice to know things like how I should wait until 7 months to feed him squash or that the sweet potatoes are best thinned with a little of baby’s milk of choice. The book also has great ideas for food combinations like applesauce-potato and banana-oatmeal. Of course, in the books the recipes are called adorable things like, “Kiss the Cook Pear-Potato Puree” and “Potassium Powered Potato-Banana Puree.”
Speaking of oatmeal — the book has recipes for oatmeal, rice cereal and barley cereal. They go kind of like this: make oatmeal, puree with breast milk or formula. Replace the word oatmeal with brown rice or barley and you have the recipes for the other two.
I know what you’re thinking. Who wants to clean a blender every time they feed their baby? Who has time? You don’t have to. One sweet potato makes several servings of baby food. Just pour it into an ice tray, freeze and transfer the cube to a freezer bag. Then defrost as needed. I picked up a couple fancy schmancy silicone ice cube trays which are easier to get the frozen food cubes out of than a regular ice tray.
I have to tell you I’m very busy and not a very ambitious cook for time-consuming, messy cooking projects. Moral of the story: If I can master the art of peel, boil, puree, serve then anyone can.
Bon Appétit babies!
Mom Outside the Margins 