Making Baby Food

I figure I need to hurry up and blog about making pureed baby food as my little girl is well on her way to eating only finger foods :)

So why did I make my own baby food?

Well, there are lots of reasons.  

*I wanted to feed Randal organic foods and organic store bought baby food is pricey.

*I love to cook so I looked at this at another cooking adventure.

*Homemade baby food tastes better....seriously!  Randal Jean loves peas; however, I tried to give her peas from a jar once and she spit them right out.  I tried them myself and I don't blame her...they were gross!

*To me cooking for people = love.  Does Randal understand this yet, no...but this is what cooking is to me and I love my baby girl more than anything so cooking for her is a total no brainer.  

*Variety Variety Variety!!!  Randal Jean ate everything that I pureed for her....okay, I'm lying she hated avocados.  I was not going to happen upon a jar of beets and mashed potatoes in the grocery store....just sayin.

*Taste the Colors of the Rainbow- You know how we are supposed to eat lots of colors everyday? By making Randal's food I could feed her more variety (colors) in a day than jarred simply because I was controlling what she ate in 1 oz frozen portions of food versus opening up a 2-4 oz jar and needing to use it all up.  Side note, I still started Randal with new foods one at a time to allow for any allergic reaction...she only ever reacted to pineapple by having diaper rash due to the acidity so we stopped that.  

*Consistency- Jarred baby food is soupy, very soupy.  It drips off the spoon and I'm sure there is more water than food.  By blending my own I was able to adjust the consistency to my liking (or Randal's).  

What tools did I use?

*Food processor (best for large quantities)

*Steamer basket

*ice cube trays

The above are the only things you need, but below are some other tools that come in handy.

*Beaba baby cooker (small quantities only...perfect for a bag of frozen veggies)

*emersion blender

*food mill (I didnt get this until a couple months ago....literally will shave 45 mins off of making applesauce since you don't have to peel.  Not a must but I would totally get one if you can)

*Apple corer (notice I listed corer only...I hate the ones that cut for you too!)

*Baby food cookbooks are a good reference for learning what freezes and what doesn't and they can also help you with food combinations.  The books I have are: The Baby and Toddler Cookbook, Cooking Light: First Foods, and The Complete Idiots Guide to Cooking for Your Baby

Other notes

*Making in bulk and freezing in ice cube trays and later popping them out for storage in ziplocs means you only need to cook one a month (or maybe two).

*Tidal Creek is a great place to get organic foods in Wilmington since we don't have a large organic grocery store like Whole Foods.  TC's prices are awesome...if they were closer and I was a better meal planner I would shop there more for Matt and I.  Their organic produce is sometimes less than the conventional produce at the grocery store.

*Check out the dirty dozen list for the foods that you should always try to eat organic if you want to only do some organic.

*Thinning out is easier than bulking up.  I purposely kept her food a bit thick when I froze it because I was only cooking once a month (or two) and she may have required thicker food by the end of the month...when it needed to be thinned out I just added water when I heated it up.

So here's some pics from an afternoon of baby food making back in September (this post has been a long time coming!).

Lots of organic produce from Tidal Creek.  Some of the items included are: leeks, ground turkey, pears, apples, dried apricots, peas, pineapple, butternut squash, yellow squash, zucchini, sweet potatoes, lentils, rice, parsley, carrots, asparagus, beets, etc....

My little helper :)  Like I said this was in September...she has changed so much!

The kitchen in the midst of the chaos...no judgement on the mess please :)

A closer look:

Steaming carrots and peas.  Veggie broth complete and set aside waiting to making rice or water down purees.  Pineapple and peaches waiting to be cooked and pureed in the Beaba.

Peas and something else (dont remember, corn maybe?) cooked but waiting their turn to be pureed.  More peas in the Beaba (did I mention my girl likes peas).  Asparagus waiting its turn.  Pears waiting to be peeled, coored, and steamed. 

Above pears are now in the steamer, veggies from the veggie broth waiting to be pureed, and dried apricots rehydrating.

Gotta utilize the whole kitchen....sweet potatoes, white potatoes, butternut squash, and beets roasting

Fruits (and veggies!) of my labor.  

Okay, so if you are still hanging with me for this post.  Do you remember that I said a reason I made my baby food was because it was cheaper?  This particular trip to Tidal Creek cost me $90.  And made 42 ice cube trays full of baby food.  There are 14 cubes per tray and 1 cube equals an ounce.  I paid $90 for 588 ounces of baby food.  That is $.15 an ounce!!!!!  I'm sure there are ways to get this done even cheaper...like buying things only when they are on sale, but I only liked to cook once a month so I bought what I needed when I needed it.  A 2 oz jar of stage 1 baby food costs $.66 at the local HT ($.33 and ounce!!!)