Who all makes their own baby food? Any tips or tricks to share? Fave recipes?
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I did for a long time! I loved it. I used the baby bullet just because it was cute. I would make huge batches, freeze them, and then put all the cubes into labeled ziplock bags. The night before, I'd put a couple into baby food containers and into the fridge to thaw for daycare the next day.
I bought the book The Best Homemade Baby Food on the Planet.
http://www.amazon.com/Best-Homemade-Baby-Food-Planet/dp/1592334237/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1431981694&sr=8-1&keywords=the+best+homemade+baby+food
It had some great recipes and tips on what to make for what age. Our favorite was pumpkin and banana. DH would always come and sneak some when I made it. It was T's favorite too. -
Our favorite baby food recipe is to put one roasted, peeled sweet potato, one avocado, and one pear (with skin on) into our food processor. It makes about enough for 6-7 small baby food jars so I do this often and put them in our freezer for something to grab and go if we're going out.
These days, with a 10 month old, I usually just purée/mash up whatever we're having at home and feed that but I like to keep that recipe on hand for when we go out.
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My tip is you don't have to make it complicated. You can steam veggies in the mircowave, blend it with a hand mixer and spoon it onto a cookie sheet. Once it's frozen, put the spoonfuls in a ziplock bag.
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I did - I would steam things like peaches, pears, plums, etc then puree in the blender and freeze in an ice cube tray. Also, roast sweet potatoes and then just mash them up.
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I had 2 cookbooks and used our big food processor for the job. It worked really well and I really enjoyed making the food for her. I would steam the veggies or fruits and then puree them. As she got a little older, I would make thicker purees using chunkier bits of meat.
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Top 100 Baby Purees was my favorite.
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Totally agree with @Grace: - keep it simple!
Steam or roast the veggies and tough fruits. Softer fruits don't even need to be cooked. Throw it in the blender or food processor. We froze it in ice cube trays and then threw the cubes in bags when they were solid. When you defrost it, add water or breastmilk/formula if it's too thick.
Pinterest has a million homemade baby food pins. Bananas and avocados are great because you just have to mash them up with a fork! Pureed prunes are great to have on hand to keep the digestive system flowing. You have to add a ton of water to them because they start out the consistency of rubber cement! My daughter liked them mixed with sweet potatoes (it looks SO gross).
I would add we only did purees for less than 2 months before we moved onto chunkier purees and finger foods. So we used the leftover purees to make smoothies and added them to pancakes, bread, muffins, etc.
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I did and I used the Baby Brezza. It steams and blends and made it sooooo easy.
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It's so easy! You can just boil or steam something, mash it with a fork and you're set! We also made really small pots of veggie soup, like squash + carrots + potatoes. And if you have a blender you can blend anything, but I never bothered because I hate washing the parts.
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I'm glad to see I'm not the only one who enjoys making baby food!
With my first I would blend and purée foods individually. And then mix and match at serving time. With my second, for whatever reason, I haven't been doing that. My method is to throw a few things in the crockpot and let it cook til soft. Then I just use an immersion blender and freeze it in ice cube trays. I think the second way it's easy to use up stuff in th fridge, haha. (Not stuff going bad, obviously, but more like,
What am I going to do with one stalk of rhubarb?). I don't really use recipes.I should set more of it aside for my toddler, he prefers his veggies puréed!
I have to admit though I can't bring myself to purée meat. When we are out and about and need a jar, I will buy the meat ones since I don't do that at home. He does get meat as a finger food though!
When I was pregnant, my very silky mom told me "just don't be one of those moms who makes their own baby food!" I don't know why she thought it was so weird. But now I do it mainly because I think it tastes better. I have him jarred bananas once and found it pretty nasty. The pouches seem better but are soooo expensive. (Although my toddler loves them).
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I second @Grace: . Don't make it more complicated than it needs to be! Ice cube trays are another quick and easy way to freeze individual serving sizes.
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I did for dd1 and am for dd2 as well. Honestly, with both girls they were only in the purer stage for about a month. I would make one item in a big enough batch for a ice cube tray. Then mix frozen cubes as I wished. I transitioned pretty quickly to BLW and now she's primarily eating what we eat. With some spoon feeding mixed in if our dinner isn't baby friendly or she needs a little extra fiber.
Once I start regularly including lunch I'll make more purees till she's about 13m because I don't trust daycare to have their eyes on her at all times when she's self feeding.
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@jedeve: my toddler will literally eat anything I feed baby sister now. loL We haven't needed food out and about yet but when we do I bought these reusable pouches I can put my own purees in. But I do plan on buying some combos that I won't typically purée.
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I have been making all sorts of combos! I like the Annabel Karmel site for ideas; I also just take ideas from pouches. For most things, I just steam in my steamer pot and blend in my Vitamix. I leave one or two servings out for the next few days, and then freeze the rest in ice cube trays or a silicone freezer tray (once frozen, I take out and put in ziploc bags). I usually do it while I'm prepping or cooking other food and it doesn't take long at all!
At 8 months, our favorites are/have been:
- sweet potato, beef, & broccoli (I boiled the ground beef and then pureed with steamed sweet potato & broccoli)
- banana, pineapple, peach
- carrots & apples with cinnamon
- sweet potato, garbanzo beans, & corn
- blueberry, pear, & apple
- chicken, apple, & zucchini (poached the chicken, then pureed with steamed apples & zucchini)
- sweet potatoes & red lentils (saute onions & garlic, cook lentils according to package directions, steam sweet potatoes & combine) -
@jape14: I like your meat ideas! Were primarily BLW now but LO has no teeth. Not sure how much iron she gets through sucking! I think I'll purée some meat combos so she gets extra iron.
What do you use to purée meats? I use a immersion blender but I've never used it on meats. -
@regberadaisy: I typically use my Vitamix but I think I used the immersion blender as well (I think for the ground beef?). The chicken combo was pretty easy bc there is so much water in the apples & zucchini. There are some really good meat ideas on the Annabel Karmel site - I think that's where I got the inspiration for at least one of those.
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Me! I really struggle to understand why people buy baby food. I just took our normal food and mashed it up. Some fruits I pureed to put into yogurt or whatever, but I won't do that again this second time. This baby will just eat what we eat.
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Oxo tot food blocks are the BEST! It made freezing/refrigerating purées so easy. I still use them at 20months to pack her lunches for daycare with "regular food".
The oxo tot freezer tray was also a lifesaver.
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I do! I love it and this site was awesome for me:
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