...with the plantain for Elena

Making Elena's baby food has become a little hobby of mine! I love trying out something new and seeing if she likes it! So far, she has been a great eater and has enjoyed all the foods we've offered to her. Since she just started on solids only a few weeks ago I am still only making her single-food entree's. However, we do offer her 2 things at a meal occasionally - a new food, plus something she has already had in the past. We do this so she doesn't "forget" about the foods she's already tried.
Since my husband is from Puerto Rico and we want Elena to love Puerto Rican food as much as we do, I wanted to offer to her some Puerto Rican food as soon as possible! What better food to offer her than a plantain! We have already given her banana's and she loved them, so since plantains and bananas are so similiar in taste, I thought it would be an easy transition for her. Since none of the baby food cookbooks I have mention plantains, I had to wing it on how I was going to prepare it.

I purchased a yellow plantain, because they are softer and sweeter. The one difference between a banana and plantain is that you must cook a plantain! So, I chopped the plantain into fourths and boiled the chunks in water for several minutes.













After boiling, I cut out the strip of seeds in the center. At first, I thought I would just smash the plantain with a fork like I did with bananas and it would be good to go. However, after trying this method, the plantain still had too much texture and Elena wasn't too fond of it.














Into the food process it went! After a few pulses in the food processor it was a nice smooth consistency and ready for Elena!
This time, she enjoyed the plantain!














Now I can't wait for her to try more Puerto Rican food!