Chicken, carrots, and stars

Most of L's food is homemade.  It's been a lot of extra work for me, but I've actually enjoyed doing it, plus homemade food tastes so much better than food from a jar.  However, he doesn't mind food from a jar at all and is very happy to eat pretty much anything.  But homemade food is cheaper and fresher, so I'm willing to go the extra mile.  Since he was about 8 months, we started moving from purees to more chunkier foods.  Chicken, carrots, and stars is one of his favorites.  Here's what I do:

Boneless skinless chicken breasts, cutlets, or tenders

Baby carrots, thinly sliced (or other vegetable)

Pasta stars (Stelline pasta)

Brush boneless skinless chicken breasts (I use organic chicken) with olive oil and bake at 400 for about 30-45 minutes, turning half way through.  I always use an instant read thermometer to make sure its at least 165 degrees.  I chop the chicken into tiny dice or use a food processor and then use ice trays to freeze individual portions.  I store the frozen cubes in a plastic container or freezer bag in the freezer. 

Now that I have a week or so worth of chicken in the freezer, I just pop out a frozen chicken cube and defrost in my BabyCook (but a microwave would work too) then add a steamed vegetable like carrots, broccoli, or zucchini and then toss in cooked tiny pasta stars.  Sometimes I make a large batch of an entire dish and freeze meal size portions which saves time in the end, but doesn't allow for as much variety during the week.