Friday, September 4, 2009

Making Baby Food?


Now that the babies have gotten the hang of rice cereal, we are venturing on to the good stuff. Today we started with squash. The first few bites weren't pretty but then they both seemed to like it. So, what do I need to know about making my own baby food? I hear it's not hard and it will obviously save a ton of money. What do I need? What's the best food processor? Do I make it in bulk and freeze it? This may be obvious, but then how do I defrost it? The night before? Who remembers to do that? Do I add anything to the fruits and veggies? Are you sure it's easy? Specifics please...

6 comments:

Sarah R.Conley said...

It is easy and really cheap. It tastes way better too. A food processer is the easiest but a blender will work just fine. Cook whatever fruit or veggie and then blend it up! You dont need to add salt, sugar or any of that other stuff. There are a ton of things like banana and avocado that all you have to do is mash with a fork. "Superfoods for healty kids" is a great book. The photos are nice and they have recipes for ages 6 months - teenagers. They also have recipes according to sickness. IE; you baby has a cold so the recipe that is recommended will have specific vitamins and nutrients that help baby recover from a cold. I LOVE the book. If you want to borrow mine you can. Let me know if you will be in the area. Good luck:)

Sarah R.Conley said...

Ok, so I forgot some details. Freeze the baby food in Ice cube trays. Then you have individual meals for baby. Just take out a cube or 2 at mealtime and thaw:) email me if you want more info. I made both kids all their food.

Leanne said...

I did my own baby food for the things that I knew how to cook :) I used a lot of those microwave steam bags, but if you have a steamer for the stove that works too. Or I used the rice cooker/steamer (with the tray on top). Basically anything can be steamed. I would peel the veg. fruit, slice and steam. Then I would put it in the blender. If you have one of those Magic Bullet type mixers, I would really recommend it. I would make big batches and then put them in ice cube trays. One serving would be 3-4 cubes. Some things are runny, like apples or pears, so I would add some oatmeal cereal to it in the blender. It takes some time to get it done, but once you have a big batch it saves time. For storage you can pop out the cubes once they are frozen and just put them in a big freezer bag. I use the website wholesomebabyfood.com, and love it! Its so helpful and gives a lot of ideas of how/ what to make and for what age. Certain things, like squash, I didnt normally make or buy, so I would just get a jar of it. Good luck, its pretty fun, and good to know your babies arent getting any weird stuff added like in some jarred foods.
Oh- I would usually do the batches at night, and then just stick it in the microwave for a few seconds to defrost. It defrosts really easily.

~j~ said...

Hi Megs!

Shelly would be a great source for information. She feeds R organic and fresh made baby food and while R is not so over the moon on some things she is really getting the hang of it, of course I think she is partial to the apricots that came from our tree over the yummy squash Shells gives her :))
xo
love you!
julia

Sarah R.Conley said...

i think you would like this blog:
http://www.mycharmingkids.net/

Meghan Elaine said...

Thank you for the suggestions! Sounds like I should give it a try.