This week’s baby food adventures: green beans and yams!! Or were they sweet potatoes? It all depends on who you ask. A botanist would say I fed her sweet potatoes; the produce manager at the grocery store would say I fed her yams. Regardless of what you call them, April loved them! And I will henceforth refer to them as yams. (If you’re really interested in the confusion over nomenclature, see the Wikipedia articles on yams and sweet potatoes.)
When choosing yams in the produce department, I pick fatter ones rather than more slender ones. They have a higher flesh to skin ratio which means less work for more edible flesh.
Yams
Yams
Preheat oven to 400°. Line a rimmed baking sheet with foil. Pierce yams with fork and place on baking sheet.
Bake 45 to 60 minutes or until easily pierced with fork.
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| Don't skip the foil!! The sugary ooze from the yams is hard to clean off the baking sheet if it cools. |
Remove from oven and let cool slightly. Peel skin off flesh.
Place flesh in bowl and mash with fork or potato masher.
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The stringiness of mashed yams is not Boon -friendly. |
For a smoother consistency, purée in a food processor.
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| Pureed yams are Boon-friendly. |
When feeding your baby orange foods such as yams, always be sure to include a variety of non-orange foods in his/her diet. Too many orange foods can cause your baby’s skin to turn orange. This completely harmless and temporary condition is called carotenemia and is caused by a build-up of beta-carotene. If your baby’s skin does start to turn orange, simply withhold orange foods until normal skin color returns.
Not wanting April to turn into an oompa loompa, I also made green beans this week. Because green beans aren’t very sweet, they are more likely to be rejected than other veggies. April liked them after a few bites, but if your baby does not like them, you can mix them in with veggies she does like.Green Beans
Frozen green beans
Cook green beans until very tender. Transfer to food processor, reserving cooking liquid. Process until fine enough for baby to eat, adding reserved cooking water as needed.
So what’s with kangaroo kisses? You’ll have to watch this video of my adorable kids to find out.
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