Monday, January 24, 2011

Making Your Own Baby Food

Recently I have been making my own baby food. It is SO easy! Too bad it took me 4 children to figure this out. I'm starting basic and so far have made carrots and sweet potatoes. With sweet potatoes, peel them and cut them in pieces. Then place them in a pot with some water. I added about a teaspoon of sugar (to a big pot) as well just to draw out the natural sweetness. Bring to a boil and simmer until they are fork tender. Drain excess water. The key to making good baby food purees is a good hand blender. The one at the bottom of this post is the one I have and it works perfectly. Puree vegetables completely. It took me less than 30 seconds to puree a big pot of sweet potatoes. After pureeing, spoon into ice cube trays and freeze overnight. The next morning, remove vegetables from trays and put the cubes in a big freezer-safe ziploc bag. It is so simple and easy to do this...not to mention it is better for our babies!

If you try making your own baby food (or have in the past), please leave comments with things you've tried or tips you gave for others!

7 comments:

Jen said...

I never did this, but my Mom said she used to take leftovers and puree them - lasagna, roastbeef dinners, etc. Just throw everything together.
I did fruits, veggies & meat with Kellan and with Kalli I want to do cereals too - especially rice.

Amanda said...

That is great Becky! I just bought the same blender from Costco a couple weeks ago! I bought it for making soap. Its great you know exactly what Ruth will be eating now!

Bill and Sheri said...

I made our own baby forrd for my children...I also used the Jar stuff from time to time, but when they were eating the food I made I knew that they really liked it. It is healthier to make your own baby food and it was fun :)

Guam Homshers said...

I made more baby food with Titus than I did with Stephen. I did a lot of pears and apples to make pear sauce and applesauce. Those are super easy! I also would buy frozen veggies (our fresh stuff is not always fresh!) and cook and puree those. Ice cube trays are the best thing to use!

I know lots of moms that would just throw the food that the rest of the family was eating in a blender for the baby. I never did that, but it seems like it would definitely work.

And hey, we're never too old to try new things, right?? :-)
~mel

cj and family said...

I've been making my own baby food for Matthew, too! (Although if I can get the jarred food free or under 5 cents a jar, I do, just because it's easier to get some of the unique fruits/veggies.) I've done sweet potatoes, carrots, and peas thus far. I just use a regular blender though, and it works fine.

Jeanné said...

I made Bud baby food a few times too! It was fun!! Most of the time I used our left over foods! Bud loved them!

Garth said...

I have to point out here that my wife is AWESOME! She's always surprising us with new ways to be creative and save money... Maybe I'll learn from her.