Sunday, June 26, 2011

Baby food - yams

We’ve tried a few solids with Peanut so far.

First, we did rice cereal.  We just took a spoonful of the rice cereal, mixed it with some breast milk, and gave it to Peanut.

Next we tried some avocado, mashed in a food processor.  She did not like avocado much.

After we learned that the rice cereal clogged Peanut, we stopped it altogether and moved on to pears.  I ended up buying the pear baby food because I was too stressed out about Peanut not pooping for 12 days straight to worry about making her some food.

After a few days with the pears, which Peanut loved, I decided to try my luck with yams. 

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In case you’re wondering, yams are like sweet potatoes (I’m still a little unsure about the difference). 

To cook them for the baby, I started with one.  With the oven on 400, I washed and wrapped it in tin foil, then baked it for about 45 minutes.  I read that baking will bring out the flavor.

Once it’s cooked (you can check by poking it with a fork to make sure that it’s soft all the way through), I sliced it into 4 pieces.

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Then used a spoon to scoop out the yummy stuff and leave the skin back.

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Then I ground it down in a food processor.

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But this didn’t really get it quiet as processed as I wanted it to be, so I added some water and used this handy little guy.

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This did the trick!

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To one yam, I added about 1/4 cup of water to make it a little more watery.

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Since this made plenty of food for the next couple of weeks, I froze more of it by putting it in the ice-cube tray.

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Once it’s frozen, I transferred these to a zip-lock bag and we just pop them out in the evening, warm them up, and Peanut’s home-made food is ready in minutes!

Now, on to the tricky part – the judges.

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At first, she wasn’t so sure.

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But she quickly came around and loved it!

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Next time, pizza.

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I’m just kidding – that’s our dinner.

Did you make or buy your baby food?  What was your baby’s favorite?

What are you having for dinner tonight?

What’s the difference between a sweet potato and a yam?

14 comments:

  1. Well, as my Chicken is about two weeks older than Peanut (what names, lol) we've been doing this too! Your yam looks like my sweet potato in the UK so I don't know the difference. I've also got lots of little cubes of baby mush in my freezer! So far we've tried apple, pear, sweet potato, carrot and mashed banana. We also have baby porridge and baby yoghurt all of which she loves (so it seems) Her favourite by far is pear though, need to make some more actually.

    We had a BBQ for dinner her with potatoes, lettuce and peas grown in our garden, mmm!

    I've also got a lot of the same sort of photos to blog about, must get on to that!

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  2. Aren't they the same thing? I just thought it was a different word for the same thing. It would probably be bad if I got this wrong, considering that a lot of my blog is about food...

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  3. So....I was going to be all health foody w/Zoe and I was going to make ALL her baby food. I definitely bought the vegetables. {At least that was a start!} The first vegetable I thought I'd attempt was a sweet potato. I did exactly what you did, baked it, put it in the blender {I don't have anything fancier than a blender...so I just blended the hell out of it}, added some water to thin it down...I never got it to the pureed mix that a baby needs. But we went for it anyways. Well, when it was time to come out the other end...it came out literally the exact same way it went in. I figured she would get more nutritional value out of the store bought brands and never cooked her food again.

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  4. I've made Bug's baby food from the beginning, too (he's a year now). I've just started putting recipes on my blog... you'll have to check it out for when Peanut is a little older! I found that I could make a bunch in a couple of hours every few weeks... saved lots of money & much better for him! His favorites when he was first starting were sweet potatoes (no clue of the difference between that & a yam), zucchini and banana. Oh, and he loved (and still does love) YoBaby yogurt.

    I am having stuffed mushrooms, fried artichokes and shrimp scampi for dinner (I manage a restaurant... I didn't make all of this delicious food!).

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  5. Gage loves sweet potatoes too! But we get the kind that you just pop in the microwave for 6 mins....they're yummy! just a thought if you are ever running short on time!

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  6. I definitely bought our baby food. Monday through Friday I was out of the house and at work from 8am-7pm so I didn't feel I had the time to devote to making our own food. Porter gobbled up just about everything in those first 6-18 months. He loved (and still loves) avocados. After 18 months, the picky eating toddler made an appearance. He's getting better but there are plenty of days when I wished he was back to eating whatever we gave him!

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  7. Hmm...hand held blender...interesting... We've been debating what we should get as our food processor is dead and Robby will be looking for solid food soon. No clue about the difference between a sweet potato and a yam.

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  8. Emma is a lover of all food that we've tried at this point. Sweet potatoes, Carrots, Peas, Green Beans, Squash, Bananas, Pear, Applesauce, Rice cereal...pretty much everything. Plain and simple, the chunky thing loves to eat! I am saving up all her jars and plan to start making some homemade food soon but right now we go with the store brands.

    For Emma's dinner tonight she had prunes and rice cereal in her bottle of formula and momma and daddy had Mexican. NOM NOM NOM!

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  9. I have made all of mine! Saved a ton of $$ and was super easy! All of my recipes are posted under the Baby tab thing at the top of my blog :) I have a few I need to update! :)

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  10. Thank goodness for the stick blender! That's what I used for Bubba's food too. Try mixing mashed banana with the avocado. She may like it better that way.

    True yams are bigger and nearly impossible to find in this country. What you have there are sweet potatoes. http://www.loc.gov/rr/scitech/mysteries/sweetpotato.html

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  11. Baby C loves all food. She really enjoys the sweet potatoes and butternut squash. I like making her food and use a new muffin tin to freeze her meals. She eats a larger portion, so its easier for me than an ice cube tray.

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  12. I never made our own baby food, but I wish I had! I just never felt like I had the time. I think it's great though--Peanut will be a good eater!!

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  13. My mom made all of Mildred's and I's baby food. She'd plant a huge garden and then just freeze it in ice cube trays too. Neither of us are picky eaters and mom thinks its because of homemade baby food.

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  14. I made all of Connor's food back then. I used breast milk to add to to almost everything to help with the consistency - or added a little cereal to thicken things up. Sweet potatoes definitely help with the pooping! I bought some specific baby food trays - a bit bigger than the regular ice cube trays and would make up big batches of stuff and freeze it. Then I could pop a cube or two out for dinner or toss it in a covered bowl to go to the sitter. I had so much fun with it!

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