Now if you're thinking I'm nuts for making baby food, let me assure you, it's not because I think it's fun.  Baby food is EXPENSIVE!  Not to mention, I like the baby food that I can pronounce the ingredients.  As a result, I make Lucy's food.  I make a few batches every other week or so...and actually, it's not that bad.  I'm going to list 3 different things I made today.  It took some time, but I am doing things in between: laundry, feeding Lucy, changing Lucy, vacuuming, etc.  

Before I jump into the baby food, I have to tell you about my obsession!  The Cuisinart hand mixer is a MUST HAVE!  It's like having a boat motor in your hand and it obliterates anything in it's path.  I've had it for years and now that I'm on the baby bandwagon, it's a LIFE SAVER!  Click here to go to the Whatnot section for more details.  

One more thing I LOVE is teh Kiddo Feedo baby food storage.  Basically you scoop the food into the tray, freeze, then I pop them out into freezer bags and I have serving sized portions all ready for the busy week ahead.  Click here for the Whatnot section for more details.

Green Beans

• a couple pounds of green beans
• a knife
• a colander or strainer thingy
• a steaming pot (is that what they're called??)

First, trim the green beans and rinse them.  Then add them to your steaming pot.  Once they're the texture you want (you want a fork to easily go through them...about 30 minutes), put them in a plastic bowl and puree.  BAM!  That simple.

Sweet Potatoes

Preheat oven to 350 degrees

• about 3 pounds of sweet potatoes
• paring knife
• a scrub brush
• a cookie sheet, covered in foil (to help with clean up)

First, scrub the sweet potatoes.  They tend to have dirt on them.  Then take a paring knife and poke the sweet potato about 3-4 times (I go length wise) and I poke it between 12 to 15 times per potato.  The goal here isn't to penetrate much, you're just wanting to allow steam and juices to escape, so it doesn't explode.  Pop the sweet potatoes on the cookie sheet and bake at 350 for about an hour and a half.  Take them out and let them cool.  Peel the skin off with your hands and puree with our trustee hand mixer.

Butternut Squash

Preheat oven to 350 degrees

Now, if you're a fan of butternut, you'll appreciate this little trick.  I cut butternut squash one of two ways.  If you've got a really good sized squash, I find cutting it width wise helpful.  If I have a small to medium squash, I can handle cutting it length wise.  You'll need:

• two butternut squash
• a knife
• a spoon
• a cookie sheet covered in foil (are you noticing a trend here?)

First things first, cut this puppy.  Like I mentioned above, you can cut it anyway you want.  I did both here, so you can see.  Use your spoon to clean out the seeds (kind of like when you're carving a pumpkin).  Then place it on a your cookie sheet and bake at 350 degrees for about an hour and a half. Let cool to the touch.  Use your spoon again to scrape the flesh from the skin.  Use your hand mixer to pulverize until smooth.