Two Much: My Life with Twins + 1: Baby Food

This week I have been busy making baby food. I made tons of baby food for the boys, but with moving I decided to delay the homemade baby food for a while. I continued to give Lydia things that were quick like bananas, and avocados, and egg yolks in addition to the jarred baby food until we moved and shortly after. I made a bunch of homemade applesauce and pear sauce last fall and still had lots of that in the freezer too. But this week was my 2nd adventure making baby food for Lydia...as I made a half hearted effort a few weeks ago and used up some carrots and some sweet potatoes that I had. This week I used afternoon nap time to focus on getting baby food made...because I really just don't want to buy any more. My process for baby food making is pretty simple. I peel my sweet potatoes and steam (not boil) them until they are tender. Drain, and use the potato masher to get them all soft and mushy. I also used this same exact process for my carrots and squash. With peas, I buy the frozen ones, cook them just a little until they are soft and then mash them too. I usually have to add water to them to get them a little better consistency, but sometimes they are okay with none. Green beans are totally different animal and I buy the frozen ones of these too...they seem to be fresher than canned and are not overcooked. I generally steam them and in small batches use my food processor to get them to a decent consistency. Lydia is 9 months now and has 2 teeth, so I don't need them super smooth...green beans are incredibly hard to get that smooth anyway...without straining and blending a ton. I usually do add water to my green beans, but that is it. On a weekly basis, I cook about a half dozen eggs and feed her the yolks only (until she reaches 1 year) and use the whites as either salad toppings or in tuna salad. I also buy an avocado weekly (they are God's perfect food) and use some all week. They will get dark when you put them in the fridge, but I just use a butter knife and skim off the dark and it is still perfect underneath. I always have bananas in my fruit bowl and buy about 2 bunches a week...I found some ripe ones clearanced out at a grocery store this weekend and bought a whole box for banana bread and baby food.

(Just a note on this: After I filled the pan the first time, I had some left over...I put it in a plastic baggie and when it was time to fill the pan again, i cut the corner and "piped" it out of the baggie....SOOOO easy!)

When I made food for the boys, except for when they first started, I didn't use my ice cube trays much. I usually made their food in snack cups and fed them both from the same cup. (I love the ice cube trays linked up here. I am not so great at getting right back to the frozen baby food and don't want it to pick up the smells and tastes of other items in the freezer.) This time I decided to try something a little different instead of having a freezer full of snack cups...plus I use them constantly with the boys and didn't want them all used up. I used my large 12 serving muffin pan to do my flash freezing and then popped the food out and put the different kinds of food in different freezer gallon size bags. It was so easy and I'll definitely do it again, if not with Lydia, then down the road.

(this was my first Lydia freezing...about a month ago)

I have a baby food grinder and I have started to carry that with me again so Lydia can eat what we're eating, but I also have a little portable hand chopper thing that I love too. I usually use one of these to grind/cut up what ever the meat is that we are eating. Lydia loves cheese, so when we are going out to eat, I grab a cheese stick and pinch off pieces for her to gum. I found some Baby Mum-Mum at Sam's Club at a great price and she loves them! I like how long they take her to eat too!

One last thing...I think making baby cereal is so super easy...it isn't necessary for me to repeat the directions that are so nicely written here. I hope you will try your hand at cereal too!

Super Baby food