Baby's First Foods

Baby V. may be our fourth born child, but she is still a baby, and we are particular with her first foods - never mind that we pull the dog toys out of her mouth on a regular basis...

Hide your dog toys from me.

What are good first foods to introduce? Bananas, applesauce, avocados, steamed and blended veggies to name a few. First baby foods are easy to make at home and easy to buy.  This is a great time to get into the kitchen and experiment with flavors, blends, and spices.  Get creative.

Baby food is also easy to buy with many varieties of organic available these days.  I like to make mine, because, in my current stage of life, it is just easier for me.   I can blend up the fresh and frozen foods we have on hand, dole out the amount she needs for the meal, and refrigerate the rest.  If I don't think she will eat a lot, I don't make a lot.  If the blend isn't to her liking, we're not stuck with five jars in the pantry.  I also don't have those dodgy jars in the fridge of unknown date.

My adventures in making baby food began with our second born when I found a Baby Bullet at a consignment sale, still in the box and unused. Score!  I wasn't familiar with the Baby Bullet when I bought it, but I quickly learned how easy it is to use. With two blade options, I keep it on hand in my pantry even when I am not making baby food because it is great for milling grains and pureeing food for other recipes.

For Christmas, I received a new generation pressure cooker, an Instant Pot . It makes cooking fun, and I am learning all sorts of new tricks, like how to cook applesauce in five minutes!

To make applesauce for Baby V., I started with four small, organic apples.

I diced the apples into chunks, placed them in the Instant Pot, and added 1/2 cup of water.

I checked the seal of the  Instant Pot lid to make sure it was in place, closed and locked the lid, set the valve to sealed, and set the time to Manual, High Pressure for 5 minutes.

When the apples were cooked, I took out the liner and let the apples cool.

Once the apples cooled sufficiently, I transferred the apples to the Baby Bullet.  I pureed the apples until smooth, adding filtered water as needed to reach the desired consistency.

I wasn't sure if leaving the apple skins on would leave the apples too chunky, but the Baby Bullet blended the apple chunks completely smooth.

Applesauce in Your Instant Pot

• 3 Medium Apples
• 1/2 cup water
• Cinnamon, optional

1. Wash, core, and dice apples. 
2. Place apples and water into Instant Pot. 
3. Press Manual, and select High Pressure. Set the time to five minutes. 
4. When the cycle is complete, remove the liner to let the apples cool. 
5. Blend the apples smooth after transferring to a Baby Bullet or blender.  You can also use an immersion blender if you have increased the recipe to a larger batch. 
6. Optional: Add cinnamon.

Some of my favorite tools: