Thursday, August 27, 2009

Making baby food is loads of fun!

Those who know me, know that I love to cook. It is probably not a surprise that I make all my baby food for Tristan. Well, what I can make anyways. We do buy the cereal, cheese, and yogurt for him. We have not tried any of the store bought baby food from the jars yet and I don't think we need to.

Tristan started eating solids when he turned 6 months old. Fortunately for us, it was summer time and most of the fruits and vegetables were in season. Because babies start on simple foods and there is no seasoning whatsoever, making baby food is a snap. We have the Magic Bullet too and it works great for pureeing and mashing his food. We would cook more than enough and then what we can't consume in 2 days, we would freeze right away in baby cubes.

I love my baby cubes! I bought 1 set of the Stage 1 cubes and 2 sets of the Stage 2 cubes. They are microwaveable, dishwasher friendly, freezable etc. The Stage 1 cubes really don't fit much and would be only good for when the baby is really young. I also find that the Stage 1 cubes don't close as tightly as the Stage 2 cubes. A Stage 2 cube can be defrosted and used over 2 days in the fridge. I do that now. If you want to do just one feeding, then you could use an entire Stage 1 cube. Otherwise, I would suggest just buying Stage 2 cubes. They fit more and are better containers.

In the beginning, we were boiling our vegetables since it was simpler for us but now we are steaming and baking some as well. We have already fed Tristan a great variety of fruits, vegetables, meats, and meat alternatives. Babies don't really have a preference to certain foods so this is our chance to introduce him to everything healthy. I've actually really enjoyed making food for him. Now, that he is 9 months old, I am mixing more of his food. For instance, I would mix black cod with zucchini, potato, and chicken broth. I would also serve baked butternut squash with a bit of formula milk so it is a bit sweet and creamy for him. Today, he had smooth tofu with carrots. They are all simple dishes but baby yummy! Whenever I can, I buy organic ingredients too. Since he doesn't eat much, we normally only have to buy one item and it would last him a long time.

The goal is to keep up feeding him baby food is mashed form or small chunks until he is 1 year old. I want to be more creative in the dishes that I make as well but I don't want to introduce any seasonings yet. Right now, I am actually using formula milk or breastmilk as my seasoning. Of course, I can't completely avoid seasonings and additives since I am feeding him things like cottage cheese and bread, which I buy from the store. Hopefully, when he is 1, we can feed him homo milk. There are a lot of other foods too that will be safe for him when he turns 1. That will be another exciting time :)

0 comments:

Related Posts with Thumbnails