YUM!!

Yup, I admit I enjoy making baby food. I mean, who wouldn't want to make healthy food for a face like this:

So far Brielle has eaten a wide variety of fruits and veggies, but mostly veggies. The nice part about making your own food is it can be quick and very easy if you plan right. Most every food needs to be cooked and what better place than the microwave. When she's awake, I pop whatever it is in a plastic zippy bag, microwave it until cooked and then cool. Often I'll wait until she's down for a nap, pull out the good old Baby Bullet and puree away.

The bullet comes with freezer trays. Once frozen the food can be popped out and put in either a zip lock bag or into one of the storage cups. The freezer trays are the shape of the cups so it doesn't get any easier than that.

So far she's eaten the following:

Apples: they need to be cored, peeled and cooked in the microwave. Puree.

Carrots: washed and cooked on stove is easiest. Puree. Brielle is lucky. Her carrots are home grown from Grandma Bev's garden.

Spaghetti Squash: cut, scoop out seeds, put in a zippy bag and cooked in the microwave until tender and squash peels from the sides when scraped with a fork. Puree. Brielle's squash is also home grown with love from Grandma Bev's garden.

Pears: they need to be cored, peeled and steamed for a couple of minutes in the microwave. Puree.

Avocado: no need to cook. Just cut, remove pit and scrape from insides. Mash on a plate and serve.

Banana: also doesn't have to be cooked. Just mash on a plate and serve.

Peas: cooked and pureed.

Green beans: cooked and pureed.

Sweet potato: peeled, placed in bag in microwave, cooked until tender and pureed.

So far we have found that making baby food is much cheaper than buying it, even at .50 a jar in the store. For instance, I just finished prepping a squash today and while I'm not done freezing it all, I will likely get 20+ jars from 3/4 of a squash.

I think we've decided to save potatoes for Christmas. She should enjoy that. :)

We are also going to wait until she's a bit older to start introducing mixed fruits and veggies with things like oatmeal (not the made-for-baby kind, but regular oatmeal), rice and quinoa. There are some pretty cool recipes that I'm sure she'll enjoy. She also hasn't been introduced to meats. We'll wait a bit for that as well.

But as for food, she loves it. Typically a mouth full of something is followed by her saying "mmmmmmmm." And once her mouth is empty, she has it open like a baby bird. That's our girl!