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Pennsylvania Babies
Anyone make their own baby food?
I guess I should have said hello to everyone in my last post! It's been quite awhile since I've been on the board. So happy to see so many new BFPs! Congrats to all! 
We're planning on making our own food for Ella, or at least attempting I should say! Tomorrow we're headed to the outlets, so I might see if Williams & Sonoma has their baby food maker there. I was just curious if anyone on the board makes their own food and if you have any tips or recommendations. I figured I would buy the cookbook that they have as well, but wanted to start doing some other reading since she hits 5 months tomorrow and we'll be needing those solids before we know it
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Re: Anyone make their own baby food?
Hey! Looks like Ella is doing great!
We made most of Ethan's food. To be honest with you, I wouldn't waste your money on that baby food maker if you have a food processor. I used the Pampered Chef steamer that I have or baked Ethan's food then threw it in the food processor. It was super easy. I liked that I could control the texture too so as he got older I made it less pureed and he was able to experience different textures. I also used wholesomebabyfood.com as a resource. Babies typically eat purees for such a short period of time that I didn't want to spend a lot of money on extras. The only extra I invested in for making his food was babycubes to store the purees in. They were so handy to send to daycare and we actually still use them to send Ethan's lunch in (non purees). Good luck! I enjoyed making Ethan's food and being able to control what was going into it.
TTC since Jan 07. Dx with PCOS Jan 08
I loved having our magic bullet for it, but a blender would definitely work just as well! Definitely don't buy a book - just go to this site:
https://wholesomebabyfood.com/
They have tons of great suggestions, recipes as they get older, etc. Those cubes that Christina mentioned look awesome - wish we had had them because we still pull cubes out of the freezer sometimes to add to stuff. I just used an ice cube tray and did the same as innerpeace and just popped them out and put them in freezer bags and grabbed them as I need them. Think of stuff as you cook your own dinner, too for bits of food for her - baked sweet potatoes for dinner are great, green beans or pea or carrot leftovers can go in a blender, etc. Plus some of the easiest stuff you don't even need to cook - bananas and avocados are awesome foods to start with and just the right balance of the nutrition little ones need(espcially the avocados with the fats for brain development).
Definitely don't spend a ton of money because she may not even be a big fan of purees, etc. Both of my kids had next to no interest and basically just held off on solids for a bit longer than most and just skipped straight to table food with a transition of playing with purees and cereals in between.
Another great help as you start to transition into solids - I LOOOOOVE this book: The Healthiest Kid in the Neighborhood. It's Dr. Sears book and I love the suggestions. It will probably seem a bit past where she is, but it will seem like tomorrow that she's there and they have great suggestions and input for what kids need and special sections on feeding babies. Here's a link to info from him, too, if you don't feel like hunting down a book: https://www.askdrsears.com/html/3/T030100.asp
Ok, now I'm making this post waaay too long, but 3 last things:
1. Don't stress if she doesn't eat much, especially now. Learning to eat solids are a social thing and fun for now and not much as far as nutritional intake.
2. Learn about infant/toddler portion sizes because it'll make you feel better as she gets a bit bigger and starts eating them more. Some days it feels like they eat next to nothing and knowing that a serving of fruits or veggies for little ones is one tablespoon per year of age, breads/grains are about 1/4 of an adult serving and protein is 1/2 of an ounce makes it easier to see that they are getting what they need.
3. One of the best bits of advice about feeding kids I've loved is to think of what they get nutritionally over the course of a few days or a week rather than each day. That way if they just want certain things each day and don't eat much, it's easier to see that they're getting a balanced diet over the course of a few days.Ditto everything previously said. All you need is wholesomebabyfood.com, a blender or food pro, a steamer basket, and ice cube trays.
Carrots, sweet potatoes, peas, squash, and various fruits were all hits and super easy to make. I could never get green beans the right consistancy, so I always bought them jarred.
You can wind up with a freezer full of one thing (a single squash makes a ton of cubes) so if you have a friend with a LO around the same age, you could have a little baby food party and split the food or each make some on your own and trade.
I gotta say I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE Cooking for Baby, the Williams Sonoma book. Especially now that we can do more "cooking" rather than just pureeing. I wrote about it recently. The Web sites are good, too, but the book is my go-to inspiration in the kitchen. It has basic steaming/roasting instructions for just about every fruit and veggie, the pictures are fabulous, and the older-baby recipes are a little more fancy than the basics. DH and I have actually eaten some of the recipes as side dishes to our own dinners!
As for the Beaba baby, I have one, and I'm on the fence about it. I didn't use it at all in the beginning because I did big batches of food that just wouldn't fit in the tiny food processor. Instead I used my boat motor. But now that we're on to a new stage of food, it is really, really handy to have the blend-and-steam machine on my countertop for a quick dinner concoction. Homemade hummus and defrosted veggies in no time. And it was a gift, so I didn't have to spend the money on it.
I was just about to post about this topic asking for advice on cook books. By chance, I orderd this book from Amazon with some other supplies. I did not know it was a Williams Sonoma book - so not I am even more excited to get this in the mail! Though I will be at the puree stage for the next few months once we start solids in earnest (she has had only some small amounts of cereal so far) I am so excited to cook for her and see how she reacts to different tastes and textures. Thanks for the great advice on this post.