Making Baby Food from Organic LMU Community Garden Squash

Nana came to visit us last weekend for Sarah's baptism.  She brought us some yellow summer squash that she grew at Lincoln Memorial University's Organic Community Garden (here is the link to the press release for the start of it:http://lmu1.lmunet.edu/cgi-bin/MySQLdb?VIEW=/news/view_one.txt&newsid=737).  For more information about Lincoln Memorial University's community garden, see this website: http://growappalachia.blogspot.com/search/label/LMU

I thought beautiful organic squash should be the start of Sarah's baby food.  With Sam, I made most of his baby food from produce from the farmer's market.  To make the baby food, I put about 1 in. of water in the bottom of our pot with the steamer basket (shown below). 

I brought the water in the bottom pot to a boil.  Then put 2 or 3 squash cut in 1 in. rounds in the steamer basket and covered the basket.  I steamed the squash for about 9 minutes until they were tender.  Then I used my immersion blender to puree the squash.  All of the water used for steaming was put back in the squash to get it thin enough for baby food.  

After pureeing, I put it in my Beaba multi-portion baby food freezer tray and an ice cube tray.  Ice cube trays work just as well as the fancy Beaba freezer tray.  After freezing, I transfer it to plastic freezer bags.  When it is time for her to eat it, I will drop a few cubes in a small skillet and heat it on low until it melts. 

Baby food can be made several other ways.  I also have a Beaba cooker but it is better used for individual meals.  A food processor or a blender could be used.  Generally, blenders aren't as consistent as a food processor or an immersion blender.