Today, I took Baby CP to the farmer's market at the Ferry Building because I wanted to pick up some organic vegetables to make him a vegetable baby broth based on a recipe I found. Baby CP drinks milk, some formula and some water during the day, but I think he still needs more fluids to regulate his system. The baby broth is supposed to be great because not only is it a non-sugary source of fluids, it is also packed with nutrients. Afterwards, you can also take the veggies that were used to make the broth and puree those for meals too. The broth can also be used to flavor other foods and to poach fish. I hope he likes it because I made about 6 cups.
Baby Vegetable Broth
Ingredients
2 quarts (8 cups) of cold water
6 oz carrots, cut into rounds or, if thin carrots, about 3/4" pieces
6 oz broccoli florets
6 oz cauliflower florets
1 cup of coarsely chopped rainbow chard
1 tomato
Directions
Put everything into a medium pot and bring to a boil. Turn down the heat to low and let simmer for an hour. Strain the vegetables out of the liquid and set them aside.
SUPER easy. Baby CP went down for a nap and 25 minutes later, my broth was already boiling. I think you can put any vegetables in it...I didn't have exactly what the recipe called for, so I improvised. I plan to freeze the broth into ice cubes and to puree the veggies and freeze those for his weekday meals.
Because we headed out to the farmer's market before 8:30 this morning, I didn't have any solids prepared for Baby CP when we got home. The foods I had prepared in weeks past were frozen solid in the freezer. Last week, I had purchased a couple pouches of Happy Baby Organic Stage 2 baby food for Baby CP because they come in convenient pouches which are perfect to carry in the diaper bag in case we need to feed him some solids while we're out. They have caps that screw on and off so it's pretty clean. They are called Stage 2 because they are combos - I bought pear, broccoli and peas and mango, pear and spinach. Yes...those combos totally sound weird, but other parents wrote reviews about how their babies just LOVE the stuff.
Anyway, I cracked open the pear, broccoli and peas today to see if Baby CP would like it. The consistency is super smooth...much smoother than any puree we can make in our food processor...and not too runny. Baby CP opened his mouth for the first spoonful and took almost a whole minute to contemplate the flavors, then he started to lean forward in his chair for MORE MORE MORE. So I tasted just a teeny bit and of course the stuff is very very sweet. No wonder babies love it. The package only list pears, broccoli, peas and lemon juice...not mention of additional sugar or fructose. It tastes like pears and smells a little like peas, but my adult taste buds would not be able to handle it.. After Baby CP finished the first tablespoon, he started clamoring for more, so I mixed more into some oatmeal so it wouldn't be quite so sweet. He liked that.
So, I'm not sure how I feel about the pouches...I do think I will invest in the prune ones to help Baby CP's digestive system along since he eats a lot of oatmeal and bananas which leaves him a little constipated, and I think pureeing prunes is probably a pain in the butt. However, unless I can find flavors or another brand that is less sweet, I feel kind of weird feeding this stuff to him.
Babies are funny though...they love sweets. Baby CP has very little interest in green beans and zucchini unless we at least mix it into oatmeal and even then, he would never want to eat them with the same excitement that he expressed for the pouch today.
