Orange You Glad Your Baby Will Eat Carrots?

So, I have quickly discovered the downside to pushing carrots - they stain, really badly.  Everything I have read online about stain removal is to catch it quickly, and then pretreat it with something like Shout.  So, that's the plan the next time we have carrots, as soon as we are done, I'm taking Benjamin's bib, and any other item of clothing he manages to get the carrots on, and throwing it in the wash.  This saga is to be continued...

A blogging we will go!

So, I've never been really successful at journaling in the past, and I have a feeling that blogging may be too much like a journal, but we'll see I suppose.

I want to keep track of the food I'm making for Benjamin, the baby in my life.  So far, I have a recipe book that I'm cooking out of.  Hopefully, I'll be able to try different recipes from the internet and other recipe books as I go through this experiment.

Tonight I made bananas and sweet potatoes.  Bananas seem to be the tried and true food of our house at the moment.  Sweet potatoes were the unknown.  I choose sweet potatoes because I wanted to try another vegetable.  Benjamin had carrots out of the jar, and he will chug through them, but doesn't seem to enjoy them.  I'm happy to report sweet potatoes are a success!

(Both of these recipes I got from the amazing: The Best Homemade Baby Food on the Planet.)

Bananas!
I figured that using this recipe I made 2oz. for $.12!  To buy the banana baby food from the store, you're spending about $.50.  The savings in the long run are incredible, especially for such an easy recipe.

I modified the recipe in the book slightly, by adding liquid and making more than a 1/3 of a banana.

2 very ripe bananas
2 tablespoons of unsalted butter
4 oz. formula/breast milk

Cut bananas into pieces and saute in butter for 2 minutes.  Mash with fork.  Add formula/breast milk.
This made eight 2oz. containers. 

Sweet Potatoes!
I was able to make these at a cost of $.14 for a 2oz. container.  A little more expensive, by $.02, but still considerably cheaper than the $.50 per jar at the grocery store.  Amazingly, Benjamin loved these (I was ready for the same look of disgust that carrots brought).

1 sweet potato
1/2 cup formula
unsalted butter

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.  Wash and scrub the sweet potato.  Rub the potato with a little butter and place on a baking sheet.  Bake until soft, 30 to 50 minutes, depending on size.  Cool, peel, and chop into chunks.  Place in a blender with 1/2 cup formula and puree until completely smooth.  (Add more liquid as needed).

I found that it was easy to check to see if the potato was done by stabbing it with a fork.  This made three 2oz. containers.