First Forays into Puree

I bought some baby food last week to test my "why can't I just put protein powder in it after surgery?" query. I tried one kind--I think it was some chicken and sweet-potato combo It was, in a word, vile. I could hardly stand to finish the one bite I tried--no wonder babies make horrible faces when they get fed. (I felt a rush of guilt for playing that "here comes the airplane" game with every baby I ever fed when I was babysitting.) Fortunately, I only bought three or four jars because I feared this might be the case; life is one big experiment at the moment.

When I was buying all those yummy soups at Trader Joe's the other day--beef barley, stuff with lentils, etc.--I had a light bulb, ie, why can't I just heat them up and puree them in the blender? I did that for lunch today, and it wasn't bad at all. The consistency is strange after being used to traditional soup with "chunks", but it almost felt more filling and tasted the same. Of course, homemade soup or stew would be better, but my culinary ambitions are slim to none. We'll see how I do. It's hard to make myself eat soup in warm weather, but I can let it get lukewarm. The protein content is adequately high for things with meat and beans in them, and the sugar content didn't look bad, though I will have to keep reading labels as I've trained myself to do now.

I wonder about pureeing fruit. Is it better to steam it or warm it up and then puree it, even if you refrigerate afterward, or just do it at room temperature? (If these questions seem ridiculous to people who have never met me in real life, I am known as "the woman who thinks Hamburger Helper is too much work" and other similar variations on that theme.)

I can't remember if I mentioned this previously while rhapsodizing about the joys of Target the other day, but they have Muscle Milk Light in vanilla flavor, where Costco just has chocolate. Of course, the chocolate is better (IMO), but it's good to switch it up a little sometimes.