Diff: BabyFoodCook

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version 2

I Am The Very Model of a Modern Baby Master Chef

I've been making a lot of baby food lately, (not surprising, since we have a baby). As a dad, I really enjoy making baby food. It's something concrete you can do for your baby at time when he is largely dependent on mom. It's also a great way to make healthy food cheaply, especially if you live near a year-round farmers market like I do.

Here's a quick overview of how I cook and package my baby food. First, assemble the ingredients. You can use pretty much any combination of flavors you want. I usually try to go a little on the sweet side. This time I made a sweet potato, spinach, and beet puree. I peel the beets to get all the dirt off them, but this is probably overkill.

Put a pot of water on the stove to boil, and wash all the ingredients.

Cut all the beets and sweet potatoes into roughly similar chunks, so they will cook at the same rate. I microwave the spinach for a minute to get it all thoroughly softened up.

Boil the beets and potatoes until they are soft, which should be around 45 minutes. I save the resulting juice for flavoring later - it's quite sweet.

Remove the skins from the potatoes, now everything is ready for blending. I use a blender because that's what I have. Blenders are kind of annoying because an air bubble forms around the blades. Thus you have to continually use a wooden spoon to press down the contents. I really recommend a food processor if you can get one. Also note that I added a couple cups of water to counteract the stickiness of the sweet potato.

When you're all done the mixture should be quite smooth. Obviously my flash makes this look a little scary. Now the fun part: we've been buying baby food in foil pouches lately because they are easier to deal with than glass jars (although more expensive). It's also easier to feed the baby because he can suck on the pouch like the world's cutest astronaut. When we're done with the original contents I rinse out the pouches and run them through the dishwasher to clean them. Then, I use a big 60ml syringe to refill the pouches with my homemade baby food. The largest pouches hold about 120ml.

As you can see, this process gets a little messy.

When I'm all done filling the pouches, I put a tape label on them with the date and contents. I usually freeze about half the pouches and put the rest in the fridge. I think you can probably get a couple weeks in the fridge if you are just doing vegetable and fruit purees.

And that, my friends, is how I make baby food. LIKEABOSS

ps - the baby really enjoys this mix a lot.

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