baby food...

in the making!!!

back in 2004, when our sweet ella was oh so very tiny...a good friend of ours gave me the encouragement i needed to take what i felt to be a giant leap! she encouraged me to make ella's baby food! now at the time, she was making her own crackers and "porridge" along with many other wonderful, homemade items...and i knew i wasn't quite cut out for that...but i did decide to make the things that seemed manageable to me!

what once seemed very overwhelming...actually has been really fun!

i don't make everything...some things just seem too scary for me to conquer (getting the correct consistency or needing something that may not be in season)...but the main staples of baby food have been a cinch! little did i know, ella would be our pickiest eater...but even when i say "picky" she would still eat broccoli, spinach, avocado, and every fruit imaginable! the other two little girls have enjoyed the "fruits of mommy's labor" as well...in fact, ava tried broccoli today for the first time! while i wouldn't say she loved her first endeavor...she ate every bite!!!!!

when mommy doesn't make it, we try to go organic...although that's been a bit tougher living in shreveport...oh, if only a whole foods would make their way to the port city!!!!!

it's been fun having a baby who is starting foods in the summer because the fruit selection is so fabulous! ava thought the nectarines were pretty tasty...

unfortunately for maddie and ava, they won't be getting any pureed chicken like ella did! one time of seeing that stuff and watching ella try to eat that stuff...i vowed never again!!!!!

i mainly wanted to document this for my girls...so one day, they can know of just one more way i tried to show them they were loved...inside and out!!!!!

it's really pretty easy:

for instance, wash your produce in this fabulous "veggie wash"...

peel some fresh nectarines or bake a sweet potato (you get the picture!!!)...

place them in a handy, dandy food processor...

and voila, homemade baby food! place in ice cube trays to freeze...and then take out a couple of cubes at each meal and you're done!!!!!

definitely something that doesn't take much talent...and gives the baby a much more "real" experience with food! now if maddie would just revert back to her cauliflower, brussel sprout days...

*sigh*