Making Your Own Baby Food

I made most of my own baby food for my last baby with the goal of feeding him healthy homemade food. This time around, I am enjoying making my little girl's food for the health-factor as well as the cost-savings. Today I made 42 servings of vegetables for less than one-third the cost of retail organic baby food in one hour. I compare the cost of my homemade food to the more expensive organic baby food because all the fresh veggies I cooked were, of course, organic. (Soon they'll all be from my garden, which will be even more thrilling!)

Today I started with 2 sweet potatoes, 6 small carrots, scant 1 cup of frozen peas, a 2-pound container of pre-chopped butternut squash, and 1 pound of green beans. The cost off all of this produce totals around $10 (thank you Costco!). (I wish I would have taken a photo of all this beautiful produce in a pile.)

The green beans, squash and peas could just be added straight to their pots and pans with an inch or so of water. I had to peel the carrots and sweet potatoes first, of course, before I added them. (I kept these scraps for the hamsters and chickens!)

Here are all the veggies steaming on the stove over medium high heat. They only take about 20-minutes, or so, to get nice and soft.

 

 

 Meanwhile, I set up my blender and containers. I use whatever containers I have on-hand, as well as freezer safe plastic bags and ice cube trays. All washed well, of course.

When the thicker veggies are fork-soft, I turn all the heat off and start spooning the veggies into the blender.

I usually add a cup or so of water, or about half way up the veggies.

I use my "blend" setting, and let 'er rip!

As the blender gets going, I help it a little by scooping the veggies away from the side and toward the middle. (Being careful not to let my scraper go down too far toward the blades!)

As soon as I see this little swirl in the middle I know that the veggies are being blended all the way to the bottom. (If I don't see this, I add splashes of water a bit at a time until it has enough liquid to fully blend.)

I pour the veggies into my containers, leaving a bit of room for expansion when it freezes.

If I use plastic bags, I push all the air out of them and label them with contents and date.

This time I even decided to make some mixed vegetables, which I've never done before. I think the smoothness of blended carrots really improves the peas, which have an odd texture even when pureed. (You can see that the blended squash is still hanging out on the sides of the blender ~ I didn't bother to wash the blender between veggies today since I was experimenting with mixed vegetables. I figure, why not?! More tasty goodness not washed down the drain!)

I filled a couple ice cube trays with sweet potatoes and green beans and smoothed all the air bubbles out and covered them with plastic before putting them in the freezer. After they are frozen, I'll pop them out of the trays and into a large freezer safe plastic bag with the contents and date written on the front. (It is easy to pop two or three of these into a bowl in the morning and let them come to room temperature by lunch time. Then after the lunch bowl is washed, pop another couple in to thaw-out for dinner!)

  

 

 

 

The fruits of my labor! Or, should I say, the veggies of my labor?!

(I actually forgot about the green beans until after this photo, so there is actually more than this.)



All the yummy food tucked away in the freezer. I like to use these plastic tubs in the freezer door so the small containers are not sliding around all over the place in the larger spaces. (You can see the bag of peas I did about a month ago that have been popped out of the ice cube trays.)

 After these are frozen, they'll be added to the containers in the door, too.

 

So, that's about it. Easy peasy. About $10 of food split into 42 servings. This will last my daughter about three weeks of lunches and dinners (of course, supplemented with crackers, cheese, cereals, yogurt, eggs, etc.). Next time I'll do apples, peaches and pears and make breakfast servings.

Again, it only took about an hour to steam, blend, bag and store all of this. Certainly it took longer when I was learning, but it really is that easy. The "clean-up" is about a full bottom rack in the dish-washer, which is a small hassle for the pure goodness I just made my precious baby.

EDIT:
**I have to add, too, not to get pulled into the hype that is so popular right now that you need a special system and equipment to make your own baby food. If you have a pot or pan you can add an inch of water to, and a blender - you are set.