Chicken zucchini peach pouches

I've started making pouches for our daughter and this is my first shot at a meat pouch. She is able to feed herself the pouches that are fluid enough.

I was able to fit the squooshi  reusable pouches into the infantino squeeze station, and blended zucchini, cooked chicken, and frozen peaches in my nutribullet. We'll see if she likes them :)

Cod

Big batch of food

I need to catch up on posting but I'm trying to use blogger on my phone to see if it will increase the frequency of my posts :)

Anyways, I decided to try to make all of our daughters food for the week over the weekend. I chopped and roasted a bunch of veggies - butternut squash, zucchini and yellow squash, sweet potatoes, and turnip. I steamed asparagus, carrots, apples and broccoli.

This Yolk's on You!!

Awful jokes... I know... but I sometimes struggle with something catchy and not so boring to call these blog posts.  As our little girl hit 8 months, we decided to start trying the proteins, starting with Egg Yolk. There are mixed things out there as to when you can give your kid egg yolks or eggs, so we figured we'd start with the yolk first.

I separated two eggs, and mixed up the yolks with a fork.  I oiled a pan with olive oil (we are out of pam spray and I know she does fine with olive oil), and dropped the yolks in.  I let them harden on the bottom and then flipped them over and folded it like an omelette. It wasnt quite as fluffy since it was just the yolks so when I cut it into little pieces, they almost looked like little squares of cardboard.

At first she was having a bit of a tough night and didnt seem to want to pick them up herself, so we just put one in her mouth to see what she'd think.

She quickly realized how much she liked it and started reaching for it and shoving fistfuls of the egg into her mouth.  She didnt end up finishing it all (like I said a bit of a tough night), but she definitely really liked it!!

The next night I decided to be a bit more creative.  I separated 5 eggs, and just used the yolks to make her an omelet.  I shredded some zucchini and yellow squash and sauteed that in olive oil for about 4 minutes.  I then poured the beaten egg yolks over the top and occasionally stirred the egg mixture as it cooked so that it came out more like scrambled eggs.  I let it cool in the fridge while I finished some other work in the kitchen, and then broke it up into smaller chunks for her to eat.

 Once again she definitely really liked it.  I think I sound like a broken record... we really havent found much she doesn't like!! But we're happy eggs seem to be a hit!

Asleep on the Job!

Daycare told us that she had fallen asleep at lunch a few times, but we had yet to see it ourselves.  This weekend she passed out while eating her puree after a handful of finger foods.  I could see her eyes starting to droop, and wondered what the outcome would be.  I sort of suspected a 5 minute nap, but boy was I surprised when 25 minutes later she was still fast asleep!!  I guess this eating thing is hard work!! Food coma.......

Stuff your face with Turnip

Root veggies had gone well so far, but Turnip can be an acquired taste as it is a tad stronger sometimes than the others.  Like many of the others, I cut it into fry shape sticks tossed it in olive oil and baked it at 400 degrees for roughly 35 minutes.  She went through it just like the sweet potatoes!  In fact she tried shoving entire fries in her mouth, which ended up being too much for her little mouth to handle so she'd have to spit some of it out.  But she definitely liked it!

Left photo entitled: What do you mean I have too much in my mouth mom? Im practicing to be a squirrel!!

As of this blog, we haven't tried the puree yet, but its made up and in the freezer!!

Recommendation:
Turnip: Clean and Peel the turnip. Chop into fry shapes, toss in olive oil and bake at 400 for 35-45 minutes until tender.  It will soften a bit more after it cools.
Turnip Puree: Clean and chop in half, place cut half down on a baking sheet with a bit of olive oil.  Bake for 45-60 minutes until center is tender.  Allow to cool, peel, cut into large chunks and puree with some water in a blender.  You may need a decent amount of water as the turnip is a pretty thick vegetable.

HmmmMillet?

Working on more grains, we decided to try Millet.  I mixed it up with one of her favorite fruits - Apricot.  When I made it to freeze, it seemed light and fluffy like cous cous.  The problem was as our daughter tried it, I think the grains were a little thick, and every time she worked her way through a bite, while she would swallow a lot of it, I think it ticked her throat and she would gag a little bit.  We tried it a few times across a week with the same results, so I think we will wait on that one for a while.  Millet pureed or something might be ok, but just straight up millet was a bit much for her for now.

Chilly Cucumber

So one of the veggies that is simple enough to prepare, but I wasnt certain she was going to get much out of was cucumber.  I peeled the cucumbers and cut them into little sticks.  She did seem to enjoy gnawing on them, and on nights when she wasnt absolutely starved she could chew on it for quite a while, and dissolve and get some of it down.

This is one that doesn't freeze or puree well from what I read, so I didnt bother trying.  I did read that you could shred it and mix it in with yogurt, or I've even seen cucumber soups made for summer, but didnt bother trying that level yet.

A while later, we decided to try some shredded cucumber, and that was a little easier to swallow.  The first night she kinda just shoved some towards her mouth, and Im not sure much made it down, but I also think it was really the first shredded food she had had, so after a second and third night of trying it, she got better at actually picking up and eating the shredded cucumber.

Classic Cheerios

Ok, I know I didnt have to make them... I didn't do anything special at all... but we so far had pretty much properly introduced almost all foods, so Cheerios deserved their time as well.  She had a blast picking them up and noming away.  At first they were crunchier than they were used to and you could actually hear her trying to chew on them, but she soon got the hang of it and moved through the pile!

Popeye's Girl

It was time to work on some greens - get that iron in! So we moved on to spinach.  The first night I just tried steaming the baby spinach in our convenient little microwave steamer.  It came out reasonably tender, but I think it was still hard to process without teeth.  She grabbed it and put it in alright, but it was mostly gumming and drooling, and eventually getting just a smidge of it down. The stems always stuck out a bit and never really got swallowed.

The puree was much easier!! The second night I tried sauteeing it with a little olive oil and that broke it down a little more, but still wasn't terribly appetizing I guess.  The puree was a little easier to get through and she seemed to like it just as much as anything else.  Perhaps we will try spinach again when we get to eggs or something we can chop and mix it into...

Recommendations

Spinach: Use baby spinach and perhaps even chop it up a little bit.  Saute it with Olive oil until soft.  Serve in little piles for little hands to grab.

Pureed Spinach: Saute bunch of spinach with a little bit of olive oil.  If some liquid is retained in the pan, add that to the mix and puree with a blender.

Great Waves of Grain

Prior to going back to work, I wanted to make sure the freezer stash was full.  I knew at some point our daughter would probably start needing more carbohydrates, and had read up on several grains.  So while the grandparents were up taking care of her, I spent a morning in the kitchen cooking and ice-cubing grains and a few other things!

First I roasted up some bananas just so I would have more of a stash...

Next I cooked up some Quinoa, just per the packaged directions and packed it right into the icecube tray once it had cooled a bit.

Next it was onto the Brown Rice.  I wasnt sure if our daughter was ready for full grains of rice, so I opted to cook it with a bit of extra water and puree most of it a bit to make it smoother brown rice.  It ended up a bit sticky/gluey, but once you thaw the cube and mix it with veggies/fruits, it works really well.

I also cubed a bunch that was not pureed.

Next up was oatmeal!! I used real regular oats, and just cooked with 2x water until they had absorbed most of the water.  Then froze.

I also had a bunch of Kale that was going to be leftover from one of the dinners we had planned (bag was way too big!) so I planned to puree that up for her as well,  I first sauteed it (with a cover) with some olive oil, and then pureed it with a little bit of water.

Last up, I cooked Millet.  I had never cooked or eaten it before, but a number of things I read said it had some good nutrients, and was similar in texture to Quinoa, so why not??

I also threw together a coconut rice pudding.  It was somewhat per the recipe in one of my books, but I ended up having to add a lot more coconut milk as I pureed.  I had about a half a can of coconut milk left and just froze that in half sized cubes.

Cauliflower AND Blueberries?? Woah!

Ok yeah, I know we are breaking the rules... only introduce one food at a time to your baby.  With a combination of my impatience, and also my wariness about Cauliflower (it seemed chunky and I was worried about gagging) as well as that it's pretty bland... I figured I should have blueberries as a backup.  I found some really nice ones at HoneyPot Orchards, so they were a nice ripe local set. Plus I doubt Cauliflower is much of a common allergen.  We figured at least both would be interesting!

First I plopped down the steamed Cauliflower, and it was apt since this time we actually had Cauliflower for dinner ourselves! (though ours had a lot more with it).  As usual, she looked at it a bit and then reached for a whole floret, squishing it a bit and shoving it straight in her mouth.  She really is getting good at this trying new foods thing.  To my surprise, she managed to bite off hunks of it and squish it around in her mouth pretty well, and never actually gagged! I was seriously impressed. Im not sure she got a ton of it down until she started taking fistfulls of the broken up florets into her mouth, but she did pretty well!

Once we made it through a bunch of the florets, we put down some sliced blueberries.  Again I was nervous about choking (this time yes choking - small round things are not good for airways!), so I pulled out some big blueberries and sliced them in half.  I read a few other suggestions like "freeze for two days, then thaw under warm water & no need to slice".  I wasnt sure how she would do with these since they definitely require some good pincher grasp.  She seems to be getting pretty good, but these would be the true test of it.

While on the tray, she did OK with the blueberries, she at first couldnt really figure out how to pick them up, so we gave her one to try from our fingers, but eventually just grabbed a fistfull and shoved it in her mouth, most made it in, some didnt.  She chewed them up pretty well, but it was kinda funny that the skins seemed to get stuck everywhere, and she ended up with purple drool.  It wasnt as bad as some of the photos I've seen, but it was kinda funny.  At one point I got her to stick out her tongue and show me the skin! lol.

Baby AHHHHHH!!

I also made a puree of blueberries for the morning cereal/yogurt.  The first batch I made I just threw some blueberries in my nutribullet and added maybe a quarter cup of water.  They came out more than moist enough, so I decided to skip the water for the next batch, which was better.  They are still pretty moist, but worked well.  I also tossed some leftover apricots (sliced) in my nutribullet and blended those up to freeze.  No water they came out nice and thick.

Recommendations
Cauliflower: Break off small florets and place in steamer.  Steam for 15 minutes, leave lid on and allow to cool for super soft texture.
Blueberries: Wash and pick through berries, remove stems and bad berries.  Take out some large ones and slice in half. Give to baby.
Blueberry Puree: Wash and pick through berries, remove stems and bad berries.  Puree berries whole without any water.