Homemade Butternut Squash Baby Food Recipe

Fall is here and so is the butternut squash season.  This is just as great news for adults as babies. Making baby food from scratch can be time consuming, I feel like I don’t put as much effort into my own food sometimes as I do my baby’s.  It’s a subjective decision what we feed our children, but we try to do our best.  For me, it is very important to know my child is eating well and I go to great lengths to try to nourish her and expose her to many different flavors.  As far as I go (so far), I’ve been trying to give her the most natural food I possible can.  By making my own food, I know exactly what went into it.  Sure it can’t sit forever, but I know that it was simply carrots or simply butternut squash, etc.  It’s been tough to juggle a full-time job and being a full time parent.  The food preparation takes a bit of forethought and everything seems to be centered around planning nowadays.  Sometimes there just isn’t enough time to make food for her and then a different set of food for ourselves.  Thankfully we have the butternut squash, allowing me to double dip making some butternut squash for Lily and butternut squash themed meal for ourselves (recipe to come).

For Lily, I’m including the steps I take below to prepare her a baby butternut squash meal.

Since I was making carrots also, I did a butternut squash and carrot mix for some of the portions I packed away.  The recipe can be solely with the butternut squash or mixed with other vegetables if you prefer.  Lily is still is bottle fed, so I puree the food to make it as smooth as possible and I add something to give a slightly liquid consistency.  I noticed also that she wasn’t too thrilled about eating it the first time around, so the second time I added just a little bit of honey to make it a touch sweeter and then she was one happy camper.  On a side note, how neat is this storage system?   It comes with little labels to stick on the container lids to stay organized by date and food description.

 

Butternut squash baby food recipe:

Preparation time: for me an it was an estimated 85 minutes

Ingredients:

• 1 Butternut squash (halved)
• 1.5 tablespoons of olive oil (butter can be used as a substitute) [Estimated quantity, you can put as much as you feel you want on your squash]
• Pinch of salt
• Boiled water or liquid add in (optional) [Add as much or as little of this to make the consistency to your preference]

Steps:

1. Wash butternut squash and cut it in half.  Scoop out the middle and clean seeds (keep for future use in adult meal recipe- optional).
2. Rub olive oil on the butternut squash and sprinkle lightly with salt.
3. Bake at 375 degrees for 65 mins.
4. For proportions I used half the butternut squash for us and almost the full other half for Lily.  Once baking, I let it bake for 45 mins. Then I checked on the tenderness by poking a fork into it and switched the position of the halves (to create a more even cook) and cooked it for another 20 mins.
5. Take out of oven, let cool for 10 mins or so.
6. Using a large spoon scoop the tender squash meat into a blender.  Note, I did not scoop the top layer with the salt for Lily but scooped from the inside.
7. To water it down a bit in the blender I use one of the following: water I had previously boiled that has cooled in a tea kettle, my breast milk or a bit of an oat glue mixture I boil*.
8. Serve fresh portions and store the rest in the refrigerator. I store her food in glass containers:  glass bottles, mason jars, glass tupperware.

*I added a touch of honey at this step to sweetened the food the second time around to make it more appealing to my little one.

Did you try out this recipe? I would love to hear how it turned out for you and your little one?