Millions of Peaches...

So easy, so yummy... glad they are in season!  Can't believe how easy these were for what a hit they were... cut up ripe peach, hand to child, done!!  I think it helps that she is starting to get the hang of eating - gumming, swallowing, etc.  I made sure they were good and ripe, but I didnt even have to peel the skin.. she figured out what to do with it!  And the peach puree was easy and went over well also.

This was also the first time we gave her water.  We actually start the meal by giving her the water cup and letting her go at it for a bit, and then give her the food for the night.  She seemed to be perfectly fine with water, and went back for the cup and sucks the water out pretty easily.

Recommendation
Peaches: Wash Peach, Slice into 3/4inch slices, hand to child!
Peach Puree: Toss in blender/food processor, puree, done!

Zucchini??

Did some more research for the next one, and it seemed like grilling zucchini spears was the best way to do zucchini so that she could pick them up easily but have them still be soft enough to grab.  I drizzled them with olive oil and grilled until soft.

The first night we tried it, she seemed to be a bit confused.  I was wondering if she didnt really like the taste.  She did fine with the puree, but nothing special.

But the second night... she was grabbing like crazy for them!  Not sure if she was just tired the first night or took a bit of getting used to.  She was also getting the hang of chewing and swallowing, as some zucchini definitely disappeared this time!!

Recommendation
Zucchini: Grill spears of zucchini with some olive oil.  Roughly 20 minutes cook time (rotate a few times until soft)
Zucchini Puree: Puree grilled chunks/spears with a little bit of water (not much!)

Ice Cube Trays... Everywhere!

So today I decided to jump in and make a whole tone of the baby food purees.  While I've found my magic bullet makes it insanely easy to fast puree some food for our little girl, I figured anything that will save me some time, especially at night would be a good thing.  I looked up a bunch of baby foods, and here is what I ended up doing.  I apologize for the lack of measurements, I tend to eyeball things in the kitchen.

Carrot: Roasted with Olive Oil - 400 for 40-50 minutes.  Pureed with Chicken stock.
Parsnip: Roasted with Olive Oil - 400 for 30-40 minutes.  Pureed with a little bit of Chicken stock.
Broccoli: Roasted with Olive Oil - 400 for 30-40 minutes.  Pureed with Chicken stock.
Cauliflower: Roasted with Olive Oil - 400 for 40-50 minutes.  Pureed with a little bit of Chicken stock.
Eggplant: Grilled as one inch slices with Olive Oil, 10 minutes per side. Pureed with a little bit of Chicken stock.
Zucchini: Grilled as one inch sticks with Olive Oil, 10 minutes per side. Pureed with a little bit of Chicken stock.
Peaches: Puree straight! Dont add water (I added a little, and they came out too thin!)

I was mostly making thick/chunky purees since our daughter is already eating soft whole foods.

I plopped each into ice cube trays since I hear those are good 1oz servings, and froze them for 24 hours, then transferred them to ziplock baggies and returned to the freezer.

Sorry no photos just yet... might take some photos of the cubes, but didnt photo the process...

Beans of Green

I have to admit, I was a bit skeptical on the green beans.  How on earth could a 6 month old not choke on a long string of a bean?  I dunno.  But apparently plenty of people tried it, and as I looked around, lots of babies seemed to enjoy chewing on them, so I figured why not.

I steamed up a bunch of beans so that they were soft but not soggy, and chilled them so we could take them with us.  I also pureed a bunch in my magic bullet so that she could get some nutrition from them as well.

And once again - success!! She loved chewing on them and they were the perfect size for her little hands to grab.  They were also a great tool for her to figure out how to put food that was in her hand into her mouth since they were sort of stick shaped.  I'm not sure she swallowed much of the bean part itself, but she definitely started to get the chewing/gumming them down and she got yet another new flavor.  These were probably the least messy so far, so they are a good "bring with you" food if you have to travel while introducing BLW.

Recommendation
Green Beans: Steam for 5-10 minutes, make sure beans are no longer crispy, but not yet soggy.  Chill and these can easily be saved for a couple of days in the fridge.
Green Bean Puree: Toss an handful of steamed beans into a blender/food processor with a little bit of water (beans are pretty watery themselves so they dont need much)

Apple and the Blender

I had purchased a number of potential foods, but figured we'd move onto apple next.  For the first night, I didn't have time to figure out how to cook it, so I just peeled it and gave her a few slices of Gala Apple, knowing she'd really just get a new flavor/texture.  She had fun with the apple slices, really seemed to like the sweet flavor.  By the end she had sucked on them so much that they were slimy and she couldn't really pick them up, and was frustrated, so I held onto a slice so she could just gnaw on it at will :)

On the second day, I baked a bunch of peeled apples with some nutmeg, cinnamon and water.  I had used my apple peeler/slicer/corer, so they were thin slices, but I basically left them as peeled half apples. I put them in a square glass dish and baked them at 375 for 45 minutes (until very soft).  I threw these into a blender and made a very smooth applesauce out of them.



While I was doing that, I decided to try and roast some apple slices for her to try for that night. They seemed to come out soft, but had this weird rubbery texture, so I put them in the microwave with some water for 15 seconds a side.  They seemed to soften a bit, but I wasnt real sure.  Sure enough, they werent quite soft enough.  She would try to gum them and ended up getting a big chunk once that freaked me out so I stuck my finger in to get it and ended up scaring her so she cried for a bit.  I stuck the apple in one of those feeder things and let her munch it to death that way.

We also took our first shot at pureed foods with the applesauce.  She LOVED it!! As per the BLW instructions, we were supposed to let her do it at her will.  Since she was getting good with foods, just putting the spoon near her, she reached out to grab it and shoved it in her mouth.  It took some maneuvering for her to get anything off the spoon, but she managed, and we probably got a tablespoon of applesauce :)

The next day I jumped online and read and read and read some more.  I found someone who mentioned steaming the apple slices with the skin on, and decided to try that.  WOW what a difference! It was perfect!  The skin gave her something to hold, and the apple meat was soft enough for her to gum off of the skin.  Amazingly enough she knew exactly what to do with the skin!

Also since we passed the 6 month mark, we gave her her first shot at the sippy cup with a little bit of formula in it.  She took to it right away, maybe because it was sort of a soft nipple like the bottle, or perhaps just because she is way too smart for us! lol.

Recommendation:
Apple: Steam slices with skin on!  Steam for 5-7 minutes, remove from pot and cool.
Applesauce: Peel and bake 3 apples (cored and halved) covered in foil with 3/4cup water, and maybe a half teaspoon of nutmeg and teaspoon of cinnamon.  Cool and process in a blender until smooth (or desired consistency)

Sweet... POOOOTAAATOOOO!!

Things were improving a bit.  I have to admit, I was still a bit skeptical.  It didnt seem like she was getting much food down at all, and I was still nervous as heck for her choking on something.  But we moved on... This time I read as much as I could on how to cook the food.  Many of the suggestions said to bake sweet potato "fries" in olive oil so that it made the insides soft but gave a skin for baby to grab onto.  So off I went... I peeled and cut half a sweet potato into somewhat thick fries, and baked it with olive oil.  They browned up a bit, and seemed to be nice and soft inside.  I discarded (aka ate) the ones that seemed to end up with dark crispy ends.  The rest I kept to give to her.

This was much more successful.  No real choking, and she was starting to get the concept of at least masticating the food to death.  She did gag a few times, but was able to get it moved around in her mouth quickly.  She might have even swallowed a couple of tiny pieces by the third time we gave it to her.  Either way, the sticks were easy to hold and the food softened in her grip.  And as a plus, they were easy to transport for food anywhere else if we wanted.

Recommendation
Sweet Potato:  This is great as an early food.  Peel the potato, cut into thick fries, toss in olive oil, and bake it at 400 for 10 minutes, then flip and bake for another 10.  Allow plenty of time to cool, then serve to baby.

Trees of Broccoli

With our first two foods under our belt, next up was Broccoli!  I steamed them for probably 15 minutes, until the stalks were fork tender.  I then dunked them in ice water so they wouldn't continue to cook, though I think the ice water did make them a bit more watery, but after the carrot, I figured smushy was good.

She had a lot of fun sticking the heads of the broccoli in her mouth and moving the little pieces around.  We arent sure she swallowed much of anything, but it seemed like pretty good fun. She did have a few gagging incidents, but everything we read said that was part of the process of learning to chew and swallow.

 It certainly ended up as the messiest of the foods!!  We were finding little sprigs of broccoli everywhere for days!!

Recommendation
Broccoli: Steam baby hand sized stalks for about 15 minutes.  You may be able to do enough for a few days and put it in a baggie in the fridge, but I just did it each day.  Cool and give to baby!