Fresh, cheap Baby Food

A commercial for canned organic baby food just aired, twice, claiming to be ‘as healthy as fresh fruits and vegetables’. While I am grateful that this company is now selling organic baby foods in their jars, I have to believe that our fruit bowl clementines are a better option than canned mandarin oranges. Fresh is not the same as canned. Canned is a splendid option for us at times, don’t get me wrong. When I want a black bean burrito – without the prep time for the black beans, or when I’m looking for a quick sauce to top my pasta with, canned it is. We buy plenty of canned foods. This website is about ingredients, and when feesible, I prefer to go with Mother Nature’s, rather than the can’s.

I’m home a lot lately. A LOT. I have time to do things in the kitchen that I used to daydream about while I taught. But with my average 12 hour day away from home, the dreams were just that. Now, those culinary playtime dreams come true here and there. My daughter’s been eating solid food since she turned 6 months old, and I’ve been trying my hand at pureed recipes ever since. When my daughter was born, my mother-in-law gave us a cookbook called Cooking For Baby, and it’s been a great resource.

The critical ingredient I’ve needed for these pureed recipes to happen, is time at home. Like I mentioned, I have plenty of that. If I didn’t, my daughter may be more of a “jar baby”. And she’s not been jar free; she has sampled canned organic applesauce while on an outstate trip, as well as canned organic pears, while on a trip to the Mall of America with friends. Other than that, though, she’s pretty much been a fresh solid food connoisseur. Her favorite foods thus far are avocados and pears. She’s not picky about the type of pears; she’s tried Bosc, Red Anjou and Green Anjou, and likes them all the same. The way they’re served, however, is another story. She’s been very particular about the textures of her food. She’s always liked very smooth, soupy textures, as opposed to foods with chunky pieces. She’s transitioning, slowly but surely.

My friend Shaina persuaded my husband and I to get a Costco membership, and we gave in this past January. Costco is now a weekly run for us, and we get a lot of our kitchen staples there. I’ve especially enjoyed the fresh produce in mass quantities. My daughter digs their 5 pound bags of pears.

Given a little prep time, pears are an easy baby food to make. Since my daughter is a huge fan, I’ve made a lot of pear sauce. It’s not just for babies, either. I’ve eaten the stuff with my morning oatmeal. Add a dash of cinnamon, and it’s a decently gourmet breakfast. The best pears have sat on our counter for a few days before being steamed. “Woody” pears make below-average sauce, so wait until the pears are delicious when raw. When they smell fruity and have just the slightest give to them, they’re probably ready. Soft is no good, don’t wait too long. To steam them, you can heat about an inch of water in a large skillet, and set a steamer basket inside. While the water heats up, cut the pears in half and arrange them in the steamer basket.

Once your water is boiling, cover the skillet, set on low heat to simmer, and set your timer for 7 minutes.

When you can easily get a fork through your pears, they’re done. Steaming usually takes me 7-10 minutes. I stick the pear halves back on my cutting board and put them in the refrigerator for a bit, cooling them just enough to handle them, about 10-15 minutes. You can easily peel the skins off by hand while the pears are still warm. I quarter them (cut the halves in half) and then cut out the seeds. When my daughter was 6-10 months old, she wanted nothing to do with anything that was thick or chunky, so I threw the pears in our Magic Bullet to make a smooth pear sauce puree. Now that she’s almost a year old, and will tolerate less soupy textures, I use my mixer, for a chunkier puree. I haven’t tried it, but using a masher would probably be fairly easy and quick as well.

I used to fill our ice cube trays with fruit and veggie purees, until my cousin mentioned covered trays sold at Babys R Us. Now they’re all I use. Each “cube” in the tray holds about 2 oz. of puree, the lid snaps on and there’s even a place for your label. I write on a piece of clear tape.

I usually have enough puree to fill two trays, sometimes another container to keep in the refrigerator too. Freeze and defrost as needed. Once the cubes are frozen, I place them in a labeled zip-top bag, freeing up the trays for the next puree. Our freezer is currently taken over by zipper bags filled with colorful cubes of peas, carrots, sweet potatoes, asparagus, and apple, blueberry and now pear sauces. When I remember, I like to pop 2 cubes out the night before, and put them in either the glass measuring cup or glass bowl, and keep in the refrigerator. In the morning, I place the glass bowl in a sauce pan with about an inch of water on the bottom, and warm up the puree. If my daughter is too hungry to wait, she’ll eat it cold, but she prefers it warmed up. I don’t blame her. If I forget to defrost the night before, which is often, then it just takes a few minutes for the cube, in the bowl, to defrost inside the pan with water. Just provide your wee one with a little mashed banana or stand-by yogurt during the defrost.

The options for fruit sauce purees and other purees are endless. My daughter has had plain organic whole milk yogurt mixed with just about every fruit under the sun. She’s been trying grains this way too, with fruit sauce, in small quantities. This morning, she had chopped blueberries in pear sauce with a little oatmeal and yogurt. Frozen purees are really such a convenient way to go, especially when you run out of your peel-and-eat standby’s (bananas and avocados are fresh staples for us) or find that they’re ripe beyond edible.

Cut an avocado in half, your baby has a bowl of fresh food

Peel and eat standby

And the next time you do neglect a few of your peel-and-eat’s, I highly recommend this delicious banana bread/muffin recipe.

We were gone for the day earlier this week, helping my brother move. I threw 2 frozen pear servings and 1 frozen bluberry sauce serving in a rubbermaid container, as we were heading out the door. They defrosted by lunchtime and my daughter had the best meal of all of us.

The best part about homemade baby food is knowing exactly what my kiddo is eating and how it was prepared. Finding the time to prepare it is probably the only real challenge. It always feels like the incredible race against the napping clock, while also hoping to sneak in a quick recreational email check or floor mopping, before crossing the finish line. Wear your sneakers and work your agility.

Fresh, cheap baby food can come in the form of just about anything. Steam some baby carrots, boil some sweet potatoes, or share some of your blueberry/yogurt smoothie with your babe. The fun is in the searching and the experimenting. Start small and go from there. It’s hard to look back, when your homemade peas glow compared to the pale green-reminiscent peas from a jar.