Welcome to this week’s How-To Tuesday post.
If you stop to think about it, baby food is really just regular food mushed up really, really well. Yet it doesn’t even occur to so many of us to make our own.
It’s not even very time consuming. BC fans tell me they spend only 30 minutes to two hours per week making their tots’ food.
Other advantages to making your own food:
- Save money.
- Get baby used to eating what you eat.
- Know exactly what your baby’s eating.
- Less packaging and waste.
Interested? Read on to find out what you need and where you can go for more info and recipes.
Equipment
You can spend a lot on fancy food makers or food mills, but there’s no need. If you have the following, you’re ready to get started.
- Blender, food processor or food mill
- Ice cube trays
- Glass containers or BPA free plastic containers or bags
The Basics
There’s really not much to it. As BC reader Lori noted on the Facebook page, “I don’t understand all the hype on making baby foods. We always just mashed whatever we were eating with a fork and fed her.”
- Wash and chop food.
- Cook it until soft.
- Mash it or puree it according to your baby’s needs (adding a little water if needed).
- Strain it to remove peels, chunks, seeds, etc. if necessary.
- Pour it into ice cube trays, cover and freeze for later use.
- Store frozen cubes in labeled and dated glass or bpa-free containers or bags in the freezer(each cube is about an ounce).
- Thaw, reheat and eat.
Find out more at these fab websites
- WholesomeBabyFood.com: Recipes for baby by age, menus, and more
- Weelicious.com: Videos, recipes and more.
- Cheat Sheet: BPA Free Baby Food, Baby Food Creation, and Storage Tools at SafeMama.com. A quick guide to finding BPA free equipment and storage containers.
Cookbooks
The websites above have tons of (free) recipes, but if you still like browsing through cookbooks, here are some of the newest, most popular baby food books out there. Your local library should carry some of them.
- Top 100 Baby Purees: 100 Quick and Easy Meals for a Healthy and Happy Baby by Annabel Karmel
- The Organic Baby and Toddler Cookbook by Lizzie Vann
- Blender Baby Food: Over 125 Recipes for Healthy Homemade Meals by Nicole Young
- Parenting: Love in Spoonfuls by the editors of Parenting magazine
- Cooking for Baby: Wholesome, Homemade, Delicious Foods for 6 to 18 Months by Lisa Barnes
Do you make your own food? If so, what are your best tips?
See more How-To Tuesday posts.
Ziploc freezer bags are BPA free. They have a handy label for dating and ingredients. I have both the fresh baby and the kidco trays. I like fresh baby better. They both hold about the same per cube, tho the kidco looks like it should hold more. That means you get 7 portions to fresh baby’s 12. Also, the kidco trays are harder to pop out and feel flimsy to me. I keep being afraid that I’m going to snap them.
Favorite breakfast recipe: frozen cube of pureed pears, packet of apple cinnamon oatmeal and a scoop of formula. Pour boiling water and stir. It’s just right to thaw the pears and cook the oatmeal to the perfect temperature.
Katie, do you use the flavored instant oatmeal packets in that breakfast? Just an FYI, those are pretty high in sugar. I’d try substituting regular instant oatmeal and adding cinnamon to taste (since you already have the pear in there for sweetness and fruit-flavor). Yum!
with my first child i made my own food. i found it very expensive and time consuming. i would spend so much$ on organic produce, you would think i was buying food for a family of four for a week. further more, she liked it more when i gave her food from the jar. this time around with #2 i’m giving him fruits and veggies from the jar and he is loving it. i find it to be easier and much less expensive. . i will probaby still make my own asparagus, avocado, broccoli, mango and meats.
I plan to use some extra ice cube trays I had from the dollar store. and then once frozen move everything to zip lock quart freezer bags. My mom always just mashed or blended whatever she made for dinner. Neither my brother or I are picky eaters.
I made a lot of babyfood for my son until it was just too time consuming and it didn’t save me any money.
One thing I didn’t know and wish I did-you don’t have to add water to foods to make them smooth. You can (maybe should?) add breastmilk/formula. Try making potatoes with water-no wonder my son wouldn’t eat them!
We’ve been making our baby’s food for about 3 months now, and it is so much easier than having to buy and store all of those jars. We just whip up whatever fruit and veggies we have during the week from our own shopping – usually the leftovers that would otherwise end up in the trash and frozen for later use in chicken stock.
My husband is a chef, so he has been getting creative with some of our recipes in hopes of expanding our daughter’s palette. Check it out: http://www.yumnums.com