Strawberries, Bananas & Spinach Oh My!

I honestly love feeding my babies, I probably get more joy out of it than they do. Even looking at my face in some of these photos you can tell I am freak. Fully obsessed with whipping up yummy fruit and veggie combinations for my children to eat. When my son Ryan started solids it was like a whole new world opened up. I always knew I wanted to make my own baby food because really thats all I knew. I am the oldest of 4 and siblings are way younger than me. Like 6, 10 and 16 years younger than me. So I remember a lot of what my mom did, making things at home was my moms go-to. We used to beg her for those rice krispy treats wrapped in shiny blue paper, tortilla chips, chocolate candies, anything and everything we would ask for and she would always say "No, we can make that at home!" She was right a few times, but ain't nobody makes Doritos like Frito Lay! Anyways, she made baby food and I was inspired even at a young age. So, when it came time for me to feed my baby solids I set out to create the best baby food I could possibly make.

I mentioned in my last baby food post that I came across a lot, A LOT of errors along the way. Now with Mila I know a bit more, but still screw it up at times. I have found that mixing up things you as a family will already eat works best. Don't try and go all fancy, if you don't eat beets on the regular then don't go out of your way to buy them and make them special for your babe. The best way to go about this is as simple as you can at first. Once you get the hang of it and figure out what your baby loves the most, what textures they love the most, then you can dabble with foods that are unique to you. I do know a good baby food beet recipe if you are interested. ;)

When I am making baby food I typically do it all in one day and then freeze it all for the week. I take out the baby food that I know Mila will consume the next day and let thaw out in the refrigerator over night. I heat up her food in 30 sec increments until it is just warm enough. You will find what works best for you in that regard. Though freezing baby food is a great! Just be sure to never re-freeze anything. And use containers that are safe to microwave etc. Since we travel a lot freezing baby food has become a life saver. For plane rides or all day Disneyland days I just pack frozen baby food containers and they thaw through out the day. If you do that though, be sure to only do so with foods that don't need to be warmed. (Like sweet potatoes or anything with meat.) Try a few foods at a time. Starting with one 1 week and moving forward from there. This way you can easily detect any reactions to certain foods. Start by blending up foods extremely smooth and thin. Add water a tablespoon at a time until you reach the right consistency for your own baby. At this point in time Mila is 9 months, she now can tolerate foods with a little more girth to them. Slowly she is getting there. When I first gave her baby food that was more on the chunky side she spit it out. So, Ok I guess she wasn't ready. But I kept re-introducing it and she eventually found it to be ok. Listen to your baby! Don't force anything on them, because you want this to be a joyful experience for the both of you. If your baby isn't into something, let it go and try again later. There is no harm in that. Your baby is doing things at their own pace, and that is truly awesome!

I teamed up with Baby Brezza for my Purees and Pop! baby food workshop this week. I am thrilled to get the chance to teach mamas in the Los Angeles area all about baby food. I say teach, but I know we will end up teaching each other. If you are interested in attending the work shop all the details are here. I am also giving a Baby Brezza and other baby food goodies on my IG, you can enter to win here.

Mila is fruit lover, just like her Dad and I try to sneak in veggies with every fruit I give her. I whip up strawberries, bananas and spinach for her and she loves it. It honestly tastes great as smoothie for yourself too. Or I sometimes like to add strawberries to my water. Below is all you need to know...

Strawberry - Banana - Spinach

-1 cup diced strawberries

-1 cup diced bananas

-2 cups spinach

*Blend until smooth or the texture you'd like.

Spinach - Carrot - Peach

-1 peach diced

-3-4 carrots peeled and diced

-2 cups spinach

*steam the spinach and carrots until carrots are fork tender. The Baby Brezza has an easy steam setting where you can steam then blend all in one. It is pretty awesome! Blend the carrots and spinach together. Toss in your diced peach and blend until smooth.

Photos By Nicki Sebastian

Baby Food Blender - Baby Brezza

Baby Food Containers - Munchkin

High Chair - Bloom Baby