adventures in baby food purees...

I knew this appliance purchase would come in handy one day. I was just picturing poolside frozen margaritas, rather than food purees. Oh, how life changes ;-) While I was still pregnant with G, I told Mr. Boom that I wanted to try to make his baby food. He went along with it (likely as another of my fleeting preg-brain whims). When it was nearing time for G to actually try solids, though, I got more serious about it, especially for veggies and meats. Fruits, well, the jarred are just plain easier than the peeling, cutting up and cooking down but, feel free to refute my opinion on this. Forget the marketing gimmick of the $150 baby food processor. The Magic Bullet does the trick at a third of the cost and, according to Mr. Boom, makes a pretty darn good smoothie too!

Veggies were a no brainer - pick up bags of organic vegetables, microwave, puree with a little added water and portion out in freezer trays. Perfect and far less than HALF the cost of the jarred variety! Here's a cost comparison from our (ridiculously expensive) area:

• Gerber 2-pack of organic Green Beans = (2) 2.5 oz servings for $1.29 = $0.65 per 2.5 oz serving
• Trader Joe's frozen organic Green Beans = (18) 1 oz servings for $1.79 = $0.25 per 2.5 oz serving

So far I've made peas and green beans and he loves them both. Though I kept them simple and stuck to just the veggies for the first tries, I'm planning to add in some light spice for the next round.

Next, it was time to introduce meat. The idea of feeding my baby meat of unknown sources from a jar? Well...blech! I just couldn't stomach the thought when I knew I could make them simply, easily and would know exactly what I'd be feeding him. For his first try, Mr. Boom and I picked up a large, organic chicken breast from the supermarket. I brought it home, cut it in half and diced it up into about 1" pieces. I vacuum sealed half and threw them in the freezer for later. The other half went into a pot of boiling water with some garlic for about 10 minutes, until they were cooked through. Following a suggestion from Wholesome Baby Food, I added sweet potato to the chicken for the pureeing process, as chicken alone will end up crumbly and dry. It worked out perfectly and G absolutely loved it!