A baby food you won't find in the stores

Yesterday, Cammie came over to watch Natalie so I could do some errands with just two kids: took Konrad to have another blood draw (to check for allergies this time, since he has a persistent runny nose...does he have allergies like Lukas or is it just teething?), pick up Konrad's studio photos, stop by Ikea for lunch and a small furniture purchase, and shop at the Asian market in our neighborhood.

The Asian market is one of Lukas' favorite places to go because they have live fish swimming in tanks: tilapia, catfish, crab, lobster, snails, and several kinds of clams. I can go there when I'm not pregnant (the fish smell is a little too much when pregnant, trust me!), and with two children, at least one of which is walking (they have small carts and I'm not into wearing Konrad anymore).

I like going to the Asian market because the produce is often cheaper than the "regular" grocery store, especially for the things that tend to be more pricey at my local market, like shallots, parsley, snow peas. And they have something I rarely see at the local market: kabocha.

Here's Konrad with the kabocha. It looks like a green pumpkin (it's orange inside) and tastes like a sweet squash. I made kabocha baby food for Lukas a lot, and here's how I made Konrad's first batch of kabocha.

Konrad had some for lunch, and tolerated a few swallows before deciding he didn't like it. But there are MANY more servings left to teach him to like it (I have to wait for the first batch in the ice trays to freeze, pop them into a freezer bag, then make more baby food popsicles out of what's left). Konrad has grown to like peas, and I've been late in branching out, so here's the first "branching out"...green beans and carrots are next.

The kabocha cost me $3.71 and will produce at least 35 4-oz servings, which might cost about $30 if I bought baby food. And we all know that Gerber doesn't make kabocha baby food!