My husband and I have made baby food for all of our kids. Along the way I have learned a few things and have some suggestions for anyone looking to make their own babyfood. So, if this subject interests you, keep on reading...
The benefits
*We have saved hundreds, if not thousands, of dollars!
*Our children eat balanced and nutritious foods.
*Healthy foods make for a healthy baby!
*So Easy! It takes one night a month to make all the foods and freeze them. Just pop in a great CD or set up the laptop in the kitchen and watch a movie while you work.
What do you need to start?
Ruth Yaron's "Super Baby Food" book is awesome!!! It is a step-by-step guide on how to make baby food, store it, know when to introduce it to baby, and it has hundreds of toddler meal recipes too! I love her book and have given it to countless Mom's as a gift! You can purchase it from Amazon for $13.57 new or $1 used.
Here is what the book looks like...
You will also need the following:
*Ice cube trays (BPA free). I like OXO's ice cube trays because they come with a lid to slide over the cubes. I also use Target's Safeway brand ice cube trays.
*Coffee grinder (designate it for baby food only! Coffee beans contain an oil that leaves a residue in the grinder so you will not want to grind coffee in it.)
*Freezer ziplock bags
Last night I made oatmeal cereal, yams, butternut squash, brown rice cereal and acorn squash. Here are some photos of the process...
CEREALS
Here is a picture of the Oatmeal & Brown Rice that I use to make baby cereals. As Ava gets bigger I can combine the grains together to make a super cereal. I can also add other grains such as millet, quinoa, beans, lentils, flax seed, bran, etc, when she is older. But, right now she gets either brown rice or oatmeal...
I measured out 1 cup of oatmeal and ground it to a flour-like consistency...
I put the oatmeal flour into the Vitamix with 2 cups of HOT water. Let the Vitamix blend for 10 min on medium speed...
I let the oatmeal cereal cool in the refrigerator overnight then I transfer it to ice cube trays to freeze. The process is exactly the same for brown rice cereal.
VEGETABLES
Oh the wonderful world of vegetables! Cook the vegetables till they are soft (either in the oven, microwaved, or steamed). Here are some pictures of the veggies I cooked last night...
Butternut squash cooking in the oven...
Scooping out the flesh of the butternut squash...
Yams need to be pricked and wrapped in foil before baking. If you do not wrap them in foil you will start to smell a very sweet odor that will all of a sudden fill your house with a burnt odor. Yams drip syrupy liquid when cooking and it will burn on the bottom of your oven. This is a lesson I need to remind myself of and learn already! I keep doing it over and over again :/
Acorn squash cooking...
Acorn squash cooling before I scoop out the flesh...
The pureed yams. Yum!
STORING THE BABYFOOD
After I puree the food I let it cool in a tupperwear in the refrigerator...
Once the puree has cooled I freeze it in icecube trays...
After the cubes are frozen I put them in freezer ziplock bags and label them...
When I want to feed Ava, I take one or two cubes out of the freezer and microwave it at 40% power for 30-40 seconds. I add some water to the puree to get it to the desired consistency.
There you go! That is the process to make your own babyfood cereals and vegetables. Get the book "Super Baby Food" and start making fresh, healthy, and inexpensive babyfood.
A couple of closing thoughts...
*It's best to use organic produce
*Be sure to freeze the babyfood within 24 hrs
*Pick one day a month to make your babyfood
*Have fun introducing your baby to new foods!
Some of the foods we introduced to our babies that are not normally bottled in babyfood jars...
*Beets
*Parsley
*Broccoli
*Papaya
*Kale
*Quinoa
*Millet & Barley
*And many, many more!
AVA
OWEN
ETHAN
Happy Babyfood Making!!!
