My “cooking” has been quite minimal as of late. We seem to be falling into a pattern of easy protein with a side of veggies and rice or pasta. On other days we have soup and sandwiches. On occasion a casserole or crock pot dish is in order, made in large batches so as to have plenty of leftovers. Take-out has become a once a week event, and since our little guy handles it fairly well, we go out to eat about once a week.
When I prepare veggies for our dinners, I have gotten in the habit of preparing the leftovers (unseasoned) for the baby. A friend shared her So Easy Baby Food cookbook with me, and I have used it as a guide for preparing frozen food cubes.
Today I prepared pears and apples. Two pears, peeled, cored, cubed and microwaved for five minutes makes one ice cube tray of baby food after it is pureed. There was even an extra serving for the little guy to try this morning for breakfast, and he loved it.
After the food cubes are frozen, I remove then from the ice cube trays and put them in freezer bags. Then it is so easy to prepare meals for home or daycare: just thaw in the microwave for 10-20 seconds, or allow to thaw overnight in the refrigerator. So far we have frozen raw mashed bananas, raw mashed avocado, cooked peas, cooked squash, cooked sweet potato, and all have worked out quite nicely. Right now I have the pears and apples in the freezer, along with some prune juice (to mix with baby cereal on occasion–we really don’t need a large open container of the stuff in our fridge). I am hoping that these items freeze as nicely as the others!
