The secret about baby food

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!

Rock star theme baby nursery

I’m so excited to finally share pictures of my son’s rock star themed nursery. Since we live in Alaska, far from our extended family, the room doubles as a guest room for the many out state guests we’ve received since his arrival. We wanted to do something a little off beat and fun. Not the typical transportation or animal themes for boys found a the big box baby store. It was also important to me to pick prints and colors that might grow with him so it easily translates to a toddler and big boy room as he grows. I know he won’t like the things we like forever, but a mom can hope. The inspiration for the nursery is based around the guitar print fabric used in the curtains shown below. I saw it used in other baby boy rooms on Pinterest and ordered 10 yards of the fabric shortly after we found out we were having a boy last November. It’s called Groovy Guitar in Lagoon color scheme and I ordered it from Hawthorne Threads out of New York. I shared the fabric with some friends and family and it was really cool to see how others took that and ran with it making some very creative and beautiful baby gifts to match the theme! We moved into our place when I was 27 weeks pregnant and a lot of the details didn’t come together until the last minute and some of the finishing touches didn’t happen until after my 3-weeks-early arrival showed up.

My mom and I made the curtains. We tacked teal ribbon to the centers to draw them back and I loved the bright green rick rack for the finish at the bottom. The days are getting shorter, but I think I might want to install a blackout shade behind them before next summer. I’ve learned darkness is key to helping babies set their circadian rhythms during Alaska’s midnight summer sun.

My husband painted two walls in the bright lime green and two in the aqua teal color. We left the trim, door and closest door bright white. We chose Velspar paint with a satin finish and picked colors that very closely matched the fabric. At first we weren’t sold on the lime, it is a little loud. That first swipe with the roller almost sent us running back to the home store for a more minty version, but it’s vibrant and cheerful and has really grown on me. Now I’m pleased we didn’t chicken out and tone it down to a softer shade.

My closest girl friend doesn’t quilt herself, so she acquired some of the same guitar fabric I had ordered and commissioned a quilt from another friend. It’s the perfect compliment to the guest bed and makes a great playmat now that he’s wiggling further and further on the floor. I’ve found you can never have too many blankets and we will cherish the homemade ones for years.

She even had his name quilted into the center block. I love it so much.

I designed and made the crib quilt myself. It is a 12 block quilt with applique stars. I found all the complimentary music prints at JoAnn’s Fabrics. I ended up using InDesign to mock up the plan and figure out how many different fabrics I needed. The back is all in the guitar print.

Another sweet friend hand knitted this cool rattle to match his room. Her secret: she uses a cat toy to make it rattle!

My aunt made him a Raggedy Andy doll with a music note print shirt.

My mom and I also collaborated on one of her signature bear hug blankets with some of the same fabrics from the crib quilt. The bear hug is great for floor time for little babies and becomes a nice snugly for toddlers. We, of course, tweaked the pattern to make the bear play guitar too.

We kept it pretty simple in terms of wall art, but I had to have those sweet baby footprints on the wall.

I’m a nut for convertible furniture and space is limited, so I decided Cubicle shelves were the way to go instead of a big dresser to start. They fit SO much stuff! And it can be re-purposed later when we take the guest bed out and add a dresser. Four bins fit all the clothes that currently fit him. Other sizes are hidden away in the closet. Two cubes are full of books thanks to my shower where the hostess asked guests to inscribe books instead of cards. What an amazing idea. The other cubes hold toys as a basket of socks, bibs and other accessories.

The Vick’s cool mist humidifier also functions as a nightlight that projects stars on the walls and ceiling and slowly changes colors. It’s nice to be able to step in at night and not have to jar parent and baby’s eyes with the overhead light.

Since the room is a little tight on space and I am a fanatic for furniture with multiple uses I just had to have a crib with an attached changing table. We purchased it gently used crib on Craigslist and bought a new mattress. Bonus, the whole thing converts to a toddler bed as he grows. It has a hidden drawer underneath the bed where we store extra blankets and linens. There’s lots of shelves under the changer on the back side to store extra diapers and baby toiletries. There’s also a big cabinet where we hid the wastebasket out of sight. No Diaper Genie here, just a regular $5 trash can that we empty often — I’ve found infant diapers aren’t nearly as stinky at the big box company would like you to think. A friend gave us the cool canvas crib attachment which stores a ton of quick grab items like receiving blankets, burp clothes and little socks and hats. I keep a simple white laundry basket by the door for quick changes.

In addition to the crib quilt, I sewed the crib skirt with a pattern my mother in law provided. Following patterns is not my forte, because I’m always looking for shortcuts and improvements, so I’m proud to say I followed the instructions and it fits and hangs perfectly.

Another Pinterest inspired piece, was his name on the wall on old vinyl records. We picked up a handful of 99-cent records at the thrift store and I designed and printed the letter to adhere to the center over the labels. The guitar shade lamp was displayed on an end cap at Fred Meyer couldn’t be passed up.

I designed and had printed the “Little Rock Star,” name and “Keep Calm and Rock On” prints.

That concludes our tour of my son’s rock star theme nursery. Like any room, it always seems like a work in progress that grows and changes, and I can always think of little things I want to tweak or add, but so far I’m really proud of the bright, peaceful space we have created for our baby.