Making Homemade Baby Food-Day 2 Sweet Potatoes and Winter Squash

This is day 2 of blogging about homemade baby food. I did these yesterday but just did not want to spend the time writing about 3 things.

Sweet Potatoes

Preheat oven to 350 Degrees. While the oven is preheating wash  your potatoes and then poke them with a fork. Get a pyrex pan and put them in the pan. They are ready to bake.

Let them bake about an hour or until they are wrinkly and when you squeeze them they are soft. I thought I took a picture of what they look like when they come out but I did not so use your best judgement. After they have scooped cut them open and peel off the skin so you just have the orange insides.

Then put them in a blender. I have found you might need add a little bit of water to help with the blending process. It is an estimate and you may not need to but I usually add just a little bit.

Here is the final result.

I did 4 potatoes and ended up with 9 bags with 1/3 of a cup in each. I also have found that if you stick the bag in a cup it helps with mess. Here is picture by what I mean. If you do ice cube trays you probably would not have the mess like I do while trying to scoop into a bag.

Winter Squash

Cut the squash in half lengthwise. 

You will need to put it in a pyrex pan also. Scoop out the seeds at the bottom.

Then turn it so the inside is facing down in the pan and add water to the bottom of the pan. It needs to be enough to cover the bottom and about 1/2 an inch up. Estimate:) Then bake at 350 degrees for one hour. I baked these and the potatoes together.

Done being baked kind of wrinkly and a different color

All baked

After it is done baking its time to scoop out the inside. 

Then stick it in the blender

I added the water that it was cooked in to help with blending.

The Finished Result

Yesterday's work all ready for the freezer. 

Stacked up in the freezer

I ended up with 10 bags of winter squash with 1/3 of a cup in each bag. Stay tuned for tomorrow as I will be blogging about cherries and apricots.

Two Posts Today!! I think we are catching up! Here is what we have been up to the past couple of weeks!

Summer is upon us and finally its warm! Consequently we have been soo busy and I have not been keeping up. If you look through FB pictures some of these are duplicates but I know some of my family does not so here it goes. Our life the past couple of weeks in photos!:) My goal is to keep up better!!

Lilliana discovered a few weeks ago she could stand. So that is all she wants to do!! She screams if she is on the floor. So we got the excersaucer. Eli loves that he can play with her too in it. She also has taken a liking to books. 

She is getting big:) Also 3 teeth are trying to make an appearance so she is chewing on her hands non stop!

The kids now have a nightly routine of bath together, a book then bed! Lilliana loves her bath and Eli won't take a bath without her.

We went to the Detroit Zoo on Memorial day. It was sooo hot but so much fun!! Eli wanted to see the hippo the most. 

This was probably my favorite. The new baby zebra only 6 weeks old.

We also got to go the the Children's Hands On Museum in Detroit with a friend. Eli LOVEd every minute of it. 

He was able to "drive" the ambulance there too. He loved that!

We also went to see the Budweiser Clydsdales this week. It was a very busy week. Eli 's daycare friends got to go with us. Eli loves horses and they thought this was so neat! Such a little boy and big horse!

Eli also helped daddy work on Mommy's car. This was so fun to watch.

Lilliana is sooo close to sitting up! I can't believe it. She lasts about 30 seconds. 

She also now loves the jumparoo! She screams if I take her out and she does not want to be out.

She is always soo happy!

Eli has been so tired he even fell asleep on the couch.

After church one sunday he was just loving his sister

We went for the first swim of the season. Sadly Eli did not enjoy it but is doing better now.

Lilliana loves her daddy and she enjoyed swimming.

She has some chunky legs!

I love this little girl!

I am so glad I took this when I did. She is slimming down but if you look close you can see 5 perfect little rolls!

I did wedding flowers this past weekend and these are the bouquets. 

Bridesmaid ones

Bride's 

Lilliana played in the grass for the first time last week. She did not mind it and seemed to enjoy it like her 

Eli loves big Trucks!! Anthony had to take the truck back to work and told him he could ride in it with him!! He was so excited!

Yelling about going!

Pulling into the parking lot at Anthony's work. Its hard to tell but he is smiling from ear to ear. Anthony said he loved every minute of it.

Then he got a special treat of ice cream. He has a dairy allergy so this is rare now but he got a little cone and loved it.

This picture is not great but the story behind it melts my heart. This is the first picture Eli has ever taken. I had my tripod and camera out. He scooted it over to Lilliana and figured out how to take her picture. I wish I had a picture of it. I have one on my phone but it is not great. I am planning to get him a camera and let him shoot when I do.




Well that is all for now! You should be all caught up on our lives or I should say I should be all caught up on my blog!

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.

Blueberries with peel

Ready to go in the freezer. Make sure they are labeled and dated.

Sorry not the best pictures! Stay tuned for tomorrow's foods which will be sweet potatoes and winter squash.

Its the little things!

Oh so busy we have been! Lots of firsts the past couple of weeks!! I don't have time to share it all in words but I will share how I love sharing most....through pictures!! I also have come to realize how much I adore my kids and depend on them. I need to see their smiling faces everyday to make things easier and less stressful! Today we plan to enjoy some relaxing and just enjoying them! Oh how I love my kids!!! Later tonight when I have some time I will just share pictures:) The little things in life are what make me happy. Lilliana's adorable smile this morning and Eli asking me to do "little piggies" this morning just thrills my soul. Now it is time to get off her and go enjoy their wonderful spirits.