Super Trendy Mom

Yeah, I had another one of those moments today. We'd bought Ethan some strawberries when doing the grocery shopping last weekend - you know, because he ought to have more finger foods now that he snarffles up his Cheerios like a starving child in Uganda. (For the record: I'm not a horrible person, but you know that at some point in your life you were told to eat your food because there were children in some part of the world who were starving. Don't lie: you know it's true.)

Anyway, a week on, E had eaten maybe 3 whole strawberries; all very grudgingly. I don't know what happened! This kid used to go nuts for a strawberry. Anyway, rather than vainly hope that we'd have a miracle turn around like in a cheesy sports movie (and in reality end up with furry, mold-ridden strawberries), I decided to transform the strawberries into a format more likely to go down well with its intended recipient: baby mush.

I present: strawberry lemonade baby food!

Ingredients:

• a crap ton of strawberries. (Seriously, I don't know how many I used...maybe 2/3 cup, maybe a bit more. Use your judgement, people.)
• the zest and juice of 1 small lemon
• 2 apples
• about 30-40 ml apple juice

Directions:

• remove the tops of your strawberries and cut in half
• zest and juice your lemon
• skin and core 2 apples, cutting them up into bite-sized chunks
• pour in the apple juice
• let your blender work its mighty magic

The yield, as my picture suggests, is 3 small jars of baby food. The apples and juice help to sweeten up the otherwise tart strawberries and lemon without having to add sugar or anything. And since it's got the lemon juice in it, the stuff should oxidize much more slowly. (aka: it stays not-brown for longer.)

Considering it's been ages since I made my own baby food, this was a nice diversion; and I can still make sure E is getting enough fruits. Er, fruits that aren't the raisins that remain disturbingly in-tact when they come out the other end...