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.

A perfect Pear

I bought a bunch of pears to try with our daughter and they had finally become perfectly ripe... of course when we had decided to travel down to visit our friends.  I figured Pears were easy to bring, and our friends had a high chair, so why not give it a shot!

I just cut off the side of the pear and gave her a big slice, figuring we'd see how she'd do with it.  Big surprise, yet another fruit she loved... she shoved the whole thing in her mouth and started sucking away, melting the flesh and skin into swallowable paste and bits!  She went through 3/4 of the pear with no problems at all!

Pear seemed so easy, that I brought a slice of it with me to Cambridge when I went to have lunch with my friends, I just handed her the slice which she cautiously took from me (normally she picks it up off a tray!) but then once it made it to her mouth it was all business!! She demolished the slice pretty quickly!

I didn't end up making the puree right away again.

Recommendation:
Pear: Wash, slice a hand sized chunk and give to baby!

Building up the Freezer Stash

I put together a list of a whole bunch of baby foods I wanted to make to have stashed in our freezer.  As I started in on the list, I found it kind of funny... most moms stockpile breastmilk when they return to work, I stockpile homemade baby food!! lol.  Well ok so it is my second return to work, and with my issues with breastfeeding, I knew I never stood a chance at building up a freezer supply... but fresh homemade baby foods?? Sure I could easily do that!!

I've been reading up in my Tyler Florence baby food book, and was eager to try some recipes and suggestions from that and my other baby food cookbooks.

So here in this post I will document the craziness that was my baby food filled day!

First I decided to pull together all of the fruits and veggies that needed to be roasted.  Some seemed obvious, others not so much!  I'll start with the roasting trays, but will give you more detail on each of the items in what follows.  All of these were done at 400 degrees to keep it simple.

Pears!
Yup you saw them in my previous posts, now its time to make the puree!  I wanted to waste as little of the pear as possible, so I figured out that I could use a spoon to scoop the little seed pod, and then peeled out the stringy core.

Roast the pears for 20 minutes, cut side down, skin on, and then slice and toss in your blender.  You can puree them without roasting, but the roasting gives them a slightly more caramel flavor.  Leave the puree slightly chunky, or puree until completely smooth, whatever works for your baby.  Pour into ice cube trays and freeze or store portions in airtight containers in the fridge for up to 3 days!

More Apples!
I had already done some apple puree.  This time I roasted them (30 minutes until skins split), cored & cut side down, peels on, and pureed them with skin and all.  Like last time I added a bit of nutmeg and cinnamon.  Only suggestion I have is definitely make sure you wait for them to cool a bit if you are using a nutribullet or something with a tight seal... the heat made mine expand and lock up, and I had a heck of a time getting the lid off!

Bananas That Will Blow Your Mind
Yes I said that!! This is the one I didnt quite believe from Tyler Florence, but I had to try it... He said roast the bananas whole with the skins on, and then puree them after roasting.  I roasted for 20 minutes, skins on, no other prep work, and OMG, these were no joke the best bananas I have ever tasted!! They were smooth and creamy but had this just amazing flavor profile that I cant even describe to you.  They were so good that I decided to try a few bananas I had frozen whole.  I thawed them in the microwave for 30 seconds, and then just threw them back in the oven for 20 minutes, and they were nearly as good! Not quite the pure color, but wow, the flavor was still good! This may be how I use up all of my overripe bananas from now on!  Our daughter is lucky that Im getting hooked on feeding her good food, or I might have just eaten them all myself!  Once the bananas have browned from roasting, allow them to cool, peel them and puree the banana to your desired consistency.  Freeze or use!

Green Onions??
Yeah ok its a little weird, but I had some in the fridge that I didnt want to go to waste, and I figure once we work our way through the foods, Im going to make some more flavorful combinations for our daughter.  Roasted green onions seemed like a good way to do that.  As I love the convenience of grabbing a few ice cubes of food and letting it thaw for the day (or tossing it in the microwave for a short time), I decided to experiment with breaking up some of the ingredients that I could throw together in fun combinations later.  The green onions were the start of this idea (I will probably also do some roasted garlic!).

I roasted them in Olive Oil for 20 minutes, and then sliced them a bit and tried to chop them in a mini food processor.  This was only marginally successful as they were pretty stringy, so I ended up having to cut them more with a knife.  I think doing more of them at once or maybe chopping more before processing might have helped, but eventually I got them down to small bits I could add to a meal's worth of food.

Gold & Red Beets
Beets while messy rank super high on the nutrition scale, and are somewhat sweet, so I figured I would give them a try.  I dont know if we are brave enough to let our little one try fistfulls, but we can certainly make some spoonfed versions.  From some of the readings, I decided to roast them, skin on.  Wash them slice them in half, and roast them cut side down for 25 minutes.  Allow them to cool, and then peel them.  For me this was pretty messy & time consuming.  Some things I read said the peel should just come off, but I didn't find it that easy.  I may experiment more with that later.  I chopped them up a bit, tossed them in the nutribullet with some water (these actually need water or they come out super chunky), and puree to desired consistency.  I think steaming might make them a bunch softer, but I think roasting might retain more nutrients.  Although the colors are very vivid, I did find it easy to clean up after them.  They didn't really leave stains like I expected.

Acorn Squash
I went through 3 Acorn squashes before I got to roasting one before it turned fuzzy!! I dont know what was up with the first two I got, winter squashes are supposed to be able to keep for months!! But anyway, I cut the squash in half, and roasted it with a half tablespoon of butter and a half cup of water, as well as some cumin and coriander in each half.  I roasted them for 50 minutes.  The squash I had still came out a bit dry, but I suspect that was the squash not being quite in season yet.  Once it cooled, I just scooped it out with a spoon, and then hand mashed it until smooth (just happened to use the nutribullet container), with the extra roasting water.  The result was pretty good, but my typical acorn squash is brown sugar and orange juice, so this was a bit more plain.

Potato
So there was a recipe for beets and potatoes that I thought might be fun, plus I read that while potatoes are not nutrient dense, when the kids start to get ravenous and eating a lot, they are a good source of carbohydrates.  So lets give this a shot...  I started with two Russet potatoes and baked them for 60 minutes wrapped in foil.  Allow them to cool in the foil, and the skin will peel right off!

Ok next DONT BELIEVE ANYTHING YOU READ!! Well ok except maybe this blog?!? Everything I read said just carefully puree the baked potato however you normally puree your baby foods, just make sure not to do it too long or it will get gluey.  Mine turned gluey even walking towards my nutribullet!! Ok maybe not that bad, but seriously why on earth with all of my cooking experience did I think I could PUREE potato?! DUMB.  DONT DO IT.  Just grab your favorite hand masher and add enough water, and carefully mash but don't whip! With enough water you can get them smooth, I PROMISE.  Don't puree... just dont do it. I swear if you try...

!!!!NO NO NONO NO NO!!!

YES!! YES!!

Recommendations
(will get this up later)