baby food

It was a busy day. I ran out to get groceries while Jonah was home with Oliver. I tried hard to stick to our budget, as it's getting towards the end of the month, I always struggle to stay in our budget with groceries. Truly this is the biggest challenge in home-making (is that the right word?).
But I did okay...still have to return a couple things for a couple reasons. One I forgot to use a coupon I had for one item, and two, I went over budget and will be returning something I can get next month. Yes- it's that important to stay on our budget that we planned for.
I was able to pick up lots of produce for Oliver.
I have been making most of his food for him, with the exception of a couple jars of babyfood. I do have babyfood jars stocked in my pantry though. I actually bought these while I was pregnant. What a nerd right? I had coupons and there was a sale, and it was worth it. I bought several Earths Best organic. I also bought some Beechnut....which I will be donating to someone that would like them. Any takers?
I don't say this to sound like an organic snob. I am not all organic....actually more like a couple things organic if they are on sale, and if they fit our budget.
Well, this is kind of off track for my original post, but I opened a jar of mango's for Oliver. Added some oat cereal to it and gave him his usual two meal today using that. Later I picked it up and read what the ingredient list was and it had several ingredients, one being white grapejuice. I know it's all made for babies, but I didn't like the fact that I didn't even realize there were other things added in (rice flour as well) and I was completely unaware, until I read it. I assumed 'mangos' meant just that, period.
It would be nice to give Oliver all organic, but budgetwise, I'm not sure we'll ever be able to do that. What I can do is make food for him. He hasn't progressed to a very elaborate diet yet, just simple one item foods (with the exception of avocado + banana) with cereal mixed in twice a day. So making food was not rocket science.
Well maybe a little. I did struggle with picking the perfect individual items. I wanted them to be nutritional and offer as much as possible, even if they weren't organic. I read somewhere that babies stomachs are small, and should be filled with as much nutrients as possible. This is so true! What they eat, even if it's tiny little portions, should be brimming with what they need.
So my research led me to some online sites for baby foods. I found a site I like and will be going back to when Oliver is a little older: www.wholesomebabyfoods.com
I also checked a book out of the library (twice actually, the first time it ran overdue and I owe money... I am terrible at remembering the due date and shouldn't be allowed to check out books with my record, I'm sorry to say. I will change this!) called Super Baby Food by Ruth Yaron.
I have liked a lot about it, and some of it I just ignore all together. It's kind of a take what you want out of it book. But I like that she breaks down the age, and what's appropriate for that age. This helps me in knowing if it's too soon to introduce beans or meats etc.
I like her porridge recipes too, but was skeptical about making one out of brown rice. Is this okay for Oliver to eat? Is it healthy, and not just a filling starch that his stomach will work extra hard to digest? I read that starches are hard for babies to digest due to them not having adequate enzymyes to break them down. (Que the screaming gassy baby after trying baby cereals for the first time) Now this may only be true for younger ones. I started Oliver at 5.5 months, and his first food was actually roasted butternut squash. But later I gave him cereal,  and now I mix it in with foods to get the iron from it.
Back to the rice. I received a book for Christmas (yes I really wanted this!) called 150 Healthiest Foods on Earth. I'm loving it. It tells me the nutritional value for all 150 foods. So I flipped to brown rice and learned about the health benefits of it. White rice is actually stripped brown rice. It doesn't have the bran that brown rice does. Plus brown rice is a great source of fiber, and a great preventer of several cancers. I loved being able to learn more about this grain, and now I feel better about giving this to Oliver. So I'll be making that for him to eat in his morning meal. Eventually I'd like to move him into her 'super porridge' she writes about that has legumes in it, but he will have to be around 9 months for that.
So I picked up my produce spent a couple hours in the kitchen and now my freezer and fridge are cooling peas, spinach, cantaloupe, acorn squash, sweet potatoes, nectarines, pears and I previously made broccoli, carrots and butternut squash. No it wasn't hard to make these. No they aren't all organic. Some are, and I'm grateful for that. But they are fresh, and simple foods. One ingredient foods in which I know what's in them, and I know what will go in him.
Exciting? Yes indeed, it is to me!