A Veggie Adventure

Wow!  I can't believe that we are already at the stage where Grayson is ready for baby food.  He will be six months on January 22nd.  The time is flying by.

I was a bit worried that I wouldn't have time to make Grayson's baby food.  It was really hard to keep up while making it for Grace when she was that age, and I thought with two kiddos finding the time to do it may be a challenge.  Fortunately, Grayson has become a really good baby (took us a while to get there) and Grace plays by herself so well, that it looks like it just may work out.

There are several reason why I like to make my kids baby food.  Quality of ingredients of coarse, but believe it or not it is so much cheaper, not to mention that with Grace her skin was sensitive to the dyes in the store bought baby foods and she would get a rash on her face where the food had touched her. Best of all it's really easy and kinda fun to make.

Back to "it's so much cheaper" reason. While shopping the grocery store for vegetables to begin making baby food I thought I would compare the price of the store bought stuff to the vegetables.  I was amazed how much it has gone up in the short time since Grace was eating baby food.  In my shopping trip yesterday I was able to purchase a bag on organic baby carrots for $1.50, which made 8 individual portions.  I also got sweet potatoes that were on sale for $1.00 each and a bag of organic sweet peas for $2.00. What a deal.

I have a baby food processor, but a regular blinder or food processor would do just as well.  My mother in law bought me a First Meals cookbook by Annabel Karmel.  It is really good and has recipes for baby food for 6-9 months and beyond.  It also has recipes for family meals that help get or toddlers to eat their veggies.  If you are on your first baby or you didn't make baby food for your other kids and would like to try.  My suggestion would be if you are going to do it, I would start out with the homemade stuff rather than the store bought, because the texture is so different and it has been my experience if they try the store bought, they will be more likely to expect that smoother texture.

So, after making the carrots yesterday I tried them out on Grayson, and he LOVED them.  After he ate an entire portion he was so mad that it was all gone and wanted more.  We will continue on with the carrots for a couple days to make sure we aren't allergic, then its off to our next "Veggie Adventure"

Here is my finished product.  Lets hope Grayson enjoys his veggies and Mommy's hard work more than Big Sister Grace, who since she got off baby food is almost impossible to get to eat veggies!

Good Luck to those who try their own baby food!