When I had my son, that's exactly what happened. I decided I didn't really have excuses to not breast feed or make baby foods, etc. (p.s. Formula and baby food are expensive, yo?).
I think it's easy to be intimidated by making your own baby food. I know I was anyway. But after making a few batches, I realized it's not difficult at all.
I even recently did all the math to see if it was really worth it. On average, for the same amount of baby food in store purchased jars (that cost $1 or more - but sometimes less if you catch them on sale), I'm spending $0.20. Now that's a give or take 10 cents kind of thing, but that was the average.
That's with organic foods as well. You get the peace of mind of knowing your baby isn't getting any processed foods or preservatives. I also like the idea of making that transition to non-pureed foods too. My son won't have to accommodate for a whole new flavor of food again, just a new texture.
I found this pretty helpful resource online: Puree Recipes.
They have quite a few helpful recipes. But, I wanted to break it down even more simply than that for you.
Almost any fruit I'm making, I steam it for 20-30 minutes in my dual purpose rice cooker that has a handy steaming basket (here for $24.53). Except for bananas, and they don't have to get cooked.
Then, I pour it into my food processor (here for $39.99) for about 30 seconds on "chop" then 30 more seconds on "puree" (with 1/4 cup of liquid from steamer).
Then, tada! Baby food.
It. Is. That. Easy.
For vegetables, I sometimes bake or boil depending. I get bags of frozen vegetables that I'll boil for 20 minutes then puree. For potatoes I peel, and slice long ways, wrap in foil then bake at 400 degrees for 45-60 minutes then puree.
All of my puree batches get 1/4 cup of liquid.
I scrape that mush into ice cube trays, freeze, then pop out into labeled baggies.
I usually spend about half of a day every 2 weeks making food. Of course, you could just make small batches whenever you're cooking your own foods as well.
A trick I learned for when baby is getting a little older and ready for a little more texture is to mix the food with a mixer instead of pureeing it in the food processor. Just adjust the time you mix for more or less texture.
I also found that there is a brand called Organics that has some peeled and cubed frozen fruit bags. Time saver! I always get the mango this way, because I find it such a pain to peel and slice mango for some reason.
This is the best picture I found of the brand:
Sometimes I get lucky and find organic squash this way as well.
So... to say it simply:
- Steam/Bake/boil (20-60 minutes)
- Puree (60 seconds)
- Serve fresh or freeze in ice cube trays and store in baggies
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