Fruit Leather {Baby} Food

I've recently started a group on baby beloved, inc.'s Social Network that is all about baby food. I also recently bought a book called "Whole Foods For Babies & Toddlers" (found here) which is chock full of fantastic baby recipes, but also talks about why it is SO much better to make your own baby food. I am so glad that they really talk about how babies are being targeted as something that is worthy of marketing rather than true nutrition. I think it is always best to keep it simple and FRESH!

The first thing that Kaitlyn and I made out of our new books was the fruit leather. Here is what we did:

I used around 10 Strawberries and 4 Bananas. I didn't measure, really, I just filled up a 4 cup measuring cup until it was full. Both the Strawberries and Bananas were organic and cost me around $4.00 total.

Preheat Oven @ 350

Beat your mixture of fruit with a mixer until smooth and thick.

Transfer the mixture to a pan on the stove and cook on a low/medium. Add a splash of lemon or lime juice.

Prepare a baking sheet by covering it in tin foil and then spraying it with cooking spray. Once the mixture is  thick like molasses smooth it out over the foil on the baking sheet.

Bake in the oven for 25-30 minutes @ 300 degrees. Remove from oven when the mixture has solidified and turned slightly brown. It should not jiggle or feel overly mushy. I found I had to bake mine for more like 30-40 minutes.

 (this was not quite cooked - I ended up putting it back in for a good 15 minutes after this)

Remove from the oven and let cool. Place wax paper over the top of it and let it sit all night to dry out.  Peel off pieces and enjoy!