I have been making my purees for my baby for the past 2 months. I subscribe to a CSA organic fruit and veggie membership where things get delivered each week. Therefore, I find myself with a ton of peaches. At first I froze a lot of them in purees - but they only last 6 weeks, and every week I get more. Any suggestions on what I can do with the frozen peach puree that is "old" at 6 weeks?
Second question: I have one of those babies who hates his veggies. I have tried broccoli with lemon and then mixed it with sweet potato (2 to 1, sweet potato) and he still won't eat it. He will only eat it if I add prunes. Well I can't give him prunes every day - I mean, there are healthy bowel movements, then there is over doing it. He also won't eat the chicken veggie soup puree I made either. Prunes and peaches make the world go around for this kid. Any advice on masking the protiens and green veggies? Recipes are appreciated. I tried chicken and papaya, and that was a no too. He is 8 months old.
My little guy loves green peas. Hang in there with the picky appetite, his tastes will probably change from month to month. Just keep trying new things!
For the peach pureee-add it to apple sauce for a yummy treat! Also, I am wondering if you could make muffins and/or bread with cut up peaches. Muffins and bread can be frozen too and will be something your little one can eat in the future. I would think that you and your husband would enjoy both of these suggestions too.
M.,
Try bottling your peach puree. You can either bottle the peaches, following normal canning instructions, rinse the peaches, and puree them for your baby's meal, or you can bottle the puree. Puree the peaches like you do to freeze them, but, instead, put the puree in a canning bottle (half-pints would be really good for this purpose) and process 30 min for half pints, 40 min for pints and 45 min for quarts. It will hold much longer this way.
If you want to extend the life on your frozen peach puree, consider steam blanching the peaches first for about 6 min before grinding them into puree. Enzymes continue to act on fruit and veggies even when frozen, causing them to lose food value and appearance in a short time. Steam blanching stops this problem in its tracks.
I didn't have the stuff for canning when I was first married and we moved into a house with two peach trees right at harvest time! I didn't know what to do with them!
I sliced them up and put them in Zip Loc freezer bags, in two-cup quantities, then laid them flat in the freezer. I'd do a bag or two a day. Then I used them to make peach cobbler, or in smoothies, etc. So yummy! We got tired of peach cobbler after a while, and I was still loaded with peaches. Two years later, we still had some! I had a baby by then and I pureed them for him. Seriously, they lasted forever and tasted awesome. I didn't have to put sugar or and preservative on them, either. You could use smaller zip loc bags so you don't have to use two cups at a time--that's just how much my cobbler recipe called for.
I hate broccoli with lemon juice, too. I like it with butter and salt. My boys liked it mixed with mashed potatoes or diluted (taste-wise) with baby cereal. You can always start with just a little bit of the veggies mixed in, so he'll get just a little, and get used to the taste. Go slow.
My first son liked meats just fine, as long as I made them (he never did like store-bought baby food), but my second son still won't eat meat! He's 3 now, and HUGE (off the charts for height, 85th for weight) and STRONG and very healthy and smart. He likes rice and refried beans and peanut butter for protein. He's also very opposed to anything green, so we have to be creative with vegetables.
I never understood trying to sneak meat in with fruit. My MIL used to try to sneak chicken in with my sons' breakfast. I guess I don't think meat is all that important. In fact, my pediatrician says that most infants and toddlers are essentially vegetarian, purely by their own choice. And who wants chicken in their applesauce? Eeew! Or chicken and peaches? If you wouldn't want to eat it, why would they?
By 8 months, my boys were also eating lots of table foods. Grilled cheese sandwiches, sliced bananas and other soft fruit, crackers, cheese sticks, etc. And I'm not neccessarily up-to-date on all my infant food guidelines, but wasn't there a study out that said that restricting peanuts and other possibly allergenic foods actually INCREASES the likelyhood of a child developing an allergy? Check with your doctor, but I bet you could use creamy peanut butter as a source of protein.
My niece also loves lentils for protein.
good luck!
Wow! You get a lot of Peaches! How do you start that membership you mentioned?
Needless to say, I don't know what you want to do with the peaches except maybe start juicing, making smoothies and making Peach cobbler for your friends, family and neighbors. Seems odd that they are only good for 6 weeks in the freezer. Needless to say, if you are having a hard time getting your child to eat protein just mix it in things you wouldn't expect, like cake, muffins, pancakes, etc. Believe or not, baking is a great way to mask a lot of things your kids don't like. There are some people that say you are not teaching your kids to eat right normally. I think they are crazy! Your little boy is learning from you the importance of eating good just based on the time you spend preparing the way you do.
The nice thing is, all three of my kids have gone through periods where they will eat one thing and not the other, then they switch gears and decide they like something they didn't like before. The biggest thing I noticed is if you just keep doing what your doing, don't freak over what they like and don't, just serve it up. Most times they just fall into a groove and start eating things you wouldn't have expected them to eat.
Good luck!
P.S. Try wilted spinach instead of broccoli, my daughter won't touch broccoli with a 10 ft pole but loves spinach.
Your baby is young enough that his tastes are still developing. Also, his nutrition is still mainly coming from his breastmilk or formula, so he doesn't absolutely NEED to eat the veggies. So, rather than trying to hide the veggies in other foods, I would suggest continuing to offer them to him in their pure form. Sometimes it takes like 10-20 times before a baby will decide that he likes something. But it will be worth the effort now, so that you don't end up having to hide his veggies throughout his whole childhood!
I Don't have any suggestions about the purees, but you might try non-meat proteins with him for a while. My middle child would not try anything new after exposure to her 1st six foods. She would only eat those 6 things for a long time! There was no meat on that list, but there was plain yogurt! She would eat plain, full-fat Mountain High yogurt with whatever fruit stirred in. And when her tastes started to expand, meat was still not on it for her for a long time! She was basically a vegetarian for a couple of years. Her only proteins were yogurt, cottage cheese, other kinds of cheese and eggs. When I knew she was ok with peanuts she ate peanut butter as well. And when they're babies, most of their protein needs are met with breastmilk or formula. All you can do is keep experimenting, and as long as things are fairly balanced he should be ok. After all, there is no way to force him to eat what he refuses to eat. And trying to push too hard can set up potential power struggles there later. Hopefully you can find some good, green veggies of some sort that he does like. Mixing veggies with apple sometimes works, too. I know when I juice veggies, I always add an apple and it makes any juice more palatable. Good luck!
Can you adjust how much they deliver so that it's just what you will use for the week? That way you're not wasting food or money.
As far as veggies, try some of the sweeter veggies. Carrots, peas, and squash were usually well-received by my kids. Also, make sure you set a good example by eating lots of veggies. He's probably too young to understand now, but as he grows up he'll get a lot of his food attitudes from watching you.
Maybe this isn't too healthy but growing up, our families favorite smoothies were just peach puree, ice and some powdered tang for a bit of zing. Kindof peachy yet orange We loved it and I still crave it.
Hi M.,
I have noticed that my little guy doesn't love some of his veggies or his meat/veggie mixes as much as he should. To solve this problem, I mixed about 2 tsp pureed pears, peaches, or apples to the "disliked" ones. (Or, you could use juice) Then, each time I fed him them, I would decrease the amount of sweet stuff I put in. By the end of the week, there would only be 1/2 tsp or so in the mix and he would gobble it up just the same as the sweeter stuff. Good luck.
As far as the length of time in the freezer goes, why are they considered "old" at 6 weeks? We eat stuff out of our freezer that has been in there 6 months. I thought that you could even keep breastmilk for 6 months in the deep freeze, what would the difference be for peaches? Sorry for my ignorance. Hopefully someone else will be able to give you some suggestions!
Shellie
concerning protein- I always found tofu to be a great baby food because it has virtually no taste of its own you can mash it up with other foods he does like (even fruit) and get some protein in your babe.
As far as having favorites and being a bit picky- that all sounds absolutely, totally normal (unfortunetly). Every night I offer my two year old a well-balanced meal, and I'm happy if he eats some of at least one thing. I don't think he's eaten anything green for a year, but I still offer it- all the time.
good luck.
