Pumpkin Apple

With Fall in full swing my family is getting geared up for pumpkin season! We love everything pumpkin! Pumpkin pancakes pumpkin muffins, pumpkin eggnog, pumpkin ice cream, just straight pureed pumpkin! It gets a bit pumpkin-y around here in the fall. I wanted share this with our new little one. 

Now you have the option of pureeing your own pumpkin, which would follow the same directions as my Butternut Squash recipe. Or you can take advantage of the low cost canned variety. It's already precooked and has had all the work done for you. We buy LOTS of cans of pumpkin and go for the organic-nothing added-stuff. So you want the can that has nothing additional added. 

After giving her the first tastes of pumpkin (which were a big hit!) I decided it would be fun to start giving her flavor combos. Aside from purees on toast or mixed in plain oatmeal there hasn't been a lot of combos in her world. So I made this! We buy unsweetened applesauce a lot so this saves me a lot of work too! But if you want you can make applesauce yourself on the stove or in a crockpot! 

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Pumpkin Apple Baby Food

1 serving

1 1/2 TBSP Pumpkin Puree

1 1/2 TBSP Unsweetened Applesauce 

Sprinkle of Cinnamon 

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That's it! Super simple. If you do it yourself in a large batch this is what I would consider a Level 1 serving of baby food. You can of course make big batches and put them into containers to save, freeze them in ice cube trays, or whatever system you have in place for keeping your baby food! I love the glass jars and since most people use commercial baby food you can typically get your friends to give you their empty jars! If not they are available for sale on Amazon. Keep in mind that unless you know how to vacuum seal them, the ones in the jars should be kept in the fridge and are good for a few days. So I would recommend freezing in cube trays whatever you're not going to use within the next few days. 

Happy Eating! 

Feeding Clarissa (Almost 7 months old)

When faced with the choices in how to feed our new little one I was doing a lot of research. With my first I had followed all the guidelines with purees, rice cereals to start, and all of that. I was hypervigilent. This time I was feeling more relaxed and was very interested in Baby Led Weaning. Ultimately, we ended up going with a mix of purees and finger foods. I was corrected when saying that I was doing a combo of BLW and Purees (apparently you can't do that). So I'm making purees and offering finger foods. 

Here's what she's had so far: 

• Avocado Slices (this was her first food) 
• Avocado Puree (she loves it on toast -- I simply tossed it in the baby bullet and used formula to thin to desired consistency) 
• Applesauce (Unsweetened, with cinnamon. We buy the organic unsweetened, no gunk added, stuff for Monkey so I just scooped 2-3TBSP out of the big jar we have.) 
• Toast Sticks (with pureed peach. We didn't want her getting the extra sugar from jelly or jam. So we just pureed some fresh fruit for her toast) 
• Butternut Squash
• Whole Slices of Peach
• String Cheese (she mostly sucked on it, but seemed really interested when I was packing Monkey's Lunches and was the appropriate size to hold, so I let her try it)
• Banana (Both whole and pureed) 
• Pancake Pieces
• Smashed Blueberries
• Baked Potato (no skin, plain)
• Steamed Cauliflower
• Steamed Broccoli
• Apple Slices (She didn't get anything off it, but loved chewing it. I think it felt good on her gums)
• Pureed Peas
• Pureed Pumpkin w/ Cinnamon
• Pureed Pumpkin Apple w/ Cinnamon
• Oatmeal w/ Pureed Banana (She LOVED this. I gave her half the banana whole, and pureed the other half and mixed it with some old fashioned oats I had milled down). 
• Oatmeal w/ Applesauce (Just mix a tablespoon or so into your plain old fashioned oats)

So that's where we are at! Clarissa will be seven months on October 6th (just 8 days away!) and we're doing great with food. So far we're keeping her primarily with fruits and veggies. 

Upcoming food?

• Eggs (Hard boiled yolks and scrambled) 
• Plain yogurt (eventually with fruit/veggie purees mixed in)
• Steamed Carrots 

Sampling the goods!

There comes a time when each of our babies reaches one of those milestones in their life that can change their lives forever. When they start eating food! Some moms choose to wait and do breastmilk or formula only for longer, some moms choose to start at four months, and others wait till the generally prescribed six months. Whatever you choose feeding your baby new foods can be a fantastic experience for you both!

With Monkey I chose to go the very conventional route. I started with very runny rice cereal first then moved on to veggie purees from the store, then fruits, then mixed those with rice cereal, and added in finger foods later. This go round I decided to throw those ideas out the window and try something else! 

This is Clarissa.

As you can see she's bright and happy and ready to go! At nearly six months I decided that since I can barely keep her hands out of my food, she could sit up unassisted, and had been getting hungrier than usual that it would be a good time to start her with food. If you're wondering if your baby is ready to eat, go ahead and check out these signs of food readiness. 

As I mentioned before, with Clarissa I wanted to try a new way of feeding. Her first step outside of food had been her mouthing things I was eating such as a peach. But, now that she was ready for her own food I had to do some thinking. 

What has Clarissa eaten? 

• Homemade Pureed Butternut Squash
• Smashed Blueberries 
• Applesauce with cinnamon 
• Toast sticks topped with pureed peach
• Whole slices of peach
• Mum-mum rice husk crackers. 

I'm leaning more towards the side of letting her eat real foods than just the jarred stuff. I was a bit worried since this was a way that I hadn't traveled before. So far she's loving it! I'm reading more and more about Baby Led Weaning and may cut puree altogether. Either way I'm looking forward to this adventure with Clarissa in her eating! 

Upcoming foods?

Steamed Cauliflower is next on my radar!