The boys are now at the age where they are eating solids regularly. It still isn't normal "people food" but it's more than rice cereal or baby oatmeal. We started feeding them typical canned baby food. I started noticing that all the food started looking and smelling the same.
Peas: greenish brown
Carrots: reddish brown
Country Vegetables: greenish brown
mango: yellowish brown
bananas: tannish brown
Apples: tannish brown
They all started smelling the same as well...bad.
I tried feeding Carter a thing of canned bananas and he wouldn't touch them. I tasted a little bite and had to agree that they were horrible. How can you screw up bananas? I grabbed half of a real banana off of the counter, mashed it up and tried it again feeding Carter. Carter wolfed it down and wanted more. It was then that I remembered conversations with my mom about how she used to make her own baby food when I was a kid. I always thought that making your own baby food was something out of my reach and not possible with my limited time at home. I also remembered a book that a good friend of ours gave us about making your own baby food. So one Sunday during church I read the book. (Don't judge! I'm sure I'm not the only one to read something non-churchy during Church.)
A couple of things in the book really hit me. First, I really didn't care for some of self-righteousness I felt in reading the Mom's section (It was written by a husband/wife duo. The husband is a chef and the wife is a national news anchor). The use of terms like "Frankenfood" describing canned baby food is just unnecessary and reeks of condescension and superiority. She also writes, "One in three children in America is now at risk of being overweight or obese. Bad eating habits are learned early. It starts with infants and toddlers and the fast-food instinct of feeding from a jar or can." I think that is a little inflammatory and unnecessarily jumps to conclusions.
I suffered through her intro and finally got to the husband's section. Granted, the husband's section also had its share of melodramatic and cheesy sections but it also made me think. A few sections I liked:
"I knew I didn't want my kids to wait until their teens to truly discover good food. I want them to be connected to their food from the start. I want them to understand that it comes from the earth and to see it prepared and cooked in their own home."
"As a dad, you are limited in your ability to provide sustenance during a pregnancy and the first half year of your child's life. But at six months I could play a role. It became a bonding experience with my babies and something that will always be an important and memorable part of my relationship with them."
"I spoke to another dad one afternoon at the playground and the topic of baby food came up. He was mortified at the stuff he was feeding his child. The color, the smell, and the appearance of it were all awful. He wouldn't even taste it himself. And yet, he fed it to his child."
So anyways, being a working dad, I don't get as much time to spend with the kids as I'd like before they go to bed at night. I'm grateful that Laura gets to spend all day with them, but I am sometimes jealous that I really only get to see them when they are starting to get cranky and tired. I decided to put aside my negative feelings and do something positive. I went to the store, bought some fruit and vegetables and started going through the book. It has been pretty simple so far. It is mainly just boiling the food for a few minutes to soften it up, throwing it in a blender and freezing it in ice cube trays.
So far I've make pears, apples, peas, and carrots in addition to the no-cooking involved bananas and avocados. Next on the menu are sweet potatoes, butternut squash, prunes, and cinnamon apple oatmeal raisin. Preparing them is really easy. One cube is about 1 oz. of food. We grab a couple from the freezer, put them in the microwave for 30-60 seconds and that's it.
When Laura first saw the peas she was amazed at how green they were compared to the typical dull green canned baby food peas. We don't normally have many vegetables in our house as Laura pretty much thinks anything green tastes like grass. Unfortunately, the pretty, vibrant green of the peas still isn't enough to make her like the taste. At least now there is more than one person in the family that likes veggies.
So the positive result in all of this is that I am now getting my vegetables too. After feeding the boys, I realize that I also want some peas or carrots, etc. If I don't just eat some of the kiddo's, I will fix me some veggies as well. The boys love the food and are eating great.
So thank you Deanna for the book.
Thank you Mom for unknowingly giving me the idea.
And thanks Laura for always cleaning up my messes in the kitchen.
When Laura first saw the peas she was amazed at how green they were compared to the typical dull green canned baby food peas. We don't normally have many vegetables in our house as Laura pretty much thinks anything green tastes like grass. Unfortunately, the pretty, vibrant green of the peas still isn't enough to make her like the taste. At least now there is more than one person in the family that likes veggies.
So the positive result in all of this is that I am now getting my vegetables too. After feeding the boys, I realize that I also want some peas or carrots, etc. If I don't just eat some of the kiddo's, I will fix me some veggies as well. The boys love the food and are eating great.
So thank you Deanna for the book.
Thank you Mom for unknowingly giving me the idea.
And thanks Laura for always cleaning up my messes in the kitchen.
Update: The book is Baby Love by Geoff Tracy and Norah O'Donnell. Also, this is one of the few times that I will actually buy organic fruits and veggies. Luckily our favorite produce store, Sprouts, is very reasonable in price. It is usually only a little bit more expensive but sometimes it is just as cheap as regular produce.
