<font color="0077aa"><font size="+1">Michelle</font></font>, use this email addy -
[email protected] to buy the little freezing cubes, I just bought them like last week.
1 tray = $13.50
Postage = $1.00
2 tray = $13.50 x 2
Postage = $1.50
You don really need a blender to puree food. The back of a fork and a usual porcelain bowl will do. Just that you won't get a consistency like blenders do but good enough to feed bbs. If u find any food 'hard' like pears, steam or blanch them first. For Pears (which I just did today and A loves it!), remove the core and skin then steam it for about 3-4 minutes until the flesh is soft. Then just mashed it with a fork. U can add a bit of milk while mashing if the pear is not that ripe. Only ripe ones are juicy enough..
And many many more purees u can make this way. Like pumpkin, banana, avocado, sweet potatoes, melon, carrots etc.. all these don need blenders to achieve. And it's really not difficult to make and definitely better foods for Ethan than jarred foods la.. try ya, total prep time probably 25 mins (include cooling time after steaming) for first timers, and as u progress, the time will surely shorten.. like for me now, I take about 15mins.. heh Anyway if u do need help, just shout at me!
Oh, I'm sure you'll enjoy doing it just by thinking of all the goodness Ethan will be gaining!
Eh, of cos jarred foods are also ok just not as good. My Chloe had jarred foods too!
<font color="0077aa"><font size="+1">E-Ling</font></font>, oh okie will try the bigger ones then..
Hey Amabel looks chubbier now! Is she taking solids as well as Rachel? cos Rachel also more bui bui now cos her mummy said she's eating solids very well!
<font color="0077aa"><font size="+1">ilovebbs</font></font>, eh people blur sotong, but u are blurblur labbit! It's not yoga on 1st Apr le later u make Angeline blur too.. heehee..
I think the younger ones will listen la, but the old people wa pang.. so hard for them to be co-operative. Like my hub, if I ask him to bathe more than once a day, he'll tell u that will make him lose his ying1-er2-bao3-hu4-mo2!! Urrrggghh!
<font color="0077aa"><font size="+1">Joon</font></font>, I use my 2cts worth of understanding with food handling to share with you my opinions when it comes to freezing foods.
Yes! quality loss definitely happens to foods when we freeze them. SIMPLY becos u are eating it later! that's why u have to freeze it in the 1st place, right? The only way to ensure NO compromise on food quality is to eat it immediately. Due to our room temp, for fruits and vegs, microorganisms start to multiply the moment we cut open them!
Freezing is a method of preservation and it helps save time and $$. It simply makes practical sense when it comes to bb's foods. We can't cut open an apple and expect bb to finish the apple at one go right? Well unless your bb is another Angeline's Trinity la..heh.. We also can't be throwing the other half of the apple away. So DA BEST alternative is still to freeze them. However, there are some steps we can take to LESSEN the lost of quality while we do it. Like:
1. Blanching/Boiling/Steaming prevent foods from changing color or flavor.
2. Foods to be transfered to the freezer within 2/3 hours after steaming/blanching/boiling them. But this guideline is from some american website and they are considering their kind of room temp)so I'd suggest as soon as possible, for me is after I pureed the food, I'll quickly scoop into the cubes and to the freezer so about 15 mins or less. You can only do this when your food is cooled down though. Warm foods into the freezer will only SPOIL your fridge faster!
3. Your freezer is best set to -20 degrees or lower to prevent deterioration, hence shorten the shelf life of the foods.
4. Keep your frozen cubes deeper into the freezer, that means not near the door. As nearer to the door, the more the foods will suffer from the frequent change of temp when the door is open/close. This will also destroy the nutrients of the foods.
5. Besides the freeze cubes, use containers that are freeze-friendly.
Aiyo I can only think of these pointers now.. I'm sure I haven't cover all. So better if can read up from helpful websites la..
So now all u need to do is to put your heads together (with PF probably) and think which is the lesser-lest evil,
Self-Made Frozen Purees?
or
MIL-Made Full-of-Doubts Purees?
or
Jarred Purees?
The only fruits I know that are not freeze-friendly are like bananas and avocadoes because they oxidise very fast unless we steam or blanch them. Ermm.. I don know what other foods cannot be frozen liao.. Aiyo my brain juice dried up after writing this post! heehee.. so if I can think of more, I'll let u know ya..
Just FYI, I have a separate knife, cutting board and blender for making Arianne's foods..
