Half a banana a day

The twins split a banana every morning for breakfast. Sometimes I fork mash it (if I have to mix something in it to make it go down) and sometimes I cut it into bite size pieces. They love bananas and it is one of the first words they learned - manana.

Small mangoes from Sam's Club

These mangoes from Sam's club are among the best I had outside of India. The twins loved both the pieces and puree. Even though the fruit don't have a strong 'ripe mango' smell, once cut the aroma was wonderful. They were so good, that we adults ate all the pieces and when I went to Sam's again a couple of days later just for the mangoes they were out of them!

Sliced fresh mango from Trader Joe's

I cannot resist mangoes or mango flavored things - so even though I buy fresh and frozen mangoes I had to try these fresh sliced mangoes from Trader Joe's. They were average - rather bland.

The twins accepted pieces rolled in graham cracker crumbs but rejected the puree. I adding the puree to their mashed banana and they finished it without anymore fuss.

Papaya

An acquaintance who reads my blog asked me if I feed the twins anything 'fresh and normal fruits and vegetables.' After being taken aback, and then indignant (I hid it well though), I thought about it and realized she just gave me a whole bunch of things to blog about.

Papaya was one of the first fruits the twins had once I began venturing beyond commercial baby food. After letting the papaya ripen for a few days, I remove the skin (some papayas have a thick skin i.e. the slight bitter after-taste that is just under the skin) and seeds. Half of it I puree and food cube. The other half gets cut into toddler size pieces.

The puree I thaw for breakfast and the pieces make a great snack rolled in graham cracker crumbs/powder. Some papayas will have a bitter after-taste no matter how many days I let them ripen. The best ones, in my experience, are from Whole Foods and my local Indian and Asian grocery stores.