London's Incredible Palate

I finally started London on BABY FOOD!

So... I have had this blessing/curse of prioritizing my health since I became pregnant with London Rose.  It's a blessing because of the obvious reasons.... healthy body, healthy eating, and overall feeling of wellness.  It is a curse, because now I second guess everything I buy in the grocery.... from fillers in canned foods to products and lotions I put on London's skin.  Just let me mention.... I'm not drop dead, drag out healthy.  I still like my weekly weekend watermelon sour patch kids, theatre popcorn, and chewy sweet tarts.  I just try and make healthier choices on a daily basis.... like making sure I have all my fruit/vegetable servings each day before I can eat candy... I love candy.  
So... canned baby food falls into this category in my mind also.  As soon as I became pregnant, I knew from the get-go that I wanted to make my own baby food.

 It seems like the 'norm' these days is to limit your babies food intake to canned baby food in aisle 10 of walmart.  Is this ok?  Absolutely.  But, it's not for everyone.. and it's definitely not for me.  Is canned baby food going to hurt my child? No.  Is canned baby food bad for my child? No.  But is making my own baby food a healthier choice for London?  Absolutely.  To the moon and back. Yes.  Not to mention, homemade baby food has none of the random fillers/preservatives/by-substances that are found in jarred baby food.

As a mother, I feel like it is my responsibility to cultivate London's taste buds into liking fresh and healthy foods.  I also feel like it is my responsibility to let her taste every fruit and vegetable in her early stage of eating... so I don't have to barter with her to try and eat her vegetables when she is 2.. it will already be a familiar food (not to mention, jarred baby food is very limited in fruit/vegetables available).  The research on making your own baby food is astounding.  Through my research, these three things stood out the most to me:

1.  It's been proven to help prevent child obesity.......cultivating liking fresh instead of canned/fake.

2.  Creates a lifetime of healthy living.

3.  Cultures a non-picky eater. 

Ok, ok enough of my health tangent......... and back to my original purpose of posting this.  I was a little bit dreading making my own baby food... I thought it was going to take forever and I didn't really want to make new batches of baby food everyday.  Well....... lucky for me, I happened to find this incredible website on making, preparing, and storing homemade baby food.  You can also use this website by going here.  Do you believe that I made a month's worth of baby food in 2 hours?  It's true.  Not too shabby.  I can definitely spare 2 hours in a month to make sure London is eating her healthiest.  Despite what others say, making your own baby food is easy... trust me, I'm no homemaker...let's just say, cooking is not my cup of tea.  If I can do it and think it's easy..... anybody can do it.  That's not an understatement either.  

Nothing fancy is needed to make your own baby food....just a regular pot, strainer, blender and an ice tray.  However, I did buy these fancy blue silicone ice trays that are 1 ounce portions.  I bought mine at kitchen needs... i'm sure you can find cheaper ones on amazon... but I had a gift certificate that I needed to use.  I would recommend using the Tovolo silicone ice trays... but regular ones are just fine.   

So, pretty much all you do, is steam your peeled fruits/vegetables in tinfoil in the oven, or in a strainer over boiling water.  Just wait until they are barely soft and put in your blender.  Once you have pureed the fuits/vegetables, put them in the ice trays.  I like to put my baby food in a small plastic bag and just cut the bottom corner off and then I can squeeze the food into the trays easier.  But whatever works.  It should look something like this. 

Put the ice trays in the freezer and let them freeze for a few hours.  Take it out, pop the food out... and walla, you have frozen one ounce portions of baby food.  When your ready to feed them to your baby, just put the frozen cube of baby food in the microwave for 45 seconds to 1 minute.  Mix with breast milk or formula to thin out to your desire.  Done.  Easy.

Here is my homemade baby food for 1 month.  I just put the cubed baby food in labeled zip lock bags.  Oh, and I just prepare my avocado's and banana's freshly mashed up... but they can by mashed up and then frozen too.  It's just super easy to mash and eat them right then.... since they don't require any steaming to soften. 

Oh, I forgot to mention that I really wanted to try the Baby Led Weaning on London... but since she has reflux, there is no way that I would be able to do it without pureeing her food first.  Anyway, if you want to read/learn more about Baby Led Weaning, click here.

Here is a little video of London's first time eating 'baby food'.  It just so happens, that her first baby food was avocado's.  She was/is partial to them.  She likes sweet potatoes though.  Soooo fun to watch her eat new flavors.