Who knew I'd need good biceps for cooking?

I've been avoiding it for the past few months... using the handy ostrich technique that if I didn't pay attention to it, it might not actually happen.  Solid foods.  Sigh.  Have you ever looked at the price of organic baby food?  Gah!  75 cents a jar!  Rather harsh on ye ol' frugal pocketbook.  I knew that the responsible thing was to make my own, but it didn't work out too well the last time I tried it when Josh was a baby.  Steaming veggies when you don't have the right equipment is not fun.  It was way more hassle than it was worth, in my opinion.

I'm not sure my opinion has been changed.

Yes it was cheaper, but was it worth a total of seven hours?  For two stinkin' ice cube trays of baby food?  Granted, six of those hours were for two batches of peas and sweet potatoes in the crock pot, but that last hour was a killer.

It might have been easier if Ben was older, weaning towards a more normal diet and used to textures.  Since he isn't, I have to make all his food very smooth with no chunks or else he'll gag himself.  Do you have any idea how much work it is to push a whole crock pot of peas through a sieve to remove the outer shells?  My arm ached!  I had to call in macho backup (husband) to finish the rest of it because my arm was quivering.  At least the sweet potatoes had a smoother consistency to start with and therefore easier to strain.

Looking back on it, I saved about $7.  Less than minimum wage, but it was $7 that I can spend elsewhere.  For future reference, I'm not going to cook anything with outer shells on it, like peas or green beans, until Ben is older and I can just run it through the blender.  I will make sweet potatoes again, as well as squash.  I already buy natural applesauce in bulk and feed it to him.

Lots of work, but there's a certain bit of pride when I pull out those little cubes of homemade food.  Ben just better like peas if he knows whats good for him.