The Kitchen: Beginning Baby Food

When Kate was just barely old enough to sit in the high chair, I was so eager to start feeding her baby food! I guess it was the excitement of something new to do with baby. It was super messy as both baby and mom tried to figure out how to eat/feed. I also personally see introducing solid foods as the beginning of setting boundaries for my kids-- no putting fingers in mouth while mommy is feeding, no hands in hair, yes look at mommy, yes open mouth, etc. I found this makes meal times so much less difficult, and my girls don't need a bath after each meal!

With Kylie, I waited a little longer before beginning because I was busier-- moving to a new city, helping Dave launch a new ministry, and trying to watch mobile older sister.

Now with McKenzie, I have waited so long that she is practically salivating while the rest of us eat. I've been hesitant to enter this new phase because potty training my middle girl has been quite an exhausting and refining experience, and my hope was to wait until we had that down before adding something else into the mix... But, at McKenzie's 6 month check-up, the pediatrician recommended I feed her solids at two meals a day... So, I guess its time to dive in to feeding her "real food" (as the rest of my family calls it).

All that to say, I made homemade baby food yesterday with Kate's help.
First, we made Zucchini & Rice:
I peeled two whole zucchinis, and Kate threw them in the ninja blender.  After they were pureed thoroughly, we added in some rice cereal and mixed well.  I like to add grains because it makes for a nice consistency and is more filling.  (I figure if you are going to feed baby, she might as well feel full afterwards!)

Next, I poured the mixture into an ice cube tray and then put it in the freezer.

Later, I pulled the frozen food cubes out of the freezer and put them into a tupperware container.

 

They will stay in the freezer, and I will pull out one or two cubes at a time, let them thaw, and then feed McKenzie.

We also made some banana and oatmeal baby food:

In less than 15 minutes start to finish (minus transferring the frozen cubes to the tupperware) and less than $4, I made 3 dozen servings of baby food.  

Here's Kate feeding her Wilbur while I fed McK...

The Kitchen: Homemade Peanut Butter

This was so easy I questioned whether or not it was worth a blog post!  This morning I made homemade peanut butter.  This consisted of a two step process:

1. Pour 16 oz. peanuts into my ninja blender.

2. Turn blender on low for 3 minutes.

The final product...


Here are the girls enjoying PB&J's:

 

It isn't sweet peanut butter since there's nothing in it except peanuts, but my girls didn't seem to notice.  The batch made just over two cups of peanut butter.

I thought this experiment was all-around pretty great!

The Kitchen: Baking Homemade Bread

Have you ever made one of those "amish friendship" breads that are really yummy at the end but kind of sickening while you literally feed yeast for several weeks in a plastic bag on your counter?

Well, up until this summer, that was the extent of my experience with baking bread. But as we've attempted as a family to eat more whole grains, I've been shocked with a) how many ingredients are listed in a loaf of store-bought bread and b) how difficult it is to find whole wheat and whole grain bread that doesn't have enriched something in it somewhere!

So, this summer, I asked one of my friends to teach me how to make bread. While I still buy bread at the store, its a fun treat & activity with the girls to watch the bread rise and to knead it....

There is a great tutorial online here:
http://faithfulprovisions.com/2010/08/30/how-to-make-homemade-bread/

Here's my contribution: WHITE WHOLE WHEAT FLOUR!
Did you know that white whole wheat flour is an albino form of whole wheat? It has all the great properties of whole wheat (nutrition and digestion), but is sweeter (naturally) and a lot easier to work with as a dough. We love it!

Baking homemade bread requires you are home for several hours because you have to let it rise several times. But, it isn't hard or time consuming... especially using my Kitchen Aid mixer with my dough hook attachment!

So far, I've made
2 loaves bread
3 pizza crusts
cinnamon sugar pretzels