Making Your Own Baby Food!

 I absolutely love making baby food for my 7 month old. I have so much fun watching her taste fruits and veggies for the very first time!

(With a little extra time, it's a fairly simple task)

We are on first step foods right now. (just pureed fruits and veggies, no combinations yet and very little seasoning if any) I started with everything green...green beans, sweet peas, leafy greens, etc...and now we are oranges and yellows! (PERFECT fall colors)

This month we are trying/have tried:

Sweet Potatoes

Butternut Squash

Acorn Squash

Pears

The first step to making baby food is Steaming. Steaming is very important! (that/s why it's in bold) You need those fruits and veggies to be EXTREMELY mushy before you puree them! Your little one has never eaten solids before and you want them to be as smooth as possible. This can be accomplished with a good steaming.

I placed a large pan on water in a 400 degree oven and placed the cut up butternut squash and acorn squash in the pan. The acorn squash was mushy after about 45 minutes and it took the butternut squash 1 1/2 hours! I didn't bother peeling either because it is Super easy to scoop the insides out of squash.

With the sweet potatoes and pears, I pealed and cubed them and placed them in separate pots of boiling water. The sweet potatoes took about 40-50 minutes and the pears just 20!

Pureeing your steamed/cooked fruits and veggies is super easy with a food processor, just make sure there are absolutely no lumps. I found using some of the steaming water helped the process along and added back some of those nutrients lost during cooking.

Pour your pureed fruits and veggies into ice cube trays and pop into the freezer!

Beautiful Fall colors.

From left to right:

Acorn Squash, Butternut Squash, Pear.

(Sweet Potatoes not pictured)

I pop my baby food out of the ice cube trays after about and hour and place them into Ziplock bags, label them and stick the bags back into the freezer! 

When your little one is ready to eat, you simply grab a cube or two, microwave for 20-30 seconds, mix and serve when cool enough for baby to eat. 

Enjoy!

Black Bean and Qunioa Burgers with Spicy Yogurt and Corn Guac!

I love black bean burgers and I always feel like making them when the weather gets cool. I am, however, awful at getting them to turn out looking like actually burgers...until THIS time! I think I've finally learned the trick to good looking black bean burgers...practice.

Ingredients (for Burgers):

2 Cups Quinoa-cooked and cooled

1/2 an onion-finely diced

1/4 Cup Cilantro

1 can re fried black beans

2 Eggs

1/4 Cup Panko Bread Crumbs

1/2 Cup Whole Wheat Flour

2 Cloves Garlic- finely chopped

While the Quinoa was cooking I combined ALL the other ingredients for the black bean burgers and set it in the fridge. (this also helped the burgers hold their shape while cooking) Then I moved onto the Corn Guac!

Ingredients (for Corn Guacamole):

2 Avocados- VERY ripe (should be super mushy)

1 Cup Frozen Corn

1/2 Can diced tomatoes (you can use fresh and dice then yourself, I was just feeling lazy)

Salt- to taste 

A pinch of Garlic Powder (you can omit if you're not a huge garlic fan)

Mash the avocados, add garlic and salt. Set aside and in a large skillet combine diced tomatoes and corn. Cook the corn and tomatoes on high without any oil, until the corn begins to turn a dark yellow/brown. (you don't want to burn it, just give it color) Cool before combining with mashed avocados and then refrigerate until ready to serve. 

(Aren't those the prettiest colors??)

Ingredients (Spicy Yogurt):

1/2 Cup Greek Yogurt

2 Tbsp. Mayo

3 t. Srirachi

1 Tbsp. Honey

Combine ALL ingredients and refrigerate until ready to serve. 

My quinoa was finished cooking and I placed it in a large bowl to cool. While waiting, I toasted some buns. 

Some Pretzel Burger Buns! 

By this time my quinoa was cool enough to combine into the rest of the ingredients for the black bean burgers. I heated a skillet to medium high with 1-2 Tablespoons Olive Oil. Using a 1/2 Cup as my scoop, I scooped the combined ingredients for the black beans and plopped it into the skillet! They took 3-4 minutes per side and had to be pressed a bit to get them to look like "normal" burgers. 

(So proud of myself!)

I put my Black Bean and Quinoa Patties on my toasted Pretzel Buns, spread some Spicy Yogurt on the bun and put a big blob of Corn Guac. on the patty, then sprinkled some Queso Fresco cheese on top!

(BTW, if you've never had Queso Fresco cheese...go buy some...NOW.

Aaaaaaand

YUM.

My family demolished them, in seconds.

And they were amazing!

Enjoy.