Since I seem to be taking on all things domestic recently I thought I would tell you about my adventures in making baby food. I am not against packaged baby food, he eats it often when we travel or go out to eat, but I thought making it myself would save money and might be the healthiest option. I've been making baby food for a couple months now and here are my thoughts:
1) It's easier than I thought, even for the culinary challenged like myself
2) Cooking in bulk makes homemade baby food very efficient
3) When it's meal time it's quick to prepare
4) It's thicker and chunkier than packaged baby food
5) I'm not really sure that it saves much money (I'll have to start calculating)
I first bake or cook the food. Then puree it with an immersion blender. Next I spoon it into ice cube trays and place it in the freezer. Once it is frozen into cubes I place the cubes in a freezer bag and label with the name of the food and the date made.
At meal time I take 2 or 3 cubes out of the freezer, place them in a bowl, defrost (about 2 minutes), and serve to the very anxious little boy.
Baked peaches
(yes the kitchen is still unfinished, yes that is a drill in the background)
Foods I have pureed or mashed:
- Avocados
- Bananas
- Sweet Potatoes
- Carrots
- Green Beans
- Peas
- Broccoli (shown in the above pictures)
- Cauliflower
- Applesauce
- Peaches (shown in the above pictures)
- Black Beans
- Lentils
- Turkey
- Squash
This is the site I use for nearly all of my baby food recipes. It is very informative.
Sadly one of Sawyer's favorite food combinations turkey & sweet potatoes results in him being violently ill a few hours after consumption. After vomiting in his crib, my bed, the couch, the carpet, my shirt, and down my shirt turkey has been officially eliminated from his diet until he turns 1.
Glad you like the Web site! So sorry about his reaction to turkey/sweet potatoes. Is he okay with one or the other on its own? Mackie really liked butter beans, pinto beans, and cottage cheese as non-meat protein sources. I would sometimes mash the beans up into the cottage cheese and she liked that. Personally, I like giving her a variety of non-meat items, especially at lunchtime if I know we'll be having meat at dinnertime. Way to make your own baby food! It IS easy and much more variety than jarred food. I found it was easiest to buy the food frozen (carrots, broccoli, cauliflower, most veggies and fruits), pop them in the microwave steamer, and then puree so I didn't have to always chop. I didn't do it with apples or pears, but just a thought. Happy cooking! :) - Amy
ReplyDeleteI would suggest yogurt, that has protein. My boys loved mango pears and pineapple too.
ReplyDeleteB never ate baby food meat. I figured he was getting enough protein from other sources and I was still nursing. So don't worry about the meat issue too much. You could try mixing some of the fruits and maybe adding cooked plums...plumsauce?
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