Homemade Baby Food ~ Sweet Potato Cauliflower Puree

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I have been wanting to get around to making Lindsey's food at home for awhile now, and FINALLY decided to stop procrastinating and just do it! This was my first attempt. She is 7.5 months old now and I decided to go with a little cauliflower blended in with some yummy sweet potato (which she loves).

Lindsey has been pretty easy with new foods - she sometimes makes a face the first few bites and every now and then has disliked something the entire first feeding, but every subsequent time I've tried something she didn't seem to like at first she's eaten it really well. This was no exception. I gave her a first bite and she made a horrible face! Then she decided it wasn't so bad and finished off the full serving. :) (I always taste test her food, and found this one to be very mild, I didn't really taste cauliflower at all, mostly just the sweet potato).

I've always known making baby food at home is easy, I just kept putting it off, but I am quite sure that I won't be buying any more jarred food anytime soon (unless it's for convenience of carrying around without needing refrigeration for travel, etc.) I still have about 15 jars of food in the pantry that we'd bought previously, but those are mostly fruits. I generally give her a fruit in the AM and a veggie in the PM (sometimes daycare feeds her twice during the day, but usually just once in the morning). On the weekend I'll try to feed her mid-day as well and that's usually a toss up as to what she'll get at that feeding, whatever I happen to grab usually!

I'm looking forward to making many more dishes for Lindsey to try - I think I'll probably make banana-cado (banana and avocado mushed and blended) and applesauce for her next. For her next homemade veggie dish, I'm thinking green beans or peas will be on the menu. I want to make sure to have at least 3-4 options at a time to rotate between so she doesn't get bored or burned out on the same things, but don't want to have to keep a TON of freezable little containers around either. I think aiming for 2 fruits and 2-3 veggies available at a time will work for now, plus mixed with fresh items she can eat without having to prep them (like fresh banana, avocado, etc.). I'm hoping to branch out into proteins soon as well - I keep seeing the idea for grating things like meat and apples for little pieces of baby safe finger foods so I might just try that. We'll see!

I was really happy with how easy this was and love that I finally got to use these great little Oxo containers too! :)

Homemade Sweet Potato Cauliflower Puree
Yield: about 8 ounces of prepared food

Ingredients
1/2 a large sweet potato, peeled and diced small
Appx. 1 cup of cauliflower florets, rinsed and broken into "smallish" pieces

Instructions

1. Place a steamer insert into a large pot, and fill with enough water to just reach the steamer basket. Turn heat to high and cover with lid. When water is boiling, add sweet potato chunks to the steamer insert and cover - allow sweet potato to cook about 3-4 minutes and then add cauliflower. Set a timer for 10 minutes.
2. Check for "doneness" - both should be easily mashed with a fork.
3. Move cooked pieces to a bowl and use a hand mixer (I used my Cuisinart stick mixer) or blender to blend; add cooking liquid to thin (I probably added somewhere between 1/4 - 1/2 cup of liquid to get the consistency I wanted).