Finger Food Ideas!

Need an easy idea for a healthy finger food for baby??  Why not roll some stuff together into a soft little ball!  Some things I've found that stick together really nice are sweet potatoes and hummus!  Into these bases you can add yummy soft cooked veggies!

First up we have purple sweet potato and broccoli.  I cooked up some frozen broccoli when I was baking up a batch of sweet potatoes for baby food.  Mash up the broccoli (or other veggie or fruit!) and mix together really well.  Then roll into tiny balls!  These are very easily mashed when picked up... but don't fall apart!

I froze them on a cookie sheet and stored them in a ziplock bag.  Easy to defrost for 20-30 seconds in the microwave.  Or take them out the night before and keep in the fridge!

Leftover quinoa and hummus hold together very well too!  The second time I made these I added in cooked peas and small carrot pieces.  I didn't freeze them because I just made a small batch.

Purple.... Sweet Potatoes!?

At the grocery this week I was so excited to see PURPLE sweet potatoes for sale!!  I didn't even know they existed until the moment I saw the glorious full bin of purpleness before my eyes...

I grabbed some up, along with some orange ones!  We go through lots of sweet potatoes these days.  R gobbles them up either in a puree or just cooked and mushed together so he can pick them up!  We have also been enjoying them in yummy fall soups!  This is pretty much my favorite soup of all time: Apple-Cheddar-Squash Soup, I use a sweet potato instead of the white potato!

If you want to enjoy some delicious baked sweet potato, here's what I did: Preheat the oven to 410 degrees. Scrubbed each potato under running water to remove the dirt, then poked holes in them and run them under water again for some extra moisture to aid the cooking process.  Wrap each potato in aluminum foil and place on a baking sheet on the second to the bottom oven rack.  The smaller ones cooked in 45 minutes and the large one took 1 hour.  They are done when the sides are soft when squeezed (with an oven mitt, of course!) 

After baking, remove the foil (again best with an oven mitt!) and then slice them down the middle.  Let them cool for a couple of minutes and then remove the skins if you want!

I just turned these pretty purple ones into a mash to freeze up for R!  Here's my other post on another way to make homemade Baby Sweetie Potatoes.

PUUUURRRPLEEEE!!!!!!!!  What a beautiful, rich color!!

You can imagine how fun it was feeding R a purple lunch!  This is turkey/butternut squash/purple sweet potato!

R also enjoys eating them as finger food!!

Oh boy!  He's growing so fast!

Baby Peaches and Pears!

Today I made up a huge batch of peaches and pears for R.  I cooked both by blanching them in boiling water for 5 minutes and then running cold water over them to cool them down enough to peal the skins off.  

The skins came off so beautifully!  I haven't had much success in the past with pealing skins off of stuff... like when I first roasted butternut squash and went to scoop out the "meat".... well it was a disaster.  I think I had let them cool TOO much... so make sure you go ahead and get the skins off while the fruit is warm!  

The pear skins came off well too.  I pealed them over a bowl to catch a lot of the juices that were running off while I was pealing them.  Don't want to lose the good stuff!

Also, the pits came out so much more easily than pitting a raw peach.  Last time I did peaches I cut them into chunks and did a little simmer... this way is a lot more streamlined!

I felt that I was able to get a lot closer to the core of the pears than when they aren't cooked.  You can see how little pear was left in the middle!

R is doing wonderfully with textures so this time I just mashed them up with a potato masher instead of pureeing with the blender.

7 pears for $3.47 = 34 oz mashed up! 

9 peaches for $2.87 = 49 oz mashed up!

Baby Sweetie Potatoes!

The oatmeal and bananas have been going well, so this week, it was time to introduce R to sweet potatoes!  I cut up two large sweet potatoes into small cubes and covered them halfway with water to do a boil/steam.  Since I was going to be adding water to them anyway to make them thin enough for him to eat, I figured I might as well just do it this way and save a step!

After the potatoes were fork tender I dumped the whole pot into our blender and blended like there was no tomorrow!

Mmm... I love sweet potatoes!  What a fun color these must be for little eyes to see!!

I bought these silicone cube trays at BedBath&Beyond for $5 bucks for both.  I used a tablespoon sized cookie scooper to blop the potatoes into the cubes.  That way I know exactly how much he is consuming with each serving.  Into the freezer the little trays went!

Sweetie potatoes for days and days!  I have read that veggies are fine in the freezer for 3 months... but the FDA says frozen baby food for one month... so I will probably just aim for somewhere in between and use them up!  :)

Little man thoroughly enjoy the sweet potatoes!  Ahh... baby food is so fun!!

Baby Oats!

We have a 5 month old in the house as of yesterday!  Hard to believe it's already time for R's first "real" meal!  We decided to start him on oatmeal.  Currently the plan is to make most of his baby food... so we will see how that goes down!  :)  I bought 1/4 pound of steel cut oat groats to get us started!  Ground up, I probably have about 20ish tablespoon sized servings.  They were 1.99/lb at Whole Foods! cha-ching!

I have read that coffee grinders are a great way to get them ground up... so I went and bought a $20 one at BedBath&Beyond (with a 20% off coupon of course :) and turns out it is crappy for grinding them up... BUT!  My husband's coffee grinder... that he uses for actual grinding of coffee beans worked excellent!!  Somehow, we will have to work out a switcher-roo!  ...for the BABY'S sake!!  

About 15 seconds worth of grinding... with the crappy grinder.  

And finally, after about 2 minutes of grinding while shaking, tipping upside down, and wiggling the thing side to side!  Whew... oatmeal powder!!  tada, *easy* as THAT!

I used 1/4 cup powder to 1-1.5 cups of water.  

Looks pretty deeelicious!!

I added a little chunk of frozen breast milk to make it more soupy... I forgot to take a picture after it was stirred together... the excitement of the occasion must have come over me!!

R really got into his first meal...  mostly he liked the bright orange spoon and grabbing our hand to help put it in his mouth... way too cute!!

The extra ground groats.  The full one is to be frozen (will last for 3 months and not go rancid that way!) and the other is to be refrigerated until I'm ready to make another batch and freeze up some cubes!