Off to the store, with baby in tow, I went to buy a parsnip (I have never had one before but I read about how to turn one into baby food online so I figured why not), baby carrots and 2 large Red Delicious apples (I read you are supposed to use Macintosh but there were none to be found). I also bought 4 Bartlett pears but I never got around to preparing those tonight. I managed to fill all my new plastic "1 oz baby food storage canisters" and I reached EXTREME INSANITY after the peeling, cutting, boiling and puree'ing just the 3 kinds of foods.
*Sigh*, I thought this was easy? Oh, I forgot, my mother was a full-time stay-at-home mom who's downtime was always been spent DOING SOMETHING!
The process: I began by cleaning and peeling the parsnips. I tried a raw bite - not bad! Tastes like a real tough carrot. After boiling it like a potato, I had Rob try it. Positive feedback! Maybe we discovered a new side dish. Excellent! I then hand ground it in the little mill my mom bought me for Christmas and... viola! I fill 5 of the 24 canisters.
I then moved on to steaming half the bag of baby carrots which yielded 8 more canisters. Evie decided to wake up from her piss-poor nap at this time (just half an hour?!. What happened to the 2 hour job you performed at Grandma Bob's last week, Eve?). I pull a fussy baby into the kitchen and plop her into the Einstein activity center while I clean, peel, cut and steam the 2 apples. This finished off the 11 canisters plus a recycled Gerber canister.
Dry, cracked hands... a little exhaustion from both the grocery shopping trip and all this food preparation... a messy kitchen and 1 fussy baby (from being ignored) later... here's the final $$$ tally: $3.495 for 28 ozs.
Organic Gerber baby food at 92¢ a pop would run about $10.40-$12 to equate what I now have stored in the freezer.
So, a net savings of $6.90+ ain't too bad (I mean, added up over the course of time).
Then again, isn't sanity worth it? And enjoying some downtime? Especially time I could spend playing with baby, or cleaning, or just taking a load off from working all week long?!. Was this worth it?
I dunno. I think I'll keep up with this and see if I don't begin to fall into a better routine/pattern that grows increasingly more manageable over time.
My mother has already called to tell me that she never did all this. She just bought CANS of unsalted veggies that she then pureed for me. What? A short cut?!. Man, I have a lot to learn...
In the meanwhile, here's the chub in all her glory, enjoy!:
4 comments:
I also recommend frozen veggies. That way the KP is all done, and you still save money. It would be even faster if you have a microwave which I swear we will get before kid #2 (whenever that is).
Give her a big kiss from us.
I'd like to put in a word for the sweet potato. You scrub it, pop it in a hot oven, bake it until it's squishy, cut it in half and scoop the insides away from the skin and, voilà: baby food. You may have to mash it with a fork a couple of times, but there's no food mill to clean, no peeling, and no chopping. It's sweet, so your baby will probably like it, it mixes well with applesauce and chicken, and it's rich in fibery goodness.
**Update** Evie hates my carrots. I don't know why - maybe because they are fresher than the Gerber baby variety or, more likely, its a texture thing. The food mill made it into tiny tiny bits instead of near liquid goo. She not only doesn't LIKE my carrots but threw them up. She gagged and gagged on the first bite until painfully spitting it up onto her chin. Looking up at me with big watery eyes, she almost seemed to beg me to not force a second bite. Sad.
On a lighter note, she loves the apples. She cringes the first few bite because mine are more sour but she does eat them up.
I have yet to try parsnips.
Jessica - I'll try the sweet potato. Every kid I know loves 'em so for some reason it seemed to easy to go there next. But then again, why do I like to challenge the baby so much?
I have pears here, too... any luck with those?
When does one try the meats? I thought that came at like 9 months but maybe I'm way off.
GothamMom - I do have a microwave and you are right - why am I trying to do things like these inventions don't exist? Frozen veggies is good, too. When do you think broccoli would work or is that impossible for babies to eat just yet? We always seem to have frozen broccoli on hand.
And, I did give her a big kiss after your post. I actually gave her a bath and then nuzzled her a wee bit afterword... again, when did she get so big?!. Its exciting to watch them grow and just so heart breaking all at the same time. Its nice to slow down for a moment or two.
hey, brooke.
pears might work. you may also want to try mixing foods, like, try mixing something new with something evie already likes. and don't be afraid of weird combinations: frances ate a lot of banana and avocado.
also, as you've learned with the carrots, sometimes a baby will need to try something a few times before she likes it. don't give up!
as for introducing foods, i used this handy guide for the first year or so. none of the information i found here seemed to contradict anything i was reading anywhere else. also, i've taken a typical day's menu to the pediatrician a few times during well-baby visits, and the doctor has always approved of frances's diet.
i have also used this book quite a bit, but not as much as i thought i would. it's got a lot of toddler-friendly recipes, and we've pretty much moved to feeding frances whatever we eat (with some modifications, of course).
giving you parenting advice reminds me of my experience teaching high school: i talked like a freaking expert, but i was never more than one lesson plan ahead of the kids.
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