Carrots

Homemade Carrots

Ingredients:

Carrots (I used Parisian carrots because I liked the size of them. so I figured, why not? Any carrots will work.)

Water

How to Make:

1) I boiled these carrots until they were fork tender. 

2) Just like I did with the green beans, I first added some water to the Vitamix and then added the carrots. 

3) Turn Vitamix on Variable. Start at 1 and quickly turn up to 10. Let blend about 1-2 minutes until the carrots are pureed.

Green Beans

Homemade Green Beans

Ingredients: 

Green Beans

Water

*I don't really measure things out. I just dumped in some beans and used about 3/4 cup of water. I probably could have used a bit less, but they still came out great!

**If you're not using fresh fruits or veggies, it is better to use frozen than canned. Frozen fruits and veggies hold more of their nutrients than their canned counterparts. 

To make: 

1. Steam the green beans until they are no longer crunchy.

2. For green beans I use my amazing Vitamix. Pour water into the Vitamix and then add beans. Turn on (variable setting) and quickly work up to 10 (the highest setting). Just let it blend for a few minutes and voila! Green beans for dinner!

Pears

Homemade Pears

Ingredients:

Organic Pear

1. Peel pear, remove core and seeds, and chop up.

2. Using my [favorite] immersion blender again,  just mash up the pear. When pears are ripe they will mush up easily. 

That's it! Pears are really simple and another favorite of Baby J!

Mangoes

Homemade mango for breakfast

In my Clean Eating post I said that I would start putting recipes and pictures for all of Baby J's food. This morning she had mango for breakfast and this is super easy to make! 

Ingredients:

1 ripe mango

To make:

1. Peel the mango and chop it up 

    **I find mangoes to be a pain to chop because of their weird pit. So it may not look pretty, but as long as you just cut the fleshy part it's fine.

2. I use my cuisinart immersion blender for SO many things - seriously it's one of my favorite kitchen gadgets - and find that it's perfect for soft fruits like mangoes and pears. Blend until smooth.

And that's it! Baby J LOVES mango so we go through quite a bit of it. I haven't tried freezing any of her food but you probably could. Pinterest suggests freezing portions in ice cube trays. It's definitely worth trying!

Clean Eating

What is wrong with this picture?

I know that the "in" thing right now is baby led weaning. Everyone is doing it, right? Letting baby decide when she's ready for solids and skipping cereal altogether. It sounds like a great idea, but not for us. 

For starters, Baby J decided that after months of sleeping through the night, she was going to regress. We were up 2-3 times a night. She would nurse and be back in bed within 15 minutes. I, on the other hand, was not so lucky. Once I'm up, I'm up. So I figured that maybe she just wasn't satisfied from breast milk alone. 

I bought Gerber's organic brown rice cereal, mixed it with breast milk, and started her on it at four months. It was an experience for sure. She LOVED her cereal and I loved having that experience with her. 

Then I read the ingredients and WOW! There are a lot of them! It was then that I decided I would make all of Baby J's food. I mean, I'm not going to work every day so I have no reason NOT to make sure she eats as healthily as she can. 

I'm not going to lie - making baby food isn't always convenient. It's much easier to just grab a few jars or pouches of organic baby food from Whole Foods, but it's worth it [to me] to know exactly what is going into her little tummy. 

Check out the picture above. It's Gerber's organic bananas. Look at ALL OF THOSE ingredients! Tuna oil!?!?! I find that to be pretty gross. Then there's gelatin and a few other things that I cannot identify. Convenient? Absolutely. Healthy? I think it's like formula. I just cannot understand how feeding a baby artificial stuff is healthy. 

Yeah, I get that millions of people feed their babies formula and prepackaged baby food. But millions of people also eat McDonald's, White Castle and the like. 

So it has been some trial and error when making Baby J's food. I have to remember to take pictures of the process and then upload them here. 

So far we have made                                 Ingredients                  

Bananas                                                       Bananas

Mangoes                                                      Mangoes

Green beans                                                Green beans, water

Peas                                                             Peas

Sweet potatoes                                            Sweet potatoes, breast milk

Also, think about the shelf life of store-bought baby food. That can stay on the shelf for months. Hell, some of it is probably older than Baby J!!! Gross!!!

I really love knowing exactly what is in the food she is eating. I also use organic fruits and vegetables - so I still can't understand why there are so many ingredients in Gerber's organic bananas. It's just crazy!