The Real "Art" of Making Baby Food

It has been a great day. Started off by waking up to Snug climbing in bed this morning and realizing we hadn't been up at all last night. And yes, Baby J was in his crib in his bedroom where he sleeps 99.9% at night...just that one little did not time. We've had a fire going in the fireplace to warm up the main part of the house and it is just so cozy. I think our fireplace is one of the things I like the most about our house. I grew up with a fireplace in our basement and I've always wanted a house that had one. (I never thought to include a bathtub in my list of house 'must haves' but it now has defiantly made the list should we ever choose to move!)
Below is a picture I took while making breakfast. It got really quiet while I was putting Snug on the potty (again) so I went to go see. I did NOT stage this. When I walked into the living room, this is what I saw. I thought it was cute. I'm pretty sure R orchestrated the entire thing :o)

So anyway, my friend K and I decided to save money we'd try making our own baby food. After a ton of research, I discovered you cannot can vegetables for babies. Something about food poisoning... Anyway, K and I canned a few quarts of pear sauce together, and I canned a few quarts of applesauce and pear sauce here at home. So now I am venturing out into veggies. In order to make your own veggie baby food in advance you have to cook, puree, and freeze it. We don't have very much freezer space so I will probably be doing most of it straight from our table foods pre-salt or spice being added. However, I spotted a fresh butternut squash in Aldi today and couldn't resist trying it.

I've seen all these great pictures online of how to prepare the veggies and the pictures are always just so. Well, I'm no Martha Stewart, so here's how it REALLY looks.

I sliced the squash in half lengthwise and put it in about 1/4 in of water in the bottom of my pan.

I cooked it at 350 for about 30 minutes in the oven. Then I scooped out all the squishy part and put it in a bowl. The seeds and skin (rind?) will go out to the compost pile. Don't throw all your veggie scraps into the trash, make great gardening dirt! Our pile does not smell and is making great dirt!

Next I put the squash and the water is was cooked in (so I didn't lose all of the vitamins) into the blender and pureed it. Next it went into the ice cube trays. See, it doesn't look pretty at all like the internet showed. It looks sticky and glumpy. Now it is in the freezer until frozen solid. Then I will put it into a freezer container and as I need a serving I can defrost the cubes one at a time add a little ground flaxseed for Baby J! It wasn't hard at all, it just looks bad. My mom would be SO proud though, when I was done I licked the spatula-and I hate squash.

Oh, and if anyone knows of a buisness within the continental US that has a potty training camp that I can send Snug to for say a week or so, please, send me the phone number. :o)