Making Baby Food: Green Beans

This week Ava is going to try Green Beans!  Yummy!  So of course I had to make them myself!


How to Make Your Own Green Bean Baby Food:


1.  Buy Green Beans.  I got Organic Green Beans from Kroger.

2.  Trim the ends of the beans.  I used kitchen shears, so I could do it a little faster.  Also, I trimmed them on the floor while Ava was playing, which was fine until she decided she wanted to help!

3.  Rinse the beans.  A good rinse.  Even though these beans are organic, which means no pesticides :), you never knew who's dirty hands actually picked the stuff out in the field!

4.  Put the beans in a steamer and steam until soft.  Since I did almost 2 pounds of beans, I set the steamer for 25 minutes.

5.   Put half of the beans in a food processor.  Puree for several minutes.  Pour into bowl.   Puree the other half. (If I had used one pound of beans, I would not have had to divide it.)

6.  Put all the pureed beans back into the food processor and add the leftover liquid from steaming the beans.  Puree for a minute or two.  Use this liquid instead of clean filtered water because the liquid from steaming the beans is full of nutrients.

Liquid from Steamer

7.  Next place a sieve over a bowl.  Using a rubber spatula, scoop portions of pureed beans into the sieve.  Use the rubber spatula to press the beans through the sieve.  Repeat until all the puree has gone through the sieve.  Some of the puree will not go through the sieve, just discard it.

Discarded Puree

8.  Using a clean spatula, scrape the bottom of the sieve to remove the puree.  Use a clean spatula! You do not want to cross contaminate the puree that has been pressed through the sieve with the puree that has not gone through the sieve.  (I hope that makes sense!)

9.  Give the puree one good stir and scoop into ice cube trays using a cookie scoop.

10.  Wrap the trays in Saran wrap and freeze over night.  I leave them over night, so I know they are nice and frozen.

11.  Pop the cubes out and into a labeled and dated plastic baggie.  Getting the cubes out can be kind of a chore, but if you run some warm water over the bottom of the tray, the cubes will pop out easily.  My brother, of all people, gave me this tip.

Simple!  Easy!  Nutritious!

I am not going to lie.  Making the green beans was a lot more complicated than pears and sweet potatoes.  It was kinda a pain, but worth it in the end!

Ava, on the other hand, did not like her green beans!  After I would put a spoonful in her mouth, she would scrunch up her face and shudder just to get them to go down.  Hopefully after a few days, she will love them!