EAT TO THE 'BEETS' {mixing it up baby food style}

Jul 26, 2017
4 min read

Alrighty you southern mama's and papa's ; it's recipe time! Not only will I take you thru creating a super duper and healthy recipe for your little baby bear, but you can enjoy this one too... frozen (or refrigerated). Just hang in with me for a little bit, because I am going to introduce BEETS into yours and your baby's diet. Yes, I said YOURS, too!

I promise that beets are not as bad as they're sounding to you right now. No pickling, no frying (sounds quite weird for this veggie)... just steaming, pureeing, and freezing (or for that rush on a country minute, buy them canned/jarred WITHOUT any added salts, additives, etc.). To make it even easier on you, just know that the beet only takes a little to go a long ways... and you should have no desire to spit it out. Keep that to the tobaccan's.

Honestly, I try to give a good bit of organics to our munchkin,' but I don't stress it if he goes without a full diet of them. The convenience of a lot of these upcoming recipes too, is that you can mix up what you have in your cabinets (baby food jars), along with frozen leftovers, and dry goods (such as spices and extracts).... pay attention to what's appropriate at your baby's age level. I am no doctor or health expert; just a mom trying to keep my baby's tummy happy and as healthy as I know how to simply do! KEY WORD: SIMPLE.

If you have your sweet, little, sugar-cup watching you and waiting for you tohand over the goods, you might want to slip them a little snacky-roo and juice. On a side note, our 8 month old; Jeremy Waylan absolutely loves the 'Plum Organics, little yums' teething wafers (pumpkin & banana).

Jeremy Waylan teething/snacking on 'Plum Organics' teething wafers. Yummy to that baby tummy.

K... so let's move on and get to the grit. It's baby food making time!

SLIP ON THAT APRON LADIES & GENTS

Get those tunes doing and let's STEP TO THE 'BEET.'

First I am going to lay out the ingredients and supply list(s) for you below. You don't have to add in every little item I have here, and you can also tailor some of the foods around for a change in textures and thicknesses.

INGREDIENTS:

1 ripe banana, peeled (you can break into pieces later)
1/4 C (2oz) pureed beets (thawed or freshly pureed is fine
FresH beets: buy 1 bundle. wash. peel. chop into sm/med size cubes. steam in water until soft when pressed (like making mashed taters). strain remaining juices or use for a ***tye-dye diy***. puree in blender or food processor until no chunks remaining.
1-4oz Container of pureed apples (Gerber APple)
FOr fresh apples, no cooking required; just peel and puree to desired consistency. freeze leftovers in airtight container/ziploc).
1/2 C (4oz) Greek Yogurt. I used 'cabot creek creamery' vanilla bean (low-fat).
1/8 tsp. ground cinnamon
optional: 1/8 tsp. ground flax-seed. click here to read about the benefits.
optional: 1/8 tsp. ground chia. Click here to read about the benefits.
thickener optional: 1/2 c baby oatmeal cereal. I used 'beech-nut COmplete, Whole Grain | Baby Cereal.'
For adult consumption, skip adding the oatmeal. once the above ingredients are mixed well together, you can place in a separate (freezer safe) container and enjoy later for a frozen, sweet treat :-)

SUPPLIES:

Blender or food processor
measuring cup(s) - 1/4c & 1/2c
Measuring spoons - 1/8 tsp
rubber spatula
baby food jars, AIRTIGHT plastic containers, and/or reusable baby food pouches - - - i RECOMMEND 'BABY BREEZA' AND/OR 'healthy planet solutions;' both PURCHASED FROM AMAZON.

Directions:

[1] Add all ingredients, in no specific order, to your blender or food processor to look a lil' something like this... These images are prior to adding the oatmeal. parents, at this stage (w/o oatmeal), go ahead and freeze some for yourself.

[2] Next, add in ~ 1/2 C of the oatmeal and continue to blend. at this stage, it might get a bit thick and hard to mix w/ blender. go ahead and break back out the spatula to evenly mix. the consistency will then look a bit like this.

[3] Final step, and maybe the messiest, divide up as you'd like for your containers. for this specific recipe, I took ~1/2 C (4oz) servings and placed them in the 3 various containers that I had (the exception was that i had already placed my pre-oatmeal version in the container just prior to this last step).

..... and that's it folks. your final product is wrapped up and ready for refrigeration. since bananas are likely to brown fairly quickly after exposure to the open air, i'd suggest having baby consume w/I 3 days or less. Frozen products can last so much longer if you don't mind carefully thawing later (from freezer safe containers only... glass not recommended!!)