Baby Food: Moʻo Picks

 I used to make baby food for my boy 3 (now 23) because I could not see the need to pay 75 cents for a small jar of baby food that would need to be supplemented by more jars of baby food in one sitting, so I used my microwave and ice cube tray to make food. With our first grand daughter after 3 grandsons, I happened to be at the right time in my career to take a day to babysit every week. This brought me back to making baby food, this time with our hot dog steamer and my trusty Vitamix. Here are some of her favorites, starting with her most favorite Okinawan sweet potato puree. 20 years of technology has also created better trays so I like this silicone ice cube tray. The 15 slots fit about 2 Tablespoons of food, so we started with one cube and now we do about 3-4 cubes to create a balanced meal at each sitting.

Okinawan sweet potato (or ʻuala poi)

1. Okinawan sweet potato, peeled and sliced
2. baby water or filtered water (for desired texture and thickness)

Place slices of potato in a steamer and steam for about 15 minutes. If you do not have a hot dog steamer, put water in a medium pot with a lid, put the potatoes in a steamer basket or bowl and cover as it steams. The sweet potato are done when they are fork tender.

Put sweet potato in a high speed blender like a Vitamix or a food processor. Blend, adding a little water, until you get to the right consistency for baby. Serve right away and freeze the rest in the silicone trays covered with plastic wrap. No need to buy the ones with covers. Once the cube is set (about 24 hours), put them in a labeled Ziploc bag and take as you need. 

When trying foods one at a time for several days to check for allergies, this was her first and favorite. Now at 8 months, we serve this with fruit (like mashed banana or apple, black bean with aonori, and a vegetable like carrots).

Butternut squash (from frozen)

The ingredients will always be the same. Whatever the food is plus baby water. 

I do not enjoy sharpening knives every time I have to cut through a hard squash like kabocha or butternut, so I like to pick up one bag of pre-cubed, peeled, frozen butternut squash.

Steam for about 10 minutes from frozen and blend. This one has enough water so no extra water necessary. Freeze or serve. 

Add ins when they are older: 2 T of nutritional yeast or when they can do cheese, a bit of parmesan.

Good with garbanzo bean puree, brown rice "cereal," pears, sweet potatoes

Canned beans (protein)

My kids hated pureed meats so I do not use meat as protein until they can grab and eat. Instead, for the protein, I choose canned beans over dry beans just for convenience, but make sure that you buy the ones that say BPA-free liner on the label.  I used what I had and she likes it, so this is for black beans and garbanzo beans, but this recipe will work with any canned beans. With the garbanzo beans, when I drain and rinse the beans in a colander, I also "shell" them just because the little skins floating up bother me. 

In addition, I use a little piece of kombu (used to make dashi stock) in the cook water to decrease the gas-producing compounds in the beans.

1 cup water

2 (15-oz) cans of beans

Bring the water to a simmer in pot over medium heat. Meanwhile, rinse and drain the canned beans in a colander. Add the beans to the simmering water, stir, and allow the beans to heat until thoroughly warmed, about 5 minutes. Remove from heat and drain beans, reserving some cooking liquid. 

Blend and puree, and if necessary, add some cooking liquid until the right consistency is reached. Freeze in cubes with plastic wrap over and when set, transfer the cubes to a labeled resealable freezer bag. 

Add ins: I like to use aonori (the fine flakes of nori that come in a shake jar) because this baby is Asian and we have a certain taste profile, so going for the umami.

Brown Rice "Cereal"

I tried to make cereal by grinding the grains and you get this watery gruel, but she did not like it as much as this thicker cereal that has the texture and starchiness of rice. I am staying with whole foods, so I used organic short grain rice instead of white rice.  

1.  Soaking: Wash and rinse 1 cup brown rice and soak it in 2 cups of water for 4 hours or overnight. I just put it in the Instant Pot liner.
2. Drain rice, add 2 cups of water again in the Instant Pot liner with the rice and pressure cook with the steam vent closed for 15 minutes manual.
3. When it is done, let it natural pressure release for 5 minutes, then open valve and carefully open the lid
4. When the rice is cooled a little, add it to the Vitamix and blend with up to 1/2 cup water or salt-free broth until you have the desired consistency.
5. Serve and freeze the extra. When it is frozen, it takes a little more microwave thawing to get it back to the right consistency, but it will get there to that gooey consistency. You may need to add a bit more water.

Melon ice (no-cook)

Baby girl loves melon ice, especially when she is teething so any melon will do. She started with watermelon but she also likes honeydew and cantaloupe, the juicier the better.

Cut open melon, remove seeds and put chunks of melon in the Vitamix. Blend and freeze. 

We found these fresh food feeders that look like a big candy ring. They have a gummy circle bottom and the top is a mesh bag that you can put your melon ice in. She holds it and gums at the melon ice that is inside the mesh bag. Be ready to have melon juice all over, but it helped to ease her gums.

Other no-cook, mashed foods she likes: bananas and avocado. 

Dried Plums (prunes)

I am sharing one last recipe as this is the last technique I have that is different. These are not all the foods, but the foods can be made from fresh, peeled and steamed, from frozen, canned and simmered, or in the instant pot. This is also a simmered recipe, but it uses dried, seeded fruits like plums, apricots, figs.

2 cups water

1/3 lb dried fruits (about 15)

Bring the water to a simmer in a small saucepan. Add dried fruit, cover with a lid and turn off heat. Allow dried fruit to steep for 10 minutes to rehydrate, then remove lid and allow the fruit and water to cool. Pour fruit into a blender with some of the water and puree. Freeze extra.

Add ins: I buy blueberries in season and clean and freeze them right away. Add a handful of frozen blueberries with the prunes and blend it together.

Moʻo are the best critics. She absolutely hated my peas so I add the pea puree to my savory Coach's Oats recipe. Yum for me. The purees as she gets older can also be added to pancakes (like ʻuala pancakes and banana pancakes), creamy fruit roll-ups (wraps), and avocado egg dippers.