I made baby food today because we keep running out of fruit jars. Gavin eats fruit with cereal for breakfast, then again after finishing his veggies and meat during other meals. It seems so silly to buy a jar of mashed bananas for .69 cents when I can get three pounds of fresh bananas for .39 cents at Costco.

The jars, even the stage three foods, are a little runny for a tiny guy who is having a lot of fun copying everyone's chewing motions. He's now able to feed himself little bits of cereal like Cheerios or Chex, so a glob of textureless peach puree isn't that challenging for him.

So I googled around and found a few interesting recipes for baby food. The first was a squash and apple bake with cinnamon. It smelled amazing while cooking, but needed double the listed time for the squash to get soft. I also added a splash of organic carrot juice to keep the whole thing from being too pasty.

It was ready just in time for Gavin's lunch, and though I thought it tasted great, I wondered what he would think of this chunky mash. After three bowls, it was clear that he gave it a thumbs-up. He ate so much that when dinnertime rolled around, he only ate about half a bowl -- he was still full from lunch. (Crossing fingers that a full belly means fewer wake-ups during the night.)


Even after so much eating (I'll admit, I had a forkful or two), there's a full mason jar of food left for the rest of the week and it's a pretty orange color that makes you imagine there are tons of vitamins in there.

Emboldened by my first success, I made a second batch of food right after. This time, it was Honest Fare's Baked Cinnamon Apple and Prune baby food. After three steaming apples filled with prunes and dotted with cinnamon came out of the oven, there was no chance they were even making it into the jars. Trevor and I ate all three. (I consider it a personal triumph that I ate a baked apple without a lick of butter on it.)

Rest assured, I will make Gavin another batch tomorrow. With an apple orchard just a few houses away, we're never wanting for fresh apples. I'm thinking we'll try something with broccoli to add some green to that orange. Mmmmm.

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