Apples and pears with cinnamon

    Yesterdays shopping yielded some unexpected gifts. Two of those were local pears and apples. These are household favorites.

     So todays adventure started out as just apples and pears but I got a wild idea after reading that babies exposed to a wide variety of spices and herbs early on have a wider palate variety, I decided to start with cinnamon.

   We are still working on how much water to use to steam. So we started with it at the 1 level.

Ingredients:

1 smallish diced apple
1 smallish diced pear
1/2 tsp of cinnamon

     I leave the skin on when I dice the fruit. This means that you have to make sure that the fruit is REALLY well blended. After steaming, I blended the mixture in short bursts of about 30 seconds approximately 10 times - stopping to scrape the sides in between. Once it was smooth, I added the cinnamon and again blended it a couple of times.

    It yielded a mixture so good that I may make it in a large batch for the rest of the family. Sean's reaction was and I quote "YUM". Good luck and happy baby food making.


  

General Working Theory

When Sean was just a few days old  ( hence the above picture) we started looking at making baby food.  I knew sooner than I was ready for, he would be on semi-solid foods. So Mike (the Great Daddu and food guru) started the search for  farmers markets. Despite being in the middle of NO WHERE ( Edwards Air Force Base) we found one. It was a great market and we found many of our first foods there.

There was something really magickal about the grower helping us pick out Sean's first food - a wonderfully buttery avocado. It was picked just a few hours before and was nothing short of exquisite.

We also realized early on, that life is complicated. Life does not always present itself in nice neat packages. And more specifically, sometimes good plans go bad if you hold on to ideals too tightly. So with that in mind we embarked on making as much of his baby food as was PRACTICAL. This means that not everything is out of our garden or grown by people we know and sometimes the supermarket produce is JUST fine.

I also have no intention of spending 40 hours a week making baby food. I could be spending that time with my quickly growing and changing baby. Were are working in the real world here, with a real budget and real time constraints. So here is to reality and attainable goals!

Happy baby food making!

Introduction and Blueberry/ Banana puree

   When our son was born in March we pledged to do our best to make as much baby food as was feasible. We both agreed to give it our best shot without making everyone neurotic in the process. So when he turned six months, old we mixed some breast milk into a locally grown avocado from our farmers market and hoped for the best. He loved it!

   Now that he is nine months old we are moving on to more adventurous foods. Craigslist and the Universe placed a Beaba Baby Food Maker in our laps this in Mid January of 2012. We will attempt to document: our recipes, tips and most important our disasters. As an old bench chemist, I am a big fan of documentation. Since dad is the foodie gourmet cook this will be a group effort.

  Without further ado...our Baby Food Grimorie

   Here was our first attempt, Blueberry Banana Puree. This was a recipe that was inspired by blueberries being on sale. We picked up 2 bananas to go with it.

                  1 Pint Blueberries
                  2 Medium Bananas
                  1/2 tsp Agave Nectar

   We rinsed the blueberries and filled the Beaba container to a 1 level. We then took 1 banana and broke it into small pieces. Then we started the steamer. We then dumped the entire steamed contents into the blender when it was finished. After a very nonscientific taste test we determined that it needed more banana. So we broke the other banana into small pieces and blended it again until smooth. We then determined WHY the blueberries were on sale, they were particularly tart. While we am not intending to give our son an early sweet tooth (he has grandparents for that...) this was REALLY tart. After careful consideration we put about 1/2 tsp of agave nectar and reblended the mixture. It turned out a wonderful frothy purple and about 2-3 cups of baby food.

   Our first attempt was a real hit with our toughest critic! He just loved it. Unfortunately it also went EVERYWHERE. By the end he needed a bath.

   Total cost approximately $1.50 and it will yield at least 3 maybe 4 meals. So depending on the size of your little ones appetite it will run between 50 cents and 30 cents a serving.