the idea was that each person would choose 2 different foods from a list provided and then cook, puree, freeze into cubes and bag it all up. everyone would make 2 ice cube trays (frozen cubes) per person of EACH food. that meant 14 trays of each food, 28 trays in total....hokey pete it was a lot. when we all got together everyone would leave with each kind of food. pretty awesome? i sure think so!! :)
i chose apples and sweet potatoes. doing the apples was A LOT of work! i had to peel, core and chop 20lbs of apples. then i cooked them on low with a little water until they were soft enough to mash. i did 5lbs at a time so it took a while.
steve mashing all the sweet potatoes
once they were mashed up i scooped it into ice cube trays and froze them (i had to do a couple freezing sessions since i didn't have enough trays). 
next i did the sweet potatoes. i baked them, peeled the skin off (which was surprisingly easy) and then mashed them up. it was super fast!! again, i froze it all into cubes. once i had the stuff frozen i cracked the trays into freezer bags (2 trays of apple into 1 bag and 2 trays of sweet potato into another bag for each person).today i went to the exchange (one girl decided to opt out so we just divided up her cubes), hung out with the other moms and their adorable kids, had some yummy soup made by our host, cianna, and some dutch thing-which i can't remember the name of but it was AMAZING :), grabbed my bags of food and headed home. other than the 2 foods i made i left with pears, broccoli, butternut squash, peas, quinoa, carrots, yams, more sweet potato, cauliflower, and potatoes. it's so handy because i can pull out some cubes one night from the freezer, put them in the fridge and the next morning jacob's food is all ready for the day. :)
OH MY GOODNESS! this is the coolest idea! i'm totally going to attempt to plan one of these things when avery starts eating solids! very, very cool!
ReplyDeleteI bought one of those hand blender wands when my kids were babies and I'd make extra veggies for dinner and then puree those down when dinner was over and freeze it in ice cube trays. I always had food in the freezer for the baby - as they could tolerate different foods I did it with home made beef veg soup and pastas, meat etc. So when this food runs out, you might want to try that.
ReplyDeleteyou are so great Lael! I love your blogs. and the dutch thing are called "croquettes" and i am glad you liked them. i will have to forward you the recipe if you are interested. or just come over and eat mine! ;)
ReplyDeletethat is sooo awesome! I never gave any thought to the idea of making my own baby food... what do you just use a blender on it then freeze it in ice cube trays? or do you need to have a food processor?
ReplyDeleteI don't own a food processor or a blender...but one of those would have made it easier. Both the apple and sweet potato I just cooked long enough that I could mash it with a potato mashed. Jacob likes his food REALLY pureed so I use my magic bullet if any of it is too thick/chunky for him.
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