Carrot Puree

Here’s another easy way to give your child a wonderful,nutritious meal. I found these organic carrots at a local farmer’s market and couldn’t wait to make my daughter a puree with these. Even when they are pureed they just look so much better than the packaged stuff! They have a wonderful,creamy texture and a vibrant,natural, orange color!

Carrot Puree

Printer Friendly

Bunch of Carrots

Peel carrots and slice into chunks. Fill a pot with water until it just reaches the bottom of your steamer. Cook carrots until tender. Place carrots into blender, food mill or food processor. Puree until desired consistency is reached, using breast milk,water or formula to thin it out.

IMPORTANT Do not use the reserved water from steaming to thin carrots out! Nitrates from the carrots can leach into the water. Lots of people are afraid to make homemade carrots because of this reason but if you don’t use the water, you’re fine!

Avocado Baby Food

This really isn’t a recipe but I wanted to add it to show those that are following what I’m feeding my daughter and how we’re going about it. I decided to branch out with Avocado after our stints with Butternut Squash and Sweet Potato. Technically, avocado is a fruit but I didn’t feel like going orange again with carrots and I’m holding off on peas and green beans until she can handle the texture a bit more. I’ve read that it’s difficult to puree them at home as fine as the stores so I figure I’ll just wait another month or so!

Feeding your baby avocado is as easy as you eating avocado! Slice it in half, scoop out the pulp and put it in a baby bowl. Pour a little milk/formula/water in it and mash it a little with the spoon and feed. That simple! Yet again, Caroline approves!

To keep the other half of the avocado fresh wrap it tightly in plastic wrap, with the pit still inside, and store it in the refrigerator for up to 2 days.

Sweet Potato Puree

I decided our second vegetable we would try would be sweet potato. You always hear that all babies loves sweet potatoes. Heck, I love sweet potatoes! This was even easier to make than the butternut squash and Caroline loved it!

Sweet Potato Puree

Printer Friendly

2 sweet potatoes

Clean potato well and wrap in tin foil. Bake at 375 degrees for 30 minutes or until done. Remove all potato from skin and place into a food processor. Puree until smooth;adding formula/breast milk/water until desired consistency is reached. To freeze, pour into an ice-cube tray and cover with a lid or plastic wrap. Remove once frozen and place into a freezer safe bag.

Two potatoes made 18 oz of puree.

Butternut Squash Puree

My daughter’s transition to purees is so fun for me. I finally get to “cook” for her! I am also finally going to put some miles on my food processor. Making baby food is really so simple and it honestly doesn’t take that much time. There are so many short cuts etc. nowadays it’s a cinch. I’ve decided that, even though the food she’ll be eating in the beginning require no recipe, I am going to blog about each puree/meal I make her to show just how simple it really is. It’s also easy on the wallet. This fine looking butternut squash was purchased for $1.46 and made 26 ounces of puree!

Butternut Squash Puree

Printer Friendly

1 Butternut Squash

Slice the squsah in half and remove all of the pulp and seeds. Place squash “meat” side down on a cookie sheet. Roast in a 400 degree oven for 40 minutes. The squash will become soft, the skin will peel and where you removed the pulp will blister and turn a bit brown. Remove from oven and let cool off.

Scoop out the pulp and place into a food processor (or food mill, blender etc. ). I tried peeling the skin off but that is tedious, just take a spoon and scoop it out Pulse in the food processor until you reach a smooth consistancy. You can thin the mixture down with water, formula or breastmilk. Remember, Stage one purees for babies should be very smooth and thin so that they don’t reject it.

Spoon into ice cubes trays and cover with plastic wrap. Once frozen you can remove them from the ice trays and put them into a freezer storage bag.

Note: Some ice trays vary but most will fit an ounce. I’ve recently purchased silicone ice trays to make removing easier and they also have a lid. These make smaller cubes so 2 cubes actually make a 1 ounce serving.

Pumpkin Puree

Tags

pie filling, pumpkin, puree

Normally, we carve out the pumpkin for Halloween and can not use the pumpkin for pulp. This year, because of everything going on and having no trick or treaters, I cut up the pumpkin and made puree. To get the strongest pumpkin flavor you really want to use a small pumpkin. Jack O’Lanterns don’t make the best puree for pies. Since I was using this for maybe one loaf of pumpkin bread and the rest for frozen Kong treats for the pups I didn’t care.  Because I’m never sure what I’ll be making with the puree I don’t add any olive oil or seasonings.

Pumpkin Puree

Print Friendly

Pre-heat oven at 350. Carve out your pumpkin, removing all seeds and pulp. Make sure to save the seeds for toasting! Once you’ve gotten the pulp out take a spoon and make sure you have gotten most of the stringy pulp off of the rind. Cut the rind of the pumpkin into pieces. Don’t worry about the skin, that will come off after roasting.

Place pumpkin rinds onto a cookie sheet, doesn’t matter if it’s skin side down or up. Roast in oven for about 30 minutes, or until fork tender. Remove from oven and scrap skin off. I usually just take a knife and a fork and slide the skin off but sometimes you’ll need to cut it off. Cut the roasted pumpkin into roughly 1 inch pieces and toss into your food processor. Pulse until well blended. If the puree is too dry add a tablespoon of water at a time until you get a nice consistency. If puree is too watery then strain through a cheese cloth.

You can either freeze your puree and save for a later date, put it in the refrigerator for a few days until you have the energy to bake something, or get to baking now! This puree,since it’s a little watery,  makes great dog snacks once frozen and also makes decent baby food!