What do you use? Food processor? Baby Bullet? Brand recommendations? This intrigues me, but I admit the motivation is there but the time might not be. Curious to see how others got started, what you use etc etc and why you make your own foods.
I bought a beaba babycook and love love love it. It's idiot proof. It both steams and purees. I ALWAYS boil the water out of the pan when steaming things in a basket. It's terrible. Burned broccoli water stinks up the house for weeks I'm just too distracted. I could set something to steam and it wound shut off when done...then I could pur?e when I had the chance. It doesnt make a ton at a time. But I didn't like to freeze food because I wanted it as fresh as possible. It's super easy to clean unlike a blender. It's pricey though. But it made it through both kids almost back to back. If we have another I'll probably get a new bowl because this one was washed with a non scratchproof sponge a couple of times and is really cloudy now because if it. But the machine itself is still like new.
I just used the food processor attachment to my blender. I also froze it in ice cube trays, all very easy. My pieces all were dishwasher safe and easy to take apart, no issue with cleaning.
I didn't do all foods, and most I did were roasted in the oven. They tasted better IMO than steamed.
I made the food to save money. I used the Magic Bullet with fruits and vegs, I would steam or bake- super easy. I used ice cube trays with lids that I found at Target and then dumped the "cubes" into labeled freezer bags. My best advice is to take one day/night of the week and just make a ton- then you're not washing parts/pans all the time.
I just used a food processor. I didn't do all foods (I bought some jars of the higher stages that mixed stuff together). Let's see-I did carrots, peas, applesauce, squash, sweet potatoes, cauliflower...can't think of any others off the top of my head. I would make a larger batch then do the ice cube trick as well-that way you're not making it all of the time.
I used the magic bullet. I would make a bunch of sweet potatoes, butternut squash, pears/bananas puree, etc. and then freeze in ice cube trays. Then I would pop them out into labeled bags. My kids would start with 1 cube of something which was like 15 sec (I think) in the microwave and then move up to 2 cubes or 1 of each. It was great. So much easier in the long run than buying foods.
I also used wholesomebabyfoods.com a lot. Really great info there, I don't think you need a cookbook with a great site like that.
With Tyler I made a lot more purees, but B was never into them so I just mashed her food and she liked that a lot better. Somethings you just don't need to do much with. Like avacoda, banana, pumpkin puree (I bought cans), I would just buy a regular jar of plain applesauce, I would buy and freeze prune juice instead of making prunes. When I did puree foods, I just used the food processor on my blender. Then froze everything in ice cube trays. It was really easy. I did buy processed baby oatmeal, but I only used it to mix with other things to get the consistancy I wanted.
A friend had given me a baby cook that I used and loved, but I did purees for less than a month before deciding BLWing was more for us. I still loved it for steaming, though.
Re: If you make your own baby food...
I just used the food processor attachment to my blender. I also froze it in ice cube trays, all very easy. My pieces all were dishwasher safe and easy to take apart, no issue with cleaning.
I didn't do all foods, and most I did were roasted in the oven. They tasted better IMO than steamed.
Thanks Ladies! And I hope some of this is idiot proof...because most of the time with things "baby" I feel like an idiot.
So...maybe a dumb question, but did you guys get a cookbook? Or just make single flavor foods?
https://wholesomebabyfood.momtastic.com/
I used this website a LOT
this is the website I used too. I just used a mini food processor to puree everything... or one of those stick blenders.
My girlfriend got the Baby Bullet (by the Magic Bullet) and she loves it. It comes w/ all the little containers to store/freeze the food.
I also used wholesomebabyfoods.com a lot. Really great info there, I don't think you need a cookbook with a great site like that.
With Tyler I made a lot more purees, but B was never into them so I just mashed her food and she liked that a lot better. Somethings you just don't need to do much with. Like avacoda, banana, pumpkin puree (I bought cans), I would just buy a regular jar of plain applesauce, I would buy and freeze prune juice instead of making prunes. When I did puree foods, I just used the food processor on my blender. Then froze everything in ice cube trays. It was really easy. I did buy processed baby oatmeal, but I only used it to mix with other things to get the consistancy I wanted.
Thanks for posting this, I'm planning on trying to make my own food as well but had no idea how to start...
DD2 8.22.13
MMC 1.4.17 at 16w
Expecting #3, EDD 1.29.18