Kiwi is a great convenience food – For baby, just grab a spoon and dig in

Sep 24, 2009 Friendly Baby Food Advice, Uncategorized

Today I was eating kiwi with a spoon, straight out of its peel.  I wanted a little “pick me up” snack but didn’t want to bother with preparation; enter the kiwi!  As I was enjoying my 2nd third kiwi, it dawned on me that I should post about this.

We all know bananas are the ultimate in pure and natural convenience foods but did you ever think about what other foods are natural convenience foods?  My late night Mommy brain can’t come up with any right now other than the banana and the kiwi so feel free to share your thoughts.

I’ve posted an image of my quick and healthy kiwi by spoon snack below.  All you need to do is cut off a portion of one end and then dig in or just cut the kiwi in half!  If you give it a quick and gentle roll on the counter (much like you do with avocado), it may be easier to spoon out.  Enjoy and don’t forget to visit our Kiwi Baby Food page!

Storing Homemade Baby Food – Don’t toss those unused breast milk bags out!

Sep 23, 2009 storage

Mommy Dianne just sent us an email about using breast milk storage bags for homemade baby food. She noted the following:

I wanted to share one tip with you I found. I had a bunch of the Lansinoh breast milk storage bags left over from when I was breast feeding. I use them to store my food cubes in the freezer. They are freezer safe, have 2 ziplock strips, and have a great tab to write date and food type on. Each one holds 6-7 cubes.

They are expensive, so I wouldn’t recommend to buy them just for this, I regular ziplock bag would work fine with a label, but since they were left over and going to waste, they work great.

We wrote back to let Dianne know that we had received 3 emails within the past 3 days about breast milk storage bags doing double duty for freezing homemade baby foods! How funny is that?!?!  These emails inspired this post.

On our Freezing Homemade Baby Food (near the bottom) page, we write about a tip received from a Mom who used breast milk bags. This Mom froze her purees in extra breast milk storage bags and she said it worked great. She even used the storage tray. We loved this idea as breast milk storage bags are sterile and have never contained BPA. But, as Diane notes, these bags are expensive and we really wouldn’t recommend buying them just for homemade baby food.

Tags: storage

Creamy Fall Harvest Soup – Good for Baby, Good for All!

Sep 23, 2009 Baby Food Recipes Updated, New Baby Food Recipes

This soup is delicious and makes a great “meal” for your little one. It can be served to older kids in a yummy bread bowl. I have added chicken (shredded) and pork tenderloin (shredded) a few times to make a more hearty meal. You can pour a bit over cooked rice or over small pasta for babies; makes a good meal to use for spoon practice!

Creamy Fall Harvest Soup – 8 months +

2 teaspoons olive oil
1 small onion, chopped
1/2 cup pureed pumpkin or squash
1/2 cup natural unsweetened applesauce
1 1/2  – 2 cups chicken broth
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon (or allspice, or nutmeg and ginger)
Pinch cayenne pepper (optional)
1 cup reduced-fat (2%) milk (omit if baby has dairy issues)

Heat oil in a saucepot over medium heat; add onion and sauté until tender. Add pumpkin, applesauce, chicken broth, cinnamon, and cayenne; bring to a boil over medium-high heat.

Reduce heat to medium-low and simmer until for 10-15 minutes, whisking occasionally. Remove from heat and stir in milk. Purée, if needed. Freeze in portions. To heat, add desired amount to pot and whisk a few times while heating.

Tags: apples, butternut squash, soup