Making your own baby food

Lvneveryminuteofit

Just curious if any of you savvy ladies do this. I'm planning to try it. I'm going to attempt it before LO is born just to see if I can do it, and that way I don't have to try to figure it out down the road. Does anyone have any tips to share?

GRKaters

SO simple!

The equipment I used was a steamer (or microwave, for sweet potatoes), then a blender or food processor (even a bullet-style blender) for pureeing, depending on the amount and type of food.

Then I poured each puree into ice cube trays (nothing special here) and froze until solid. Once they were hard, I popped them into freezer bags and washed the trays for the next batch.

 

Lvneveryminuteofit

That is very simple! The only thing I can't figure out is how to take food with you if you're traveling, running out, etc. I haven't seen any recipes around that allow for take-along food. Did you ever run into this GRKaters?

GRKaters

Lvneveryminuteofit:

That is very simple! The only thing I can't figure out is how to take food with you if you're traveling, running out, etc. I haven't seen any recipes around that allow for take-along food. Did you ever run into this GRKaters?

We traveled to my parents 2hr away pretty frequently. In that case, we'd put his food for the trip into resealable containers (we did buy some Gerber, in the little plastic boxes) and pack in a lunch bag with ice packs. He ate about 2-4 cubes depending on the food. I'd also bring my bullet blender with us, so I could whiz up some fruit or veggies while we were there. If you are just going to dinner somewhere, bring pre-thawed food in a reusable container. Take 'n' Toss are great for this, as are the aforementioned Gerber boxes. We still use these, as they are a great size for holding snacks in the diaper bag. 

If we flew somewhere, we'd just buy Gerber Organics once we got there.

 

GRKaters

majorwife:

I made all my own baby food.  I have a blog post about it here:

http://goodwifeinthekitchen.blogspot.com/2010/01/homemade-baby-food.html

As for traveling, we have some 4 ounce containers that I can take with us and microwave.  If you can't mircowave, then I would just have some ready made on hand for those few times.

I know I cannot find organic prunes or pears here, so I usually have one or two of them on hand for when we have to go somewhere and LB needs to eat.

That said, she is getting to the point where she can almost eat everything we can, so I will need to make less and less of her baby food. I made a shitton in the beginning and we aren't through it all now.

Extra fruit cubes are great for adding to oatmeal, both for baby AND adults I love pumpkin in my morning oatmeal!

And thawed veggie cubes can get secretly mixed into things like pancake batter and mac & cheese when your baby is ready to eat those things and decide they are suddenly picky! 

barbnsteve

I'm not a mom but I do a lot of feeding w/the kiddos I work with!  Annabel Karmel has some great baby food books - with all sorts of tips to make your own.  She also brings you through the progression of simple to more complex and what is appropriate for specific ages.

www.annabelkarmel.com  also check out www.wholesomebabyfood.com which is another great site!  

I've heard the Magic Bullet is one of the best food processors out there for this type of thing.  I've also heard that you should start with the liquid and add the solid to it to get the best consistency.  GL!!!

GRKaters

I have heard that about carrots, so it's advised to use organic once. I think we used Earthbound or whatever that easily-found brand is. We also use their celery exclusively.

 

Lvneveryminuteofit

Thank you so much for all the tips! I know it will take some preparation and time but it's so worth it. I checked out the magic bullet, I could use that for tons of stuff!

ArcticFox

It is pretty simple.  I have some recipes in my blog (in siggy) although most are for toddlers.

Once I went from jarred food to fresh made, my baby wouldn't touch the jarred stuff, and I am not surprised (I sampled it).

You may want to get a mini blender/processer, and then think of what kind of storage you want (like ice cube trays etc).

Mrs Manners

We made all our own food. It was so easy and he LOVED everything I made (except papaya - he hated that one). My go-to guide was wholesomebabyfood.com they tell you what to make, what age it's appropriate for, how to make it, how long to keep it and what it mixes well with.

Like pp, I steamed mine, pureed in a food processor, froze in ice cube tray and then stored in ziploc bags after frozen. When traveling, we'd toss a few frozen cubes in a Take n' Toss container and heat them whever we went. I went to restaurants all the time and just asked them to heat it for 1.5 minutes in the microwave - they never ever had an issue with doing it. Alternatively, you could thaw before you left the house and then just heat by dropping your container in some hot water provided by the restaurant.

Making our own allowed ds to be exposed to so many more flavors and also allowed me to do great combos that you could never buy in store.

I still sometimes make purees if I have surplus veggies and drop them in sauces and meats now even though he's on all table foods.

From what I remember, the nitrates in those two foods were a concern prior to 6 months old. Since we didn't feed solids until after 6 months, we had no issues with them and I made them all homemade.

pfal6

I made all my baby food for both my kids. I followed the book Super Baby Foods and used wholesomebabyfoods.com too. I have a huge chest freezer in my garage so I didn't have to do the ice cube tray method. I bought a bunch of the Glad 4oz containers  and would fill them and put them in my freezer all labeled. I did do the ice cube tray method if I ran out of containers. But it's one more step that I found a pain.

And the nice thing is that now that I am getting rid of plastic bags slowly but surely, the containers are perfect for salad dressings, grapes, and anything else you want.

 

I also used Earth's Best baby food to make sure that they liked a food before making it in bulk. If they liked it, I would look at the ingredients and copy it making my own. I found all the ingredients on their web site.