Making Baby Food ... Again

Made a organic vegetable chicken soup with rice.

Olive oil with carrots and onions, simmering in a little bit of spring water.

All for the best baby in the world! That didn't like it at all! :(

Farmers Market

It's that time again. After moving, cleaning out the fridge and eating out every night; we finally found the time to hit the farmers market again. When I went for the first time this year, back in May, I was naive enough to believe that I would be finding all the 'regulars' from the grocery store. Not so.... there was a lot of nothing there.... radishes, arugula and asparagus, at least not what I was looking for. I since then, I made a list of things that are in season each month (for my state).

Little farmer

(grumpy) Twins

Making baby food again...

Baby Crackers

We started our son on fruits on veggies first, rather than the traditional rice cereal. We actually chose to omit cereal all together because of it high iron content. Commercial baby cereal is made from grain that has been processed and then milled into a flour. The process strips the grain of ALL vitamins and nutrients. They are added back in artificially which the body does not absorb well. Anyway, I made plain crackers to use as a 'filler' in his homemade food.

Makes about 4 dozen
2 cups all-purpose flour, plus more for dusting
2 tablespoons cold unsalted butter, cut in pieces
3/4 cup milk

Directions
1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees. In a food processor, pulse flour and butter pieces, and pulse until mixture resembles coarse meal. With the machine running, gradually add milk; process until dough comes together. Cover dough with plastic wrap, and allow to relax at room temperature for 15 to 20 minutes.

2. Unwrap dough, and transfer it to a lightly floured surface. Roll into 17 1/2-by-17 1/2-inch square, 1/16 inch thick (if dough continues to spring back, allow to relax again, covered with plastic wrap, for another 10 minutes).

3. Using a knife or pizza cutter, cut dough into 2 1/2-inch squares. With a thin spatula, transfer to ungreased baking sheets. Bake for 15 minutes, until light in color (lighter than mine - didn't get a better picture) and crisp.

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4. Add the cooked crackers to the food processor and pulse until fine. Keep crackers in an airtight container, at room temperature.

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I added 1 to 2 baby spoons to his graded apple, pureed banana and yogurt mixture this morning. Same to his lunch and dinner.

Butternut Squash & Apple Bake Babyfood

1 Butternut squash

1 large Macintosh apple

1. Peel and dice apples

2. Cut butternut squash in half, scoop out seeds

3. Place halves face UP in a pan and add with an inch of water to the pan

4. Place diced apples in the squash “holes” where the seeds were

5. Pour water over the apples so that there is water in the squash holes - cover pan with tinfoil

6. Bake in a 400 degree oven for 40 minutes or until the “shell/skin” puckers and halves feel soft then scoop squash “meat” and apples out of the shell

7. Puree as needed, adding water to thin if required.

Organic Homemade Baby Food

1. Clean choice veggies and cut into small chunks
2. Place chunks into a steamer pan with just enough water visible through the steamer basket
3. Steam until tender
4. Do not reserve any left over water to use for thinning out the veggies if baby is under 8 months old as Nitrates from some veggies may seep into the cooking water
5. Place into food processor for pureeing
6. Add water as necessary to achieve a smooth, thin consistency
7. Please in ice cube trays for freezing!

DONE!