Puree Genius

During my pregnancy, my girlfriend hooked me up with a pretty decent gig. We take weekly surveys for a major diaper company and in turn, they give us gift cards for Amazon.

Not a major time commitment or reward - but we have managed to purchase some baby supplies, workout DVDs, mushroom logs and one of my all-time favorite things - cookbooks.

Is there anything better than flipping through cookbooks and drooling over gorgeous food photography.

There are probably a million things better, but lets agree that this is, in fact, an enjoyable moment.

A few weeks ago, Amazon recommended Double Delicious by Jessica Seinfeld. Like most of the recommendations, I thought "No, no Amazon. You're only thinking that because I bought X, but that's not right." But then, I started to question my quick judgement and remembered really liking her on that one random Oprah episode.

Her deal is purees. She purees lots of veggies and throws them in food to bulk them up nutritionally and I'm assuming to cut down on cheese, or something. First, I didn't like the idea of "hiding" vegetables in foods, but I haven't revealed one major thing with you - until now.

I liked pureeing Ingrid's baby food.

Not "vodka-grapefruit-on-a-hot-summer-day" like, but in the same way you like to stretch after a good night of sleep.

It just feels good.

I knew exactly what she was eating (and don't get me wrong, she had her share of those baby food packets). I liked chopping, steaming, pureeing and portioning her food into cute little baby-food ice cube trays.

But now that she was onto finger foods, our knock-off Magic Bullet was reserved for smoothies. And smoothies are great in the morning. And babies are scared of loud noises. And I'd rather start the day with a happy Ingrid and a bowl of oatmeal verses a screaming-flailing-armed Ingrid and a smoothie.

See you later knock-off Magic Bullet.

But not so fast.

I gave in and ordered Mrs. Seinfeld's book and stopped wondering why she bothered to work when she's married to Jerry Seinfeld - and started to cook.

Now, rather than making some wholesome vegetable goodness, I went straight for the desserts (and was pleasantly surprised with the long dessert section - with pictures!) and made these yummy dark chocolate chip cookies with carrot puree. Amazing. Granted, each cookie probably has about 1/4 teaspoons of carrot, but honestly, who cares.

Maybe in some weird way, I wanted to hold onto purees because, at times, it feels like Ingrid is in a constant state of transition.

One month she's still. The next, she's rolling over. Then, she's crawling. She's pulling herself up. Now she wants to walk with us holding her hands.

It's like you finally have some sort of grasp on her development and *pouf* she off to the next.

So while she has moved onto finger foods, I'll happily keep making purees and try to remember the time, just a few short months ago, when that's all she ate.

Cinnamon Raisin Peanut Butter Cookies. Yes please.