Homemade Butternut Squash & Applesauce Baby Food!

After being mostly out of commission and the kitchen for the better part of two weeks with a terrible sinus infection (got antibiotics yesterday... hooray!), I was down to just a few servings of frozen banana baby food for my little guy and desperately needed to make him some more food! I made some more barley baby food for breakfast and then got to work on two more baby foods:

Butternut squash is my baby's FAVORITE food! I can usually buy a squash at Sprouts for $.70-.99 per pound. First step, cut it in two (I forgot to take a picture of this, but here is a generic picture of what that looks like)! :)

Scoop out the seeds and brighter orange stringy pulp with a spoon.

Place in a pan, flesh side down, with a thin layer of water along the bottom of the pan for steaming.

 

Let bake at 350 degrees for about 40 minutes. Poke with fork at the thicker top (not the hollowed out part, I learned this today), to test if it is done. Here is mine cooked through.

Scoop out the squash, getting as close to the skin as possible.

Place squash in blender with a little water (like a 1/3 cup), and puree! You can add more water if you need to.

Poor into ice cube trays and freeze for later use! When ready, simply defrost and warm in microwave. As mentioned earlier, this is my baby's absolute favorite food!

Then, I made some homemade applesauce baby food using organic Red Delicious apples (I don't think I will buy a non-organic apple again... because of this) from Sprouts that cost $.99/lb.

I used an apple slicer to cut the apple into smaller pieces and then I removed the peel.

 

Place apple slices into pot with enough water to almost cover them. Cover with lid and bring to boil, then reduce heat and simmer for about 30 minutes or until soft.

Cooked apples! Drain out a lot of the water, you won't need much to blend these puppies.

Puree and pour into ice cube trays for later!

And now I am ready to take a nap (yeah right). Still not completely better yet, but at least my baby has food! :)

Fru-Gal's Kitchen: Homemade Barley Baby Food, Banana Baby Food, and Our Lunch of the Week!

I attempted barley baby food today! It really isn't too complicated to make (think blend and boil), seems pretty economical, and ended up being a winner (with a few adjustments) for my little guy! Here's the recipe:

Not sure how much a box of barley costs in the store, but my wonderful mother-in-law gave us this box while cleaning out her cupboards!

Ground up barley in the blender! Next time, I will grind it finer as my 8 month old didn't like the chunkier texture and I ended up re-blending it after it was cooked (which worked fine).

Whisking away.

Ta-da! It thickens upon sitting.

And here's my modified version! I re-blended it to make it finer, added a "cube" of frozen blueberry baby food for flavor (the reserved juice wasn't enough flavor), and added some homemade rice milk.

He likes it!

I've heard this can be frozen or stored in the fridge for up to a week. I will probably at least double the recipe next time, so I don't have to make it as often during the week.

While I was blending up barley, I had some bananas I needed to make into baby food, so I decided to blend those as well. Homemade banana baby food is likely the easiest to make, you can even just use a fork to mash if you're in a pickle. My baby is spoiled though, so I usually puree it for him. ;) I also freeze pureed banana baby food and pull out cubes to defrost as needed.

Did you know that riper bananas don't cause as much constipation in babies? These were on sale at Safeway this week for $.44/lb.

Peel and blend them up!

Pour into ice cube trays.

Voila! 5 bananas made about 2 full ice cube trays of baby food.

 AND, while we're discussing baby's lunch, the rest of us are enjoying taco salads this week for lunch (my favorite, and even better since I have a cold... love those jalapenos to clear up my nasal passages)! :)

I could eat taco salad every day... and I did do that in college (I miss the dining hall)!

Homemade Wholesome Blueberry Baby Food!

Guaranteed to please, easy to make, and a very healthy meal for your little one, here's the recipe I use for homemade, wholesome blueberry baby food (taken from Momtastic's Wholesome Baby Food):

1 pint of blueberries from Sprouts, on sale for $1.88!

Simmering for 15 minutes... Smells DELICIOUS!

I didn't add any extra juice when pureed, as I didn't want it too thin for my "loves to eat" 8 month old, so my ice cube tray ended up being about 1/2 full.

Leftover blueberry juice, reserved for future meals (I may make some homemade barley baby food  this week to add this juice to for flavor and thinning if needed)!