Baby Bananas

Do you have a baby? Is that baby almost ready for real foods? Have you checked the prices of baby food lately? Yikes! Starting out and trialing foods may be cheaper to do with jarred foods, but since trace amounts of soy and milk are in some of them, I didn't want to risk a reaction for Miss Marie. After looking into making my own food for her, I figured it couldn't be THAT hard, and it is not!

Make sure that you have freezer space for some ice cube trays. If you don't have any trays, you can invest in a few of them. Depending on how much you're making at once, you may need less/more than others. The foods I have made so far have frozen nicely in them, and I pop them into Ziploc bags. Take out a cube or two for baby to defrost, and you have homemade food that will not have preservatives!



Here is one of the first of many baby food recipes! Just because I leave some texture in there, doesn't mean that you have to. Puree/mash to your baby's favorite consistency. I just think that the added little bits of texture makes it more fun for Marie to experience foods for the first time.


Bananas, so far, are one of Marie's favorite foods. I have tried them freshly ripened, and over ripened. She seems to have a preference for the over ripened bananas, so hey, that's cool. Sometimes you can get them a heck of a lot cheaper if they are over ripened. (Kroger is great for finding produce deals!)



Ingredients:
Fresh Bananas
Water / Formula / Breastmilk (optional) - for thinning purposes



Kitchenware:
Large Bowl
Potato Masher / Food Processor / Blender (depending on what you have, and the texture you want)
Ice Cube Trays

I used five bananas. If you're using over ripened, make sure that you cut out any dark spots.

Slice them into a bowl and mash away. If you're going to puree them, make sure that you gradually add in small amounts of water. Remember, you can always add water/formula/breastmilk later when you thaw it.

After said mashing/pureeing.

 Ready to scoop! I used a tablespoon to measure out and put equal amounts into my trays.

Each tablespoon cube is equal to about half of an ounce. The five average sized bananas made 24 cubes (plus two more in the bowl) Place them in the freezer, until frozen solid. Break out of trays, and store in a labeled Ziploc bag until ready to use. It usually takes our freezer about 4 hours until they are where I want them to be. It's faster to do them in our upright freezer though, since it does get colder.