Making Meals

We introduced Arthur recently to the world of solid food. It's a whole new world to me too - feeding a baby... so I'm pretty much winging it here. 

I've had a bit of a look around the world wide web for inspiration and tips for how to go about this, and had some great advice from friends as well. I'm looking forward to creating some more adventurous combinations and flavours for this little guy, but we have started off very basic. 

I've gone for pear, kumara and butternut squash at this stage. He has had avocado mixed with his milk too which he loves, I just need a better mashing technique for getting the lumps and stringy bits out! 

For convenience, we have offered a few of the ready made meals in jars and pouches - pear & mango, apple and sweet potato and a few others that are applicable to his age group.  It's been a great way to introduce him to a few different flavours while I got myself organised. With moving house and sunny weather, I've spent very little time in the kitchen. 

Yesterday, being a nice lazy Sunday, I decided to make up a whole lot of food and freeze it. I decided to steam his food to retain as many nutrients as possible, and I used the water in the pot below to add to the puree to get the right consistency. Once I got going I decided it was easier to do a whole lot at once. I kept topping up the water in the pot - so by the time I was making the final kumara puree there were pear and butternut flavours in the water as well, which may just add a little extra taste to the final brew. 

I then poured the mixture into ice trays, covered them in glad wrap and froze them overnight. I mixed sometimes 2, sometimes 3 of the ingredients together. I had a smaller ice tray as well which I used to make some mini cubes to fit in his little muslin bags for him to suck on when it's a super hot day. I also made some larger portions in freezer storage pots to cater for when his appetite grows.

All of this - an entire drawer in the freezer filled, using one butternut squash, one large kumara and 4 pears... not bad at all and inexpensive. It's great for times when I can't freshly prepare his dinners. I'm in the market for a smaller blender tool for preparing smaller portions, as the big blender was a bit much and the 'magic bullet' attachment kept leaking. I'm open to any suggestions here on what other's have used. I want to avoid purchasing a new blending machine or appliance if possible, so I'm thinking the manual tolls may be the way to go so I can control the textures as he gets older. 

It's nothing revolutionary and no culinary brilliance here, but just thought I'd share the process anyway for others looking to start in the world of solids. 

Please please please share your recipes with me!