Pea Puree and Other Shooters

Remember a few posts back when I said the baby food peas were disgusting and I wanted to make my own?  Well, I did and it was easy, fun, rewarding and addicting.  In fact, I even got a little carried away and made a whole assortment of baby food for Megan over the last few weeks.  Here's what's in our freezer right now:

• Green Beans - my mom steamed and pureed these out of fresh green beans from her garden
• Peas - cooked some frozen peas and pureed
• Apples - simmered some Cortland and Honeycrisp together until tender and pureed.  Won't do this combo of apples together again since the Cortland cooked much faster than the Honeycrisp.
• Pears - steamed fresh pears from the summer crop and pureed
• Butternut Squash - cut the squash in half lengthwise and baked in the oven cut-size down in a baking dish with water.  Then scooped out the "meat" and pureed
• Sweet Potato - soaked in water for 5 minutes, baked until tender then scooped out the "meat" and pureed
• Carrots - sliced into sticks, wrapped loosely in foil and baked until soft and pureed
• Butternut Squash/Apple/Brown Rice - added some applesauce and cooked brown rice to leftover squash and pureed
• Apple/Carrot/Potato - simmered the three together until tender and pureed.  Not my favorite combo so we added some extra apple to the mix along with a pinch of nutmeg.

Everything was frozen in ice cube trays for easy portions.  There are so many fun recipes out there but I don't know if we'll get around to making them before Megan gets sick of this baby food.  I will still probably continue to buy some of the flavors that I'm unable to make myself, primarily fruits.  Overall, I'm glad that I can do this for her and it is nice to know what's going into my baby's food and into her tummy!  Money-wise I'm probably not ahead much especially considering the time and effort.  She is a big eater.  In fact, when she's hungry at dinnertime I will give her 2+ Tbsp rice or oatmeal along with 3-4 ice cube sections of any combination of the above.  No wonder she's able to fill up that diaper of hers!