I think I've already mentioned how much fun I'm having concocting baby food for Gabriela. I have been inspired by an article to include spices in Gabriela's food. Lately she's had sweet potatoes and lentils with cinnamon, broccoli and GARLIC, and oatmeal with fresh mango and nutmeg with ground flaxseed. And she's loved every biteful.
Our pediatrician said meat is an excellent source of iron and zinc, especially for breastfed babies. So last night, we introduced Gabriela to meat. I ground up some barley in our totally awesome spice grinder in just a few seconds and cooked it in water, kind of like oatmeal. But then I added the most mexican of Mexican spices: CUMIN or cominos, as the real Mexicans say. I added this delightful cereal concoction to the blender along with some trusty breast milk and cooked chicken and pureed it all up. For the finishing touch, I mashed up some avocado and mixed it all together. Gabriela gobbled it right down.
It was kind of like baby burrito filling... oooh, maybe next time we should add some beans!! See how excited I get about this stuff???
I'm just not sure about the whole finger food stuff. I want to give her little pieces of food to practice picking up and putting in her mouth. But I'm also super paranoid about her choking on something. I got her some Joe's O's from our beloved Trader Joes. Maybe some cut up banana or avocado since it's soft and mushy?? Should I break down and buy some commercial baby food? Gerber snacky snacks? Still trying to figure this one out.
5 comments:
They have plain puffed rice and plain puffed corn (wait another month before the corn, it takes longer to dissolve) in the cereal aisle at walmart, but the oatmeal and granola. It's less than a dollar for a HUGE bag, AND it's free of flavors and dyes...just natural old school puffed rice. I started Quincy on that before the Gerber puffs (which are awesome, but I broke them in half the first few times) Parent's Choice (Walmart brand) does an excellent knock off of the puffs for nearly half the price, too.
A GREAT finger food to start with are canned peas and carrots. Something happens to the peas when they are canned together that makes them softer and mushier than when you do regular canned peas...and frozen peas have too tough a skin to start out with. The tiny cans of peas and carrots are awesome though.
Love your "baby burrito" gourmet meals! She probably is having some AWESOME nasty diapers right now! One reason to be VERY grateful for daycare!
I'm glad that she is enjoying her food. Banana and avocado sounds good. It is convent to have some of the commercial stuff. But it really is up to you girl. It sounds like you are doing a good job with that you are doing.
What a good mommy you are!!! I'll be over for some baby burritos soon! LOL! I always used canned food, but that is just because I didn't know what I was doing. I bought the organic Gerber baby food. I also used those cereal puffs and the kids really like them. Have fun making your concotions!!!
Mina loved her Gerber puffs. They dissolve almost instantly in the mouth. (I used to share hers all the time.) Banana is good but it's hard to grip because it gets kinda slimy. I used to crush cereal into little bitty crumbs and roll the banana chunks in it. That way Mina didn't have to chase the banana all over her tray and it gave it a little more texture.
Take lots of messy pics.
How fun! I had so much fun making all of Kaiya's baby food too, and also remember it being a challenge to figure out what she could eat once we started finger foods. Here are some of the things that worked for us. I don't remember the timing of when you are supposed to introduce some of this stuff, but i think it was all pretty close to Gabriela's age or up to a year. So here goes:
squashed peas (i use frozen, but check the label becuase some frozen peas add salt. canned veggies have a ton of salt too)
soft cooked whole wheat rotini noodles (easier to pick up than elbows)
pieces of boiled potato
cut up hard boiled egg (just the yolk for a while, i think)
scrambled egg yolk (it cooks really fast and burns easily)
rice (one of kai's favs)
tofu (this one's great becuase it's firm enough to pick up but soft enough to chew w/o teeth. kai still loves tofu)
shredded cheese
really ripe melon so it's soft
toast strips, just to gnaw on, but it depends on how many teeth and if she'll bite large pieces off
That's all I can remember right now, but good luck! Once you figure out what she'll eat and can manage it's a lot of fun! If you buy Gerber or commercial baby food, just make sure to read the ingredients! Most of it is just junk, contains no nutrition, and a lot of it even has high fructose corn syrup. in baby food! Happy feeding!
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