Bananas unite!

Bananas split!

Go bananas
Go go bananas
Go bananas
Go go bananas

Bananas to the left

Bananas to the right

Peel your banana and mmmm, take a bite!

I tried a new recipe a couple weeks ago and I’ve been meaning to blog about it.  It was roasted pear and banana puree.  Did you know that bananas are full of potassium, magnesium, vitamin B, starch and soft fibers?  Baby’s intestines can handle them at 5-6 months.  Make sure you choose ripe ones.  They will have brown spots on the skin.  As for pears, they contain soft fibers and several types of sugar, such as sorbitol which stimulates digestion.  They are good for babies starting at 5-6 months also.

Ashley has had bananas and pears separately, but not together until now.  She loved the combination!  I liked it too, actually, and considered putting it on some ice cream for myself   So here’s what you do…

Take 2 bananas and cut into 1 inch pieces.  Take 2 pears, peel and cut into wedges.  Roast them at 400 degrees for 25 minutes and then puree.  The roasting caramelizes them and really intensifies the flavors.  They smell sooooooo good while they are cooking!  Oh, and the recipe says to put the bananas and pears on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper.  Well, being the novice cook that I am, I thought wax paper was the same thing.  So since that was all I had, I put them on wax paper.  Little did I know the wax paper would melt creating a big mess getting them off the baking sheet!  I’m sure you expert cooks got a good chuckle out of that.  Oh well, we live and learn, right?  At least the puree was a hit!  A little time consuming, but it tasted really good, and it was different than the norm. 

Lots of Moms have asked me where I come up with my recipes.  I wish I could take credit, but no, I’m not that good.  A Fellow Mom’er told me about this website, weelicious.com, where she goes to get recipe ideas for her toddler.  Weelicious was created by a Mom who enjoys making fresh baby food, toddler food, and food for the whole family!  So I’ve been going there to get ideas for Ashley.  That’s where I got this recipe, as well as the Tropical Fruit Puree recipe.  She separates the baby food recipes by age, which is helpful.  So you can look at recipes appropriate for 6-9 month olds, and ones for 10-12 month olds.  You really should check it out.  It’s a great resource!

I also use two cookbooks:  Top 100 Baby Purees by Annabel Karmel and Babycook Book by David Rathgeber.  They have good and innovative recipes, too.  Although honestly, I probably won’t even try 50% of the recipes in the Babycook Book.  Some of them are a little fancy for my taste, such as my first couscous, sea bass with fennel, and quail’s egg a la basquaise.  I don’t even eat that stuff myself, much less would I make it for my baby!  It’s geared for people that use the Beaba Babycook, so that’s why I like it.  It tells you exactly how to cook the food using the Babycook, how much water to use (if any) and how many pulses to puree it.  So I have tried the more simpler recipes in it, but Top 100 Baby Purees is more useful for the average “Joe” like me.  

Happy cooking!