Busy Weekend for Mom

This weekend I decided to try my hand at making my own baby food for Kali.  TJ went to Winn Dixie and bought us some Sweet Potatoes, Carrots, and Avocados for me to get started. 

I set myself up on the Wholesome Babyfood website and read up on how to prepare these yummy foods for my monster.  I also bought These containers from Amazon to get me on the right track.  I like to be prepared, can you tell?!

I started with the Avocados on Friday.  (I'm a bad blogger and totally didn't take any pictures of me making this food...yes, yes, yes - I suck and I know it)

But, here is the finished product of the Avocado extravaganza:

The containers I bought hadn't come in by the time I was ready to make these (I'm inpatient).

So I just used some ice trays that I already had.  They make 1 oz servings, which is perfect for the avocados, since I didn't know if she would like them or not.  All that I made came from only 2 avocados.

12- 1oz cubes of Avocados

I have found that Kali hates my Magic Bullet.  Unless there is something majorly distracting her, she breaks out in full on ugly cry when I turn it on.  Pretty funny to me, since as soon as I turn it off she smiles at me.  So I tried to make it while she was hanging out with TJ or sleeping.  All of my other trials turned out alright and only 1 more crying spell occurred during the weekend of food making.  But all is well with the little monster once again.  And I'm sure she'll appreciate the noisy machine once she realizes it makes the super yummy food she's been eating!!! :)

I gave her the avocados Saturday for lunch.  They were a little thick for her.  So today, when I gave them to her for dinner, I mixed it with some apples.  She seemed to love the mixture and ate it all.  So we've found a winner. :)

Next on my list of things to do were some carrots.  TJ assisted me with this little adventure (thankfully, because Kali is back to teething and not napping well).  I cleaned and peeled the carrots, TJ cut them (with our Pampered Chef handy-dandy chopper) and then we steamed them.  Didn't take long before they were soft enough to puree. 

Got them done, and they look yummy (if you like bland carrots...)

7- 2oz cubes of frozen carrots

All this came from about 5 carrots.  I still have plenty more of them that I'll make later this week for our stash!

Then, I made the sweet potatoes.  Bake for 60 minutes, then scoop out and puree.  Easy Peasy.  This time, I remembered to photograph the process.  Yay me! Better late than never...

BAKE at 410 for 60 minutes:

4 sweet potatoes =)

Scoop out the "meat" into a bowl:

Yummy!!

Puree until smooth:

Handy dandy Magic Bullet (well the JC Penny version, but worked just as well)

Scoop into containers to freeze:

All 12 ready to put in the freezer:

(Don't mind the spilt sweet potatoes in the corner)

I still had a little bit let over.  So I pureed it and put it in the fridge.  Once these are good and frozen, I'll put them into a plastic bag (labeled with what it is and the date I made it-since you're supposed to use it from 1-3 months) and freeze the rest.  So from the 4 sweet potatoes, I will get about 16-2oz containers.  YAY!!!

I'm so glad that I decided to do this.  It's so easy to do.  Plus it's inexpensive, and more nutritious for Kali. 
I did want to do some apples for her.  But after reading the Wholesome Babyfood website, I saw that I could purchase Natural applesauce from the grocery store and freeze it just the same.  As long as the ingredients were only apples and water.  So I found some at Target and got them freezing.  One large jar was about $2.69 at target and made 3 trays, which is 48-1oz cubes.  That's 48 servings!!!!!  That's a lot of applesauce!!! =)  And considering that you can buy the 2.5 oz containers of Gerber babyfood for about $1 for 2 containers, I'd say I saved some money! 

Now I just need some pictures of Kali trying all these yummy foods and I'll be set!! =)

All in all, great, productive weekend!

Avocados, Carrots, and Applesauce