Anyone make their own baby food?

KelleyA · November 2010

I'm hoping to make all of J's food and I'm not sure where to start. With A I just couldn't do it, but I'm determined to make as much of J's food as possible to ensure that we're all eating more veggies. Right now I have butternut squash, broccoli, green beans and bananas that need to be made into baby food.

From my brief searches online it seems that all of those except broccoli are first foods. We're hoping to start solids next week and we're going to do all things green first, so avacado and green beans are on the menu...how do I make purees of them?

Any books, supplies, etc. that are must haves? I know I need trays, what do you recommend? How about taking food with you, what do you use to store it when you're on the go?

Thanks gals!

thehoneybadger · November 2010

Ice cube trays worked best for us. Store the cubes in ziploc baggies. If you need to go out just throw the cubes in a small tupperware container and they will thaw pretty quickly. I used https://www.wholesomebabyfood.com/

as a resource to know what to cook and when I could serve it based on age.

cali_girl92504 · November 2010

I make most of my own baby food but I do get a few jars of Earth's Best as well. I use the website already recommended and got this book as well. When I ordered the book from Amazon I ordered this tray since each square is a 1 oz serving. When I'm on the go, I either take a jar of Earth's Best or take a few oz of food I make in a glass, airtight jar I ordered from Babysteals while I was pregnant. I usually take the premade stuff so I can just toss the jar where I am. If you don't complete thaw it out it will last longer. I usually take veggies half-thawed and ask for a cup of hot water to thaw it out in (in the airtight container) where ever I go.

The avocados I just mashed, pushed through a sieve and mixed with breastmilk. The green beans I used a food processor after I steamed them and mixed with breastmilk as well.

savannah11 · November 2010

Ditto wholesomebaby.com. We either steamed in the microwave or baked in the oven, added some water, and pureed everything in the magic bullet. We bought little plastic containers that were freezable and microwaveable so we could just thaw and feed straight out of them. I was able to just take the whole container to daycare. I don't know where DH got them though.

melrrr · November 2010

We swiped rrr's mom's old food mill from his dad's house and I loved that for peas and green beans because it would strain out the tougher skins before she was ready for the. But that's not a necessity. We did most with our food processor.

Most of the time I didn't bother with ice cube trays. If you don't have a side by side fridge and can fit a cookie sheet in your freezer I found it much easier to use my 1 TBS cookie scoop to drop scoops onto wax paper and freeze.

Don't forget avocado. She never ate much at once sitting so I would freeze it. It got a little brown but didn't affect the flavor.

jen5-03 · November 2010

I made almost all of DD's. Pretty much what everyone else said. Wholesombabyfood.com for ideas and tips, I froze some in ice cubes and some in little lumps both on a cookie sheet and in a silicone muffin tin, and then transferred them to bags.

But I usually bought a jar of Earth's Best before I made a food so I knew that she'd like it before I went through the effort.

With DS, I bought a dozen or so jars of Earth's Best to test things out. But he kept stealing food from DD's plate and mine... and I never did make any babyfood, he just went to table foods. Talk about easy! Oh, I should mention that after a couple bowls of cereal at 6mo he rejected any further solids until 7.5mo, so he was 8mo when he was eating table foods.

I had some Avent breastmilk storage cups that I used to send DD's food to daycare or carry with us. Just make sure whatever you transport it in seals really well - I like screw on lids best.

lilbitnmag · November 2010

Everyone else gave great suggestions and mentioned exactly what we do. Just another tid bit a little goes a long way. You will only need one sweet potato, butternut squash, acorn squash and will still end up with two or more ice cube trays full which fills a quart size freezer bag. Fruits vary due to size, but I used 3 plums making a full tray. You get the idea Cool

Applesauce was easier to buy and divide up into individual servings to freeze. All the food is really easy and fast to make.

kreeper611 · November 2010

I made all of Cooper's food - SO easy and worth it. I got some of those trays with the lids (and borrowed 2) so I had 4 total. I would work on a Sunday cooking and pureeing everything, then freeze it. Once things were pureed, I'd put them in the fridge until I had free trays to use.

We started first with English peas, then green beans (hated), sweet potatoes, butternut squash, apples, carrotts etc. Apples are sort of a PITA and not as economical because of all of the work, but butternut squash is the best deal! Peas, peaches, beans - I bought frozen. Look at wholesomebabyfood.com for recipes and a guideline.

I would suggest taking one day to cook and puree a LOT of food. Then either do that every so often, or you could just do one item at a time as needed.

Sweet potatoes & squash - I would take and bake those together in the oven, dig them out of the skin and run through the food processor. I have a pot that has a steamer on top of it so I steamed everything else. Once he got a little older and could eat things chunkier I would use the immersion blender, since I wasn't as worried about chunks in the food.

Cooper never liked avacado. Since we would eat them on salads, I would just buy and smash it as needed...but he always spit it out. Now that he's much older I still sometimes steam and chop food for him to eat, but I haven't made baby food in a month or so. I just drop frozen veggies into the steamer for him. Oh, and I never bought organic - I just went with what was on sale to plan what I was going to make.

kreeper611 · November 2010

To add, Cooper was never really a fan of the jars of food. I bought a few different kinds, but he was never a fan. I still have containers in my pantry.

CindyandScott · November 2010

AggieKristin:
Ice cube trays worked best for us. Store the cubes in ziploc baggies. If you need to go out just throw the cubes in a small tupperware container and they will thaw pretty quickly. I used https://www.wholesomebabyfood.com/

as a resource to know what to cook and when I could serve it based on age.

This. I would make a bunch on a Sunday and buy things when they were on sale and make them ahead. For steaming things like carrots I bought some of the steam bags by Ziplock that I could just throw in the microwave. So easy!

If we were going somewhere when I knew we would need to eat soon I would go ahead and heat up whatever I was going to feed her and throw it into one of those little Gerber bowls with a lid right out of the microwave and it would stay warm to room temp.