Sunday, May 16, 2010

Making Baby Food

I am one step closer to becoming a domestic goddess I tell you, because yesterday morning when I saw 2 beautiful butternut squashes in my Bountiful Basket pick up, I knew exactly what I was going to do with them. Make baby food! Sure, little M wont be eating solids for another month or two, but this way I can have a little stock built up for when she does start. The food co-op thing makes it a lot easier too with the large assortment of fruits and veggies each week and some that I wouldn't normally buy (like butternut squash!). I hopped on the computer this morning to find out how to tackle the squash and found this website . It tells you everything you need to know about making baby food, storing it, preparing it etc. So once the babes was taking her morning nap I got busy.

First I cut the squash squash length wise and scooped out the seeds...


then you place them flesh side down in a baking dish with about 1-2 inches of water...


and bake at 400 degrees for 40 minutes or until shell/skin looks puckery and turns a darker tan.


After it cooled a bit, I scooped squash “meat” out of the shell and into a large bowl...


and used my trusty hand mixer to puree it.


and since I know this will be one of her first foods, I kept adding some of the cooking water little by little until it was a nice smooth, thin consistency.


Then I placed the squash puree into ice cube trays and stuck them in the freezer for a few hours.


After they were frozen solid, I emptied the tray and put the cubes in a freezer bag with the date and use by date, you know because I suck terribly at math. Even elementary math, so I how I ended up doing bookkeeping/financial work is way beyond me. Anyways, this is perfect because each cube is a 1 oz. serving and I can just take and thaw as we go!


I am pretty proud of myself and it was so easy! If I can do it, anyone can!

Next up: Applesauce! I have been getting a bag of apples each week with the co op. And although we eat them regularly we have a lot left over!
And for my baby food makin' momma's, please feel free to share your favorite websites/books/and recipes! I'd love to hear them.

6 comments:

Tiffany said...

Wow! I can't believe how easy that looks! I would love to give this a try. Thank you for the "how to".

mommy2chazz said...

That co-op sounds like a great idea! I just started making our baby's food, and I was unsure of how to go about squash. I might just cook some up for me too!

{little birdie boutique} said...

Thanks for posting this. You've inspired me :)

WantWait&Pray said...

I'm so excited to make baby food when we get to that point...I'm gonna refer back to this post when it's time! Thank you!!!!!

stacey said...

Thanks for that play by play! I'm excited to try!!!

Unknown said...

I definitley plan on making my own baby food. It looks super easy, and seems like it would be much cheaper. The only thing I'm wondering is, how do you do it with meats? Hmmm.