Adventures in Baby Food

We are having some fun with baby food! I'm trying to balance the homemade purées with finger foods because they love to feed themselves. We've also started with meat and I'm not a big meat eater so I've had to get creative. I'm regularly making and freezing cubes of vegetables like carrots, sweet potato, squash, beets, spinach, green beans and peas. The same goes for fruits like peaches, pears, apples, mangoes and mangoes. At a meal I'll combine a couple of cubes so they have some variety, like carrots and beets or peach and mango. I also keep some fresh fruit cut up in the fridge and we eat banana a lot, very easy!

For breakfast the boys eat a couple of tablespoons of oatmeal cereal and 2 cubes of fruit. Then I give them some cut up fruit and Cheerios to nibble on while I'm unloading the dishwasher. There have been a couple of times that I've given them strips of whole wheat toast to gnaw on and they really like that.

At lunch I'll alternate between yogurt with fruit mixed in or beans with shredded cheese. I buy a block of whole milk cheese and use my grater because its easier for them to pick up. They also like to watch me grate it ;) I also read somewhere that there are chemicals used in pre shredded cheese that keeps it from sticking together. Not sure if its true but like using real carrots instead of baby carrots, I try to stick with what's healthiest for them! I'll also give them some chopped up fruit or cooked veg like sweet potato chunks that they can pick up with their fingers. I bought whole wheat toast crackers and they like to gum on those. I made mini muffins using a recipe I found on Pinterest using squash, banana and carrots. They like them but they tend to crumble and the boys don't always get much in their mouths. I'll usually sit down and eat something with them so we have a little family lunch :)

For dinner I give them two cubes of an orange veggie and two of a green. Like I do with the fruit, I like to mix flavors. We've started with meat; shredded chicken, turkey meatballs (another recipe from Pinterest using applesauce, spinach and carrots) and yesterday I puréed some chicken with the squash and quinoa cubes I had already made. I also used some carrot purée to mix with ground beef. After the purées and meat item, I'll give them some cut up veggies or steamed carrot sticks. They're great eaters and have liked everything we've tried, some more than others. I try to stay on top of keeping fresh fruits and veggies around but it's hard to provide a variety and keep up with a quantity of fresh foods. I feel like I'm always prepping baby food, but it's totally worth it! I'm so glad that I'm able to stay home and dedicate the time to making great food for them.

The only drawback is cleaning both high chairs and sweeping the floor three times a day!