Baked Ziti and Homemade Pasta Sauce

My husband says that the only thing I make well is Ziti. I even make it better than my mother, who can do no wrong when it comes to cooking in his book.
The secret is to flavor the layers. Ziti has so many plain ingredients - ricotta, sauce, pasta, that you need to make sure that each ingredient has flavor or else you are stuck trying to flavor the whole thing at once. Which never works, and you always end up over-salting, or a least I do...

So when I was trying to think up of different things I could make with my silicon cubes (can you tell they are a staple in my cooking?) it came to me that I should make Ziti! All I would need to do is cut out the salt and we would be good to go.

As I was putting together my ingredient list, I realized that I would need to make my own sauce. I did some research and found multiple people saying that not only is it SO easy to make your own sauce, but it is super cost effective. I obviously believed them, but then again I had multiple burning incidents this week, so I wasn't convinced that it would be that easy.

Anyway the final product was awesome, and I even got the husband to say, "yeah, the kiddo will like these." There you go - husband seal of approval.

This is a two part recipe. I was doing these both simultaneously (always a risky move), but they can be done separately. The sauce freezes perfectly and can be used in different ways!

Ziti and Homemade Sauce 

What you need:

Small Sauce Pot
Medium Sauce Pot
Stick blender (or regular blender)
Bowl
Colander
Silicon Cube Tray

Pasta Sauce

1 28 oz can  of peeled, whole tomatoes

1 small onion 

3 garlic cloves

2 tablespoons olive oil
Optional - handful of spinach 

Ziti 

1 cup uncooked alphabets pasta  

1 cup ricotta

1 cup sauce 

1.5 oz mozzarella shredded 

Seasonings you prefer 

Let's Bake:

- Start by making your sauce first. Grab your small sauce pot and add in your whole tomatoes
- Slice a small onion in half, and put it in your sauce pot
- Peel 3 garlic cloves (more or less to your liking) and add that to your pot too
- Add 2 tablespoons of olive oil

- Bring the sauce to a boil (I like to do this on a medium heat to reduce splatter) then reduce your heat to a simmer.
- With a watchful eye let your sauce simmer for 45 minutes*, or until your onion halves can be easily pierced through (the onions should look transparent)

Almost done! The onions are looking transparent 

*While this is happening, lets make our ziti!

- Preheat your oven to 350
- In a different sauce pot bring about 3 cups of water to a boil
- Measure out 1 cup of uncooked alphabet pasta (I was looking for pasting, but this is all my grocery store had) and add it to boiling water

How cute are these?

- Let the pasta cook for about 8 minutes - it is ok if it is a little al dente, because it will be going into the oven to cook
- While the pasta is boiling grab a bowl
- In your bowl add 1 cup of ricotta, 1.5 ounces of Mozzarella (or more, there is never too much cheese in a ziti) and your seasonings. I used pepper, garlic powder, and an Italian seasoning mix.

- Mix your ingredients together.
- Once your pasta is done use your colander to drain the water and add the pasta it to your cheese mixture*

*Heading back to the sauce

- At this point I threw in a handful of spinach and let it wilt down - I wanted to sneak in some extra veggies!
- You can remove the onion and garlic, but I wanted to extra flavor
- Once the spinach wilted I took my stick blender and blended up the whole sauce pan - BE VERY CAREFUL! THE SAUCE IS HOT!

- And that is it! Sauce is made!*

*Once more, back to the Ziti

- Add 1 cup of your homemade sauce (small applause) to your cheese and pasta mixture.
- Evenly distribute your mixture into your silicon cup

- Bake for 30-35 minutes, or until your desired doneness

These little morsels are a HUGE hit with my kiddo! I hope your kiddo enjoys them too!

Broccoli Cheddar Quinoa Bites

My kiddo loves to eat. Loves it. He loves eating as much as he hates chicken. Hates it. I've pureed it, I've mixed it with delicious things, I've boiled it, shredded it, cubed it. I've hidden it in peanut butter (he actually licked the peanut butter off and threw the chicken over the side of his tray), I've even made it into a meatball. Nothing throws this kid off of the smell of chicken. That being said, I needed a alternative source of protein. He enjoys both the turkey and beef meatball, but I was getting bored of alternating them throughout the week, and I needed some lunch protein staples.
So I turned to Quinoa. High in protein, flavorless, and I had some laying around - all great things when it comes to needing to make a recipe.
I knew I couldn't just serve up some quinoa, it was too small for his pincers to grasp. But I bet I could bake it with some eggs and make some quinoa bites. So I gave it a try - and man was it a success! I hope your kiddo likes these as much as mine does!

Broccoli Cheddar Quinoa Bites 

What you need:

Blender 

Rice Cooker

Cheese Grater

Saute Pan 

Silicon Baking Cups

1/2 cup uncooked Quinoa 

1 cup water

1/2 cup ground up Broccoli 

Olive Oil

1/2 cup grated cheese (cheddar)

1 Egg

Spices 

Let's Bake: 

- Set oven to 350 

- In your rice cooker add your 1/2 cup of quinoa and 1 cup of water. Start your rice cooker and get everything else together

- In your blender place heads of broccoli and blend until really fine 

- Get broccoli into a sauté pan with a little olive oil, to prevent sticking, and cook on a medium heat. This just allows the broccoli to not be raw going into the oven. 

- While your broccoli is heating up grate your 1/2 cup of cheese

- When the broccoli is soft, add in your cheese and mix together 

- When your quinoa is done, add that to your broccoli and cheese mixture

- Once it is well incorporated, let it cool for a few minutes before adding in your egg. You don't want to scramble the egg! 

- Your mixture should come together pretty easily. If it is too loose you can add some more cheese! More cheese never hurt anyone! 

- Add in your spices. My kiddo likes pepper and garlic powder

- Pour mixture evenly into silicone cups

- Cook at 350 for about 25-30 minutes. I usually cook them until they pull away from the sides of the cups.

I hope you kiddo enjoys these! Packed with protein and veggies! They make a great lunch or snack. They hold up pretty well and freeze great! My kiddo likes to tear them apart limb from limb so be prepared for a lot of quinoa to get on your floor

Enjoy! 

Bread

As a self-proclaimed carboholic (with a conscious), I wanted to let my hungry kiddo enjoy the wonders of bread, but without all the chemicals that plague the modern day loaf.  So I had my mom dig out her old bread machine, which my dad was more than happy to get out of his basement, and I got to work.
Side note: If you don't have a bread machine, you should hit up some garage sales or purge your mother of hers. While it does take forever to get to the final product all you have to do is throw your ingredients in, set it, and forget it. Could there be anything better for a busy family? It's the crock pot of the bread world. Not to mention that your house smells fantastic for hours, and you feel pretty bad-ass when you tell some one that you made your own {delicious} bread!

I found one (ONE - can you believe it?!) baby friendly bread recipe, but it wasn't perfect. The first time I whipped it together, it came out pretty dense. It was well received - so I tried it again. This time I put my spin on it!

This bread has a great sourdough taste, and best of all it freezes really well - so no wasted bread! What can you do with this bread you ask? Anything! So far I've made french toast and grilled cheese! Both huge hits!

French Toast! Sandwich bread dipped in egg with cinnamon

Grilled Cheese with Zucchini - no idea how I achieved such a perfectly golden crust!

Sandwich Bread 

What you need:

Bread Machine
Large Bowl
Small Bowl

3 and 1/2 Cups of Flour
1 Teaspoon Yeast
1 and 1/4 cup Water
3 Tablespoons Olive Oil
1 Tablespoon Vinegar

Let's Bake:

- In your large bowl add your 3 and 1/2 cups of flour
- In a small bowl add your yeast and only 1/4 cup water*
*Make sure that this water is warm - I like to run my faucet until the water gets warm enough to keep my fingers in it, but not too hot.
- Let this small bowl sit while you make the rest of the bread, this is letting the yeast proof
- Add the remaining cup of water to your flour
- Add your Olive oil and vinegar
- Add in your proofed yeast
- Mix to combine slightly, just to get all the ingredients together

- Pour dough into the bread machine
- Set your bread machine to a white bread and for a 1-1.5lb loaf

- Now forget it and soon you will have a beautiful bread!

-Enjoy!

Oatmeal Cubes

Our hungry kiddo is very pleased with his new banana muffins. He loves feeding himself!
I've seen on plenty of lists that oatmeal is a great finger food. I love oatmeal, but whenever I severed him a little of mine it ended up everywhere. While I'm firmly in the camp of let kids get dirty, I thought there must be a better way to eat oatmeal.

I decided to find a recipe and give it a try. It's not much different from the muffins, so I knew they would be a hit! I borrowed and edited a bit this recipe from Feeding Finn

Blueberry Oatmeal Cubes

What you need:

Mini silicon baking tray (or mini muffin pan)  

1 Ripe Banana 

1 cup oats (Instant or rolled, I've used both)

1 Egg

1 Teaspoon cinnamon 

1/4 cup yogurt 

2 Tablespoons water
Frozen blueberries to your kiddos liking

Let's Bake:

Set your oven to 350

- Mash up your ripe banana in a bowl (make sure bowl is large enough for all of your ingredients)
- Add the cup of oats and stir until combined
- Add one egg and cinnamon and mix
- In a small bowl mix yogurt and water, then add to the rest of ingredients*
*for the record this was because I didn't have any milk like Feeding Finn calls for... so I "made" my own.
- Fold in your frozen blueberries

- Grease your mini muffin pan or grab your silicon baking tray
- Measure out and distribute your batter (I used one Tablespoon) to ensure even cooking

- Cook for 20-30 minutes 

These were going to a MOMs meeting, so I let them cool quickly and then popped them into a to go container and we were off! 

They were a huge success. They are easy to hold, and they firm up when they are cooking so they make minimal mess (always a plus). This can be upgraded for an older child by adding a little brown sugar or maybe even some peanut butter! The possibilities are endless!

Enjoy! 

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Teething Treat!

I don't know about your child, but my little guy's teeth are out to get him. The set doesn't come in at the same time! How rude! He will be all happy and go-lucky one minute, then manic and angry the next! All the while we are thinking, phew at least the teeth are coming in together - NOPE. So we are all put to the test for 2 weeks every time his pearly whites decide to make an appearance.

Our one source of comfort has been ice cubes shoved in the fresh food feeder. He loves it! He will keep it next to him while playing, and I can give it to him while I prep his meals so that his mouth is a little numb by the time his food hits the tray.

Recently, I saw an article on my Facebook about how cucumbers are a natural pain reliever, and are useful for our tiny tethers. I thought to myself "great, he loves cucumber!" and I stored this tidbit away.

On this one particular day, when his incoming teeth were getting the better of him, the lightbulb went off. What if I made cucumber ice cubes?! Ice to numb and cucumber to relieve the pain! As a good friend would say: "OH baby, I'm a genius!"

So I set out to make a teething treat! I hope this helps your little monster get over the teething blues!

Teething Treat

What you need:

Blender
Ice Cube Trays
(Space in your Freezer)

Cucumber
Any other fruits/veggies you want as add ins
Here is what I used:

- Half a cucumber (peeled)
- 2 Bell pepper tops
- Small handful of Spinach
- 4 Strawberries
- Handful of blueberries















Let's Bake (or blend):

- Peel and slice your cucumber
- Grab your blender
- Blend the spinach first
- Add in the cucumber and Bell Pepper
- Blend

- Taste what you have to determine if your fruit is enough to balance out your veggies
- Add in the Strawberries and Blueberries and blend
- Pour mixture into your ice cube trays*.
* I know that my ice cubes are too big to fit into my fresh food feeder, so I only filled my cubes up half way

The fruit made it prettier 

- Put your trays in the freezer and let sit for at least 2 hours.

Once they are frozen, remove them from the tray and store them in a freezer safe bag, and use them whenever your tiny teether could use a treat and some relief!

- Enjoy!

Banana Muffin

When my easy egg breakfast dream was dashed, I decided to get us out of our breakfast rut once and for all. He was so over purees that he refused to eat anything off a spoon, and we were reduced to putting the puree down on his tray and hoping he got some in his mouth. On the plus side, we learned how to paint our high-chair tray.

I was in my pantry and something red caught my eye - it was a silicon mini muffin pan that someone had given me a long time ago. The lightbulb went off! This would be perfect for some breakfast muffins. I wouldn't have to use anything to ensure that the muffins didn't stick to the tray! Then I found out that my new favorite blog BLWideas had a yummy muffin recipe and I had my inspiration! 

What you need:

Silicon baking tray or mini muffin tray 

Blender 

1 Banana 

1 Tablespoon peanut butter

2 Eggs

4 Tablespoons baby cereal 

Cinnamon to taste 

Fruit of choice (frozen blueberries, fresh blueberries, fresh strawberries, mango...)

Let's Bake:

Preheat your oven to 350

- In your blender put in a peeled banana, nut butter of choice, both eggs, baby cereal, and cinnamon
- Blend until smooth
- Add in your fruit of choice (If you want your fruit whole, just fold it into the batter, otherwise blend away!)
- I used fresh blueberries in this batch
- Measure out equal parts* batter into your silicon pan, or greased tray (I used one tablespoon)
* This is important to guarantee even and equal cooking - you don't want to undercook these, especially with the eggs involved.

- Pop into the oven and cook for 20-30 mins (I cook them until the muffin pulls away from the silicon, and then I panic that they aren't cooked through enough, make my husband eat one, then put them back in the cooling oven. I can't be responsible for food poisoning my baby!)
- Let them cool in their pan for as long as you can stand it. They tend to be fragile.
- I like to refrigerate them before serving. You can pop them in the microwave to heat them up, or serve them cold! Whichever your little one prefers.
- Try not to eat them all yourself :)

*Update* I recently blended in a handful of spinach, and they came out great! Now these bad boys hit the mark on everything - delicious and nutritious! 

Frittatas

I was so pumped to get the go ahead on eggs. After our 6 month check up we were cleared to try all allergens. Eggs, peanut butter, indirect dairy (dairy included in something but not straight up cheese or yogurt), and wheat were on the top of my list. We did it slowly, and took all the precautions to make sure we didn't have an allergic reaction.

We were in a breakfast rut. Pureed fruit mixed with pureed vegetable and some cereal. BOOOOOOOOOOOORRRRRRRING. I was so excited to get some eggs in the mix, and it was avocado season. I had visions of scrambled eggs and avocado slices and some fruit. How easy is that??

Welp, my dreams were squashed pretty quickly. He hated eggs, and even worse - detested avocado. I could have cried! Who doesn't like avocado??

But I kept at it. I offered scrambled eggs as often as possible, avocado too. I finally found out that avocado were acceptable if they were baked, (recipe to come!) and eventually he warmed up to them fresh from their peel.

Eggs, however, took some getting use to. He would eat them if incorporated into something like a muffin or the meatballs, so I just had to get creative!
One busy weekend morning, I was in the process of forcing him to eat scrambled eggs again, and I left them on the stove too long. They weren't [too] burt yet (phew) but I had accidentally made a frittata. I said to myself, what the hell, let's give this a try.  HE LOVED IT!

I was in shock. He refuses to eat scrambled eggs, but here he is wolfing down eggs, just in a different shape. My shock wasn't long lived, because every other time I offer him this it's a hit or miss. Oh well, we can't all love everything. 

Frittata 

You will need:

Small frying pan 

Cheese grater

Olive Oil 

1 egg

Zucchini (or other vegetable of choice - I've done spinach as well)

Cheese if you like (I've done mozzarella and parmesan) 

Let's Bake: 

- Get your pan on the stove and heat it on a medium heat (I know you are doing 500 other things at the same time, so this minimizes your chances of burning)

- Add olive oil. I usually put enough to cover the pan 

- Grate zucchini into a bowl 

- Add egg to bowl and whisk together 

- Pour mixture into hot pan (with oil)

- Let the egg mixture set and cook before flipping to allow the other side to cook

- Allow frittata to cool and cut into fingers or cubes

- Hope baby likes it

Enjoy!

Spinach and parmesan frittata that he pretended to like 

Baby Meatballs

Be honest. How many times have you started looking for a new recipe and typed in "baby _____"? I've done it countless times and every time I just get recipes and pictures of miniature versions of what I am looking for.
So this title is for you, mom, who typed in baby meatball, and behold got a recipe for a meatball that is baby friendly!

As feeding himself became more of the norm, and not just a great picture opportunity, I started to looking for foods that could provide the nutrients that were once easy to provide in a puree form. While he still hates chicken, I could coax some protein into him with a nice chicken and pear puree. Now that we are feeding ourself, he picks up the shredded chicken, boldly locks eyes with me, and then drops the chicken onto the floor. This is when I start to think I need a dog... 

So how could I get some protein into him. A meatball! 

This is super easy to make, loaded with veggies (shhhh), and it fills him up! 

Baby Meatballs 

What you will need: 

Baby Bullet (or any kind of blender)

Food scale (or a realllly good eye)

Cheese Grater 

1 pound ground beef (or Turkey or ground meat of choice)

Zucchini 

1/2 cup oats 

1 egg

Seasonings of choice

Let's Bake:  

Preheat oven to 350. 

Do it first - really. I've done it plenty of times. I'm all ready to pop something into the oven and its cold. Really puts a damper on your groove.

- Add your ground meat to a bowl 

- Use your cheese grater to grate in as much zucchini as you want. 

       It is a watery vegetable, so keep that in mind when it comes to making your meatballs stick together 

-  Use your baby bullet (with the grinder setting) to grind up your oats in to an oat flour

- Add oat flour to your bowl 

- Add one egg 

- Add seasonings of choice - I use pepper, garlic powder, and an italian mix 

- Mix away! 

- I use a food scale to measure out my meat balls - this allows me to know how much my little guys starts out with.

- Then pop your meatballs into the oven for about 20 mins or until your food thermometer says they are done.

- Always make sure to test them to make sure they aren't poisonous ;)

These meatballs are fantastic! They tick off the iron supplement that babies need, they can be cut up into bite-size pieces, and they store really well.

These meat balls are really versatile! You can really play around with them. I also make a Turkey ball and I think it is a bigger hit than this! 

(Turkey, Spinach, Parmesan, & Beef, Zucchini, Mozzarella)

I usually keep out as many as I'm going to use in that week, and freeze the rest in a freezer bag. Let them cool off first before freezing, otherwise they will freeze together and get freezer burn.

Added bonus: If you forget to take out your meatballs the night before (guilty) they heat up really quickly in the microwave - just be careful to let them cook off before handing them over! 

Enjoy! 

Let me know what other options you come up with!

Finger Foods

Purees weren't all that exciting in my book. I was happy to see that he enjoyed eating, and that he was adventurous. It also allowed me to introduce flavors that I could build upon now that I can make him finger foods.

I'd like to say that I did the whole gradual process of thickening purees to ease him into solids, but I didn't. I just started putting finger foods in front of him to see what he would do!

I started with baby carrots. I felt like they were solid enough to not break apart and choke him, and they came in a convenient size. He couldn't get enough of it! It has become my go to snack.

This is also when I really started to utilize my fresh food feeder. It allowed me to give him foods that I wasn't too comfortable with yet, but it also allowed me to give him the purees he started to refuse. My little eater decided somewhere along the line that he was too cool for purees. He wasn't, however, proficient in feeding himself just yet - most foods would slip out of his hands and into his bib before it hit his mouth. So I got creative and made some really thick purees and packed the fresh food feeder and let him feed himself his puree - win win!

Finger Food Go Tos:

• Peeled and quartered Zucchini
• Frozen peas
• Quartered Cucumbers
• Frozen Edamame
• Lima Beans 
• Apple Core
• Pear Core 
• Baked Sweet potato 
• Frozen Blueberries
• Quartered Blueberries
• Diced Strawberries
• Sliced Bananas 
• Chickpeas
• Black Beans
• Avocado
• Raw Carrots
• Steamed Carrots
• Broccoli 

After I exhausted all of these, I started playing around with recipes, and things like eggs, peanut butter, and dairy.

Recipes to come! 

Ducks!

After the epic fail that was my DIY baby puffs, I was back on the prowl for a store bought puff.
I wanted something with minimal ingredients, no salt, or sugar. They had to be visually appealing, and easy to grab. I did tons of research and found nothing. I was beginning to get discouraged. My last resort was to just stalk up and down my grocery store aisles hoping something would just drop into my cart (magically) and all would be solved.
As luck would have it, something did solve all of my problems. I had turned over every baby puff in the baby aisle, with no luck. I had gone up and down the cereal aisle, and found nothing. I even checked out the snack and cracker aisle, negative.
My last stop was the organic aisle. I thought maybe there is an organic puff that fits the tall order I have - nada. They all had tons of ingredients in them!
But then, my eye caught on a brightly colored bag. I turned it around skeptically, because I didn't want to get my hopes up. I searched the back for the ingredient list, and there it was: two ingredients - organic apple, organic banana.

SUCCESS!

What are these magical puffs you ask? Little Duck Organics! I never stumbled upon them when I was researching, but here they were! I was so excited to get them home!

A little bit of panic struck as I was driving home and patting myself on the back. What if we have the same problem and he doesn't like them? All that time and effort could have been wasted! We would just have to wait and see...

Luckily they were a BIG hit! When I got home, I perused their website and found that they have tons of flavors, and tons of snacks - I was so pumped! They will definitely be in our pantry for a long time! 

Looking back, I don't even know what it was so important to find this puff. I guess I just wanted something fun, and easy, and a "babies first cheerio" moment for my little guy.
In the end I found something that fit perfectly into what I want to be feeding my little guy, and I hope its something that your family can enjoy too!

DIY Baby Puffs

The reason that I started making all of my own food is because I wanted to be able to pronounce all of the ingredients in my baby's food. We try to be organic when we can, but at the end of the day we want what is best for our little guy, and to us that means the fewer the ingredients - the better!

So, when it became apparent that our little guy wanted to start feeding himself (or at least try to) I started looking at the baby puffs. I knew that they would be a great first step into the world of self feeding. But every time I flipped around a package of pre-made puffs I was greeted with a mile long list of ingredients. So I said to myself, "why not make your own?"

Don't worry, it was a fail.

I'd like to think it wasn't so much of a fail on the execution, but rather a fail on timing. It was my first attempt at making something homemade for my little guy, and I was so excited, but I think he just wasn't ready for what the end product was. I did extensive research, trying to find a recipe that included foods that he had already tried and didn't have a problem with, and that also didn't have dairy in them, because he wasn't cleared for that yet.
In the end, I found a lovely recipe, they were easy enough to make, and I though they tasted pretty good. But clearly they were quite offensive, and he couldn't be bothered by them in the least. I tried giving them to him multiple different times, and each time he rejected them. Maybe it was their color, maybe it was their texture, maybe they just weren't crispy enough - whatever the reason, ultimate fail.

But what my child hates, could be your child's favorite! So don't like my experience with them slow you down! Maybe you can tell me what I did wrong.

DIY Baby Puffs

Ingredients:

4 ounces Sweet Potato
4 ounces Apple Sauce
4 ounces Banana
1 Egg (I was comfortable using the whole egg, but you can just use the yoke if you want)
Spices to taste
Baby cereal if the batter is too loose

Let's Bake:

Start by roasting the Sweet potato, whole, in the oven at 350 until you can stick a knife easily through them.

Keep your oven at 350 for the puffs later

While that is going on peel and boil your apples until they are tender.

Using your blender or bowl with masher, combine the roasted sweet potato, tender apples and bananas and blend until smooth

Add in the egg

Add in any spices you would like to flavor them

Add any amount of baby cereal if the batter is too loose

Spoon mixture into pipping bag, if you have one, or a plastic bag with the tip cut off. Cut off a VERY SMALL portion of the bag. The batter is loose and you want to create a "chip" like puff

Pipe your puffs on to parchment paper

Cook until edges turn slightly brown, depending on your oven 15-20 mins

Keep in mind you are cooing with eggs, so you want to make sure they are completely cooked through

That's it! I hope your baby likes them more than mine did.

Sorry there aren't any pictures, here is the recipe I adapted from if you want to see their one picture.

Mixing and Matching

So if you have been on Pinterest recently, you will notice that there seem to be all of these mothers making these elaborate purees... I would look at these purees and think "wow, that looks delicious!" And then I would remember that I'm more of a purist and decided to stick to mixing and matching my purees, rather than making complex flavor profiles. But hey, that's just me.

Most of my pureeing took place a night, when I would have preferred to be relaxing. So my method of spicing up my purees, was just that. I used flavor!

Cinnamon, Cumin, Curry powder, Garlic powder, Italian spice blend, Pepper

Anything really that I had, other than salt.

What is great about spices is that I could make my big batch of purees, and add my spices in on the day that I was using them. This allowed for variety and a little more control over the flavor of the purees on any given day.

Cinnamon was my go to. If he wasn't loving something I would sprinkle a little cinnamon on it and suddenly it was the best thing I ever made.

I'm also not proud of it, but I've been known to just mash a banana into anything - the sweetness and thickness of it, pretty much overpowered anything that he wasn't loving [which happened often].

I would also mix and match some of my already prepared and frozen purees. A favorite is apple sauce mixed with broccoli, and cinnamon of course! I loved serving this up for breakfast! Nothing like getting one of your veggie servings out of the way early!

Other mix and match purees:

• Chicken and Carrots - this was not well received
• Red Pepper and Potato (some times I would mix in a strong fruit like pear or apple)
• Spinach and Potato 
• Pear and Asparagus 
• Sweet Potato and Chicken - also not well received (are you sensing a theme with chicken)

Don't be afraid to get creative! 

Introducing New Foods

Now that you have painstakingly made all of your purees, researched countless baby cereals, and poised your camera for the first feeding, you cannot forget about food allergies and sensitivities.

In a former life, I worked with picky eaters and food sensitivities. It isn't easy forming your child into a well rounded eater, and it is even harder if there are food sensitivities and allergies involved.

Some children have sensitivities and allergies. It just happens, be prepared and diligent, but don't let it cripple your child's first bites.

It is recommended that you start with orange foods - carrots, sweet potatoes, butternut squash - so go for it! But in case you are a little apprehensive, here is how I did it.

Day one:

Beech-but rice cereal (they recommend only giving 1 tablespoon at the first feeding). SO, that is what I did, and enough expressed breast milk* that you couldn't even tell there was cereal in it - oops. We had our cameras ready and our little guy gave us a look like "whats the big deal?" He was right, because we had diluted the cereal so much that he was basically drinking breast milk off of a spoon.

* you can also use water to mix up your cereal, I just happened to have some expressed milk in the fridge

Day two/three:

Nevertheless, he didn't seem to be bothered by the cereal, so at each subsequent "meal" I put less and less breast milk until he was eating a little bit more of a paste. He liked his as chunky as we could make it!

After that I would set aside three days in a row when I would introduce a new food.

[Example: Mon/Tues/ Wed we would have a carrot puree mixed with cereal, Thurs/ Fri/Sat we would have a sweet potato puree mixed with cereal] 

That way I knew that if there was a reaction I knew exactly what caused it.

All Days after:

I always tried to introduce the new food at "breakfast," that way if there was a reaction I could easily get in contact with my pediatrician before the day was over.

Once we had a few new foods under our belt, that is when I started having more than one meal a day. Our guy was hungry! He loved eating!

If there is a reaction, or you think there might be a reaction - get in contact with you pediatrician ASAP.

Don't worry if your new eater isn't took keen on the flavors you are presenting - this could mean that they aren't ready to eat just yet. If they are ready to eat, and they turn their nose up at something, give it a taste yourself, if it tastes good to you keep trying it, sometimes it takes a few tries before they warm up to a new flavor. I'm still trying (unsuccessfully) to sneak chicken into things, and he just came around to avocado (who doesn't like avocado - ugh).

Good luck! And don't forget to get some great pictures!

Purees

Here are a list of purees that I tried. All except for the sweet potato I boiled until soft, and then used the remaining water to make the puree consistency that I wanted. Thiner when we first started, and then by preference as we started to become more adventurous.

Sweet potatoes I would just roast whole at 350 until I could easily pierce it with a knife. I would then either blend it up and freeze it or keep it whole and use the baby grinder.

Generally I would take a random night and get busy boiling up a bunch of veggies and fruits. Then I would freeze what I didn't need for the week, and keep the rest in the baby bullet containers, or in mason jars, and measure out what I needed, when I needed it.


Apples
Asparagus

Bananas
Beets
Blueberry
Broccoli
Butternut Squash

Carrots

Green Beans

Pear
Peas
Potato

Red Pepper

Spaghetti Squash
Spinach
Sweet Potato

Yellow Squash

Zucchini

Kid Tested, Mom Approved Products

With the slew of baby products out there, it can be hard to pick not only the best one, but the one that works best for you and your kiddos. Especially when it comes to meal times! This is a work in progress list.

Here are some of our favorites:

• Beech-Nut Baby Cereals

We got the OK that it was time to start purees pretty early. I was standing in our 4 month well visit lying through my teeth about how we were all set up with the perfect reclining high chair to get started. When in reality I didn't even know food was on our radar yet. Our first few cereal meals took place in our reclining baby tub, which in hindsight made for an easy clean up, but it wasn't a great solution.
One positive was that I didn't have a long time to mull over the positives and negatives of all the food theories out there. I knew that I wanted to provide as clean and nutritions meals, and to me that meant the least ingredients possible. So, man was I lucky to find Beech-nut at my grocery store. We started with rice, then moved on to the oatmeal, and the the multigrain.

• Baby Bullet

It's a good thing I registered for this bad boy, or else I would have been really up a creek when it came time to start purees. I'll be honest though, you don't need one if you are doing big batch purees and freezing them. But it was really nice, as a new parent, to know that only my baby's food was touching this blender. And it was good in a pinch to make quick meals and for grinding up grains, which my regular blender could not do.

• Silicone Baby Food Freezer Tray

This was a purchase I made when I had high hopes of freezing my breast milk into cute little 1 to 2 ounce cubes. I had visions of popping them out and storing them perfectly in freezer safe bags. But then my child refused all bottles. (I spent a lot of time looking up bottles too - found a great one that I love, but that doesn't matter now does it?)
But, great news I was able to use this for all of my puree freezing, and it works like a dream. Definitely invest in one or more of these. The frozen food pops out so easily!

• Perfect Portions Digital Scale 

I'm not even sure when this little gadget came into our lives. But I use this at all of our meals. I was able to measure out exactly how many ounces I wanted to be in each freezer cup, and in turn I was able to see how much or how little was being "consumed". I even used it to measure pumped breast milk.

• Summer Infant Bibbity Rine and Roll Portable Bib 

We started out with the cotton bibs, and to be honest those were the best for us when we started eating. They could be easily tucked under the straps of the high chair and were out of sight, out of mind. But man what a game changer the Bibbity was for my poor laundry machine! Not to mention my floors once we moved to finger foods. Our clever guy has even figured out how to check the bucket for any morsels that might have missed his pie hole. (Parenting Win)

• Munchkin Fresh Food Feeder

Whatever you are doing, stop. Get these immediately. We've been using them since we stared purees. You can put whole fruits and veggies in there for teething, to help promote self feeding, and for loads of picture opportunities. We even put crushed ice in there to sooth sore gums and as a nice cool drink on hot days

• Munchkin Baby Food Grinder 

This is great for transitioning from smooth purees to a little chunkier. It was also great to just keep a roasted sweet potato on hand and throw it through the grinder instead of getting out the Baby Bullet every day.

• Kidskit Tip N' Sip Toddler Cup

Bottles and pacifiers were given a hard NO from our little guy, so I knew a zippy cup would too. So I went on the search for a zippy cup that might tickle his fancy. This fit the bill. It requires a lot of hands on help, but he loves it.