#mealprep: Baby food edition, vol. 1

Baby food is a racket.

At my local grocery store, a 4-oz. jar of baby food sweet potato is $1. An actual sweet potato is $0.87.

When peeled, cubed, steamed and pureed with a little water, I can get at least 16 ounces of baby food sweet potato out of one actual sweet potato. Four times more food for $0.13 less than the cost of one jar of baby food.

This is my argument for buying a Baby Brezza — it steams and purees fruits and vegetables for baby food.

True, the actual device could have bought me 100 4-oz. jars of baby food — but my son could eat through that in a week.

He. eats. so. much. food.

Four to six ounces at a time, he eats! Plus, a side of oatmeal and some breast milk to wash it all down.

Three times a day.

Before baby — even during pregnancy — I did a good job of prepping meals for the week. Meal planning, coupon cutting, grocery shopping — that was my jam. I made smoothies and overnight oats for breakfasts and salads for lunches with a separate container for salad dressing and everything.

I even prepared 13 freezer meals for the crockpot in effort to prevent copious amount of takeout during my maternity leave. (And I’ll never do it again.)

So it should be no surprise that I am an excellent baby food prepper.

I’ve pureed carrots — like a lot of carrots. And sweet potatoes — like a lot of sweet potatoes. (Carrots and sweet potatoes make so. much. food. It’s ridiculous.) Plus, a yummy little mixture of avocado, banana and breast milk he lurves.

Take two small avocados and two small bananas and blend with or without breast milk to get 16 ounces of food.

A few carrots with a little water make just as much.

Don’t even get me started on how many cubes of food I can make with a couple of sweet potatoes.

Add an apple, a zucchini, some squash or crown of broccoli…

This kid eats better than I do.

The Baby Brezza makes the steaming and pureeing of the food much faster — and way less messy. Another argument for purchasing what amounts to being a $100 food processor I’m only going to need for just a few more months.

Soon, he’s going to have more teeth…

…so he can chew…

…so he can eat big people food…

…because he’s an actual human person, not some sort of alien that stays my baby forever and only eats mush.

Such crap.

 

 

Our favorite homemade baby food recipe

Avocado-Banana Oatmeal
about 1/3 cup

Ingredients

• 1 avocado-banana baby food cube thawed, see below
• 1/4 cup baby oatmeal
• 1-2 Tbs. water or breast milk

Directions

Thaw the frozen avocado-banana baby food cube in the microwave, about 30 seconds for one cube. Add 1/4 cup of baby oatmeal and 1-2 Tbs. of water or breast milk, depending on desired consistency. Stir and serve!

For the avocado-banana baby food cube: Mash two small avocados and two small bananas — or one large of each — and blend until smooth with a little breast milk or water. (I didn’t even need the Baby Brezza for this one.)