Making Your Own Baby Food: Lessons Learned

Ok, I started out this series by confusing my lack of domestic skills. So far I've been pretty lucky and I've only had a few mishaps. 


1. Make sure you have enough ice cube trays for when you start making big batches of food. I started with only two and had to invest in a third shortly after I started. I love the OXO brand of ice cube trays. 
2. You win some and you lose some. There are some batches that just don't turn out right whether its too watery or too thick. Its just the way it goes, especially when you are making something the first time. I still struggle with getting the right consistency with squash.  So for the batches that are watery I just add a little rice cereal and mix it in to thicken it up. 
3. Sweet potatoes don't take much pureeing. Every time I make sweet potatoes, I think I'm going to blow up the motor on my blender. So I recently started just mashing them up with a manual potato masher and it works great. 
4. Mix it up. Don't be afraid to try new things. 


If you choose to make your own baby food, just be patient. It will take you and your baby both awhile to get used to it. Just keep at it, in the end you will be glad that you did. 


Stay for details on my next "going green with baby" experiment - cloth diapers. 

Making Your Own Baby Food: The Nitty Gritty

Ok, so now that I've covered why I make my own baby food and the tools that I use its time to get down to the nitty gritty: the how-to. You will need a good stockpot to boil your vegetables and cook them until they are fork tender. Depending on the vegetable and how many this can be anywhere from 30 minutes to an hour.

My go-to pot for green beans

Once the vegetable/fruit is cooked then you just put it in the food processor and hit puree. I generally add a laddle of water from the stockpot. This always help me to get to the right consistency but you can add more or less depending on what you are cooking. I forgot to take a picture of the green beans but here is a photo of the apples I cooked and pureed the day before. 

Apples

When you get the food to the right consistency for your baby, just fill the ice cube trays and freeze overnight. Then store them in a ziploc freezer bag. Make sure you label the bag and the date. 

Apples just out of the freezer

One of the great things about making your own baby food is that you can use almost any vegetable. So far I have made green beans, peas, carrots, sweet potatoes, broccoli, corn, butternut squash, squash, zucchini, apples, and peaches. So while the other babies in your circle are just eating peas, your baby can get a head start on eating his broccoli. 

Corn, sweet potato, broccoli, and carrot baby food

Good luck and happy pureeing!

Making Your Own Baby Food: The Tools

I know that there are now a ton of products on the market to make your own baby food. There is the Baby Bullet and the Beaba system. I thought about buying one of these systems but I decided to start with what I had in my own kitchen before investing in another piece of equipment. Besides, when I started I wasn't sure if I would keep it up or if W would eat my homemade baby food. If you are just starting out transitioning your baby to solids, hang in there. I know at first they won't like it but keep at it. I took almost a week for W to take to baby food. 


Fortunately, I had a good blender with a food processor attachment and a mini-chopper. I also inherited an immersion blender from my mom and so far these three machines have done a great job pureeing, blending, and chopping baby food. I also purchased three ice trays from OXO. I love the OXO ice trays, they are BPA-free, dishwasher safe and have a lid. But you can use any ice trays. 

The tools I use to make my own baby food

Adventures in Making Baby Food

Ok, so the first thing you should know about me is that I'm not a domestic diva. Actually, I'm far from it. Before the pink slip, we either ate out or had prepared meals. I was also fortunate enough to have some come and clean our house a couple of times a month. Unfortunately, those days are behind us and I'm cooking and cleaning up a storm.


I decided to try my hand at making my own baby food for several reasons:
1. I want me son to be a better eater than both my husband and I
2. I would save on packaging which is better for the environment long term
3. I would save W from eating food with preservatives


So I got my start making baby food with a bag of frozen peas and the food processor attachment on my blender. Once I cooked the peas and pureed them, I portioned the food out into ice cube trays. Once frozen, you just pop out the cubes and store them a ziploc freezer bag. Stay tuned for my arsenal of tools and a pictures of the final product.