I have two kids. With my first, I worked part-time. And when I was home, I wanted to be with him – not cooking for him (which, of course, would involve cooking – of which I was thoroughly against). And I thought home-made baby food was for those all natural, cloth diaper using super-moms. So, we went Gerber all the way and he ended up fine – well, he’s only four, but he seems fine so far.
With baby number two, I was convinced by my super-mom friend to just try making baby food. Armed with her suggested website of choice, http://www.wholesomebabyfood.com/ , I thought, why the heck, not? It didn’t look too hard. Mostly just steaming and pureeing and freezing. I can do that. And I did. And really, it wasn’t so bad.
I have to admit, though, that the peeling and cutting (with a knife) is a pain in the rear. And it does take a bit longer than I thought – but that may just be because I am not so fast with the cutting (gotta keep an eye on all my digits, you know). But, overall, it saves money, and I know exactly what my baby is eating.
There have only been two foods that I will never make again. One because it just didn’t turn out great, the other because it was absolutely disgusting. Gag in my mouth disgusting. For the baby, too.
The first was prunes. The website suggests using dried prunes, soaking them, and then pureeing. Um, didn’t turn out so well. Chunky, peely – the texture just didn’t appeal to me or the baby. Just easier to buy the pre-made ones for those necessary times when the baby needs an clean-out.
The second, most awful food experience ever was chicken. Uhhghh. I just cringe thinking about it. It started out not so bad. No raw chicken handling, as I just slid the breasts into a pan and into the oven. Baking, easy. Then into the fridge to get cold. So far, so good. Then I got to cut them into cubes. Yes, a knife was involved, but I did fine. Then I moved the cubes (or my version of cubes) into the food processor.
This is where it starts to get fuzzy. My PTSD from the incident kicks in. I remember the sound of the processor chug-chug-chugging the chunks. And then, the smell. The awful, horrible, nasty smell I can’t even begin to describe. I held my breath and continued to pulse the food processor until it became the “powdery mix” I was looking for. (My personal opinion, meat should never be made into a “powdery mix.” It’s just not natural.) Then I added water, and the chicken started to turn into this whitish-pink mousse-y substance. And the smell got stronger. Honestly, I gagged. Several times. My husband came over to make fun of me. Then he gagged, too. (Ha!)
I poured the mixture into the ice cube trays, covered, and put it into the freezer. I really hoped the freezing process would *fix* it. It didn’t. The next day, I heated up a cube. The smell recommenced. I got a spoonful and even before I could get it to his mouth, the baby backed up and turned away. With all the work I put into it, though, I was determined for him to at least try a bite. So I kinda forced it. He immediately spit it out and began gagging. A lot. I think we were both done.
I threw it out. And today, 2 months later, I just threw out the whole rest of the cubes (all 15 of them). I haven’t been able to bring myself to give him another one. It’s just tortuous for both of us.
And besides, he really likes the Gerber chicken. And I am definitely okay with that.
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