Kitchen? What Kitchen?

I have to admit, I've never been an amazing cook. Infact it's the man in my life who bakes fresh loaves of bread and cooks anything that isn't just "put in oven and cook" which is my style of cooking. Yes I buy frozen food and do as little cooking as humanly possible, I think I get that from my mother. But ever since Baby Al could eat food I started to realise this room just off my living space is actually more than for making baby bottles and washing our clothes. It could actually be used for... cooking!

The world of baby food open up to me and I started to buy books, collect recipes from websites, go to our local library and take out some helpful books on nutrition and recipes for babies and then I kicked myself into gear and bought a cheap hand blender from Asda. I had never used a hand blender before and this was the basics of all blending products. I gave it a try the next day and learnt a few things which I then wrote down and tried different tactics. Apples very quickly became my number one enemy as they go brown so fast no matter what I tricks I pulled. Banana are our one true friend as not only are they so easy to cut and blend into a pureé but later on they are a soft and healthy finger food. I've also just started to give mango a go and it's a huge hit, specially when mixed with banana as mango can be fairly strong on it's own. How do I know? Reading was a sure key to all this but also I didn't mind making one small bowl for him, test it out and see what we both thought of it. If he reacts well to it then I'll try again to see if he still responds in a positive way before I finally give it the thumbs up and keep the recipe.

One of the things I really want  to do this year is make an e-book filled with healthy and easy foods for babies to enjoy. I have to admit I cheated on mango as they are a big fruit but I found my local supermarket sold packs of sliced mango for real cheap and could make at least two healthy meals for him out of that and a banana, saving me money and a bit of time. My next step will be to finally get my hands on some meat as at the moment any meat Baby Al has in his diet is purely from bought baby food. I have been too shy to make my own meaty meals for him but now I feel prepared and ready to take on a new world of tasty home-made baby food!