When Andy was first starting solid foods, Charlie wanted to make his baby food. From scratch. I had one friend that was doing it for her son, but I thought she was crazy. I thought Charlie was crazy too. I was all about simplicity, and prepackaged baby food was the thing for me. So easy to use, reuse, travel with, why would we want to do it any other way? Charlie really wanted to try it, so one day he made carrots. Let me give you a tip, if you are going to make home made baby food and you've never looked at a recipe or talked to anyone about it, don't start with carrots. He did a pretty good job, but they were like tiny, tiny, tiny bits of carrots. They weren't the least bit smooth like the stuff that came in the Gerber package. When we fed them to Andy, he took one bite and then refused to eat anymore. Making baby food from scratch experiment over.
Sarah got the same deal as Andy. Started rice cereal around four months, solids around five or six months, everything from a jar (or as Gerber sells them now, plastic container). We were still all about doing what was quickest and easiest for us. She liked it, we liked it, everybody was happy.
With Amanda, something changed. I'm not sure exactly how I heard of it, but I stumbled across the Beaba Baby Food Cooker. It's European, and supposedly everyone in Europe loves it. I did some research and this thing was getting rave reviews. There were a few complaints here and there, but overall everybody loved the baby food cooker and it made their lives so much easier. So I decided I wanted to get one. Worst case scenario I hated it and I sold it on eBay for almost as much as I paid for it. Best case scenario I loved it and it made great baby food. I got it for Christmas and started using it about a month ago.
I started with apples. Andy eats a ton of them so we always have them around. I wanted to see how well this thing made applesauce. Know what? It was fabulous and it tasted just like applesauce should taste. I was immediately hooked. What else could I make? Pears. Peaches. Sweet Potatoes. Squash. Ok, I had a little problem with the squash. I bought a yellow squash and it wasn't until I got home from the store that I remembered that the jarred squash wasn't yellow, or white as it is when you cut into it. Jarred squash is orange. Oh, yes, I needed an acorn or butternut squash. Back to the store, bought a butternut squash. Carrots. Peas. Pineapple. Mango. Bananas. Plums.
She loved it. Loved it all (well, except the peaches. She really doesn't like those). But why wouldn't she? If you ate nothing but the same thing all day, everyday, several times a day, for over six months, wouldn't you be excited to try something new. I would think so. I love it to. It's so easy. You just cut up the food and steam it for the set amount of time (there's a little book that tells you how long), then you puree it in the water you used to steam it. It's all one, small, cute machine that sits on my counter. It's fun coming up with little combinations and seeing if she'll eat it. It's great to be doing it on my own, giving her healthy food, and saving money because I can make seven servings of food cheaper that I can buy it.
I still don't know what made me want to make my own baby food. You'd think by the time the third kid came around you'd want simplicity more than ever. I think it's kind of the same reason I'm doing cloth diapers (if I haven't mentioned that yet, it's a whole other post). It's different, it's something I haven't done yet and this is my last chance to do it. My last chance to do these things that seem to be so good for her. My last baby. I know that's what we want, and I really don't want to have another, but some times it just seems so final.
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