After Googling the word 'squash' for 15 minutes, (er, I mean...after careful consideration) I decided to go with the butternut squash for our next stage 1 vegetable. Fun fact, it is the hardest of all squashes to cut! There are several types of squash. On a cultural note, squash is called 'pumpkin' in Russian (тыква), from which I accurately deduced that squash and pumpkin are in the same family! I have a Master's Degree and don't know my vegetable families...sad. I bought this organic, but since it ripens underground and doesn't have much exposure to pesticides, it's one of those vegetables that can be bought in-organic (?). Let me rephrase that, it's one of those vegetables you do not need to buy organic.
1). Preheat the oven to 400°F and sharpen your knife. Trust me on this one.
2). Wash the squash and cut it in half. I tried two ways: (1) laying it on its side, piercing the middle, and just cutting the halves, (this resulted in 'hesitation marks', which you can see below) and (2) standing it up the counter and just slicing straight down...surprisingly, this worked well for me but I don't think anyone would recommend this technique.
3). Remove all the 'meat'. I just used a spoon, but I considered getting my pumpkin carving set out.
4). Lay the squash halves face down in a glass baking dish and submerge in 2 cups of water.
6). Flip the squash over and you should be able to effortlessly scoop out the squash leaving the skin.
7). Place the squash into a blender and purée. I normally add some breast milk but since the squash cooked in water, it was not necessary to add anything because it was already so moist (moist, ick).
8). You can either store in the refrigerator for the recommended 48 hours, or freeze in freezer friendly trays. I prefer the 2oz silicone ice cube trays. Here's my little baby food garden; carrots and squash. Oh yeah, and that's my dog waiting for me to drop it on the floor.
The one squash yielded 26oz of food. I made two, so I hope my baby isn't sensitive to it and likes it.
Thank you for reading, I hope you enjoyed this as much as my live audience, who are always hungry for more. ;)
I went with the fun oblong shape of butternut squash, which is quite delicious and nutritious.
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1). Preheat the oven to 400°F and sharpen your knife. Trust me on this one.
2). Wash the squash and cut it in half. I tried two ways: (1) laying it on its side, piercing the middle, and just cutting the halves, (this resulted in 'hesitation marks', which you can see below) and (2) standing it up the counter and just slicing straight down...surprisingly, this worked well for me but I don't think anyone would recommend this technique.
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| Result of the latter cutting technique |
3). Remove all the 'meat'. I just used a spoon, but I considered getting my pumpkin carving set out.
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| Result of the former cutting technique |
5). Bake uncovered at 400°F for about 40 minutes, or until the squash is nice squishy. The skin will look a bit wrinkly. I poked this one gently with my oven mitt and it sank straight down, so then I did it again to the other one because it was so much fun.
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| Squishy Squash |
7). Place the squash into a blender and purée. I normally add some breast milk but since the squash cooked in water, it was not necessary to add anything because it was already so moist (moist, ick).
8). You can either store in the refrigerator for the recommended 48 hours, or freeze in freezer friendly trays. I prefer the 2oz silicone ice cube trays. Here's my little baby food garden; carrots and squash. Oh yeah, and that's my dog waiting for me to drop it on the floor.
Thank you for reading, I hope you enjoyed this as much as my live audience, who are always hungry for more. ;)
