Compared to the last few weeks, this weekend was positively lazy and laid-back - not a bad thing, honestly! We had some friends over yesterday to celebrate National Bratwurst day - I have had Bratwurst in all three meals today thanks to my over-buying... (Biscuits and gravy with bratwurst meat is amazing, by the way!) But my only goal for today was that I wanted to make some baby food for Henry and store it up.
I made baby food for Thomas, but I never accumulated a stock pile, so it was interspersed with store bought tubs, then those amazing pouches when we were traveling. Those things are even better once the kiddo is old enough to hold it on their own! So when I saw that they made a contraption to do your own squeeze pouches I was intrigued. And when I found one on clearance at Target last winter, I bought it! Woo!
I tried to buy a mix of vegetables to roast for the baby food, but apparently I mostly bought orange and yellow vegetables. I guess I am a little biased against the green ones... Though I did have peas! And I refrained from adding any fruit to the vegetable pouches, though bananas did get their own pouches (technically, also yellow!).
This is the contraption! It works pretty darn well and Thomas was such a great helper. He mostly just grabbed the pouches and slid them into the rig, but that was exciting enough for him. The basics of the squeeze station are sliding the pouch into the rail, screwing on a cylinder to the top of the pouch, fill cylinder with puree, using the plunger to push it in the pouch and then capping it off. Obviously these aren't shelf stable like the commercial ones, but even having to store them in the freezer is better than nothing!
Just in case you were curious how he was able to reach the counter... He's been super obsessed with helping lately and will run to go get his step stool so he can be a part of the action. A warning for anyone who visits, he has a tendency to throw it down on toes - I warned Matt today and he got his foot out of the way just in time.
The peas were the second batch since the root vegetables were all still roasting. Thomas was pretty excited about the color and even though I told him they were peas, he insisted on referring to them as "green". Then he wanted one after I put them all in the freezer. He's not a fan of peas usually, so I told him he wouldn't like them. But after he kept yelling "green!" and trying to break in to the freezer, I relented. Turns out if he makes them, he likes them. Guess there is something to all those parenting websites after all:
Unfortunately, the fact that I bought this thing months ago meant that while I had intended to order more bags for it, I never remembered. Or more correctly, I *thought* I had. So once I filled up the 12 that came with it, I was awash in puree with nowhere to store it. Ordering new bags online was out of the question - by the time they came in, the purees would be past their prime.
I looked online at all the available retailers in Anchorage and saw that they were in stock at Babies-r-Us! Whew! Except, they weren't really here. I found the empty shelf where they should have been and an employee to reassure me that no, they were really not there. Grrrr...
Then I had the brilliant thought! Since they lied on their website, maybe Target was accidentally lying as well and they were in stock over there! Haha - no... I did wander around aimlessly until I found something to use instead and while it's not exciting as the pouches, it is still pretty perfect:
I may have gone a little overboard with the food...
But since we are on the subject of food being out of control, I should mention that the raspberries are once again going crazy up here. Luckily my dear friend Brittney has way more than she can eat and offered to let us come steal some. Woo!
Look at those beautiful berries!
Last year, Thomas wasn't too sure about the raspberries at first, but this year he didn't hesitate to start popping them in his mouth. We did prefer to help him pick them off though, there were already some that had started to turn and I didn't think he'd get over putting a moldy one in his mouth... I wouldn't!
He soon decided that it was just easier to grab raspberries out of our container instead of waiting to get one. Brittney was trying to get him to say raspberry (instead of calling them strawberries), so she was using them as rewards for the correct word. He got the game on the first go around, but kept defaulting back. Why work for your straw/raspberry if you can just grab it?
Henry was there as well, though not partaking of the raspberry fun. He was chilling on blanket enjoying the beautiful Alaskan afternoon. I'm trying to decide if I should puree a few for him or just eat them all myself. That makes me sound like a bad mom, huh?
But look at this kid! I am going to have to fight for my fair share as it is! We were in the house for 30 seconds before he was trying to rip the lid off the raspberry container. Then he said "all done" and 2 minutes later was at them again. When I finally told him to grab his last one, he stuffed a handful in his mouth.
*sigh*
I can't say he doesn't have good taste, but now I have to share my free raspberries. Such a rough life! :)