Just Call Me Chef

This week has been my first week since the end of January that I have not had to go to work at all...which translates to my most productive week ever. This week I have swept, vacuumed, and mopped the whole house wall to wall, which in turn led to rearranging the furniture in the living room. I've done tons of laundry, cleaned all the bathrooms, and I actually made it to the grocery store in the middle of the day, in the middle of the week...meaning I didn't have to wait in long Saturday afternoon lines, or be the only one in the store at 10 pm after work on Thursdays. It was wonderful. My favorite day this week was yesterday, when I finally had a chance to make some homemade baby food.
My Thursday morning started around 6:45 when BB woke up. After a bottle, a bath, a little bit of play time, and a quick breakfast of coffee, oatmeal, and bananas (I had the coffee, BB had the oatmeal and bananas), I laid the little one down for his morning nap and got to work. Since he is still in the early stages of eating solids, I started with some simple "first food" recipes : peas and butternut squash. Since I knew it would take the longest, I started with the squash.

 While the oven preheated I cut the squash in half and scooped out all the pulp and seeds.

Then I put both halves squishy side down, in a glass baking dish, in about an inch of water. I put the dish in the oven, and let the squash bake at 400 degrees for around 40 minutes.

While it was baking I got started on the peas. I bought a one lb bag of frozen peas, but since I wasn't sure exactly how much puree that would make, I only cooked half the bag (which ended up being the perfect amount). I boiled the peas until they were tender (around 5 minutes), let them cool, and put them in the blender.

To thin the puree out a bit, I added in the water that the peas were cooked in (this also acts to add back some of the nutrients that may have been lost during the boiling process).

I then poured the puree into BPA free ice cube trays (which I bought three for a dollar). After the squash was done baking, I removed it from the pan and scooped the "meat" out of the rind and into the blender, along with some of the cooking water. I poured this puree into the remaining ice cube tray slots, and poured the extra into some store bought baby food containers I saved.

 I covered the trays, and put them in the freezer. This morning I popped all the little baby food cubes out of the trays, and put them in freezer bags.

 This saves freezer space as well as time (those sticky little suckers are a pain to pop out). Every evening before bed I will take the portion of cubes that I will need the next day (each cube is around 1 ounce) and thaw them in covered bowls in the fridge. (Thawed cubes will stay good in the fridge for around 48 hours).

I know many moms are opting to make their own baby food now, and that it is becoming quite trendy...but I have to say, as someone who does not cook much, I felt so accomplished to be able to do this for BB. Not only is it more nutritious than store bought baby food, but also more economical. I look forward to making more complicated recipes in the future.Who knows, maybe it will even inspire me to begin cooking for my husband once in a while!