November Baby Food Calendar

Month 4

This month is all about the finger foods! Babies, get your pinchers up and lets dive in to the following finger foods.

Check out the first, second, and third months of baby food and see how the food prep magic happens here.

Note: Some of these foods have been previously introduced in the mashed or pureed form. All foods listed below are finger foods intended for consumptoin by 9+ month old babies ready for stage 3 solids.

November 2013

Sunday	Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday	Saturday
					1 Blueberries	2
3	4 Avocado	5	6	7 Whole wheat pasta	8	9
10 Puffs	11	12	13 Peas	14	15	16 Cheerios
17	18	19 Bananas	20	21	22 Carrots	23
24	25 Scrambled egg yolks	26	27	28 Black beans	29	30

Adventures in Baby Food Making

Strange Tofu Combination

...that my girls' can't seem to get enough of is tofu with bananas and blueberries. It smells as terrible as it sounds but my girls inhale it like it's ice cream. Wut?!

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Here's how you make it:

• Tofu, firm
• 2 bananas
• 1 small carton of blueberries
• (optional) breast milk

Slice the tofu and lay flat on paper towels to absorb excess water. The boxes of tofu I buy yields approximately six slices. You can place paper towels on top of the slices as well to sop up maximum amounts of water. I recommend making the extra effort.

That's a tough as it gets.

Afterward, combine all ingredients with a food processor until fully incorporated. The bananas can be stubborn and might need a little help making their way to the blades.

Add breast milk if you would like the consistency to be a little more liquid.

The end result is going to be a gorgeous purple color. Fun!

Side note: I have one baby who is a vacuum cleaner. She eats everything. My other little one? She's the pickiest little thing I've ever met but this combination is probably her all time favorite meal right now.

October Baby Food Calendar

Month 3

This is our third month of baby food. They just turned eight months old but were one month premature, so I'm just now venturing into some finger foods and mixed purees. If you missed our first and second months of baby food, check them out here and here and see how the food prep magic happens here.

Here's what we'll be introducing this month:

October 2013

Sunday	Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday	Saturday
		1 Pumpkin	2	3	4 Tofu with bananas and blueberry	5
6	7 Butternut squash and pears	8	9	10 Pumpkin with bananas	11	12
13 Peas (whole - finger food)	14	15	16 Bananas (whole - finger food)	17	18	19 Acorn squash
20	21	22 Plums	23	24	25 Broccoli	26
27	28 Cantaloupe	29	30	31 Cherries

Seasonal Considerations

Guide to Fruits and Vegetables

Here's a one page guide showing which fruits and vegetables are in season throughout the year. Try to plan your solids introduction around what will be fresh and readily available.

And here's a quick preview:

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OXO Customer Service

Fabulous!

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OXO is a brand I've written about previously. I purchase a lot of their products, and specific to baby items, I love their OXO Tot Baby Block Set, which I mentioned previously.

I pulled a set out of the freezer the other day to discover one of the 2-oz containers had a crack running all down the side. It was completely ruined and I had to throw it away. I purchased these from amazon.com, but sent a letter directly to OXO customer service. In less than a week, I had a response in my inbox and a free replacement piece in the mail headed my way - no questions asked - no receipt needed, no picture of the damaged product, nothing.

On a scale of 1-10, how likely am I to praise this company and recommend them to others? 20!! They're amazing. Customer service is so important to me and this experience was top notch.

What companies have you had good experiences with? Bad experiences? Share in the comments!

Make It

Baby Food Edition

Zucchini

Prep Time: 10 minutes
Yields: 12 ounces

Le Zucchini

 

Chop off ends

Optional: Peel skins - this is a good idea for younger infants (4-6 month olds or to ease digestion issues)

Chop and steam

Blend and add liquid (milk, formula, or water)

Get more baby food ideas on the recipe tab!

Websites I Love

Wholesome Baby Food

Wholesomebabyfood.com is your one-stop-shop for infant food recommendations. I like it because it's very conservative in nature, so I trust they're not trying to force me to feed my infant food before they'll be ready.

This chart is awesome for infant meal planning! I have a copy hanging on my refrigerator and refer to it each week when we go grocery shopping.

Pros:

• Printable materials (like the chart linked above)
• Tons of information and answers to all of my questions - so far!

Cons:

• Quite a few advertisements on the page
• Some conflicting advice (peaches - whether to remove skin or not)
• Not very many pictures to go along with the recipes - you can find those on my site!

Products I Love

Highchairs

The Fisher-Price Space Saver High Chair in Pink Circles is my top pick for our girls' highchair needs.

We have a smaller house with a modest breakfast area that (barely) accommodates a round table and four chairs. There was no way we were going to fit two full sized highchairs in this space, as well. We entertain fairly regularly, so removing two of the full sized chairs wasn't an option.

These highchairs are great because they can sit on the floor if the other chairs are needed for guests. 'Installing' them on a chair is quick and painless.











Pros:

• Tray is dishwasher safe.
• Cover is machine washable. I also wash the buckles.
• Straps are adjustable.
• This thing is convertable! It turns into a booster seat when your LO is ready.

Cons:

• Tray does not fit in my dishwasher unless I want to do an entire load for one tray with nothing else on the rack.

Bonus: Check out some of the passive aggressive reviews for the Tan version. Yikes! Why do people feel the need to vent about their spouse in an Amazon review? Seriously??

Make It

Baby Food Edition

Peaches

Prep time: 1 hour
Yields: approximately 16 ounces

Le Peaches - I used three.

Remove pits.

Cut into sections and cook. I chose to steam them in the microwave.

Here they are - cooked to optimum mushiness.

Remove skins - this was a daunting (timely) process. I am definitey looking for a better option. Any suggestions?!

Food processor (before)

Food processor (after).

I didn't even add milk to this - plenty of liquid - but not too much! Perfection.

I'm on the look out for an easier way to make peaches and will report back with my findings!

In the mean time, check out more homemade baby food recipes here!

Question of the Week Results

What Was Your Baby's First Food?

Be sure to check out the current Question of the Week in the right-hand column!

Baby Food Calendars

Month 2

This is our second month of baby food. They just turned seven months old but were one month premature, so I'm sticking with mostly pureed food for now. If you missed our first month of baby foods, check them out here and see how the magic happens here.

Here's what we'll be introducing:

September 2013

Sun	Mon	Tues	Wed	Thurs	Fri	Sat
1 Mango	2	3	4 Zucchini	5	6	7 Beef
8	9	10 Apricots	11	12	13 Peas	14
15	16 Green beans	17	18	19 Nectarines	20	21
22 Summer squash	23	24	25 Papaya	26	27	28 Pumpkin
29	30

Make It

Baby Food Edition

Bananas

Prep time: 2 minutes
Yields: approximately 8 ounces

This recipe is so easy, it's almost insulting (or maybe it actually is...) What's your excuse?

Peel the banana and mash it with a fork.

Add breast milk to desired consistency and voila. It really is that easy!

Check out more homemade baby food recipes here!

Make It

Baby Food Edition

Black Beans

Prep time: 3 hours
Yields: approximately 50 ounces

The first legume we introduced to the girls was black beans. Although simple, this method took forever. On the bright side, it did make enough beans to last us for pretty much forever. I don't think I'll ever need to make another batch. ...Seriously.

This process was so long and boring I didn't even take my own pictures. You'll just have to trust me on this...

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Sort beans - remove any rocks (seriously, the directions say this... I've never made dried beans from a package before so this seemed weird to me)

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Pre-soak beans according to package directions. Mine said to boil in two inches of water for two minutes. Then cover and let sit for one hour. Drain and rinse. Initially, I thought the beans were done after this step, but then I realized this was just the precursor to the actual cooking of the beans. Omg...

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Next, put beans in a pan with six cups of water and simmer for 1.5 - 2 hours. I simmered mine for the full two hours to ensure they were tender and easily mash-able by the food processor. Drain and pour into food processor (or blender, in my case).

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I ended up using my Ninja (blender) to puree the beans because my large food processor decided it was not going to work today. I added quite a bit of milk to fully incorporate the beans and to reach desired consistency.

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This is pretty much what it looked like in the end. I added quite a bit more milk so my puree is much smoother.

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Finally, I loaded up my OXO Tot baby blocks and froze most of the beans to be eaten at a later date, as my girls didn't quite take to the taste right away. After about a week, they're starting to prefer this a bit more.

Pro Tip

4-oz Bottles

They're a waste!

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I bought a variety of bottle sizes (4 and 8 ounces). At first, we used the 4-oz bottles exclusively but inevitably, the girls started eating more than 4 ounces at a time.

Now, they're totally useless and I wish we had registered for more 8-oz bottles. They were never able to hold their own bottle during the 4-oz bottle reign, which would have been the only useful purpose for having a smaller bottle.

However, the formula cap pictured is AMAZING. We have three of these and they come in handy when you have a screaming hungry baby at 3 o'clock in the morning and need to throw together a bottle STAT.

For the Smiles

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Make It!

Baby Food Edition

Applesauce

Prep time: 5 minutes
Yields: approximately 12 ounces

After successfully making pureed pears (or pearsauce, as I like to think of it), it's time to conquer apples! Here's how:

Here's what an apple looks like, for those who are really starting from square one...

Peel and slice. Remove core, seeds, and stem

Dice into 1" cubes and toss into your food processor (or blender)

Here's what one apple yields (it's a VERY small food processor and was purchased before I knew I was carrying a litter of children and not just one)

Pulse on high. Initially, I assumed there would be enough natural liquid to fully blend the apples into a sauce but I was very wrong.

See? No amount of blending and pulsing was going to make these chunks disappear...

I added some breast milk and voila! That did the trick.

Throw the applesauce in the OXO tot baby blocks. These are 2-oz blocks, which means one apple and milk yielded just under 12-oz of applesauce.

Tip: The same methods can be used with pears to create a pearsauce for baby.
Tip 2: Once you've introduced the applesauce and are ready to try something new, add some cinnamon!

Pro Tip

Avocados: Getting The Most Bang For Your Buck

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When mashing avocados for Aubrey and Lily, I only use what I know will be eaten in a day or two. Once an avocado is cut into, it starts to go bad very quickly. To get the most bang for my buck, I cut the remaining avocado into slices, store in a plastic bag and freeze it. When I'm ready to make a new batch of mashed avocado, I thaw out a slice and it's ready to go.

Make It!

Baby Food Edition

Pureed Chicken

Prep time: 10 minutes
Yields: approximately 8 ounces

This weekend marked my first attempt at pureed meats and it was a huge success! I am amazed how different a chicken breast can look with just a few simple steps.

Lately, I've been getting surprising reactions from people who discover that I make my own baby food. I think people just don't realize how easy it is!

Here's how:

Heat about an inch of water in a saute pan

Remove any fat from the chicken breast

Cut chicken into 1" cubes

Place chicken cubes into pan of simmering water - cook for approximately 3 minutes

Flip chicken pieces over to cook evenly - approximately 3 more minutes - until cooked through

Place chicken pieces in food processor and let cool. I cover the container and place in the refrigerator for a couple of hours

Once the chicken has cooled, pulse in the food processor until crumbly in texture

Here's another view of the chicken

Next, add milk or water to reach desired consistency. I use quite a bit of breast milk because my girls are still getting use to the idea of solid foods and prefer smoother textures

Distribute into containers. I use OXO Tot baby blocks

..and serve! Lily approves :)

Edit: I love that my husband just called me at work asking how to make this pureed chicken because we ran out of the current stash. I just sent him this link! We're a good baby-food making team :)

Equipment: Get the same Cuisinart Food Processor and baby spoons I use!