Prunesicles

I keep seeing beautiful popsicles in blog world and on pinterest.  They are beautiful and fun and--my baby is no where near an age where I could hand her a popsicle.

What we are making I'm calling prunesicles.  They are cute.  They are frozen.  They are not fun.

Little has been on a poop strike.  The kind of poop strike where you have to go to the doctor.  We are giving her prune juice every day to try to keep things moving.  The problem is, prune juice comes in quite large cans for an infant.  Enter prunesicles.  I'm freezing teeny cubes of prune juice so we'll have single (baby) portions ready to go.

So those cute popsicles you're making?  I bet they can't beat my prunesicles.  Come try one.  No, really.

Apricot Baby Food

I make all of the food we give to Little (with the exception of cereal).  It is so easy to make fruit and vegetable baby food and when you make it yourself, it is easy to be sure that the produce you are using is organic and perfectly ripe.  I have been making baby food out of what is in season and then freezing it to feed to Little when she is ready.

Apricots are ok for babies 6 months and older but remember as with most fruits and vegetables, they need to be cooked for babies under 12 months of age.  Your apricots should be soft but not squishy.  If you are buying them, apricots should have a sweet fragrance if they are picked ripe.  Apricots are in season here and my mom has a tree so I grabbed these beauties to make a snack for Little.

Wash your apricots well.  Then break them or cut them in half and put them skin side down in a baking pan with a little bit of water.

Bake until your apricots are soft.  I started them at 325 with my granola and then turned up the temperature to 400 when the granola was out.

Let your cooked apricots cool and then scoop them out of the skins with a spoon.  Blend in a food processor until you have a smooth texture.  You can add some of your cooking water if your apricots are thicker than your baby likes.  Spoon your baby food into an ice cube tray to store it.  I freeze baby food in my silicone ice cube tray and then store the frozen cubes in a freezer bag.  The cubes on my tray are very small (and flower shaped!) so I normally feed Little two of them.

Have fun feeding your baby!

Avocado Baby Food

As Little's third food (after oatmeal and butternut squash) I decided to try avocado.  I did a lot of research and I found that avocado is a food that many babies like and it is also a food that rarely causes allergic reactions and is very high in nutrients.  Avocado is recommended for babies starting at age 4 months.  I chose not to feed Little any solid foods until she was six months because she did a great job gaining weight with just breast milk and I have quite a few skin allergies so waiting made sense for us.

I decided to just mash fresh avocado because I didn't want to make very much.  Avocados will oxidize (turn brown and change flavor) if they are left cut up.  That includes if they are blended to make baby food.  Adults use things like lime or lemon to keep avocado fresh (think guacamole) but citric acid (found in citrus) can cause severe allergic reactions in infants.  I just mashed the avocado with a fork and then thinned it out with a little hot water (she likes her food warm) until it was a texture that Little would like.

At first Little wasn't to pleased with avocado.  She hasn't been very interested in solid foods, especially anything new.  She did eat a few bites.  In the end, I think she liked avocado.