I love to cook, always have and seeing as my dad is a chef and my mom is no stranger to the kitchen either I get it rather naturally. I never really questioned if I would make the boys their baby food I just assumed that's what I would do. Once I made the choice to stay home with them it became another thing I could do to help save us some money. The first time I undertook making food for the boys I was 100% overwhelmed. That night I chose to make sweet potatoes, pears, apples, butternut squash and something else I think that is skipping my mind. It was WAY TO MUCH at once. Now looking back on things and working through this after 6ish months I have come up with a system that worked great for me and I figured I would share in case anyone else could benefit. Make one food at a time! I did a food a day and that worked out great for me!
When we got married I was super excited for my crock pot, bread maker and immersion blender. I know little things. My hours when I worked allowed me to be able to get home at a decent hour to fully cook a meal every night so my crockpot was something I used rather rarely. Now I use it at least once or twice a week and it's not for the family meals like I'm sure most people use theirs for I am using it to cook veggies and fruits for the boys. I take the morning nap time after starting a load of laundry and prep whatever I'm cooking that day, today it was strawberries, pineapple, kiwi and spinach. Toss it all into the crock pot, put the lid on and turn it on for a few hours. When it was hard veggies like carrots, sweet potatoes or similar I would let it go closer to 5 or 6 but with fruits right around 2 works. Then I scoop it out with a slotted spoon and then use the immersion blender and just puree the mess out of it. Once pureed I just put it in my little freezer containers and go from there. Now that they boys are doing more finger foods I cook it but skip the puree part for the vegetables. The mixture today was pureed and then frozen to be used for yogurt and oatmeal mix ins.
When I was making things I didn't start doing mixes until maybe a month or so ago because I could just have a bag of carrot cubes and a bag of apple cubes then I would give each baby two cubes for their meal. Now that they primarily feed themselves I am only using the frozen stuff for breakfast as oatmeal and a fruit mix and snack as yogurt and a fruit mix. I've gotten kinda crazy with them all depending what I have currently in my freezer. Some people think I'm crazy but the boys have had rhubarb already mixed with peaches and then again with blueberries and banana as well as with strawberries and bananas. Why not expose them to things that I serve on a regular basis!
I just really want to express how happy I am that they have moved to feeding themselves more because it is SO much easier to put them in their highchairs and work on stuff in the kitchen with them while they are eating!
Until next time!
