Dad’s turn to post…
The first lesson my son has taught me, is that as a parent,
you need to make the most of any downtime you get. It doesn’t come often, and it doesn’t last
long. So in the spirit of making the
most out of this blog post, I’m going to drop as much useful and time saving
information as I can surrounding our attempts at making all of Felix’s baby
food. I’m also going to toss in my
secret homemade BBQ recipe just to add a nugget of masculinity back into my
life (and possibly father’s who read this).
Oh, and yes, there is a Ninja in this story.
ITEM 1: Why are you
making baby food?
That’s simple. My
wife want’s to do it. I think I would be OK purchasing organic baby food, but Danielle has made it her mission to make
sure that she has a hand in everything Felix ingests for the first year of his
life. Happy wife = happy life.
ITEM 2: When do you
do it?
I find Sunday’s are awesome for making baby food. Steaming the food takes a bit, so I have
plenty of time to watch football between pureeing the food. By watching football, I mean that I have
strategically placed my son between the television screen and myself so that
while I make sure he isn’t doing anything to kill himself (I find watching a
baby is very similar to watching a dear friend on suicide watch), I can catch a
few plays and highlights.
ITEM 3: How much do
you make?
The last time we made baby food, it measured out at about
100 ounces in a day, which works out to be about a month of food at this point
in his life (6-7 months). I’m sure that
it will not last nearly as long as he continues to grow.
ITEM 4: What kind of
equipment do you need?
We did not go out and buy one of those baby food maker
kits. It seemed… unnecessary. There are all sorts of these odd looking kits
and appliances with various baby themed names that steam and blend food in
custom containers all as a one stop shop, ranging between $100-$300+. But, what do you do with it once the baby is
eating food off your plate? As far as I
can tell by observing my nephew and my friends children, kids aren’t on baby
food all that long. There is enough
outgrown and unused baby shit going into closets already, I don’t need more.
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We instead decided to invest in appliances and cooking tools
that we can use way beyond Felix’s baby food days. The first and foremost, you need a good
blender/food processor. We received
a
KitchenAid Blender for Danielle’s wedding shower. It is the worst blender
ever manufactured by man. It’s our own
fault; we put it on the registry. We had
a Red KitchenAid theme going for our appliances. Who knew that everything made by KitchenAid,
other than their
Stand
Mixer, is useless?
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| GOOD |
However, a few weeks ago, while shopping for baby crap at
KOHL’s, I came across a
blender
called NINJA. It immediately caught
my eye. In-fact, the only thing better
than a blender named NINJA would be some other kitchen appliance named after a
pirate. Danielle instantly rolled her
eyes at my enthusiasm concerning the covert mercenary appliance of feudal
Japan. Although, a middle aged woman
also saw my eagerness, and spoke up. She
told us how she has one at home, and that it is the most amazing blender she
has ever owned. Her husband is a chef
and actually uses it in his kitchen as well.
Needless to say, even though it is a little pricey, we ended up buying
it. Although, we did end up leaving and going to Bed, Bath & Beyond to drop
a 20% coupon on it.
After making gallons of pureed baby food with this thing, I
concur, it is the most amazing blender/food processor I have ever owned. I highly endorse it. A good blender saves a lot of time and
headache when making baby food.
Other than that, the rest is basic. You need a large pot with a lid, which you
should own by now. You also need a
steamer
basket, which ranges in price from like $5-$20. We found one at Stop & Shop for $10 while
we were picking up food. You also need
about 10 ice cube trays or more if you are going to make baby food in bulk like
we did. I found that they cost about $0.75
a tray, but can probably be found cheaper.
Also, make sure you have saran wrap handy.
ITEM 5: How do you do
it?
Recipes are below, but the basics are here: Take your food, and steam it. Once mushy, put it in the blender. We add breast milk to soften it up and make
the consistency smoother for the baby.
If you don’t have breast milk, substitute in the water you used to steam
the food. Pour the mush into ice cube
trays, cover with saran wrap, and let freeze over night. Pop the cubes out into freezer bags, date,
label, and put back into the freezer.
Each cube is about 1 ounce of food. Our son eats about 3 ounces at a sitting
right now. When it is time to feed your
baby, take the desired amount of cubes, defrost them, mix them up, and shove
them down their gullet. We try to make
ours about room temperature.
We decided to introduce Felix to foods starting him on
greens first (avocado, green beans, peas), then moving through yellows
(carrots, squash, sweet potato), and we will finish with fruits (bananas,
peaches, apples, pears). We heard
mention that if you start them on fruits; it’s hard to get them to eat veggies
later, because they want the sweetness of the fruits. Also, by having the food in 1-ounce cubes, we
can mix and match and make a little meal for him.
As an additional guideline from our doctor, when introducing
new foods, only introduce 1 new food every 4 days. This way you can monitor food allergies effectively
if they crop up.
WARNING: If you put something green in your baby, they
make bright green deposits in their Pampers.
If you put something orange in your baby, they make bright orange
deposits in their Pampers. It doesn’t sound earth shattering here, but to a new
parent, the first time you see it, it is in fact quite shocking… almost photo
worthy, but definitely worth calling your spouse over to share in your
amazement.
ITEM 6: Baby Food
Recipes
Butternut squash
1 large butternut squash
De-seed, skin, cube
Steam 35-45 minutes
Puree with approximately 6 ounces of breast milk
Makes about 28 ounces (2 ice cube trays)
Total time = 1.5 hours
Carrots
1 pound large organic carrots
Shave, cap, slice
Steam 1 hour
Puree with approximately 6 ounces of breast milk
Makes about 20 ounces (about 1.5 ice cube trays)
Total time = 1.5 hours
Sweet Potato
3 large sweet potatoes
wash, dry, Wrap in foil
Bake at 400 for 75 minutes
Puree with approximately 7 ounces of breast milk
Makes about 26 ounces (about 2 ice cube trays)
Total time = 1 hour 45 minutes
Green Beans
2x12 oz of frozen green beans
Steam for 35-45 minutes
Puree with approximately 15 ounces of breast milk
Makes about 31 ounces (just over 2 ice cube trays).
Total time = 1 hour
Peas
2 pound package of frozen peas
Steam for 25 minutes
Puree with approximately 9 ounces of breast milk
Makes about 28 ounces (2 ice cube trays)
Total time = 1 hour
ITEM 7: Bouchard
Chipotle Bourbon BBQ Sauce Recipe
Having a baby definitely knocks a man down on the
masculinity scale by a few pegs. You
can’t help it. Between the stupid noises
and voices you now make, and the cuddling, the infinite baby activities,
constantly smelling like baby powder and diaper cream… you loose track of
yourself and the things you used to do that made you feel like a man. I find the grill is a good place to get some
of that feeling back. Mommy and Daddy
need to eat, why not do it outside with some serious cuts of meat, over red-hot
coals, with a brew in your hand?
I’ve spent some time researching, testing, and perfecting
what I consider the ultimate homemade BBQ sauce. It makes a mean piece of grilled
chicken. The sauce has an initial spicy
kick, but finishes smooth, sweet, and smoky.
Feel free to modify:
1.5 C ketchup
0.5 C bottled French salad dressing
1.5 C Frank’s hot sauce
0.5 C Maker’s Mark Bourbon
0.25 C lemon juice
0.25 C Worcestershire
1 tbsp liq. smoke
1 tbsp garlic pdr
1 tbsp pepper
1 tbsp chili pdr
1 tbsp onion pdr
1.5 C cider vinegar
0.5 C Espresso blend coffee
0.25 C prepared yellow mustard
0.25 C Molasses
1 tbsp Cajun spice
2 tbsp paprika
4 crushed dry chipotle chili's
3 lg cloves garlic – minced
Combine in a heavy bottomed stock pot except for
the bourbon. Reduce on low for 2 hours,
stirring every 15 minutes. At the 1-hour
mark, add in the bourbon. Use as you
would any sauce.
Go Bengals!
