Introduction to Baby Food
So, yeah, the whole idea of getting something up here once a week went by the wayside pretty quick, huh? (anybody actually reading this, I’ve been gone so long…?)
But, as you can see, Angstrom’s doing quite well:
He’d really like to be cooking those oats, but I told him he has to be able to stand up on his own without falling over before I start teaching him how to cook.
I’ve been making a good bit of his food, though; and one thing that Aurora and I have noticed from the get go is how inexact most of the info out there on feeding your baby is: one source says food x can be fed at 6 months, another says 9 months or a year; one source says carrots are high in nitrates, serve them from jars because baby food manufacturers only use carrots from areas of the country with lower nitrate concentrations in their soil; another source says that only matters for the smallest of infants. Most of the time, we take three opinions into account and disregard 1 or 2 of them.
We’ve been making him some good meals, though–so I’m thinking rather than ignore Corduroy Orange because all I’m doing is cook baby food, I’ll embrace it and start a series of baby food posts.
So for today, just a quick tip: when pureeing chicken, it’s much easier to use a food processor to grind up the chicken breasts with some of their cooking liquid than it is to try to force the meat through a baby food grinder. The resulting paste is easily frozen in ice cube trays (which serve as a very convenient way to freeze most baby foods in discrete units). Just be careful in reheating the chicken, though: microwaving it on power level 6 or 7 is recommended above reheating it on full power in order to avoid turning the chicken into rubbery lumps.
Next week… baby food Mexican meals
June 9th, 2011 at 6:36 pm
I still read your blog when there’s something new; stumbled on it when I was looking for stew recipes/methods, and your method definitely didn’t let me down.
June 10th, 2011 at 6:18 am
I kinda had a feeling we’d be seeing some baby food posts. Not that I’m complaining although we are past that here. Angstrom is utterly adorable.
June 10th, 2011 at 9:30 am
Yes, your parents check regularly. When you guys were babies and I was making all of your baby food, I found that chicken alone was not appealing to you. That may have been because all I had to use was a baby food grinder. I used to cook a mild chicken stew with potatoes, carrots, and chicken, of course, and then grind it along with the gravy from the stew. You liked that and it froze well in ice cube trays.
As I read what I’ve just written, I’m thinking that maybe I was ahead of my time on making my own baby food. What I found was that with making all the food that all 3 kids ate, I saved a LOT of money and you ate good healthy food. At that time there was a lot of press about salt and sugar in baby food so between trying to save money and save the kids from the evils of the available commercial baby food, I started to prepare my own.
June 10th, 2011 at 9:32 am
When you describe pureeing chicken with an immersion blender all I can think of is Jamie Oliver’s pink slime demo.
June 14th, 2011 at 1:28 pm
Oops!! I meant food processor. I have edited the post to reflect the actual equipment used.
Though i have no idea what pink slime demo you refer to.