The Reuther Diaries: Homemade Baby Food-Today's Food Blueberries

Monday, June 13, 2011

Homemade Baby Food-Today's Food Blueberries

Well I still have not caught up on what we have been up to the past couple of weeks BUT I have begun to make Lilliana's baby food for the freezer. I did this with Eli and it was a lot of fun plus I knew what he was going to eat. I can't guarantee any of these habits have transfered to what he eats now but I TRIED:) All that to say I have a lot of mommy friends who have asked questions so I thought I would blog about it to give them some directions:) I was given the book Cooking For Baby Wholesome, Hommemade delicious foods for 6 to 18 months after I had Eli by my good friend Jennifer who by the way is an amazing cook! She went to pastry school and is very talented! Anyways, I use that as guidelines. Also I have gained some knowledge from the many years of my mom teaching me to cook and bake, and then my two grandmas who never had jarrred baby food for their children.

I have been lucky in that both of my kids have been born so that around the time they start solids which is 6 months it is summer and there is fresh produce galore so I have been able to let them try lots of things! I started making several things today but this is what is done and I can easily do for the moment so here is how I make blueberries. Blueberries are a great antioxidant. They also are on sale at the moment so stock up:) I did a pint today and ended up with 3 meals of blueberries. I am realizing as I am uploading pictures for this that they are not the greatest. They will get better. I can already tell that the other ones I have done today seem to be better.

I added the blueberries to a blender. The blender pictures are rather terrible I am sorry but you get the idea.

Then blend or puree the blueberries.

After they are blended I put them in a strainer and strain out all the juice from them as the peels will be to hard for them to eat at first.

You might have to take a spoon and press them to get it all out. It can be time consuming but sometimes I just let it sit and clean up my mess.

After that is done you will have juice or "sauce." It time to heat it on medium for about 3-5 minutes. It will help in digestion by breaking down fibers. After a while you don't have to do this step but at first it should be done.

When it is heated it tends to brighten up a little bit. You might have a few pieces of peel in it and that is ok.

The remaining blueberries with a peel I stick in a bag and label and will put in blueberry muffins or something like that. Let the sauce cool and put in bags like below or ice cube trays and freeze. Blueberries are a little time consuming for what you get because from all this I got about 3 meals. I put 1/3 of a cup in each bag.