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| MD teething on a carrot |
When I was pregnant with my first child, my husband and I went to hear a lecture by Dr. Alan Greene, author of Feeding Baby Green. The tag line for his book is "The earth-friendly program for healthy and safe nutrition."
The first thing that I learned from this lecture, as I have mentioned before, is that we are the parents and that we should always be learning and asking questions. Many things are just taken for granted as "the way it has always been done or the way it is usually done," but there are always alternatives.
Dr. Greene talks extensively about what we feed our children as babies and what forms their eating habits and associations with food throughout their lifetime. A topic in his book that I really took to is the lack of nutritional value that rice cereal has in an infant's diet, and how it is a processed food out of a box.
Until this lecture I had never thought about what I would be feeding MD beyond the hope that I could nurse him for at least the first several months. But leaving the Dr. Greene lecture, I had my mind made up that I was definitely going to make my own baby food. And I must admit, it has been a whole lot easier than I ever expected.
During an afternoon nap recently, I steamed and blended carrots, broccoli and peaches and also made lentil soup. If I use frozen fruit, I let it defrost first and then blend it with a hand blender. If I am steaming more than one vegetable for example, I will just scoop the carrots out of the steamer and then throw in the broccoli to save time. For me cleaning up can take a lot of time so I try to keep it convenient.
I often freeze the fruits and vegetables in ice cube trays, which is about 1oz per cube. I let them defrost for a few minutes before I pop them out and store them in a baggy in the freezer. I have ruined ice cube trays by trying to get them out with a knife right out of the freezer.
As for the lentil soup, I will sauteed yellow onions in olive oil before adding the water and lentils. I never add salt. Sometimes I will even throw in mushrooms or carrots. I no longer have to blend soup for MD but in the beginning I would blend soup with a hand blender and then store it. I use a nonstick muffin pan for this. Each muffin is about 3 oz. When you take the pan out of the freezer, let it sit for a few minutes before you try to pop the soup out. Do not use muffin tins or papers.
When I am ready to feed MD I will put a couple of cubes in a glass bowl in the fridge overnight, or I will put them in the microwave on defrost. The food in the picture about lasted about two weeks. When we eat out I try to bring homemade food but I always have a "Happy Baby" food pouch with me in case of an emergency.
Thank you for letting me share! Happy Baby Food Making!
