Baby Food: Sweet Potatoes and Brown Rice

Have you ever taste-tested grocery store baby food?  I did, years ago.  Bleah.  That, plus the price, was what inspired me to start making my own.

I tend to make industrial-sized batches and freeze them in jars.  A couple weeks ago, I purchased two 40-lb. boxes of organic sweet potatoes from my favorite farmer, and proceeded to make sweet potato casseroles and baby food.  I ought to have enough sweet potatoes made up for Junior to last until he’s ready to eat finger foods.

This isn’t a recipe, exactly – it’s more of a process.

First – scrub the potatoes.  They don’t have to be peeled before cooking; I’ve done it both ways.  I steam mine, but they could be baked, microwaved, boiled, roasted in a slow cooker… they just need to be soft enough that a table knife will slide right through them with very little resistance.

The peels come right off with your fingers if you’ve cooked them with the skins on.

I added baked brown rice…

… and some homemade chicken broth…

All of the above went in my blender.  (I have a Vitamix.)  The trick is to have enough liquid that the blender blades will keep moving, and enough potatoes and rice to end up with a puree that is manageable with a baby spoon.  It’s a trial-and-error kind of thing, but I’d guesstimate that I put in 3 medium sized potatoes, a cup of rice, and between a pint and a quart of broth per blender load.

Water works, too.  Chicken broth, particularly the homemade variety, has so much extra nutritional value that I use it instead.

After blending till very smooth, I load it into jars, leaving a good inch of headspace.  After putting on the lids, I label everything and put it in the deep freeze.

When Rosebud was small, sweet potatoes were her favorite food.  She ate so many of them that her skin started turning orange.  After ruling out jaundice, my pediatrician (naturopath) figured out what was causing the problem, and we had to cut back on sweet potatoes for awhile until her skin returned to its normal hue!

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