Anastazia Eats

Henry was never a good eater. He never liked baby food and he was really picky about what foods he would eat. He is still a picky eater to this day. Which is why it is such a new experience for me to have a child that loves to eat. Anastazia really loves food. I give her little bites of everything I'm eating and she always reaches for my plate. So I really wanted to try baby food. I read all these bad things online about store bought baby food (of course I know you can't believe things you read on the internet) so I decided to make my own baby food. I always wanted to with Henry but he never ate it.

Making your own baby food sounds easy enough but it's actually pretty intimidating. I guess we don't always realize how convenient it is to have a jar of baby food to just pop open when your baby is hungry. But I'm here to tell you that if you are just a little organized it can make a world of difference.  So, making the food. I just steam fruits and veggies in our rice cooker, or on the stove. Then I use a Baby Bullet to blend her food which I bought at Buy Buy Baby. It's great because it comes with several blender attachments as well as jars and a freezer tray for storage. If you just take one day out of the week to blend up a couple of meals and put them in the freezer it's much easier.

The two main concerns I had when it came to DIY baby food (aside from how am I going to make it) were: "What am I going to make? and How am I going to defrost it?" If you have asked yourselves these questions I am going to save you a lot of research time right now and answer them for you. I found my two favorite products that are the solution to these questions.

To answer the first question: "What am I going to make?" I present to you this amazing baby food cook book by Annabel Karmel "Quick and Easy Weaning: All you need to know on feeding your baby in the first year". This little cookbook is amazing. It has an abundance of recipes and it is also a guide on how, when, and why to wean your baby. It's very helpful for understanding the process of weaning and is organized in a way to help you figure out what foods to present to your baby and when. Plus some of her recipes are even yummy for the whole family. It is definitely a must have if you are weaning your baby. Plus Annabel Karmel is an expert on all things food for you and your family. Check out her website here: http://www.annabelkarmel.com/us/

Okay now for my second question: "How am I going to defrost it?" I really didn't want to microwave her food because I think that kind of defeats the purpose of making her healthy food because the microwave can decrease the nutritional value of the food. Which is why I was so glad to discover Lillypots. Lillypots is an easy way to defrost different flavors of baby food at the same time while holding their nutritional value. I love it because it's easy to store, fits most standard size pots, and works quickly. Plus once it cools down it makes the perfect serving tray (as seen below). You can learn more about Lillypots and find a link to purchase here: http://lillypots.co.uk

I hope these products help you as much as they help me. Making your own baby food is really not as scary as it seems. Anastazia sure does love it ;)

A's turban: http://www.thebabyturban.com
A's bib and placemat: http://snap-bibs.com