The Homemade Babyfood Play by Play

Gabriel has now tried rice cereal, avocado, pears, oatmeal, and sweet potatoes. And today we made the first batch o' apples for him to try later this week. Here's the play by play...

Babe Gabe's First Apples

3 Organic Golden Delicious Apples (OR Roma, Braeburn, Red Delicious)
3/4 cup water (approximate)
Small Pot
Steamer basket
Blender

1. Pare apples and chop into small cubes. Perfect, equal-sized cubes are not necessary.

2. Pour 3/4 cup water into small pot and place steaming basket in pot. The water need not overflow much into the basket. Adjust amount of water as needed.

3. Place apples into steaming basket and turn range heat to med-high.
4. Let apples steam/ cook in boiling water until very tender and can be mashed easily with fork.

5. Scoop steamed and tender apples and pour into blender.

6. Add small amount of leftover water from steaming (You can use breast milk to thin baby food, but this water retains some of the apple nutrients lost while cooking. I used breast milk to thin sweet potatoes and avocados, but not the apples).

7. Blend until smooth, adding more leftover water to adjust desired consistency as needed (the older the baby, the more textured and chunky it can be).



8. Pour into ice cube tray (3 apples makes just about 1 full tray), cool, and freeze in tray.


9. When frozen, pop out frozen cubes and store in desired container (Right now, we are storing food in breast milk sanitized freezer bags, and the dates on these bags are not the dates he tried these foods-- we do follow the 4 day rule).

To thaw (quickly):
Take out 1-2 cubes depending on desired serving and place in baby's bowl (Right now, we just use one cube). Heat water in tea kettle and pour into ceramic bowl. Place baby's bowl in ceramic bowl and allow hot water to melt cube. Turn cube over and break in half as thawing to speed process.

Great Resources for Homemade Baby Food Recipes
http://www.nurturebaby.com
http://www.wholesomebabyfood.com