Baby Food

Admittedly, when Kai was little I didn't feel any need to provide him with food other than the store bought kind.  With Finn's additional caloric needs however, I have really felt that it would be best to be more aware of what he is getting and ultimately, to make it myself.  Instead of pureeing his fruits and veggies with water like the store bought ones do, I can puree it with formula.  Presto--extra calories!!  So, last week we started with a little bit of fruit, avocado to be exact.  It's the highest fat and calorie fruit there is.  And yes, it's a fruit.

Avocados are very easy to prepare.  I purchased an avocado already ripe, sliced it, dipped it in a water/lemon juice bath and then froze it.  When it's time to eat, I retrieve a slice, microwave briefly, add in formula and it's ready.  I get at least 6 slices out of one avocado--that's 6 days of fruit.  So far, Finn doesn't seem super-excited about it.  He's not rejecting it, just not overly excited.  We've had 4 days of avocado, so I'm going to move on and see if we can find something he loves.  Yesterday I made a sweet potato puree.  Which, once again, was easy.  Just bake the potato, take off the skin, and then puree with formula.  I then put the puree in an ice cube tray for easy freezing and transferred to a ziploc bag that was labeled and dated.  I got a little over 10 cubes out of one big potato.  I'm anxious for him to try it.  (Yes, I know it says the general recommendation is to not freeze formula, but I couldn't get it to puree without a liquid. So, I did use just a little formula.  We'll see how it turns out.  I'm sure I'll have to thin my cubes anyway because there's not much in there at all.  If the cubes seem a little weird I'll just redo it with water and see how that works.  Like I said, I'll have to thin them later anyway with more formula.)

I don't plan on making all of his food, just the ones that I feel I can add to.  The fruits and veggies are real easy and while I'm at it I'm hoping that I can introduce Kai to some new things as well.  He could stand to gain some weight, too.  If you're curious, I've been using this site for recipes, tips, and ideas.  I love all of the information that they have from storage to new fruit and veggie ideas, to how to cook/prepare, etc.  On Saturday I made a baked banana for Kai that we really enjoyed.

So, here's to continued cooking and hoping that Finn will appreciate the efforts!