Making Baby Food

I'm not exactly a "green" or "whole foods" person, nor am I very good at being super frugal (although I kind of wish I had the energy and perseverance to be all three)... I decided to try making my own baby food, just because I could. I followed basic instructions that I found here. This site lists the best times to introduce each food, whether a certain fruit or vegetable needs to be bought organic (and which don't matter), nutrition facts found in each food, and the best way to prepare and store what you've made!

This "project" of mine took a little bit of work (2-3 hours one day making carrots and sweet potatoes, and an hour another day to make green beans and peas), but it is nice to know exactly what my baby is eating, and I did save quite a bit of money making this (a pound of sweet potatoes is about the cost of 1 or 2 baby food jars).

While the sweet potatoes and carrots took forever because I baked and steamed them myself, I later discovered (from the site I listed above) that you can actually buy certain veggies frozen without any preservatives (not even a hint of salt). So, doing it the cheater's way, I bag-steamed my peas and green beans :).

Peel (because the skin doesn't puree very well)
Chop (1/4" pieces to make it easier to steam)
Steam (20ish minutes until fork-tender)
Puree (until desired consistency)

Stab with a fork, then rinse (easier to "steam" in oven)
Wrap in foil (while still wet)
Bake (45-60 minutes at 400 degrees Fahrenheit)
Slice skin down one long side to open potato
"Shave" meat with a fork (to make it easier to puree)
(Dicing also works)
Puree to desired consistency

Bag-Steam :)
Puree to desired consistency

 

My trick to easily (and fairly cleanly) put the puree into an ice-cube tray: Pour the contents of your blender into a sandwich- or quart-sized Ziplock, seal, and then trim off a small bottom corner.

Gently squeeze the Ziplock bag, allowing the baby food to squirt into each ice cube pocket (this picture is a little messy... it's slightly hard to squeeze the bag with my left hand while trying to take a picture with my right :).  Each ice cube pocket holds approximately 1 tbs of baby food.

Place in the fridge for about an hour to allow the puree to cool, then place in the freezer for about a day.  Once frozen (although not quite as solid as ice), you can pop them out and place in freezer bags for easier storage.  When ready to use, grab a couple cubes, and nuke them for about 20-30 seconds (depending on your microwave).  Use a spoon to chop up whatever ice is left, stir, and it's the perfect slightly warm temperature in Baby's preferred portion size (no throwing out wasted jars of baby food!). The colors are even more appetizing than jarred food!

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