Baby Food - Homemade!

I'm at home today. My back and neck are killing me from the recent accident. Occupying my Clark Kent-ish job during the day behind a desk only makes my situation worse. I've been stretching and doing my therapy exercises all morning.

We finally purchased a food mill and what better time to give it a spin than today. So, with no one around I was able to experiment in the kitchen. We replaced our blender a few years ago, but I kept the old one. Good move on my part! Now I have a blender for us and one just for making Gilbert's food! Armed with that and the food mill I began my quest to make homemade baby food (and in the process quite a mess!).

Anxious to give the food mill a spin I brought out rice, barley and oatmeal so I could grid each down in bulk for quick and easy cereal. What a debacle! The 'fine' plate that came with the mill barely affected the rice. Not to be deterred I went to the blender with greater success. In very little time I had ziplock bags full of powder rice, barley and oatmeal just waiting to be boiled (cooled!) and served.

Next up, carrots! Gilbert has been introduced to applesauce and a few other store-bought foods; carrots included and he seemed to enjoy these the most. We buy baby carrots by the bulk for ourselves at Costco so I figured we had a few to spare for the Little Man.

I threw a handful of carrots into the foodmill and began turning. Getting them to break apart was almost impossible. Figured I must be doing something wrong. Probably would have helped to read the baby cookbook! Boiling them first to soften up the carrots definitely made a difference!

Now you understand why I waited until no one was home. Nobody around to judge, direct, or correct. Learn from this ladies! Guys just want the opportunity to do it. Yes, we might screw up, but what is wrong with learning from mistakes? So I missed the turn. I can get there at the next intersection! Take notes ladies!

Now with the carrots softened, mashing them up in the food mill was much easier. For the last step, in to the blender they went along with the cooking water (got to save all those nutrients sitting in the water) for a final puree. Success!

In the fridge now sits a few jars of homemade pureed carrots. Gilbert better damn well eat them!