more peas pwease!

The first time I bought Charlotte baby food was an exciting experience. I looked at all the colorful glass jars on the shelf at the store picking and choosing all the things that might taste good to her. Carrots? Check. Bananas? Check. Sweet Potatoes? Check. Turkey Dinner? Blech, okay, not turkey dinner...there is something disturbing about pureed meat... but you get the idea. It was a novelty.

Looking at each individual jar only being seventy some odd cents didn't seem that bad. I usually can come up with more than that just by digging at the bottom of my purse for rogue coins that escaped my wallet. I guess I didn't stop and do the math to realize that she'd be eating three jars a day. And man, we'd have to feed her like, everyday. Not just when it was fun to watch her smear apples in her hair. That's a lot of rogue coins to find.

I planned on making some baby food before Charlotte was even born, if anything just for the nutritional benefits. I guess jars are heated to some ridiculously high temperature in the canning and preserving process and a lot of vitamins and minerals are lost. I also like to cook, and was hoping I could come up with some good concoctions that might be a little more adventurous than what you see at the store. (How come there is never any avocado baby food?)Lately I've also been motivated to get on the homemade baby food train to ease the hurt on my wallet.

Today I boiled some peas and gave them a spin through our food processor with a little of the cooking water. I spooned the pea puree into washed baby food jars and stuck all but one in the freezer. I gave the reserved jar to my little taste tester.



She was pleased. She was kind of fascinated with the texture too, since it wasn't completely smooth. She took it upon herself to grab the spoon and mash her hands all over the tray when she got bored of eating.

That's okay, I could never get mad at this face.



Charlotte deemed the peas a success, so I am going to try and make time to cook up baby food more often. I need to put aside a whole day to make several batches of different things so my kitchen doesn't look like this just for cooking up one measly bag of peas.



I think I only paid a couple dollars for my bag of peas, and I was able to make 11 servings. I have been paying $.77 per jar, so this will save me almost seven bucks. According to my math, my savings should be able to translate quite quickly to purchasing Charlotte the mini Ugg boots I've been eyeing. You know, the necessities.