Browse Tag: baby food

Single Parent Day 3

IMG_2902Kumquat and I are in a groove now.  Only one more day before Jes gets back from Colorado.  I also got my sunglasses back.  I had misplaced them somewhere between my car and my condo last week when I got home from work.  I asked one of the association staff guys if anyone happened to pick them up and someone turned them in!! Woot!  Oh happy day!

This evening after Kumquat went to bed, I made some meatloaf tarts.  I have a general idea of how meatballs or meatloaf is made so I improvised with what I had.  Here’s what I did:

  1. IMG_6990I combined in a bowl the following: 1 cup shredded zucchini, 1 cup shredded carrots, 2 eggs, 3/4 lbs ground beef, 1/2 cup seasoned bread crumbs, 2 cloves of garlic (minced), and a big plop of tomato sauce.
  2. IMG_6994Then the mixture went into a muffin tin.
  3. IMG_6997They baked in the oven at 350 degrees for about 20 minutes and Ta Da!!

IMG_6999All done.  It’s so simple and easy.

IMG_7001

Now they’re all packed up and ready to go in the freezer.  I have 12 meals ready and waiting to be gobbled up by Little Miss Kumquat.  Hm…what should I make next?

By the way, she liked the egg tart I made for her last night.  Making baby food is fun when you make the time.

Oh yeah…one more thing.  I recorded this tonight for a dear friend who was asking me how to make orange segments.

Click here if you can’t view the video above.

Single Parent Day 2

Today was less exciting than yesterday and I think I prefer it that way.  I had to walk Koa this morning so Kumquat took her morning bottle in the stroller.  That seemed to work out well.  Mirian came at 8:45 and I managed to walk in the door at work by 9:15.  Sweet.

After work, we made a trip to Safeway to buy some groceries and then it was dinner, a bath for Kumquat, FaceTime with the grandparents, and then off to bed.  I even managed to find time to do a load of laundry and tidy up the kitchen.

Once Kumquat was asleep, I made some zucchini, carrot, and egg tarts.  We’re now way past the puree stage and it was time to make some freezable meals for the monster.  This is what I did:

  1. IMG_6962I used the food processor to shred zucchini and carrots.  It took only a couple minutes.  Amazing.  The best part is that I don’t have to stress out about not scraping my hand on a grater.
  2. IMG_6970Then I combined the zucchini and carrots with some seasoned bread crumbs I found in the pantry, leftover shredded cheese from the fridge, minced garlic, and two eggs.
  3. IMG_6971I wanted a bit more iron and protein so I added one more egg.
  4. IMG_6973They went into a muffin tin and baked at 400 degrees for about 12 minutes.

IMG_6975DING!  They came out perfectly and the one I tasted was delicious!

IMG_6979Here they are in the freezer bag ready for storage.  Easy, right?!

Pear Puree

I’m making baby food again!  This time I used my stick blender!!  Yeeeaaahh, Baby!  I only bought one pear (organic, of course) at the supermarket this time so I could experiment but I think I should have bought more.  Here’s what I did:

1) I peeled the pear.

2) I cut the pear into chunks.

3) They all went into the measuring cup.

4) And then bzzzzzzz went the stick blender!

Here is the finished product.  I got a smooth puree in just seconds.  However, I didn’t buy enough pears so I ended up with a few lumps since the stick blender requires a little more volume to get it all pureed.

Regardless, Kumquat loved it and I was able to join her by eating the chunks for her.  Yum.

Happy Sweet Potato Day!

Kumquat is one week away from turning 6 months old and in honor of the appearance of her first tooth, I decided to start her on solids today.  For her first meal, I wanted to make sweet potato puree so we took a little trip to the Farmers’ Market and picked up a couple for $1.50.  What a deal!

This was my first attempt at making my very own baby food and it was pretty fun.  Here’s what I did:

After washing them, I wrapped them in foil.

They went in the toaster oven at 325 degrees and cooked for about an hour and a half.

Yeah, that’s a long time.  I think it needed to be baked at 350 instead.

When they were done, they looked so tasty – like Thanksgiving tasty.

Once they cooled, I cut them in half and they went into the ricer.

It was super easy to get the sweet potato mashed and looked pretty cool when it came out like spaghetti.

The sweet potato came out nice and smooth while all the “strings” and skin stayed in the ricer.

When I mixed it up, it was pretty thick so I thinned out a small portion with a tablespoon of water at a time until it was a thin puree.  It’s so simple and nutritious and without anything extra added to it.

Here’s the final product along with Kumquat’s cute little spoon. 🙂

After I fed Kumquat and knew that it was passable to her, I prepared the rest of the batch and it all went into the ice cube tray and in the freezer.

When it was all frozen, they popped out so easily!

They all went into a freezer bag and now they’re in little 3/4-ounce portions. Neato.

It’s a little bit of work for a whole lot of awesome.  I think Kumquat liked it and as a therapist who feeds babies for a living, this was an exciting day for me too. 🙂

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