Making baby food

I'm practically a hippy these days. Breastfeeding, cloth diapers, and now I'm making my own baby food. All I need is some tie dye and a broomstick skirt. Oh, and a headband.

In all seriousness, I decided to make my own baby food when I found a website explaining how and realized how simple the process is. I started my adventure with the following:butternut squash, apples, pears, and a sweet potato. I did the apples and pears first.I diced them and boiled until soft.Then I placed them in my food mill. It's a Kidco Babysteps Electric Food Mill, but you don't have to use that if you own a food processor or even a blender. Next I pureed. You can use a little bit of the water you boiled them in to thin the puree if you need to, but I used pumped breastmilk that I had on hand. I scooped my puree into ice cube trays. Each ice cube is approximately an ounce, I've been told, so I have a decent gauge of how much she's eating.After the cubes had frozen, I popped them out and placed them into freezer storage bags that I had labeled with the contents and date.I repeated the process with the sweet potato, although I later read that baking the sweet potato preserves more of the nutrients than boiling them. Preparing the squash was a little different. I cut it in half length-wise and gutted out the seeds. Then I placed both halves face-down in a pan and filled the pan with about an inch of water. I baked the halves for 60 minutes on 400 degrees, until the skin started to pucker.The meat was soft and I scooped it out and into the food mill.

Easy-peasy. I like that I know exactly what Kate is eating, and it's cheaper than buying those little jars (although the little jars are awfully cute).