Making Lyla Food

We decided Lyla is ready to try solid food soon- a big milestone! I have mixed feelings about it; it's pretty exciting but makes me feel how fast she is growing up, more so than other things. There is no rush (our pediatrician recommended anytime between 4-6 months that we were comfortable with), but Lyla has given us the cues that I needed to see to move forward: she has interest in food and the act of eating, and she seems hungry more often despite lots of nursing.

Her main source of nutrition and calories will still be breastmilk until she's 1, but these mini meals will help her learn how to eat. I want to make all of her foods so in preparation, I ordered these covered ice cube trays from Amazon~

The first meals will be brown rice cereal (a tablespoon mixed with 4 tablespoons breastmilk and/or water), but I want to have some other foods ready to try in our freezer. I picked pears and butternut squash.

The process is very speedy and simple, and much less expensive than expensive jars of baby food. I steamed the squash in the microwave before turning my stick blender on to it. I thinned the puree a little with water (it will get more thinning before Lyla eats it) and poured it into the covered trays to freeze. The next day, I popped them out of the trays into labeled ziplock bags.

The following day I steamed the pears on the stove before peeling the skin off and pressing them through the food mill. I think this may be my preferred method of pureeing from now on.

The frozen pears are a little sticky, not hard and dry like the squash or ice cubes. Now these are stashed in the freezer, ready to be taken out one by one.

Now I just have to decide which to serve her first: fruit or vegetable?