Honeydew This and Honeydew That...

To go alongside our Christmas casserole, I served honeydew and strawberries.  Of course, since we only had two people with teeth at our table, we had half a melon left over.  I was afraid it might go bad if we didn't finish it right away, yet we don't often serve hot breakfasts with fresh fruit as a precursor around here.  My immediate thought, of course, was that honeydew would make excellent baby food!

I took a look at Momtastic, and they confirmed that melon is great to feed baby, and a wonderful source of Vitamins A and C, and even calcium!  That said, they also warned to 

"be aware that some babies may experience rashes from melons of all types. If your baby has a rash that maybe traced to melon, this is most likely due to the melon's "acidity" and not to an allergy."

Since Momtastic gave their blessing, I figured we'd give it a try.  I sorta "winged it" with my preparation, but it was easy and a tasty hit with my almost seven-month old!  To choose a melon, press firmly on the "bellybutton" and give it a sniff.  If the melon smells sweet and melon-y, it's good to go.  You don't want a piece of fruit that is too soft nor too hard.  If it's not quite ripe enough, you may leave it on the counter to ripen, if not, all melons should be stored in the refrigerator, even if they've not yet been cut open.

Step 1:  Cut the melon in half and scoop out the seeds.
Then cut the fruit away from the rind (I used a curved grapefruit
knife, but a spoon would work just as well on a ripe melon)

Step 2: Cut melon into chunks and place in steamer basket
with about 1/3 - 1/2 cup of water.  Steam, reserve liquid
for future use, and puree to desired consistency.

The honeydew cooked down quite a bit in the steaming process, and didn't need any extra liquid for pureeing, so I saved that to mix in with cereal in the future!  Half a melon only made two servings, and they were quite thin even though I didn't add cooking liquid to the steamed fruit.  Since my son likes things with a bit of thickness, I added in a few spoonfuls of oatmeal to thicken it.  Needless to say, it was a huge hit and my little one gobbled it right up!