First of all I want to credit Wholesome Baby Food (http://wholesomebabyfood.momtastic.com/) where I got all the recipes and all the know-how.
That being said, that doesn't mean I did it perfectly the first time. I'm learning; this is only my first time at doing this after all. So forgive me for all those mistakes. It's how you learn, right?
The funny thing about choosing green beans is that Addie was not that crazy about green beans when she tried them. But I'm not about to let her off that easy, so green beans is exactly what I made.
It was a fairly easy process. Basically you get a pound of fresh green beans then you steam or boil them, which ever you prefer. I chose to steam the green beans. Either way you do it, you use whichever method to get them tender. Once they are tender you put them into a blender or food processor or whatever else you might have to puree them. You are probably going to add in breast milk or formula or water in order to thin it out even more. Then you use whatever you are planning to use to freeze.
A note about storage: We bought a couple of baby food storage containers from OXO that work great in the freezer and store great. But you can use an ice cube tray. Just put the food in and smooth out, then cover with plastic. After the food cubes are completely frozen, you pop them out and put them in a freezer bag. One of those little cubes are 1 ounce, so if you are feeding your kid 2 ounces then you just defrost two cubes for a meal. It's a pretty cool idea, but I don't actually have any ice cube trays, but they are cheap so we'll be investing in some soon to make this process even easier (Rob just doesn't know it yet!).
The process sounds really easy. But it was my first time, and I had a few struggles. Beating off the ends of the green beans and getting them steamed and ready was easy. I struggled with my blender. For some reason the puree button refused to work, so I had to move everything to the food processor, which worked just as well. But it was definitely frustrating. The other problem I had was that I didn't add enough formula into the green beans and it wasn't until I was making the sweet potatoes that I realized the green beans weren't as smooth as I wanted them to be. But I'm not too horribly worried. I have read that I can add formula after I defrost it and before I actually feed it to her. So we'll see how it actually works out. I definitely know what to do or not to do the next time I make green beans.
A pound of green beans made 6 ounces give or take of food. Of course I couldn't help but wonder if it was really worth the cost. The Gerber baby food is $.99 for 4 ounces and it was $2.99 for a pound of green beans. So maybe not exactly the best for the cost, but from what I understand this is much healthier to go with making your own baby food. I'm a little split on how I feel about it but I did actually enjoy making the baby food, so I'll probably keep making it.
So far I have also made sweet potatoes. I have butternut squash and carrots that we bought that I haven't made but I will be working on in the next couple days.
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