Batch Cooking Baby Food

one happy baby, isn't he?

(Adam at 5 months)

As I said in my last entry, I batch-cook. I use this method since 2005 when my 2nd child, Iman was small. I don't have the luxury of time to spend everyday cooking babyfood. Instead, I spend say, 1/2 a day cooking in large quantity. After blending them up (at this point, still finely blended to suit Adam's age), I freeze them. Later on, I just take out a small quantity as per Adam's need and reheat. Yes,.. reheat and feed.

You can check Ms Annabel Karmel's website for more information on batch-cooking. She offers great ideas and recipes too.

This is from her site as well...

As a baby only eats tiny amounts especially in the early stages of weaning it saves time to make up larger quantities of puree and freeze extra portions in ice-cube trays or small plastic freezer pots for future meals. Thus in a couple of hours you can prepare enough food for your baby for a month using the weekly menu planners.
• Once food has cooled down, freeze as soon as possible.
• Freeze baby food in a flexible ice-cube tray with a lid, which you should label clearly with the contents and expiry date.
• Thaw foods by either taking them out of the freezer several hours before a meal, heating gently in a saucepan or defrosting in a microwave. Always reheat foods thoroughly, allow cooling and testing the temperature of the food before giving it to your baby. If reheating in a microwave, make sure that you stir the food to get rid of any hot spots.

-> Never refreeze meals that have already been frozen. The exception to this is that raw frozen food can be returned to the freezer once it is cooked. For example cooked frozen peas can be re-frozen.
-> Do not reheat foods more than once.
-> The temperature of your freezer should be 0F (-18C) or below.
-> Baby purees will keep for 8 weeks.

As seen in photos below, I use Avent's Via Cups for storing. These cups can easily be bought in deparmental stores. Check out onlines stores as well as sometimes they offer much cheaper price. These are 5oz cups but I fill in just 3oz. Adam doesn't eat that much (yet) I guess!

Always, always label the content and date for easy tracking. Frozen baby food keeps for 8 weeks but I don't keep that much stock in my freezer. I need to reserve some space for adults' food as well. Usually the stock lasts for 1 week. The most pun 2 weeks only.

6 hari punya stock. He eats twice a day.

cups tak cukup, botol pun jadi...

Adam's First Solid

Before I start ranting about babyfood, let me introduce you to this little guy, Adam. He was born on 11th May 2009 (on Mother's Day that is), at 3.20am. The fairest and heaviest among his siblings. He was 3.74kg at birth. Previous gynea has warned me about having baby with estimated birth-weight of more that 3.5kg but Allah has other plan for me. Despite his size, this is the shortest and easier labour among the three.

Adam, seconds after birth

To cut the story short, came October, Adam is 5-months old. He was interested seeing others eating long ago, he turned and toss in bed despite nursing every hour. I was excited to feed him solid (excitement that came along with the expectation to buy eating bowl, cute fork and spoon, the bibs and whatnots) But based on my readings and recommendation, I postponed solid until he is 5-months old.

His first solid is Plain Rice Puree
See, I got them lined up real nice for the photo-shoot.

In pom-pom mode somemore (staking on one another)

To ease things up, it is recommended to soak the rice overnight. It will take shorter time to cook. Once cool, blend into fine consistency.

Then try feeding your baby. If he/she rejects, then wait for another 2-3 days. Then introduce back. From what I read, if he/she thrusts his/her tongue out, he/she is simply not ready for solid so.. please keep your excitement at bay (but you can always shop for the cute feeding bowl, fork and spoon, bips and whatnots despite that).

Another thing is that, I always batch-cook. This is something I will blog later. I am a working mom and at the same time a traditional-and-conventional one. I am a strong believer of 'khasiat air tangan'. Especially we mothers'. To strike a balance, I batch cook. It may not appeal to some (I am not saying this is the best method as well, ain't I?) but this is how I do best in feeding my Adam with homemade food.

By the way, I don't have a maid.

As if that matters eh?

*eyes roll*