Mama's Little Pumpkin

Of course, a vegetarian baby ought to dress up as a giant fruit for Halloween...

Butternut Squash Cubes

What does it take to make your own baby food? I've been asked this by several people lately. It's really quite simple. And, I think, it's kind of fun, too.

To be fair, I'm not making all her food myself. As mentioned earlier, she's having commercially prepared oatmeal because it's fortified with iron. Also, when she came down with a virus last week, the nurse recommended rice cereal and bananas, so I went ahead and got commercial rice cereal (Earth's Best Organic) as well. I also use jarred organic applesauce and frozen organic peach slices. But so far I have made everything else myself.

Shown in the photo is a tray of butternut squash. I purchased one squash -- organic -- for just under $3. It made a total of 35 cubes. I figure that if you account for the water that's added to the jars, one of my cubes is equal to 1 - 1.5 jars of food. That means my $3 got me the equivalent of more than 23 jars of food, depending on how you count it. Not a bad investment! Even if you aren't concerned about the price of jarred food, though, preparing your own baby food when you can is also environmentally friendly. I saved at least 23 glass jars from being used!

1. Slice a butternut squash in half. Scoop out the seeds and pulp. (Save the seeds for roasting, described below.)
2. Place the two halves face down in a baking dish with about 1/2 inch of water.
3. Cook in a pre-heated, 400 degree oven for about 40 minutes, until soft. (You can check by stabbing it with a fork.)
4. Peel the squash and let it cool for a few minutes.
5. On a large plate, smash the squash with a fork. Make it very smooth.
6. Press blobs of squash into a clean ice cube tray. Freeze overnight. If you have more squash than fits into your tray, the extra can be placed in a tupperware in the refrigerator until there is room to freeze it the next day.
7. Pop the squash cubes out and store them in a plastic freezer bag. Be sure to label and date the squash. It's good for up to two months in the freezer.

Roasting squash seeds:
Rinse the seeds. Toss with a little olive oil and salt. Roast in an oven with something else you're cooking until the oil is all soaked in, stirring occasionally.

Feeding the squash to your baby:
Take a frozen cube from the plastic bag. Heat over low heat in a small saucepan with a few spoonfuls of water. Stir frequently until all the squash is thawed and warm, adding water as necessary.

Avocado!

The vegetarian baby has embarked on this next stage in her life! She had avocado on her 6-month birthday -- you can see the results. She seemed to like it pretty well, but then developed a cold that kept her from enjoying much of anything for about a week. Since the cold ended, though, she's been eating up her twice-daily meals.

Her absolute, hands-down favorite food so far is oatmeal. Because I was concerned about iron, I opted to use a fortified commercial brand instead of making my own. We feed her Earth's Best organic whole-grain oatmeal, and it's a hit!

To date, her foods and opinions on them include (in order of introduction):

-- avocado (liked, then didn't like, now likes)
-- sweet potato (didn't like, now tolerates)
-- [rice cereal] (she has just had some tastes of this at our "baby pre-school" class, she likes it fine)
-- oatmeal (her favorite)
-- unweetened applesauce (also introduced at baby pre-school and I decided to go ahead and let her eat a little every few days -- she loves it)
-- banana (didn't like, now tolerates)
-- peaches (just a taste, at pre-school, she liked them)

And next on the lineup, later today, is butternut squash. So there's some variation from my original plan, but on the whole I'm happy with the schedule so far.

I've been asked why I was skipping rice cereal. In my opinion, there's not much point to it. Rice cereal is usually given as a first food because it has a very low allergy risk. However, it doesn't have much to offer - nutritionally - other than calories and fortified iron. I decided that I wanted to maximize nutrition, and oatmeal offers more vitamins and fiber, as well as the iron, with a similarly low allergy risk.

With the exception of the oatmeal and applesauce, I am making all her food myself. I use the "food-cube" method. I buy the produce -- all organic -- then cook and/or puree it at home. She'll eat a bit fresh that day, and the rest gets frozen in an ice cube tray overnight. Then I pop the cubes out and store them in freezer bags. So far I've made two avocados, three sweet potatoes, and 2 bananas . . . and I have enough of all these foods to last another 10-15 days. It's much cheaper and more environmentally friendly than buying all those little jars! Plus it's very satisfying.