From Scratch

If you opened up our pantry when the girls were little, you would have found enough Gerber baby food in there to feed quadruplets.  I had stacks upon stacks of rectangular containers of pureed green beans, peas, squash, applesauce, pears, and carrots.  I never gave any serious consideration to making my own baby food, mostly because I barely had enough time to feed myself before collapsing into bed, let alone make food from scratch for the girls.

This time around, though, I wanted to give it a whirl.  Not that I have much more time on my hands, but Jimmy is a more adventurous eater and I wanted to feed him some foods that I couldn’t find pre-packaged at the store. So a few weeks ago, I broke out my food processor (that woefully neglected component of my kitchen arsenal that Jim mocks me for coveting and then not using!), a pot, and some empty baby food containers.  Armed with suggestions and how-to instructions from the internet, I boiled up some zucchini, pears, red bell pepper, and summer squash.  Then, one by one, I blended them to a pulp and poured them into a few containers.  It seemed like a lot of work for such little quantities, but I intentionally didn’t prepare a lot of these foods because I didn’t know yet if Jimmy would like them.  That is, except for the pears.  I knew he liked the Gerber pears, so I figured I could make it more cheaply and it would be a win-win situation.

However. 

I didn’t count on Jimmy suddenly becoming picky and texture-specific.

Here’s how he thanked me for all the hard work I put into those pears: