Baked Peaches

Finally, peaches are in season - well sorta! You can find white peaches, georgia/california peaches in most stores now. Sweet!! No more jarred peaches for my little one!

I decided this time to use my new favorite method - baking!

Take as many peaches as you want
Preheat your oven to 400 degrees.
Wash off the peaches
Put about an half inch of water into a glass baking dish
Half each peach and lay it in the glass baking dish, in the water.. with the cut side in the water and the skin facing outwards (not in water)
Bake for 25 minutes
When you take them out.. let them cool for a few moments
This is the easiest way to peel peaches - the skin will peel/fall right off!
Chop them up, put them into the blender, puree and freeze!

Mango Madness

Caelyn has covered basically all of the basics...
carrots = ew
green beas = bigger ew
peas = good, but only the jarred not mommy's
sweet potato = yummy
squash = tolerated
apples = good
bananas = FAVORITE
pears = delicious
peaches = yumyum

So... I decided to move onto something fun.. Mango.. I decided this as I was walking through Walmart and saw a bag of Dole frozen mango..
REMEMBER: When you buy frozen or anything not fresh, read the ingredients it has to say only the fruit and maybe water. if it doesn't, don't use!!
So.. this was only Mango chunks.. it was expensive.. almost $3 but it made 16 1-oz portions. Mango isn't something that I would give her everyday.. but we started off with just mango to see her reaction.. and make sure there are no allergies.. so far so good..
Mango is good for mixing!
Mango & banana
Mango & apple..etc! Thats what I wanted her to try mango. She had mango and bananas this morning and that equals yumyum.

1 bag of Dole Mango chunks
1 cup water

I microwaved the chunks for about 5-6minutes until they were very soft. I put them in the blender.. until it was nice and creamy.. this equals 16-1oz portions, but i kept out about 2-3oz for that days meals!

Baked Apples

Recently I decided it was time to make Caelyn some homemade apple baby food.I decided to taste her jarred applesauce.. YUCK! It doesn't even taste like apples! Whatever!

So, I bought 4 apples (don't use Granny Smith because they really are bitter. Use anything else!)
I had thought about boiling them like I do with alot of other things.. then I remembered.. Apple Crisp.. yumyum right?
So.. I took my 4 apples..
I washed and peeled them, along with cored them.
Then, I diced into little pieces.
I preheated my oven at 325 before I did all of this. I put the apples in a glass baking dish along with about 1 1/2cups of water - 2 cups. I don't remember exactly (opps! haha)
I baked the apples for 25 minutes. Yum, the kitchen smelled delicious! Of course, I took a couple for myself haha.
Then, I pureed them in my blender, using some of the leftover water that I baked with.

This made about 32 1-oz portions of apples. Perfect! And, they were delicious - yes I tried it! If you can, try baking things! It really is yummy.

Pureed Bananas with Cereal

I found that when I made bananas, they came out too thin and its hard to control.. meaning me.. with the spoon. I spill it on her! haha

Bananas are a great food for everyone. The potassium is great for everyone.

With bananas, there is no need to cook then, but remember to definitely buy organic bananas. They are sprayed to get rid of fungi and organic has less of this. Wash the peels, even though they will be thrown away. No bacteria!

You can make banana on a need-to-use basis, or a freeze full. I make a freeze amount because Caelyn eats banana everyday. She loves mommy's yummy bananas!

I bought a bag of organic bananas for $.69, perfect!

I peeled them and diced into pieces. Puree them in your blender or whatever. I added a tad bit of water to make the pureeing easier for the blender (haha, I act like it has feelings). Once I pureed it all, I realized that I thought it was too thin. I added about 4-5tbsp of rice cereal. You could add oatmeal if you want to! I pureed it for another second or two to mix it together.
I spooned the mixture into ice cube trays and froze overnight.

I can't remember the exact amount it made but it was around 24 1oz portions, for $.69.. you can't beat that!

My baby loves homemade banana baby food. Try the kind in the can.. I did and its nasty, there is nooooo yummy taste!

Mixing Baby Food

Now that Caelyn has had a variety of things, I was thinking about introducing her to mixed foods such as apples and bananas. Well, then I began to think that I would have to buy both and mix.. blah blah blah..

Then I had a good idea!

I have both apples and bananas made separately. I have a bunch of the gerber plastic containers that baby food comes in now and I unfreeze the previous night what she will eat the next day in these containers. They are also perfect for taking out somewhere the baby food you made.

Anyway, if I want her to eat apples and bananas.. I take out one of both and unfreeze them together in the same container.

This way eliminates waste. This is the perfect idea, I think because it opens up a variety of mixtures like...

apples & bananas

apples & peaches

apples & pears

peaches & bananas

pears & peaches

carrots & peas

sweet potatoes & apples

sweet potatoes & squash (caelyn hates so we won't be doing this!)

sweet potatoes & peas

The variety is endless! Some of the ones I am looking forward to trying.. but remember.. make sure you have introduced each ingredient separately, following the 4 Day Rule (more to come on this!).

apples & kiwi

kiwi & mango

mango & bananas

zucchini & carrots

avocado & bananas

Boy, there are so many good mixtures!

Pureed Carrots

When your baby first starts out on baby food, it is best to start with the normal foods. You don't want to jump straight into zucchini. My theory is I stick to the first foods I can find in the grocery stores. After she masters those, then I move onto things I can find elsewhere.
This post is going to be a bit picture heavy and more descriptive than the next ones will be because I want to show everyone how to do this, if you are first starting out. The first time I made baby food I followed a post similar to this and it helped me a lot and made me feel comfortable doing so!
Carrots are a good first food. I suggest making it thin, but not soupy/liquidy. Remember, if you go to feed them and find that it is too thin or thick, just add water to thin it or rice to thicken it!

I bought one bag of organic carrots for $.88. Try to buy organic as much as possible. Clean everything.. counters, etc.
Wash the carrots and chop off the ends
Then, after wash and chopped ends, peel the carrots to get that icky top layer off.

Dice the carrots into as small as pieces as you like. As you are doing this, put a pot of water on the stove and bring it to a boil. Its easier to do this as you chop, so you don't have to wait.

Place the carrots into the boiling water and I let them boil for about 15 minutes. You want the carrots nice and tender which makes it easier to blend.

Once they are tender, strain the water out. With carrots, you don't want to use the cooking water because it has a high amount of nitrate in it.
I slowly added carrots into the blender, blended, added water and carrots, then pureed again until I got a good constitency to it.
I estimate I used about 2 cups of water, but try and see what works best for you!

Once I got the carrots to the way I like, I spooned the mixture into ice cube trays. Each ice cube is 1oz. I like this because I know exactly how much Caelyn is eating!

When I did carrots, I cover with foil because I had nothing else but use anything you have to cover them up!

Let them freeze for about 8-10hours. I find it best to make baby food at night after Caelyn is asleep and I pop them out in the morning!

For $.88 I made 25 - 1oz cube of carrots. This equals to 12 - 2oz jars which is the size of stage one jars with a left over 1oz. Or 6 - 4oz jars which is the size of stage 2 jars with 1oz left over!

As for savings, stage one, around my home, goes for $.47 a jar.. if I was buying those, I saved $4.76. For the stage tw, those go for $.54 here. I saved $2.36. Caelyn is still young so she eats 1oz at a time, so this is perfect for now.

If Caelyn was in stage two, I would have bought two bags for $1.76 total and saved $5.26 assuming I would make the same amount.

See, I told you that you could save!

When You Can Introduce Foods

Just like everything else in parenting, there is a debate about when to start baby foods. My doctor, and many other doctors, tell you to start at 4 months. Some doctors suggest at 6 months.
Whether you follow your doctors instructions or not is up to you. Many people seem to fear starting before what their doctors say. You aren't going to be punished if you go against their instructions and if they complain, SWITCH DOCTORS. You know what is right for your child.
Honestly, I started at 3 months as has many members of my family and many friends. Do what you feel comfortable with!

But, to avoid any trouble that could come from my words (God knows with this internet nowadays), please consult your doctor before starting solids!

There I said it, now lets talk about some signs that your baby is ready for solids!

• Loss of tongue-thrust reflux. This is really important because if you try to do so prior to loss, then everything will come back out.
• Is able to let you know when they are full such as turning away from the bottle
• Is able to hold head up unassisted
• Has an interest in food or puts objects into mouth
• Birth weight has doubled

I suggest you do some research and watch your baby. If you are curious if your baby is ready, give them a taste! After a few tries you should know if the reflux is gone.
Remember, there is no "rule" there are just guidelines. Figure out what is best for your baby and enjoy this special time in your baby's life!