Baby Food

When Z was just born my aunt recommended the book, Super Baby Food by Ruth Yaron.  It has been an invaluable resource.  The book has everything that a new mom needs to know about feeding their baby.  But more importantly it provides guidelines for saving money by making your own food, feeding your baby what is appropriate at certain ages, and providing the healthiest and most natural foods for your little one.  I have never purchased a jar of baby food and don't ever expect that I will, especially now.  However, I have been tempted.

Pureeing cooked vegetables has always been very time consuming and seems to make a hundred dirty dishes with all of the food processor parts, etc.  The blade would not evenly puree, I would have to do about eight batches, and it was too loud for the kids.

Well, last fall my parents asked what I would like for Christmas and later blessed me with one of my items that I really didn't expect them to.  I had asked for an immersion blender from Kitchen Aid, specifically the KHB300.  I enjoy making soups over the winter and was very tired of the "ladle the soup into the blender, puree, and pour back into pot" routine.  Also, I am forever wearing out blenders with fruit smoothies. 

It is a wonderful tool with soups!!! I can puree the whole soup or leave some chunks.  It also helped Ryan and I make about ten jars of salsa in one afternoon! Onions, tomatoes, peppers...you name it and it is chopped in about three seconds flat.  Obviously, I have enjoyed this small appliance.

But I did not realize it would also turn baby food making into a speedy, clean process.  I pulled out the beaker, popped in the cooked sweet potato, turned it on, added some water, and about one minute later I had over two weeks of baby food done with only two dirty parts.  No blade was in the way of scooping out the food, it was fairly quiet, and the motor isn't smelling like smoke after a year's use (this was my experience with my last two blenders).  It was glorious!!!

Five weeks of sweet potato cubes are in the freezer!