Homemade Baby Food Time!

Today was daddy's day off!  YAY!  Unfortunately, I was STILL coughing up a storm and was unable to ride my bike to school with Braylon (we try to ride bikes with him once a week).  Therefore, Vu was on bike duty and I was stuck inside all morning again.  Being inside is very very hard for me!  The kids had a decent morning and Paxtyn seemed to be well, although Kyan was still runny and sneezy so dad took just Peyton to Open Gymnastics.  We had the garage door repaired yet again during the day and I cooked Paxtyn's first batch of baby food (recipe below) and was a bit overzealous when I made the decision that I was well enough to ride to Bray's school in the afternoon for pick up.  I'm surprised no one stopped their cars to ask if I was ok!  Hacking the entire time.  Looovely.  When we got home, Braylon was in a very helpful mood and after folding a load of laundry he became my assistant chef in the kitchen!  We cooked a huge pot of Chili with rice...it was DEEE-LICIOUS!  I think I might even make another pot for a Christmas Party this weekend.

That evening Paxtyn had a very big milestone and ate his first baby food!  Once I became a stay-at-home mom I decided to push starting foods back further to keep my milk supply stronger, longer.  Kyan didn't start solids until 7 months and Pax is 2 days shy of 7 months.  Doesn't work for every mom, but certainly has worked for me!  Pax loved the Butternut Squash and ate like a pro :)  I am so proud of my sweet baby boy.

Butternut Squash Baby Food

I started with this veggie since it's not too sweet and just one Squash makes a LOT of food!  Right now I'm guesstimating on amounts and hopefully in a week or so I'll have the portions correct.  Making baby food is easy-peazy and takes very little time...in my opinion.  To get a refresher, I used the site http://www.wholesomebabyfood.com/.  Last year when I started making food for Kyan, I found countless sites that suggested freezing the food in ice cube trays which made thawing exact 2 ounce portions easier.  I did this for my first few batches but in the end, found it to be a waste of time.  Maybe if I started my babies on food at 3 months and needed the smaller amounts it would have made a difference...but not at 7 months.  Therefore, what I found to work really well was to make a batch and just allocate the food into a few containers...keep one in the fridge and freeze the others until needed.  Usually 1 plastic container would last a day and half to two days. I also just fed cold baby food pulled straight from the refrigerator...none of that warming/reheating business and never had any complaints ;)

I bought two Butternut Squash and one Acorn Squash.  I used the medium sized Butternut to make this batch.  Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

 Cut squash in half.

 Scoop out the seeds.  I use an ice cream scoop.

 All set.

 Fill pan with 1/2 inch of water and place squash side by side "meat" side down.

Cook at 400 degrees for 45minutes-1 hour (until skin is brownish and puckery).

Scoop out inside and put in blender...if pieces of skin are attached, it's no big deal.

 Ready to blend!  I blended on high for about 2 minutes.  Also, add small amounts of water as needed to get desired thickness.

 And that's it!  Fabulous Homemade Butternut Squash Baby Food!

 This is how much one squash made.  The 3 containers on the right went in the freezer and will all probably be used within the next week.

 And the verdict???

 "Mikey likes it!!!"

 Can't get enough!

Short video of Paxtyn chowing down!