Breakfast Baby

Roasted Pumpkin

The easiest way to keep my daughter gluten free it to make her food myself. That means starting out every morning with a lovely hand made breakfast. During the week this means mommy-is-still-tired-because-she-is-21-and-hates-getting-up-at-8am-but-will-because-she-loves-you purees. Recently this has been pumpkin with nutmeg and cinnamon (it is delicious, she has begun to share so she lets mommy have some).

How to cook the pumpkin:

Preheat the oven to 400º

Get a small pumpkin (pie pumpkin) and cut it in half. Remove the seeds and place the 2 halves meat down in a baking dish with about an inch of water.

Cook for about 40 minutes until skin starts to pucker away. Take the meat out of the skin and store in the refrigerator for up to a week or in the freezer for up to 6 months.

At this point I simply mash up the pumpkin with a fork but you can also put it in a blender or food processor and puree it until it is smooth. Children 6m old and up can handle plain pumpkin but don't start spicing it up until 8m with the go ahead from your pediatrician.

I add a few small dashes of both cinnamon and nutmeg to my daughter's pumpkin. Some other flavors that go great with pumpkin are apples, other winter squash (butternut or acorn), peaches, or brown rice. Have fun with your baby foods and get creative!

Happy eating!
Tori