Homemade Baby Food

Okay parents, when I had my first baby that thought of homemade baby anything sounded like too much work to me. Now I kick myself for not giving it a shot! If only I had known how easy and how much cheaper making my own baby food was, I would have NEVER bought it! Not to mention that it tastes SO much better (seriously, I would eat it) and since I make it I know exactly what goes into it and i don't have to worry about what is in it or how clean the baby food making factory is. So trust me, if you haven't tried this, it is SO worth giving it a shot.

You can make any kind of baby food from veggies, to meat, to rice cereal to oatmeal! I have not had much luck getting my kids to eat the homemade rice cereal. I guess I have not yet mastered getting it mushy enough. They have eaten my oatmeal though.Since I don't do the cereals often here is a good resource if you want to pursue it. I will post about meat in a future post, but it pretty much just cook it and puree it.

For veggies and for fruit I am a big fan of either fresh or frozen. I don't really like canned stuffed, but if you do you can use them too. I love frozen because it is picked at the peak of nutrition and flash frozen so I feel like it is probably the best for you. I also just don't think canned versions taste as good.That is just my opinion, to each is own. 

I use a food processor to puree mine, but if you don't have one, some blenders will puree. When I make my baby food, I like to freeze it in ice cube trays then put it in freezer bags to use as I need them. That way you can grab a sweet potato and mix it with a broccoli and have some fruit for dessert. (That is my little guy's favorite)

Vegetables:

The instructions are pretty much the same for all veggies... cook it, puree it, add water if needed to get the right consistency. So to break it down:

Carrots, Broccoli, Spinach, Cauliflower, Green Beans, Peas: Steam them until soft then puree
Butternut Squash, Sweet Potatoes: Bake, then puree
Zucchini, yellow squash: Boil then puree

If I left any veggies off, just cook them as you normally would and puree. Most veggies you will need to add some water to get the right consistency. If you have boiled or steamed something, use the water that you used to cook them because it will have more nutrients from cooking the veggies.

Fruit: So easy

Fruit is juicy enough that you don't need to add water. Pears, peaches, apples, mango, banana, are great. Just peel them cut out the seed(s) and puree in the food processor. You have to be careful on berries because some berries are so seedy that they don't puree very well so they might not have a great texture. Also, berries have a stronger taste than some fruit so what I do it fill the ice trays half full to make smaller portions of berries and then mix it with another fruit. Josiah currently loves bananas with blueberries in his oatmeal. My 3 year old, actually asked for some in her oatmeal the other day so I plunked a cube of banana and a cube of blueberries in hers too! Some of the fruit like pears and apples tend to be really juicy so I mix the dry baby oatmeal with it to thicken it. 

Serving it up:

When it is time to eat, I just pick a couple cubes and thaw in the microwave. I try different mixed just like the store bought baby food does. Throw in a cube of squash and a cube of corn or whatever. Sometimes I even sprinkle in some whole grain cereal to thicken it up if needed. As your baby gets older you can also start leaving it chunkier when you puree to start transitioning into "table food".

Traveling:

You may ask what to do I do when we go out of town. Well, that actually just happened so here you go! I make a list of how many meals he will need and count out the cubes into tupperware containers. Put it in a cooler still frozen without ice and it will thaw itself. Once thawed either put it in the fridge when you get to your destination or keep ice in the cooler if you don't have access to a fridge. We recently did that and the ice kept it nice and cold.