Babycook water levels

One thing that intimadated me right away was the water levels. 1...2...3...what happens if you get it wrong?

I took some of the mystery out of it by using my measuring cup and measuring the levels.
1 = 2.5oz
2 = 4oz
3 = 6oz

Generally...
Rice and Pasta use level 3
Veggies use level 3
Fruits use level 2
Haven't found a use for level 1. If anyone knows...please share.

I don't think she likes rice

I don't think she likes rice cereal. She's spent the past two days pushing it around and wiping it on her face. A spoonful or two is all about the amount that she actually eats.

Tonight at dinner as I pondered whether to continue with the rice, I wondered if it was that she didn't like it or was she having trouble with eating all together. I decided to give her something else to test it out. I looked around my kitchen and saw my Trader Joe's haul but cooking it would take too much time. I spotted the bananas and thought "Why not." My original thought was to do veggies first to stay away from sweet fruit, but I needed to know if she could eat.

I broke off a small piece of the banana and mashed it with a fork

She likes it!

I guess that answers my question. She ate about 1/3 of a small banana. We'll have more tomorrow.

I am not giving up on the rice. I said this will be trial and error. Tomorrow I'll make a new batch and I'll try making it thicker.

Trader Joe's Haul

We did our monthly shopping at Trader Joe's today to restock our pantry. Included on the list was butternut squash, peas and sweet potatoes to make for Maggie. I think a few more days of rice cereal and then Wednesday I'll make the peas. I am so excited!

First attempt at rice cereal

Here we go. Maggie turns 6 months tomorrow. She has been exclusively breast fed and on the recommendation of my lactation consultant, we have waited until this milestone to start solid foods. We are starting today instead of tomorrow because we are are meeting my mother for breakfast and we want her to see Maggie eating.

We chose rice cereal as her first food because we have organic brown rice in our pantry. Plus my thought is that because I will mix it with breast milk it will be somewhat familiar tasting.

I bought the Beaba Rice Cooker from Amazon.com (love this site!!) and couldn't wait to try it out. It was $14.95 and I know that it will be used for years.

The cooking guide included in the rice cooker states the following:

For Bismarti Rice:

measure of water (this goes into the steam compartment) - 3

Recommended cooking time - 20 minutes

Volume of water into the pasta/rice cooker - 5.07 oz

Volume of food into the pasta/rice cooker - 3.53oz

Time to start cooking:

I followed the instructions above. Even though I was using brown rice, I had nothing else to go by so I followed it exactly. What I found was that even after 20 minutes the rice was not cooked. It needed 45 minutes in the cooker for it to be done.

Babycook steaming the rice:

Cooked Rice in the cooker (cook time = 45 minutes):

Once cooked, I emptied the rice into the main compartment (blender) and pureed with 3 oz water.

I removed the pureed rice (above picture was taken while I was in the middle of taking it out) and put it into a bowl. I then put back 3 tablespoons of the rice back into the blender and added 3 tablespoons breastmilk. 3 tablespoons was trial and error. I found that using less did not blend well. Probably because it was not enough food and liquid for the blades to move it around and get to it all. Because this is Maggie's first taste of solid food, I blended until I got a watery consistency. I found the 1:1 ratio a good start.

I put it into a bowl and it was ready to serve:

Clean Up-
Everything went into the dishwasher (top shelf - a great benefit of the Babycook). I put the leftover rice in an airtight container as well as the leftover cereal. I don't know how long both will last. I guess we'll see.

Here is her reaction (we submitted this to ABC Good Morning America's "Your Three Words" segment).

She got tired of trying it pretty quickly and didn't eat much. I really didn't expect her to. I wasn't in any rush, she'll get it eventually.

We tried again at dinner. This time she enjoyed it a lot more.

I heated up the cereal in a glass bowl placed in a bowl of warm water:

And she likes it:

We'll try it again tomorrow. :-)

An Introduction

I'm Stef. I am a wife and a SAHM to two beautiful daughters. Annemarie is almost 3 and Maggie will be 6 months tomorrow.

I decided to make my daughter's baby food for a few reasons. The first is that I know that I can make it as healthy if not more healthy than I can find in the stores. The second is financial - making her food will be less expensive than buying it (especially since the Beaba was a gift). And the third is that she will introduced to a larger variety of foods than if I gave her the commercial food. Foods that we eat and that are cooked and seasoned the way we eat - hopefully expanding her palette from the beginning. I also don't want her to be used to pureed foods. I want her exposed to texture from day one.

I didn't do this with my older daughter, Annemarie (almost 3 years old) and I regret it. She is now eats only pizza, spaghetti, chicken nuggets, PB&J, yogurt, waffles, pancakes, eggs and cereal. Getting her to try new foods is always a fight.

My mother bought me the Beaba Babycook when I started Annemarie on solids. I used it sporadically but relied mostly on organic commercial foods such as Earth's Best and Happy Baby baby foods. They were great, but expensive and rarely on sale.

This time around I am vowing to do it differently.

As I started to research recipes, I found so much (visit www.wholesomebabyfood.com for great recipes and information on making your own baby food) but nothing geared specifically for the Babycook. I am the type of person that likes to be given all of the information at once - tell me what water level to use, how much to put in and how long to blend it. I couldn't find anything.

This is my journey. It will be trial and error (probably more error at first. lol). I will post recipes, pictures and videos of my progress. Hopefully it will be entertaining, fun, inspiring and successful.

Please feel free to comment, critique (constructive only please) and advise. We are in this together.

Thanks for reading and God Bless.