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D.C. Area Babies
Working moms, did/do you have the time
To make baby food? I'm feeling guilty for relying on Gerber purees. I made batches of avocados, carrots, sweet potatos and pears a few times, but with work, limited time on the weekend and just plain convenience, I have fallen back on pre-made baby food.
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Re: Working moms, did/do you have the time
when Warner was that age I was in school full time (so not technically working, but still very busy). and I had grand plans for making all of his food...I must have been high.
I tried it for about a month but I just couldn't keep up. But I'm also not terribly organized, so someone who is good about planning ahead could probably make it work better than I did.
I just felt a lot less stressed when I decided that Gerber wasn't the devil :-) Also, I really loved Earth's Best's purees...I fed him those a lot more. I still made some purees for him on the weekends and would give him some leftovers during the week, but switching to the premade stuff made life a lot easier.
I did about 1/2 and 1/2. It's hard to keep up.... don't stress yourself out over it. I made big batches and froze it.
J didn't really eat purees for *too* long... I was quick to give her (mushy) finger foods.
And.... she ate a lot of mushed up bananas. 
Good question. I tried at first and did so semi-successfully. However, I couldn't keep up with it. For one, I couldn't make the variety necessary. Secondly, I would make a huge batch of one thing all at once and it would end up being in the freezer too long and get freezer burn. Then I realized that buying the food is so much easier. So, for the most part, I did store bought. There's nothing wrong with it.
I'm still not quite ready to start Guinevere on solids, but I'm not even going to try to make my own food. With work, and DH working crazy hours, I don't feel even a little bit guilty about preferring to spend even the small amount of time it would take to make with her instead
Although, thinking about doing baby led weaning, which would eliminate need for purees all together...need to do more research.
This was basically me. I can barely manage to cook a meal for us adults once or twice a week, so I couldn't imagine actually cooking up a variety of veggies for purees to keep up with T's wants and needs.
I agree with all of this. I didn't even attempt it. I'd rather hang out with the LOs than make their purees, and the little down time I had I needed for rest and exercise so I could be a better mom all around. It wasn't worth the hassle for me. We primarily did Earth's Best and Gerber.
We did for the most part although DH did most of the cooking. Now that he's a little older we actually find ourselves using baby food a little bit more.
The purees are actually the easiest thing to make compared to other foods they eat when they are older.
It is hard, but we mostly did it for cost savings. It is so much cheaper than buying baby food.
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It never crossed my mind to make my own baby food.
I'm really impressed by people who do it though! 
I did make all of J's baby food. I had a Beaba, which made it a little easier. I would generally do it one weekend afternoon or on my telework day.
I agree with pp, purees were much easier. We did applesauce, carrots, peas, sweet potatoes, pears, uh . . . a bunch of other stuff. All organic.
Once we switched to the more textured stuff, we did things like roasted bananas and pears with quinoa, chicken, cheese and corn with couscous, sweet potato pancakes . . .
Ditto pp on wholesomebabyfood.com and weelicious.com for inspiring and helpful recipes and ideas.
BUT--don't feel bad if you don't do it all yourself! It was really important to me at the time (I don't even remember why now) but now that he's eating regular food I don't have an issue giving him (organic) chicken nuggets or Morningstar black bean burgers or whatever. He's not eating 100% organic homemade anymore.
TTC #2: BFP 12/17/11, m/c 1/7/12 and D&C 1/12/12
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With DD I made all of her baby food, generally organic. I would make a big batch, freeze it in standard ice cube trays and then pop them into a freezer bag. Before she was done with purees, I would have about 10 different fruits and veggies on hand to mix and match as needed. I introduced mushy table food around 8 months and then DD just at components of whatever we were eating for each meal. (The leftover purees when DD switched to finger food, I just baked into muffins or added to pancake batter).
As to the joys of second child syndrome, with DS I made about half of his purees, generally from my garden (organic). A very generous co-worker gave me her stash of Earths Best and Safeway O Organics purees her son never got to and I used those as well. MY son didn't even finish them all (he won't eat purees anymore, he loves self feeding). Now he gets whatever table food we are having for dinner cooked mushier.
I have never been as good as tomandcourt about making separate mushy food for my kids. If what we were having for dinner did not appeal, I would feed the child leftovers or a banana and cheerios. Love bananas, the easiest baby food ever.
Not a working mom, so my input may not mean much. But I made all of DD's baby food. Some stuff could be time-consuming, so skip those kinds if you want. But having a Magic Bullet or small food processor handy is great for things like whipping up some banana or a fruit-and-yogurt mix on the spot. And my crock pot is a huge help. I could prep a large amount of something, throw it in, and let the pot do its thing (unlike the dozen or so times I steamed things on the stove and then forgot about them...or forgot to add water in the first place...oops). Used my immersion blender for a minute, and it was good to go. Like sweet potatoes: preheat oven, roast in foil, wait for them to cool, scoop, mash, freeze = a pain. Peel, roughly chop, and toss in the crock pot with a little water = easy. And I've made and frozen tons of apple sauce this way in the past month.
I definitely get why people don't make their own baby food a priority. DS was an unpredictable eater as a baby, so I'd make a batch of something he'd previously liked and then he'd refuse to touch it. I relied on Gerber a lot more with him because I was tired of wasting food - and it was easier with a toddler who also needed to be fed. But it doesn't have to be an all-or-nothing thing.
I definitely "work" at least 40hrs/wk between class, homework, my p/t job & watching Sprout during the week & I made 99% of his food.(now he just eats what we eat)
Like a PP, I find cooking pretty relaxing & also found making purees ridiculously easy. Honestly, most of it was bags of organic produce (peas, green beans, spinach/collard greens, squash, beans, mango, peaches, etc.) I would cook a little longer & then puree. I'd also make a big batch of oatmeal and barley. Within one weekend naptime, I could make a month's worth of food with tons of variety. I did to it primarily b/c of cost reasons, though. Sprout eats an amazing quantity of food and buying those jars would have bit crazy expensive, especially since we're basically on 1 income right now.
I did half and half as well. It took me about an hour on the weekends to puree fruits and veggies. I often bought frozen items, defrosted and then pureed. It was cheaper than Gerber and I didn't feel like I *had* to make all his food. We have a mini-Cuisinart which allowed me to make small batches of food to make sure he liked something before we had a ton of it.
With DD1 I produced (BM) or made every little thing she ate her first year (except for puffs and cheerios) - even her "cereal". She started solids at 6 months. Cooking is a stress reliever for me and I loved doing it. Jarred food never crossed her lips.
With DD2 (almost 13 months) it's a different story. She basically wouldn't eat solids until she was 10-11 months old, so while I made stuff, it was mostly thrown away. Once she took to it we moved out of purees pretty fast. So now I make some stuff to freeze (chunks of sweet potato, squash, etc.) and I try to give her some form of what we're eating that night (finger foods). The other day Wegman's had the Sprout Organic baby food on sale so I bought some just to have when we are out and about (not really intending to use it). She loves it. I'm facing a two week stretch of DH being gone, so I'm planning to buy more of it. It supplements whatever else I give her and makes stressful nights easier on me.
For me, making food is easy and I enjoy it. If you don't, then don't stress. There are lots of good options out there. I've tasted the Sprout food and it's pretty good. I've tasted other baby foods and I think they are gross. My philosophy is that the closer it is to the real thing, the less of a shock it is when they do have the real thing (pureed peas vs the real, etc.).
I wouldn't stress about using jarred food. I was able to make all of DD's food, but it was a money thing for me; I seriously wanted to save.
I'd usually make two ice cube trays full of one food at a time and do one each night and then pop them out in the morning. My food processor had never been used so much before. I think it would usually take only about 20 minutes total.
I did buy baby yogurt and cereal as well as puffs for finger food. And DD got teeth and began chewing pretty quickly to the point that she was completely off purees by 10.5 months.
Yes, I did make all of DS#1s food. The caveat here is that I didn't do anything fancy. If it had to be pureed for him to eat it, I didn't give it to him. So, me making his food consisted of baking a sweet potato, or a butternut squash, scooping out the inside, mashing with a fork, and adding some breastmilk to it. I didn't portion it, didn't put it in cute little trays, or anything. It went into a plain ol' rubbermaid container and we would just scoop some out when it was mealtime.
We would switch foods every 3-4 days. We did the aforementioned foods, avocado, carrots, mango, banana, etc. We did eventually get a cheap grinder, and would just grind up what we were eating when he got past the mashed food stage.
Hi, I make my own baby food using the Baby Brezza. It's so simple and easy to use because it steams, purees and blends in one step. It's also very easy to clean. I also make batches of avacados, carrots, sweet potatoes and pears, etc. I just mix them up, only takes a few minutes with the Brezza and even store them (fridge) in the Brezza for a few days until you're ready to eat. It's just as easy as store bought and the container is portable. Also, you know that you're baby is eating organic fruits and veggies!