beating the heat: homemade frozen fruit pops

As in just about every other part of America, is has been hot here.  I'm talking Satan's playground type of heat.  Record breaking temps.  Sweltering humidity.  Horribly hot and unbearable. Got the picture?  We've been trying all sorts of things to keep cool but one in particular has become George's favorite. 

Ice pops.

When he was so sick with the coxackie virus for a few days back in June, I picked up some of those freezer pops in a tube to have on hand.  He wasn't eating or drinking enough and I was about to try anything.  Hating that they were pure sugar water with nasty food dyes, to boot, I was determined for this to be a short term solution and not a habit.  The pure sugar pops were quickly replaced by 100% apple juice pops, frozen in popsicle molds I had picked up on a whim during my last trip to Ikea. Though G doesn't drink juice, an occasional juice pop was an alternative I could live with.

Then, last weekend we took a road trip to visit some friends.  Having a son close to George's age, the mom had a similar pop issue in her house.  She had recently bought a juicer and her solution was to make popsicles for her son out of her juice creations.  Perfect!

We don't have a juicer but, the Magic Bullet?  Works just as well for this. I'm sure a blender would also work fine. The next day, I pulled the bullet out of the cabinet, grabbed a few ingredients and crafted my own batch of frozen fruit pops.  Batch #1 was made with a peeled and diced apple, a handful of frozen organic wild blueberries and a splash of 100% blueberry-pomegranate juice to thin the mix out enough for the bullet to work it's magic.  I emptied the puree into a measuring cup for easier pouring and quickly filled 5 of the 6 molds from one small batch.  Inexpensive, super simple, using on-hand ingredients and all natural.

And the verdict?  Fruit pop love...

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!