Timberline Homestead A self sufficient homesteading life
Our plan for introducing solids to our little one was simply to mash up some of whatever everyone else was eating and offer it. We eat healthy, unprocessed foods and thought this approach would be ideal. We did encounter a few downsides with this method: sometimes we’re in a time crunch and whatever we quickly whip up isn’t appropriate for him or we’re away from home and don’t have something appropriate to offer. Little one has also been keeping us on our toes with randomly changing his preferences so what was planned for a meal sometimes doesn’t get eaten and we need a backup to offer. All of this led me to wanting a larger stash of homemade baby food prepared for these “in a pinch” situations.
One of the things I’ve been doing which has been helpful is baking one or 2 yams, mashing, cooling and storing in the freezer or fridge for easy meals. This has been incredibly easy but he recently stopped eating one of his staple veggie meals and I’m wanting more variety for him (especially of the non-sweet veggie type).
Today I decided to make a split pea and veggie mash. He has eaten some of my delicious split pea soup so I felt confident this meal would be a winner.
It is important to us that our family eat clean, organic food whenever possible. All of the ingredients in this recipe are organic except the celtic sea salt.
I’ve got some split peas, one potato, one celery stalk, and 2 small carrots going into the mix.
The peas were sorted and rinsed and the veggies were washed and cut.
I added 3/4 cup of the split peas along with the potatoes, celery and carrots and just enough water to cover them. I brought everything to a boil, covered and turned the heat to low for about 30 minutes.
It’s done when everything is tender.
At this point, I let it cool until its just warm before adding the last 2 ingredients. We add organic coconut oil and celtic sea salt to our son’s food for the vast health benefits. Most importantly, coconut oil is a great source of medium chain fatty acids which are essential for proper physical and psychological development. These medium chain fatty acids are abundant in breastmilk. Celtic sea salt provides vital trace minerals our bodies need to function properly.
Back to the food. If the veggies need a little help mashing, once they’re cool, I put them in the magic bullet blender or use a hand held immersion blender.
I split this pot of split peas and vegetables into 2 serving size portions to freeze. That way when I pull it out of the freezer and thaw it, I can use it for lunch/dinner for 2 days. I like to use our pyrex containers for short term soup storage. Don’t forget to allow to cool completely before freezing.
