Monday, June 28, 2010

Fresh food for the baby,tots and Monday's harvest.

Yesterday I went to the fruit market and loaded up on fresh fruits and vegetables. I really like to try to get the baby to try all kinds of different things to give him a wide variety of tastes! So, when I saw some figs I decided to pick them up and make baby puree with them.
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Oh, he absolutely LOVED it! He couldn’t eat it fast enough. However, I didn’t want to give him too much because they are high in fiber and sugar, so it was gone quickly and he was still hungry for more…next up, Avocado! He eats practically any food or mixture of food I put in front of him. Applesauce/Avocado, Peaches/Avocado, Zucchini/Applesauce/sweet potato, Sweet Potato/Applesauce, anything I can think of to mix, I do it. Even if it doesn’t sound good to me. He can get a wide variety of nutrients in this way and broaden his palate for different tastes. I already have one picky eater and one good eater, maybe he will be even better! I made fresh baby food for them too, but I didn’t try as many varieties or mixtures on them as I have tried on Eli.
Today for them, I made Zucchini Coins with the Sebring Zucchini and a zephyr zucchini I found at the market. They were very good, though I think next time I will cook them a little less than the 20 minutes recommended.  I let them help make them too and they really enjoyed that. Wish they enjoyed eating them as much as they enjoyed making them…oh, well, I think they are good and we need more variety for our zucchini! We can’t have cake and zucchini bread all the time, as much as I would love to!
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Today from the garden I picked about a quart of green beans and about a pint of royal burgundy beans and a nice pile of basil. Both spicy globe and a regular variety. I am getting about 2 quarts of beans almost every other day now. And I decided to plant some yellow beans the other day after all! Now I will really have a colorful variety! I have decided to freeze some of the beans and make baby food with it as well.
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My total harvest so far this year:
Bush Beans: 6-7 quarts
Lettuce: 16 heads about 2- 4lbs?
8 Ball Zucchini: 4
Black Beauty Zucchini: 8
Alaskan and Lincoln Peas: 2 1/4 cups
Oregano: 1 baggie dried
Basil: 3 baggies dried
Bright Lights Chard: 8 bunches
Broccoli: 4 heads
Cosmic purple carrot: 3
cabbage: 3 head
Sebring Zucchini: 1

Head on over to Daphne's Dandelions for Harvest Monday

9 comments:

  1. I am happy to see that you make your own baby food. I always made all of my children's baby food. My grandson was also raised on home made baby food.

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  2. Thank you! It feels good to do something so healthy for my babies! I love it!

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  3. Looks great! I have two very picky eaters who would eat EVERYTHING during the baby phase. oh well. They'll hopefully broaden their tastes on their own.

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  4. My mom used to make pickled zucchini when I took her too many. I haven't got tired of ours....yet!

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  5. Very respectable harvest. I haven't tried Cosmic Purple yet as I love Dragon carrot so much. What do you think of it? My kids tend to prefer vegetables one of two ways: in the garden with dirt on them, or fried so zuke coins would appeal to them.

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  6. Oh they will Ribbit!

    Villager, never tried pickled zucchini. Maybe someday I will try.

    OG. Thanks. I am not too sure about these Cosmic Purples yet...I think maybe I have picked them too small and they are still a bit bitter. My kids get a little picking happy! I'll have to try the Dragon Carrot. I was wondering what they might enjoy more if these didn't work out! They look cool though!

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  7. Good for you, making your own baby food! It's not only teaching Eli to like different foods, it's so much better for him when you control what goes into it. Let him learn to enjoy real food, not salt, sugar and/or preservatives.

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  8. Making your own baby food is a fantastic idea!

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  9. What a wonderful bean harvest. Mine haven't quite started yet. I have lots of flowers though.

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