This week finds us in Ypsilanti, Michigan, or "Ypsi" to the locals. Home of Eastern Michigan University and right next door to Ann Arbor and Detroit, there's plenty to do here! Its 23,000+ acres of public park and recreation make it cool and family-friendly. We meet up with Allrecipes' cook, Brenda, to make some wholesome, fresh homemade baby food.
With a little planning and a blender, you can make wholesome and nutritious foods for your baby at home. Homemade infant food may help cut food costs, help your baby get used to foods the family eats, and you get to know what's in it! And it's not as time consuming as you might think. As you will see with this recipe, it's easy to prepare batches of food quickly and easily. Today's recipe, Chicken, Sweet Potato, and Spinach, is a great third food, typically for babies between 9-12 months old with more texture and small chunks to encourage chewing.
Practically every parent has an entertaining story about when they began feeding baby food to their baby. Dads covered in peas. Mom's sweater decorated with mashed bananas. Little spoons, pink-lipped mouths, and the delighted giggles of a baby as food hangs from a chin waiting for gravity to overcome the remarkable elasticity of apple-blackberry puree. Easy to make, this dish is protein-rich and as you'll see in the webisode, enjoyed by all, including grown men with a beer and a bib!
If you are going to be moving from preparing meats to another food item, always wash your hands prior to handling the other food. Always wash your hands after handling meats, specifically after handling poultry products - including eggs.
Thaw meats in the refrigerator or the microwave and never on the counter. Never give an infant raw or semi-cooked meats, poultry, fish and eggs. Babies and even toddlers need their meats "Well-Done".
Use ice cube trays to freeze puréed foods. Once frozen, pop out the cubes, store in a sealed plastic bag, and use within two months.
Steam or microwave vegetables and fruits to retain as much vitamins and minerals as possible, as opposed to boiling.
Allrecipes' cook, Brenda, is a sociology graduate from Kent State, a mom to a toddler, and she and her boyfriend love to make their own beer. When she is not working part time at SONY she loves to garden, fish, and cook. She comes from a long line of family cooks; her grandfather was a cook and her brother is a pastry chef in Florida known for his desserts.
"Everyone in my family cooks! We always had a home cooked meal from mom and weekend breakfasts from dad. And the best was grandpa's Sunday dinners after church! I love learning about new foods and cultures. It's fun to try new recipes and share them with my friends and family."
Brenda grew up working in restaurants including all the way up to fine dining. She enjoys making her own baby food and loves to bake. Brenda’s profile name. "MISSBERNIE" is a nickname from her college days. A big music lover she worked at her college radio station. A band member thought she did not look like a Brenda but a "Bernie" and the moniker stuck!
"I always wondered why babies spend so much time sucking their thumbs. Then I tasted baby food." ~ Robert Orben
This week, simply put, it's baby food. I'm not referring to the goo that comes in jars. I'm also not referring to the type of food my wife requested, ok, demanded even before any of our children were born. Ask me sometime to tell you the story of her walking into a grocery store and 3 minutes later walking out with some seaweed salad and a large jar of applesauce. But I digress.
Ok, to begin with, this isn't a "man-cave", "side-of-beef-in-the-trunk" road trip. Where we were headed this week, we were going to be making baby food. Fresh vegetables steamed, chopped, mushed, spread into icecube trays, and served up later to hungry "coos" and "ahhs" (the baby, not me). But can you hook a brother up with some meat? Miss Bernie threw in some poached chicken so no longer worried that this webisode wouldn't provide all the nutritional requirements a full-grown, unshaven man like myself requires, we got down to making some wholesome, homemade baby food
I quickly learned that making your own baby food is so much simpler than I thought it would be and less expensive! Simply put, all we had to do was choose the food, steam or bake it if necessary, then puree with breastmilk or formula until it was a smooth consistency. Miss Bernie made a large batch and then froze into individual portions using ice cube trays. Ingenious! It takes just a few minutes to pop them out, toss them into labeled baggies, and into the freezer. Later, when ready, you simply take one out of the freezer, microwave it for a few seconds and it's ready to serve.
Thank you, Miss Bernie for a great week and the homemade beer was delicious. I'll send the bib back next week!
Visit Ypsi Now
History, heritage, and hip come together to create a vibe that is pure Ypsi!
Home | All Videos | Shows | About Us | Contact Us
