My name is Martha Stewart...I mean Compton...

So, many of you have asked about my home-made baby food. I have to admit, I'm not the cook in our house. I'm not exactly sure what possessed me to want make my own baby food, I just thought it sounded fun, easy, and logical. Baby food is expensive, especially organic baby food which is what we're choosing to feed Campbell. Why organic? To me it's really a question of why not? It's a little bit more expensive, but if it could potentially prevent exposing Campbell to unnecessary chemicals then it just makes sense. Will we always feed her organic food? Probably not, but now when it's easy to control it is what we have decided to do. Especially considering that she is potentially immuno-compromised due to being a micro-preemie, it's something that is easy for us to contribute to her health.

So, this first picture is what I gathered a few weekends ago to make her food for at least the next month. I bought a butternut squash, 2 acorn squashes, 3 sweet potatoes, 5 pears, 2 bags of frozen peas, and 2 bags of frozen green beans (all organic). You can see the ice cube trays I use to freeze the food and the Magic Bullet I use to puree.


This next picture is of the squash and sweet potatoes in the oven. To make the squash, all you do is cut them in half and scoop the seeds out with an ice cream scoop. (A tip I learned to make them easier to cut is to microwave them for 1-2 minutes.) You then place them face down in an oven-safe dish and fill the dish with 1-2 inches of water. Then all you do is bake them at 400 degrees for about 45 minutes.



After they are baked, I scoop out the meat and puree it in the Magic Bullet. In a month or so when we try finger foods, I have heard you can just cut the squash up into small pieces for her to feed herself. Sounds messy, but I bet she'll love it.


After it's all pureed, I just scoop it into the ice cube trays and freeze it. Each cube is about an ounce and approximately 2 cubes equals a baby food jar. Right now I'm using regular ice cube trays that have a lid. It's kind of difficult to get the food out of the trays, so I'm planning on getting some of those silicone mini-muffin trays to use. I've heard they're much easier to use.


For the pears, I peel them and steam them for about 10 minutes before I puree them. For the sweet potatoes I just peel them after baking them and puree them. Sometimes I have to use a little water to thin out the sweet potatoes. However, I made an exciting discovery at our local Earth Fare grocery store this week. They sell canned organic sweet potato puree for about $2.50/can. Each can is about 8 servings of baby food so it's a steal compared to jarred baby food and so much easier than me pureeing the sweet potatoes myself! While I enjoy making her food, if I find an easy and cheap alternative, I'm all about it. For example, organic applesauce and organic canned pumpkin is readily available and relatively cheap. So worth it! I just check the ingredients to make sure there are no added ingredients (for example, I have to make sure I get the canned pumpkin not the canned pumpkin pie mix).

After the food is frozen in the ice cube trays, I just transfer them to freezer bags. Whenever it's meal time I just get out 1 to 2 cubes and thaw them in the microwave. It works out great! I'm excited because I found organic frozen peaches at Earth Fare so we're trying that this weekend. I think Campbell is going to like it!

Some good resources for more information are: wholesomebabyfood.com and a food blog I really like that includes baby food: picklemomskitchen.blogspot.com. She actually has a "biter biscuit" recipe that I'm excited about trying.

PS. Several of you have asked about the results of the Bathtub Poll. As you can see to the right of your screen, I won the poll. So guess who's still getting her baths in the sink? You got it, Miss Campbell is! I think we've got a good month or two until we'll be forced to use the big bathtub. We may start taking donations then for regular back massages for me due to the bending over :)