Life Cycle of a Sweet Potato

One of the easiest baby foods to make and freeze is mashed sweet potatoes. I used to make them all the time for my older daughter, and it had the added benefit of getting me to eat a baked sweet potato for lunch every so often. According to http://www.nutritiondata.com/, sweet potatoes are good sources of fiber, magnesium, and Vitamins A, C, and B6.

Sweet potatoes were $.49/lb at Giant for Easter, so I bought a bunch. We had sweet potatoes with Easter dinner, and the rest I am baking for baby food. I just wash them, spray them with a little cooking spray, poke them with a fork, and bake at 375 for an hour to an hour and a half.

After they cool a little, I cut them open and scoop out the inside. Although I'm sure the straight mashed potato would be fine to give my daughter, it is a little stringy, so I decided to try to strain it by pushing it through a mesh colander.

It did make the puree smooth, but it was a little messy and hard to do. Next time I'll either just leave it unstrained or use my baby food mill.

Then I just spooned it into my freezer trays and froze them.

While you could heat the frozen baby food in the microwave, I have read that it is not recommended, since it can cause hot spots. I like to do it on the stove in my stainless steel measuring cups (those are the best). I add just a couple of teaspoonfuls of water to keep it from sticking.

When I used to make this puree for my older daughter, I confess I must have thrown out the skins. But this time I thought, "I normally eat the skins if I eat a baked sweet potato, so why throw them out as if they were waste?" So I saved them and found this recipe to make baked sweet potato skins. I just threw this together right before lunch today and baked them in the toaster oven.

Delicious with a hard-boiled egg sandwich and so nutritious!