Since pregnancy, I’ve been all aboard the baby-led weaning train. I felt certain that when Baby J turned six months old, he would open wide and at least humor his well-intentioned mama by trying my recipes. For those of you who aren’t familiar with baby-led weaning, or BLW for those of us in the know (wink wink), it is essentially a way of weaning your little one by skipping right over purees in favor of “real” food. Whatever you eat, the bambino eats. No steaming, no mashing, no mushing. The thought of bypassing a seemingly tedious process appealed to this mama greatly. These days, I’ll try just about anything to simplify my life.

Much to my dismay, Baby J wanted nothing to do with pesto pasta or quinoa cakes- Shocking, I know–  and on top of that, the pediatrician pooh-poohed BWL entirely when I mentioned the idea at Jack’s six month check-up (and I’d like to think of her as a fairly progressive doctor). Since then, I have come to terms with the fact that Jack and I will not be bonding over bowls of exotic cuisine anytime soon.

With a new found resolve, I loaded Baby J up into the car after his well-baby exam and hightailed it to the nearest HEB (grocery store for all of you non-Texas folk). I filled the cart with every pre-packaged puree and cereal I could get my hands on, as well as a fresh avocado and banana, too. And what do you know, my sweet little booger bear turned his dang nose up at every. single. spoonful.

Grr. 

So tonight I have decided that I will start at square one (again). Awhile back, my mom bought a book for me about baby food and feeding. Naturally, I shoved the book to the very back of the black hole I like to call a cookbook cabinet. What use would I have for a baby food book? My baby would be eating real food, thank you very much…

Until he didn’t. 

After managing to locate said cookbook, which was no easy feat in itself, I spent the better half of last night skimming and scanning the pages (when I wasn’t watching True Detective, of course. Holy crap that show is intense!). I soon realized that in the future, I should probably do my due diligence before diving headfirst into something I know absolutely nothing about- Especially when it relates to the health of darling Baby Jack.

Tonight, First Fruit Puree is on the menu for J. I’ll be having more frozen dinners, as I actually managed to stick to my “diet” plan last week (yay me!), and would like to keep it up awhile longer if at all possible. I can’t find the time to cook for myself, but I will make the time to whip up some mush for my little love muffin. Here is the recipe I plan to follow:

ingredients

2 medium sweet eating apples, peeled and cored

3 tbsp boiled water or pure apple juice

instructions

• Chop your fruit into small, even sized pieces. Put these pieces into a heavy-based saucepan with the water or apple juice. Cover the pan and cook over a low heat until the fruit is tender.
• Blend the fruit to a smooth puree using a hand blender. Add a little boiled water, apple juice, or water from the steamer to thin the puree.
• Spoon a little puree into your baby’s bowl and serve lukewarm. Pour the remainder into an ice-cube tray and freeze.

*Annabelle Karmel’s Feeding Your Baby and Toddler

Here’s hoping that Jack will in fact humor is well-intentioned mama the second (okay, third) time around. Stay tuned for pictures!