how to make baby butternut squash

We started Jude on solid food on his 5 month birthday, so I went ahead and prepared the squash a couple of days in advance. My friend Krista sent me this great resource for making your own baby food: Homemade Baby Food which is where I've gotten the bulk of my information. I'm actually finding that doing things like cloth diapering and making your own baby food seem to be trendy right now. I don't know if it's because the economy is down so frugality is more popular, if it's because of the organic push of the last few years, or if it's because going green is what all the cool kids are doing. I'm just grateful that there are so many great online resources. I don't know very many people here in Winston from whom to get advice about this stuff, so it's great that I can find so much great information online.



So in order to prove that making your own baby food is actually easy, I wanted to post step by step instructions as to how I did it. I started with butternut squash because I had squash soup that I wanted to make for Shawn and I, so I needed squash this week anyway. I would actually say that squash is probably one of the more difficult things to make. I made bananas a couple of days ago, and it took all of five minutes. I would imagine that any food that requires peeling involves extra work, but it was nonetheless crazy easy.



Step One: Ask Shawn what butternut squash looks like so you don't look like an idiot in the produce section.



Step Two: Find butternut squash in the produce section, and feel like a bit of an idiot carrying it around.



Step Three: Bring it home and let it sit on the counter for a few days. Wonder if maybe you're crazy for trying to do everything the hardest way possible.



Step Four: Cut the squash in half lengthwise after cutting off a strip of both ends to discard. Actually, start to cut the squash in half, then let Shawn take over because he doesn't trust your clumsy self with a knife.



Step Five: Lay the squash - "meat"side down - in a baking dish with an inch or two of water.



Step Six: Put the squash in a 400 degree oven for 4o minutes.



Step Seven: Scoop out the now softened "meat"

What the squash looked like completely skinned.

Step Eight: After taking out however much squash needed to make soup, put the squash in a blender and hit the "puree" button.

Step Nine: Add a bit of water (about 1/4 cup in this instance), hit puree again. Amuse Jude while he temporarily freaks out about the noise. Repeat step nine until the food is the consistency you'd like it - very smooth for new eaters, not as smooth for older eaters.

Step Ten: Spoon the squash into an ice cube tray designated as the new baby food holder. Nobody wants squash/banana flavored ice.

Step Eleven: Place cling wrap over the tray. As you'll see in later pictures, we had a bit of freezer burn, so I'm going to try foil next time.

Step Twelve: Place tray in freezer for several hours. Right under the pierogies, if possible.

Step Thirteen: Label a freezer bag, pop out the cubes, and place them into the freezer bag. Put the bag in the freezer.

Step Fourteen: To defrost, just take one cube out and put it in a bowl. Let the bowl sit in warm water for a few minutes.

Step Fifteen: Feed Jude the squash:

...and there you have it! At Jude's last appointment, he weighed 13 lbs 6 oz! He's still not a fatty pants, but he's growing at a great rate and seems to be doing really well. We're off to Tennessee this weekend as Shawn does his first wedding ever. Have a great weekend!