Baby Food Bliss II

I must apologize ahead of time, this post has absolutely no pictures.  Who would've thought I'd do another post on baby food.  Obviously not me!

Like I said here, making baby food is super easy but eventually the flavors get a little monotonous.  Baby food monotony is kind of funny because in the world of Gerber's and Earth's Best Gabe's baby food palate is fuller and more flavorful than either of those companies.  But I still wanted him to try new things!

Because Gabe has eczema, his dermatologist wanted us to wait until he's at least a year old for meats. Of course we only found this out after I already made him lasagna, chicken and rice, chicken and broccoli Alfredo and a few more so those are waiting anxiously in my freezer. 

And now onto the randomness of Gabe's baby food.  Instead of apples, I've began making applesauce for Gabe.  I used a simple recipe from my husbands Grandmothers cookbook.

The recipe called for: 6 lbs of apples (I used Roma, the brand recommended by the farmer at a local farmers market), 1/2 cup sugar, 2 tablespoons lemon juice and 3 cinnamon sticks.  Because this was applesauce for Gabe, I skipped the sugar and traded the lemon juice for 6 lemon peels. 

Making applesauce is so simple!  Peel and core and cut apples into large junks.  Put all the ingredients in a large pot, cover with water and bring to a boil.  Once boiling, cover, turn to a simmer and wait 30 minutes. 

Remove peels and cinnamon sticks, process apples and voila - delicious applesauce!  And it truly was delicious because I ate my fair share!

Besides doctoring up Gabe's applesauce, we've added a few light spices to some of his other foods to enhance the taste and add new flavors to Gabe's menu. 

The ones that worked:

• Boiling a vanilla bean with 6 pounds of pears: again, remove the bean before processing and a truly delightful serving of baby pears.
• Add a few sprigs of fresh sage or basil to boiling green beans or carrots.
• Combine fresh nutmeg (which is surprisingly inexpensive) with 5 pounds of peaches
• And then we've started adding blueberries to lots of different fruits.  Gabe really seems to love blueberries and they seem to go with everything.  You don't even have to do anything but put the blueberries in the processor and turn it on.
• Adding brown rice, lentils and black beans are also a way to liven up "boring" vegetables and add a lot of protein.  Well, the lentils and beans do!

Baby food making is so easy and so gratifying.  I love knowing exactly what's in, or not in, Gabe's food.  And I love the fact that he has the opportunity to eat mangoes, lentils, spinach, spices and lots of other tastes that aren't offered in store bought baby food.