We had two new veggies last week. On Saturday T started avocados. This was super easy for me to make. I cut an avocado in half, scooped out one quarter into one of the little Gladware containers, and mashed until smooth. Very easy! As my brothe-in-law (who also made most of my niece's food) said, avocados were his favorite! T also really likes to eat them. So great news all around!
We also started peas, which I made and froze ahead of time. The first few times she ate them, she seemed to really like them. This was pretty exciting because apparently I hated peas with a passion when I was little. I love them now, and they are super easy to make so I'm really pulling for those to be a fave. But today when we picked her up from daycare, we noticed she had green smears all over her outfit. Hmmm, didn't remember those being there when we dropped her off! Her teacher said peas weren't so popular today. Welp. The book said it takes 21 times eating something before they form an opinion, so we'll keep trying.
This weekend we re-started bananas (officially). You may remember that they were the very first thing we fed her (besides milk), before I read that you should start with veggies. She once again gobbled the bananas down. Tomorrow we get to start another food, and are introducing the green beans that I made last week. I'll let you know how it goes!
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Tuesday, April 30, 2013
Friday, April 19, 2013
Green Giant
To quote my mother-in-law: "Wait until you try green beans or peas". As in, sweet potatoes are easy to get down because they taste yummy (supposedly), but the green veggies don't get quite the same reaction from kiddos. Well, I took that as a challenge, and spent tonight making and freezing geen beans and peas for the next couple of weeks. Today was day #4 for her first food, sweet potatoes. Tomorrow we get to add a new one. I think we're going to do avocados for two reasons. 1) I've heard that is one of the best three to start with, and 2) avocados were on sale today at the grocery store! After avocados, I can't decide if we'll try bananas again to do fruit, or keep on our veggie train and go for one of the types I made tonight.
I have to say, both green beans and peas were super easy to make. My plan was to get the steamer bags, toss them in the microwave, and blend. Well, a single little steamer bag is about $2.50, while a giant bag of peas that weighs approximately the same as T was $4.99. It was a no brainer. I went with the super-size bag and tossed half of it into my Pampered Chef microwavable steam pot. The veggies steamed while I made dinner, then cooled while we ate. After putting T to bed, I put half of the beans into my Baby Bullet (from now on to be called the BB) along with almost all of the water used for steaming. This was the perfect amount to create a nice puree. I had to use fresh water for the remaining beans, but it still turned out well. Next up were the peas. The Beans went into ice cube trays, and the peas went into my little Glad ware containers. No significant reason for those storage containers, but the Glad containers were still drying when I made the beans.
Notables:
- I don't use a lot of water when steaming veggies in the microwave, so don't use my directions as exact science. I like to start with a little less water when pureeing, then slowly add until I have the right texture.
- The texture for both the beans and the peas was a little grainier. I hope this isn't an issue for her when she tries them.
- I started using little round lables today to mark the contents of each container, as well as the date it was made.
- The Gladware containers above are great for baby food! I also adore the BB containers, but only have 12 of those. Ice cube trays are my least favorite because you have to figure out something to put them in, both for storage and for feeding.
So far T loves eating and is getting solids 3 times a day. It's kind of a pain to feed her because she likes to grab the food part of the spoon, but she is very enthusiastic. So far no tantrums!
I have to say, both green beans and peas were super easy to make. My plan was to get the steamer bags, toss them in the microwave, and blend. Well, a single little steamer bag is about $2.50, while a giant bag of peas that weighs approximately the same as T was $4.99. It was a no brainer. I went with the super-size bag and tossed half of it into my Pampered Chef microwavable steam pot. The veggies steamed while I made dinner, then cooled while we ate. After putting T to bed, I put half of the beans into my Baby Bullet (from now on to be called the BB) along with almost all of the water used for steaming. This was the perfect amount to create a nice puree. I had to use fresh water for the remaining beans, but it still turned out well. Next up were the peas. The Beans went into ice cube trays, and the peas went into my little Glad ware containers. No significant reason for those storage containers, but the Glad containers were still drying when I made the beans.
Notables:
- I don't use a lot of water when steaming veggies in the microwave, so don't use my directions as exact science. I like to start with a little less water when pureeing, then slowly add until I have the right texture.
- The texture for both the beans and the peas was a little grainier. I hope this isn't an issue for her when she tries them.
- I started using little round lables today to mark the contents of each container, as well as the date it was made.
- The Gladware containers above are great for baby food! I also adore the BB containers, but only have 12 of those. Ice cube trays are my least favorite because you have to figure out something to put them in, both for storage and for feeding.
So far T loves eating and is getting solids 3 times a day. It's kind of a pain to feed her because she likes to grab the food part of the spoon, but she is very enthusiastic. So far no tantrums!
Monday, April 15, 2013
Baby Food Attempt #1
We finally made the leap! At 5.5 months, T got her first taste of real food. Saturday I mashed up part of an overripe banana, mixed in some milk, and let her try a few bites of the pureed food. She loved it! She slurped the first bites down no problem, more intent on playing with her new slick bib. But then she decided it was pretty tasty and started grabbing the spoon and shoving it in her mouth. So cute! Of course, after feeding her, I dug out the book I purchased about making your own baby food and read that you should start with veggies, not fruit. Whoops!
After the first attempt I decided to "re-start" and do it right. I got out the amazing Baby Bullet set my mother-in-law purchased for us and got it all washed up. The book suggested we start with either avocados or sweet potatoes. The rule of thumb is to focus on one food for 4 days before adding anything new, to ensure that you can identify the culprit if anything causes a negative reaction. Target netted me a couple of HUGE sweet potatoes ($0.89 each) and a couple of avocados ($1.29 each). I started with the sweet potatoes, peeling and dicing each one. Those suckers were tough to cut! My friend had to give me tips because, believe it or not, I don't eat potatoes and don't have a clue how to prepare them.
After dicing the potatoes, I put them in a steamer, inside my big sauce pan with some water at the bottom. Cooked on medium-low with a lid, it took about 25 minutes for them to soften. Wow, I was not expecting it to take that long!
The next adventure was actually pulverizing them in the Baby Bullet. It worked pretty well once I realized that I needed more liquid. I used 2 oz of milk for just 3/4 a potato, and still needed to add water! The book recommended using the left over water used from steaming, which worked well. I used only water for the remainder of the potato, because I'd frozen the rest of my milk already. One potato made enough food for all 6 baby jars, 6 cubes, plus two mini-Glad ware containers. Wow! That is 14 servings for under $2.00 total. That is about $0.14 a serving. The last time I checked one jar of baby food was around $1.50 a serving. Not bad!
After the first attempt I decided to "re-start" and do it right. I got out the amazing Baby Bullet set my mother-in-law purchased for us and got it all washed up. The book suggested we start with either avocados or sweet potatoes. The rule of thumb is to focus on one food for 4 days before adding anything new, to ensure that you can identify the culprit if anything causes a negative reaction. Target netted me a couple of HUGE sweet potatoes ($0.89 each) and a couple of avocados ($1.29 each). I started with the sweet potatoes, peeling and dicing each one. Those suckers were tough to cut! My friend had to give me tips because, believe it or not, I don't eat potatoes and don't have a clue how to prepare them.
Raw
Cooked
Thursday, April 11, 2013
Pots & Pans Suggestions Needed
My grandpa generously gave us a large Calphalon pot & pan set for our wedding several years ago. It was the nice non-stick set that has served us well. Lately though, I noticed the non-stick finish on my big sauce pan has been flaking off. Now, I don't necessarily see it flaking, but all along the inside edge I can see right down to the metal. It's concerning to think of chemical flakes in our food, so we want to buy a new sauce pan. What type to get though? Do we go for the steel pan? Copper? Try our luck with non-stick again? If you have any suggestions, please share!
Monday, April 8, 2013
CSA
CSA: Community Supported Agriculture.
This is a great program that not only gets a broad range of fresh, organic veggies and herbs onto your table, but supports local farms. My company has partnered with a farm in Wisconsin for several years to provide a CSA opportunity for its workers. This is something I've contemplated doing for a couple of years, but was concerned about the volume (overwhelming!) of produce as well as the wide variety (we're picky eaters). I figured it would be cheaper to go pick up the few veggies we liked at a farmers market (hello, it happened like 3 times last summer. I wasn't joking when I said we aren't good about eating veggies).
Now that we have Miss T though, and she'll be starting on baby food soon, I figured it was the perfect opportunity to try the program out and expand her palate from the start. My plan is to make as much of her baby food as possible. We've got the Baby Bullet, containers, and I purchased a recipe book online a few weeks ago. I'd like for us to try and eat some of the new veggies as well, and hopefully expand our palates too! It would be wonderful if she developed a love for veggies and wasn't super picky like her parents. Luckily our great friends, who also work at the same company, have a child 4 months older than Miss T and are sharing the program with us. I've heard it's best to split a share because one family has a difficult time getting through a box on their own.
I have to admit I'm very excited to try some new foods and recipes! If you have any good veggie-filled recipes, send them my way! I'll test them out and put our favorites on the blog.
This is a great program that not only gets a broad range of fresh, organic veggies and herbs onto your table, but supports local farms. My company has partnered with a farm in Wisconsin for several years to provide a CSA opportunity for its workers. This is something I've contemplated doing for a couple of years, but was concerned about the volume (overwhelming!) of produce as well as the wide variety (we're picky eaters). I figured it would be cheaper to go pick up the few veggies we liked at a farmers market (hello, it happened like 3 times last summer. I wasn't joking when I said we aren't good about eating veggies).
Now that we have Miss T though, and she'll be starting on baby food soon, I figured it was the perfect opportunity to try the program out and expand her palate from the start. My plan is to make as much of her baby food as possible. We've got the Baby Bullet, containers, and I purchased a recipe book online a few weeks ago. I'd like for us to try and eat some of the new veggies as well, and hopefully expand our palates too! It would be wonderful if she developed a love for veggies and wasn't super picky like her parents. Luckily our great friends, who also work at the same company, have a child 4 months older than Miss T and are sharing the program with us. I've heard it's best to split a share because one family has a difficult time getting through a box on their own.
I have to admit I'm very excited to try some new foods and recipes! If you have any good veggie-filled recipes, send them my way! I'll test them out and put our favorites on the blog.
Sunday, April 7, 2013
Off-Track
This is my confessional tonight. I have begun eating terribly. We've had so much going on between Tierney, work, and life, and I honestly haven't gone grocery shopping in almost 3 weeks. This means we are existing off our freezer meals (thanks mom for stocking us up!) and fast food. Eek! I'm still significantly down in weight, but feel junky from all the, well, junk food. Thank goodness I work next to a Target, otherwise I wouldn't even have lunch food! I so badly wanted to grocery shop this weekend but just didn't have time. We desperately need some real food though, and actual meals. Maybe tomorrow? Wish me luck!
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