Make your own baby food: carrot purée

Bump really enjoys carrot purée (and thin slices of carrot if I am patient enough to slice them thinly and cook them until they are super soft) 

Making your own carrot purée for your baby is really easy! What I usually do, is I cook extra carrots when I am preparing them for dinner for my husband and I, then it does not feel like extra work.

So to make your own carrot purée:

You can cook as much as you like as it freezes well. I wash and peel the carrots and then slice fairly thinly (I aim for about half a centimetre in thickness or less, but rarely achieve perfection.., my knife skills are lacking). The reason that I want them thin, is they cook faster and are easier for Bump to eat should he want some whole. I rinse the carrot slices with boiling water and then steam until  tender. Steaming carrots can take some time if you steam using a colander over a pot of boiling water with a lid. However, steaming is well worth the wait! The carrots just taste so much better than when they are boiled. I put it down to steaming keeps all of the delicious goodness locked in! If you are lucky enough to have an electric steamer, please feel free to use it!

Once the carrots are tender, dish up what you are having for dinner and then purée the remaining with a blender for your Bub. You can thin the consistency out with boiled water, breast milk or formula. However, if you are freezing the purée, I would not recommend thinning it out until after defrosting.

Well, there you go! Could not be easier! Hope your little one enjoys!

Keep smiling,

Jax

Make your own baby food: Pear and apple purée

Buying baby food puree's for every meal can end up costing a small fortune! Buying is super convenient, but spending  30-60 minutes once a week to prepare food is all you really need, to do it yourself. Making baby food yourself is really easy too! I make this apple and pear fruit purée for Bump which he loves!

Ingredients:

3 medium sized washed red apples

3 medium sized washed ripe pears

1 cinnamon stick or a generous pinch of ground cinnamon (optional)

Boiled, cooled water

Method:

1. Peel and core the apples and pears. Cut into thin slices (You can roughly chop or cut the slices thicker, it just cooks quicker, the thinner the slices). 
2. Place the sliced fruit in a colander and rinse with the boiled, cooled water. Place the fruit and the cinnamon (if you are using it) into a pan. Cover the bottom of the pan with water so the fruit is slightly submerged (it is better to use a smaller pan as you use less water).
3. Simmer, covered for approximately 10 minutes until the apple and pear are soft. Drain the fruit, reserving the liquid. Purée the fruit with a blender. I use a stick blender. Use the reserved liquid to thin out the consistency of the puree if neccessary. Any remaining liquid can be diluted 1:1 with boiled, cooled water and given to your little one to drink provided they are over 7 months old.
4. This freezes well. I freeze in cleaned, sterilised glass jars (used Purity bottles) or in ice cube trays.

FYI: Please note that it is often recommended that purees be passed through a mesh sieve to make the puree very smooth. I have never done this for Bump, as I do not own a sieve! He has been absolutely fine without sieving! In addition, his paediatrician recommended that he started rice cereal 4 months (very watery consistency) and then progressed to vegetable purées at 5 months. I was told to only introduce fruits and fruit juices (diluted 1:1 with water) at 7 months and meat and eggs also only from 7 months. I was also told to start off with very smooth purées and slowly increase the texture of the purées as this helps with speech development later. It is a good idea to feed the same food for four days in a row when first introducing it, to  ensure your little one has no allergies to the food. 

Well I hope you feel inspired to make your own baby food and that your little one enjoys this apple and pear purée! 

Keep smiling,

Jax

P.S. My apologies, I forgot to mention how much this recipe makes! I ended up with 4 servings of 125 ml and approximately another 60 ml or so.