Sweet Potatoes and Avocados

Don’t worry, I haven’t forgotten you. And I did actually make some baby food since my last post. I had some personal stuff that needed tending to, but now I should be back to at least once a week posting.

Well, my little guy has progressed quite a bit since we first started with the solid food. I think the “beginner” food was just too runny for him. He had a lot of problems keeping it in his mouth. The second he would close his mouth, all of the food came out. I started thickening the cereal quite a bit and noticed that it was easier for him to eat, so he ate a lot more than the runny stuff.

I introduced avocados which he LOVES. I think that they may be his favorite. I just bought a couple organic ones, chopped them up and then popped them into a plastic freezer storage bag in the freezer. Now when I feed him, I just take out one of the chunks and in a couple of minutes it is soft enough to smash and feed. He really loves it. I usually give him that alone, but mix the sweet potatoes with the cereal (not in the bowl, but on the same spoon).

I found some HUGE organic sweet potatoes at a health food store, so since it was out of town, I stocked up and bought four. Here they are with the avocados.

To prepare the sweet potatoes, I used the recipe in my last post. I baked the sweet potatoes at 410 degrees for over an hour (somewhere between 1 hour 15 minutes and 1 hour 30 minutes). I don’t think they would normally need to bake that long, but these were humongous. When they were finished baking, I set them on the counter to cool and once they got to room temperature, I put them in the refrigerator. We had plans that day, so I couldn’t get back to them until the next day. Once I started making the food, I just peeled off the skins, which was super easy because the potatoes had baked for so long. I chopped up the potato and put it in the Magic Bullet* with some formula. After blending a couple of seconds, we had sweet potato baby food!

I used a smaller spoon to spoon the food into the trays.Once the trays were filled, I covered them with plastic wrap (mostly to make sure that no debris could get into them in the freezer) and stuck in the freezer.

Again, due to work and some commitments, I didn’t get back to the cubes for a couple of days. By then they were definitely frozen and kind of difficult to remove from the trays. I set them on the counter to thaw for about 30 minutes, which made them much easier to remove. Then I put them in a plastic freezer storage bag, dated, and put back in the freezer.

I did try some of this food, although I was nervous because I know how awful the formula tastes. It really wasn’t that bad and the sweet potatoes really overpowered the formula, which is good. I finally got through the jar of organic sweet potatoes, so I am going to give him the homemade stuff tonight. Of course with some avocado!

I know that this was my first try, but so far it really is super easy. Besides the baking (which I don’t count because you don’t need to be there for it), the entire process (including clean up, but we do have a dishwasher) took around 30 minutes. And I have a ton of food. I think that I got about 57 ounces out of the four potatoes. And I only spent $4 and some change on the potatoes. Of course we always have formula around, and I would say that I used about 15-20 ounces of it. The teeny, tiny 2.5 ounce jar of food cost about 59¢ (on sale). So, I can see how this can save money and it really wasn’t difficult and didn’t take up very much time. Of course, I also have the advantage of totally knowing what I am putting into my son’s body.

Next up, either green beans or bananas. I am still unsure, but I am leaning towards green beans.

*Hint on the Magic Bullet – always use the smaller bullet cup for baby food. The larger bullet cup was too big and would not blend the food on the top. The larger is pictured, but I learned my lesson.

The baby food begins

As planned, we started the little guy on organic rice cereal Sunday. He is a much better eater than I expected. Not that he is eating very much, but he knows to open his mouth and is really excited about the bib and high chair. Actually, I think that he likes the bib more than the cereal. He does get excited to put the cereal in his mouth, but usually makes a disgusted face once he tastes it.

For the first two days, he was only eating the cereal once every evening. I planned to introduce sweet potatoes next, but when I went to the grocery store there weren’t any organic sweet potatoes. I was forced to buy the jarred food (all organic, though). He started eating the sweet potatoes Tuesday night. He seems to like them a bit better than the cereal, but overall he seems unimpressed with solid foods. He does get excited about the bib and high chair every time.

I did find organic avocados that I hope will be ripe by the weekend. Also, this weekend I am traveling out of town anyway, so I am going to try to find organic sweet potatoes. If I can find them, I may just stock up.

If I do find the sweet potatoes, this is the recipe that I am going to use to make the baby food:

Sweet Potatoes
(age 6 months +)

1. Preheat oven to 410 degrees

 2. Wash and poke holes in sweet potato with a fork. Run under water again and then wrap in tin foil (do not peel potato)

3. Place on lower rack and bake for 30 – 60 minutes (until soft)

4. Remove skins (cut lengthwise and scoop out the “meat”)

5. When cool puree (or thin) with your choice of liquid (I am using formula)

And this is how I am going to prepare the avocados:

Avocados
age 6 months +)
No need to preparation. Mash and serve with applesauce, peaches, pears, or bananas.

To freeze, cut into slices and freeze as a slice (mashing before freezing tends to turn the avocado browner).

I am not going to introduce any fruits yet, but when I do I will mix those mentioned above with the avocados. Very simple, easy recipes. The sweet potatoes should freeze nicely in the cubes (I plan to make it in bulk).

I read very mixed ideas about what ages certain foods should be introduced. Most of these only vary by a month or so, but I still don’t want to give my son a food that his stomach is not prepared to digest, so I always go with the highest age. In most cases Super Baby Food has the highest ages, so I use that as my primary resource.

These are the foods that (in my opinion) are safe to introduce at 6 months:

Sweet potato, Avocado (raw), Organic rice cereal, Homemade whole grain cereal, Apricots, Banana (raw), Mango (raw), Nectarine, Papaya (raw), Peaches, Pears (either), Plums, Prunes, Whole milk yogurt, Winter squash

All of the fruits and vegetables need to be cooked, strained, and pureed into a smooth, consistency free of lumps. Fruits that are safe to serve raw are indicated.

I have read a few different methods to introduce food and have also asked a few people for advice. The general consensus is to feed vegetables before fruits because after tasting the sweetness of the fruit, the vegetable isn’t nearly as appealing. So, I am a little bummed that there aren’t more vegetables in this list. Also, we know that my son has some difficulty with milk, so I am going to postpone the yogurt for a while.

I’m not sure which food I will try after the avocados. Right now, I would guess bananas because they are easy to find and prepare. I am going to check around this weekend to see what is out there and maybe I can get some of the other fruits, especially those that will be difficult to find in my town.

It looks like 7 months is when the fun will really begin. There are a lot more vegetable options and he will have eaten enough of the 6 month food that I can start getting creative with combinations. There are already a couple of recipes that I want to try.

Also, everything that I read suggested that when introducing a food to offer it four days in a row before introducing another food. This can help to identify any food allergies. I didn’t do this with the cereal because we had tried cereal before, but I plan to do this with other foods.

Update

My son started showing interest in food this past weekend! He is about 5 ½ months, so his age is right on, he just always loved his bottle and never seemed to care before. When we were visiting Bapa and Nana last weekend, they sat him on the table and he was reaching for any food that was near. He would also stare at anyone that was eating. So, now I really need to speed up this process and get everything ready. I am not prepared to make his food yet, and really thought that I had more time, but luckily cereal is the first food (it is even suggested to use store bought before 6 months and homemade after 6 months).

The CSA contacted me this past weekend. Good news – they still have shares available, so they sent me a contract. Plus, they have a pick up location on Saturday in my town. And, another bonus, I found out that they also supply some (organic) beef and that is included the share. Our deliveries begin in April and I intend to post pictures. If we plan ahead and freeze everything correctly, I doubt that we will have to buy additional produce for the year.

Teresa lent me a book, Super Baby Food by Ruth Yaron. She was also nice enough to attach a couple of notes and some advice. I have already been glancing through it and can’t wait to curl up and read (especially with all of this snow!), and hopefully I will have time this weekend. I want to use this for most of my recipes (particularly in the beginning).

Teresa’s advice:
I would look up fruit/vegetable/meat in the index and then read about when I could give it to my kids. I often just looked at the shelves of baby food too to get ideas of different pairings for foods (like strawberry banana or things like that). I would usually steam the food or microwave with a little water or bake (winter squash) and try not to overcook it too much so I didn’t lose many nutrients. Then, once cooled I would puree in blender or Magic Bullet (works best) with the liquid from cooking if needed and would use more water if I didn’t have enough liquid. Then I would freeze it in 16 cube trays (perfect size portions) and then once frozen, store in freezer bags. One more thing – I would buy (out of season) bags of frozen berries, like mixed berries and cook a little in microwave and add a little apple juice or even sugar to sweeten a little. Good luck!

I now have a partner for this journey, which I am really excited about. Yay, Sarah! I can’t wait to share stories and tips!

Research, Recommendations, and Resources

 Research

To begin, I looked up some baby food recipes on the internet. This entire concept is completely unfamiliar to me and I do not have any close friends in the area that have ever done this. I really wanted to see if it was even practicable for our family, or if it was something that was incredibly time consuming or expensive that we could not accommodate. I was happy to find that making baby food is not only a cost saver, but the recipes seem simple and can be accomplished in just a couple hours during the weekend and also can be made in bulk.

Recommendations

Next I wanted to talk to someone who had actually made baby food before. Luckily, a co-worker’s wife, Teresa, is a SAHM who is (well, was, her kids are older now) a firm believer in making her own baby food. I asked her for any recipes and/or tips that she may have to make the process easier. Her first suggestion was that I purchase a Magic Bullet. Although the Magic Bullet is a $55 appliance, she swore that I would recover the cost quickly with the homemade baby food and it would not only make the process easier, but it also is the best appliance for the job. She also said that she still uses it to make her kids homemade smoothies. Her other suggestion was to purchase ice cube trays. Once the food is made, it is divided into the trays and frozen. After the food freezes, it is removed from the trays and stored in a labeled Ziploc bag. In a regular ice cube tray each cube size is approximately one ounce, so premeasured food can be frozen and stored with minimal space consumed in the freezer.

Sticking to my eco-friendly ideas, I think that I will purchase this type of tray. But, since the food will need to travel to the baby-sitter, I am going to purchase at least one set of these, too. Although it isn’t stated on the Amazon website, these containers are BPA and phthalate free. Plus, I have read that some foods (like apricot and prunes) do not freeze solid, so these will keep the portions separate for those types of food. Maybe I should purchase two sets of these...

Resources

I realize that there are many benefits (in food quality and cost) in supporting local farmers. Also, I would rather not fund the overly priced, imported, organic section at the grocery store. With those ideas, I am pursuing alternative options for finding ingredients.

Both my sister, Jamie, and my friend, Kate, have participated in a CSA (Community Supported Agriculture). I was interested in joining a CSA years ago when Jamie started, but was unable to find one in my area. Fortunately, I recently found this site that supplied me with the names of three CSAs in my community. With the information on this website, I compared prices and also the length of time that each provides shares. I found one that was not only less expensive than the others, but also offers shares for 42 weeks out of the year. And they allow a half share (which I think is more than enough for my family). I contacted this CSA for more details, but haven’t heard back yet. I really hope that this CSA works out; it is a great way to acquire seasonal produce while supporting local agriculture.

I also plan to visit the Farmer’s Market weekly once it starts again in the spring/summer and possibly some local orchards and farms to pick (if we have time as a family), or at least purchase fruits, as needed. I mentioned in the last post that there are a few health food stores in the area and I need to visit those in the near future to see what they provide. If necessary, I also have Trader Joe’s and Whole Foods about an hour away.

My last (and most important) resource is the group of people willing to help me with this transition. I know that you may think that I am being dramatic, because, seriously I am just purchasing organic produce and sticking it in a blender monthly. But for us, in a land of frozen pizza and Lean Cuisines, this is going to be a huge lifestyle change. I love that I have people in my life that understand how important this is and have offered to help. Thank you all (and you know who you are).