Making Your Own Baby Food

MuffinMom14 · August 2014

Out of curiosity...I picked up some stuff on Zulily a week ago or whatever, and they were the little 2 or 4 oz baby food containers that you can freeze.

We do plan on making our own (I know it's a ways off), and I sort of forget how many I ordered, but what's a good number of each size container to just have if I want to freeze stuff? Not in HUGE quantities. Maybe even only for a week at a time or something. I just want to figure out if I need another pack or something if I happen to see them on Zulily again or on sale.

futuremrsnjoroge · August 2014

@BobKat22I read the tip to use ice cube trays on Pinterest. How many cubes would be used for one meal when they first start eating solid foods?

MuffinMom14 · August 2014

This ice cube tray thing is intriguing to me! I'm going to have to take to The Google.

futuremrsnjoroge · August 2014

These are such great tips! Especially the part about not filling a cube all the way up at the beginning. Thanks a ton!

JessAnnJ · August 2014

I used these and double bagged them in ziplock bags. I would make 2 or 3 things per weekend. We served 1, 1 oz cube per feeding in the beginning. We served each new thing for several days to test for allergies so only making a couple things per weekend was not a problem. We used a hand mixer and a food processor.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B004A9ZF3Y/ref=mp_s_a_1_2?qid=1408062197&sr=8-2&pi=SX200_QL40

meggiev123 · August 2014

We also used ice cube trays and ziplocks. I'd suggest doing fairly big batches, it'll save you a lot of time and you'll always have a few different options in the freezer.

MuffinMom14 · August 2014

Thanks for all the suggestions!

I feel like I should come clean and admit that I'm certainly not making any baby food. I don't even make my own food. My husband does all the cooking. He is interested in the baby food making.

An early FFFC.

pnwlover12 · August 2014

I sort of feel guilty for not making our own food. It does seem easy and pretty economical..

2goingon3 · August 2014

I always use the ice cube trays and ziplocks for meats, but I did end up keeping jarred fruits and veggies on hand instead of making those (although I totally agree that it probably wasn't hard!!) I couldn't stomach the jarred meat, and when making my cubes, I used ground meat as well because boiling and puree-ing a chicken breast just did not seem appetizing.

pnwlover12 · August 2014

Happyin14 said:
@pnwlover12 don't feel guilty! Whatever works. I will say it IS easy and cheaper, I think. One sweet potato lasts like a week! And I felt at the time like there was more variety if I did it. But now I walk the aisles and there are so many new food companies and options!

1 sweet potato for a week?! I like the sound of that!

MorganWP · August 2014

I made DD's baby food. We also went the ice cube tray and ziplock bag way. But we also used the little container things for taking food on the go. So don't think that you wont use them at all.

Also, I think I've mentioned it somewhere here before but I used to just make extra veggies or whatever at dinner time and then puree it and put it into the trays. Instead of getting flustered over when to squeeze in time to actually do it.

I also had this little guy for the pureeing.

I liked it mostly because it was small and easy to clean so I didn't have to drag out my gigantic blender just for baby food.

MorganWP · August 2014

pnwlover12 said:

@pnwlover12 don't feel guilty! Whatever works. I will say it IS easy and cheaper, I think. One sweet potato lasts like a week! And I felt at the time like there was more variety if I did it. But now I walk the aisles and there are so many new food companies and options!
1 sweet potato for a week?! I like the sound of that!

Pretty much. And sweet potatoes are like 60 cents soo... (at least they are where I am)

HappyCianci · August 2014

We received some cute baby food freezer trays as hand-me-downs, and I filled them up a couple of times, but rarely actually went to the trouble of defrosting them to feed my son.

It seems convenient and healthy to have homemade baby food stashed away in the freezer, but we found that it was just as healthy and even more convenient to just toss the baby little bits of our own meals. I also found it the ultimate motivator to eat healthy food myself... if my kid is going to grab something off my plate, I had better fill it with good stuff!

I know I'm not addressing your exact question, but I thought I'd put in my two cents, since you already got lots of good answers. Either way, kudos for planning fresh homemade food for your LO!

BreandMikewedding · August 2014

I used the baby bullet and it had a little silicone tray that you could freeze in and then pop them out into a ziploc. I would think silicone ice cube trays would be easier than regular ice cube trays. I also froze stuff in Tupper ware containers and then thawed as I needed stuff. My ds was a big eater so I froze bigger portion sizes for him. It was super easy for anyone considering making your own. It saved us a ton of money on baby food and I liked that I knew exactly what was in his food. I was totally grossed out when I realized lots of jarred baby food is good for years. 3 year old chicken sounds disgusting. One bunch of spinach makes an incredible amount of baby food! Also keep in mind that you feed baby each new food for at least 4 days to make sure they don't have any allergies. The tip about using ground meat is a great idea. I didn't think of that and pureed meat is kind of weird.

MrsSarahRenee · August 2014

Not to hijack your thread but...
Those of you who used baby bullet and/ or blenders, do you think a nutribullet would work or do I need something different?

trisharenee0316 · August 2014

MrsSarahRenee said:

Not to hijack your thread but... Those of you who used baby bullet and/ or blenders, do you think a nutribullet would work or do I need something different?

I hated the baby blender thing. I bought the Beaba Babycook and it took some of the fun out of cooking because it felt like everything took for.ev.er. For example, I bought a case of peaches to make peach puree. The blade on the Babycook definitely isn't strong enough to puree the skins very well with the peach. So I had to skin all the beaches. The Babycook is also pretty small, so I could fit in let's say something like 4 peaches diced up. It was nice to have one machine to steam and then puree the fruit, but the process seemed like it took forever (and I was someone who cooked in big batches and not once per week or something like that).

This time I plan on using a regular blender for the purees. We are getting a Vitamix soon which I know purees the skins very well, so I don't have to worry about the skins not getting ground small enough (and the food will keep the nutrients found in the skins of certain fruits). And I can just steam the fruits in the oven. I'll take the trade of doing a few more dishes over taking much less time.

BreandMikewedding · August 2014

I would think you could use any food processor as long as it blends the food to mush. I thought the baby bullet had enough space. I would put what I could in, blend it, pour it in containers and then put more in the baby bullet and repeat. I liked all the other accessories that came with it too. It was super easy to clean. Once my ds had tried all kinds of food I would make huge batches of several different foods all.on one day and I would just swish some soap and water in the blender in between each food and that was enough to clean it out. Then I would throw it in the dishwasher when I was done with everything.

crystal8503 · August 2014

I really enjoyed making my son's food and actually really liked the baby bullet. I also steamed things on the adobe to speed things along, but I felt the products worked well for us. I love being able to use the milling blade to make my own quinoa cereal, brown rice cereal and oatmeal. There aren't any gluten free options that I could find for those grains and opted to make my own. It was shopper easy. I preferred to store things in individual freezer containers - OXO are great for that, in my opinion.

crystal8503 · August 2014

Forgot to me ton that we started solids at 6 months and he only did purees for a month. He was really interested in doing it himself and ended up doing BLW for lunch and dinner. He was lazy at breakfast and preferred to be fed purees until about 9.5 months. I usually had milk pumped in the fridge and would use that to get the consistency I wanted when preparing his meal.

MorganWP · August 2014

I liked the munchkin processor because like I said, it was small but still held quite a bit. I have a ridiculously large blender and so it wasn't worth it for me to bring it out if I was only doing like a few apples at a time.

MuffinMom14 · August 2014

Happyin14 said:

@pnwlover12 don't feel guilty! Whatever works. I will say it IS easy and cheaper, I think. One sweet potato lasts like a week! And I felt at the time like there was more variety if I did it. But now I walk the aisles and there are so many new food companies and options!

I agree. Don't feel guilty. I'm just super frugal. I'll be devastated if I can't breast feed, and it's seriously more because it's cheap than it is "BETTER FOR BABY" and whatnot. But, as I've already confessed, the one thing I will spend money on is disposable diapers.

MuffinMom14 · August 2014

WildFlower810 said:

Lurking from N14 (please don't hate me). This is what I'm planning on doing. Purchasing a baby food grinder for $7, https://www.target.com/p/munchkin-fresh-food-grinder/-/A-14323635?ref=tgt_adv_XSG10001&AFID=google_pla_df&LNM=14323635&CPNG=Appliances&kpid=14323635&LID=3pgs&ci_src=17588969&ci_sku=14323635&kpid=14323635&gclid=Cj0KEQjwvLGfBRDfkrr19KDS-7YBEiQA8CoFJ93_hhTBBQpzJcxPbE4Z40ZPIPAFx_6UUOtPtucW-hoaAo228P8HAQ, and then whatever the adults are eating for a given meal gets scooped, ground, and fed to baby. No extra cooking, 1 minute of prep right then and there, and everyone is happy.

You're allowed to lurk! And post!

I thought about getting the thing you linked, but my husband said "we have a steamer basket and a Ninja blender. Isn't that the same?" A friend also told me that if you have those things already, you don't need the "special" baby food making things. But, I'm a newb, so I am not the authority on such matters.

MuffinMom14 · August 2014

HappyCianci said:

We received some cute baby food freezer trays as hand-me-downs, and I filled them up a couple of times, but rarely actually went to the trouble of defrosting them to feed my son.

It seems convenient and healthy to have homemade baby food stashed away in the freezer, but we found that it was just as healthy and even more convenient to just toss the baby little bits of our own meals. I also found it the ultimate motivator to eat healthy food myself... if my kid is going to grab something off my plate, I had better fill it with good stuff!

I know I'm not addressing your exact question, but I thought I'd put in my two cents, since you already got lots of good answers. Either way, kudos for planning fresh homemade food for your LO!

It's a good point, though. I've said over and over that I want this kid to eat what we do. OR. She doesn't eat. Now, remind me of that when she refuses to eat dinner and we send her to bed hungry and she wakes up at 2 am screaming because her mother is starving her to death. But. That's our general idea. I dislike when people make separate meals for kids.

But again, we'll see how it plays out.

bumpuser10309732 · August 2014

This is why I asked for a giant Kitchenaid food processor for Christmas. Also wanted to throw out there- muffin trays work too for freezing the baby food. That's what my SIL did. Just obviously don't fill it to the top that's a bit much ;-)

MuffinMom14 · August 2014

Nicb13 said:

SPurp13 said:

WildFlower810 said:

Lurking from N14 (please don't hate me). This is what I'm planning on doing. Purchasing a baby food grinder for $7, https://www.target.com/p/munchkin-fresh-food-grinder/-/A-14323635?ref=tgt_adv_XSG10001&AFID=google_pla_df&LNM=14323635&CPNG=Appliances&kpid=14323635&LID=3pgs&ci_src=17588969&ci_sku=14323635&kpid=14323635&gclid=Cj0KEQjwvLGfBRDfkrr19KDS-7YBEiQA8CoFJ93_hhTBBQpzJcxPbE4Z40ZPIPAFx_6UUOtPtucW-hoaAo228P8HAQ, and then whatever the adults are eating for a given meal gets scooped, ground, and fed to baby. No extra cooking, 1 minute of prep right then and there, and everyone is happy.

You're allowed to lurk! And post!

I thought about getting the thing you linked, but my husband said "we have a steamer basket and a Ninja blender. Isn't that the same?" A friend also told me that if you have those things already, you don't need the "special" baby food making things. But, I'm a newb, so I am not the authority on such matters.

I personally think that any food making machine that's marketed strictly for making baby food is a waste of money. Steam the food on the stove in a pan, then blend it up in a blender, food processor or a Bullet. Done. It's really, really easy, just a tad time consuming.

Good to know--that was my thought on the matter when I first saw the special tools for baby food making.

ss265 · August 2014

I made baby food for DS but it was kind of a pain, mainly because I am not used to devoting one day a week to cooking large batches. I like the idea of pureeing things as you make them though and will likely do that for DS2. If anyone is interested, here are the ice cube trays I got - I really wanted something with a lid and at the time, these seemed to be the best choice.

For transporting food on the go, I used the Gerber baby food bowls. They are BPA free, microwave safe and come with lids. I would just pop an ice cube of frozen food into it and snap on the lid and then feed directly from the bowls.

And ditto PP, you don't need a special baby food maker. You can probably make do with kitchen stuff you already have.

https://www.amazon.com/Mumi-Bubi-Starter-Compact--Recipes/dp/B004A9ZF3Y/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1408119865&sr=8-1&keywords=mumi+ice+cube+trays

https://www.amazon.com/Gerber-Graduates-Free-Bunch-A-Bowls-Colors/dp/B000RFC3BM/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1408120008&sr=8-1&keywords=baby+bowls

MsMacual · August 2014

We did a lot of the things that have been suggested- made batches, froze in ice cube trays, stored in a ziplock freezer bag. I usually used our immersion blender when I was making purees. I would rather invest in kitchen stuff that we can use for more than preparing baby food.

I highly recommend the book Super Baby Food- the author breaks down when to introduce just about everything.

turtlewifey · August 2014

BobKat22 said:

I also didn't buy into any baby food making products. I used a steamer basket I already owned and my blender. Got the job done just fine.

This worked great for me as well. No need to buy the fancy baby food makers if you already have a tool that can puree (blender, processor, food mill, etc.).

I did buy some jarred baby food and I ended up keeping all the jars and then making/freezing my own food in them. Once they are eating a bit more, they are the perfect serving size for a meal.

In fact, I still use them today to freeze veggies, sauces, etc. that I've cooked for DD. They are the perfect portion for side of veggies with a meal.

SusieBW · August 2014

Everyone has already said all the basic stuff I would say - ice trays, ziplocks, regular food processor, big batches, etc.

I second the book Super Baby Food - I still reference it for help with preparing and storing some veggies, and it has a ton of helpful stuff in it. I chose it after borrowing 6-7 baby food books from the library and skimming all of them before deciding which one to buy.

I also recommend the website wholesomebabyfood.momtastic.com. Lots of ideas and advice.

The only other thing I would add is not to limit yourself to only steaming food - don't foget about roasting, grilling, etc. (cook stuff however you like it, just don't season it until you serve it). Because that's the other thing - don't be afraid to give your kid seasonings and spices! And making your own baby food is a great way to play around with that. Obviously try the food plain first and make sure your kid will tolerate it, there is no allergy, etc, but then try mixing a little of this or that into it. DD absolutely LOVED curried peas when she was a baby. And she really loves Indian food now, too.

Have fun with it.

bitsybubbles7 · August 2014

We used a steam basket, Magic Bullet, and small tubberware containers to make/store the baby food. I usually made food once a week. It was pretty slick.

erinchrisitne424 · August 2014

SPurp13 said:

Nicb13 said:

SPurp13 said:

WildFlower810 said:

Lurking from N14 (please don't hate me). This is what I'm planning on doing. Purchasing a baby food grinder for $7, https://www.target.com/p/munchkin-fresh-food-grinder/-/A-14323635?ref=tgt_adv_XSG10001&AFID=google_pla_df&LNM=14323635&CPNG=Appliances&kpid=14323635&LID=3pgs&ci_src=17588969&ci_sku=14323635&kpid=14323635&gclid=Cj0KEQjwvLGfBRDfkrr19KDS-7YBEiQA8CoFJ93_hhTBBQpzJcxPbE4Z40ZPIPAFx_6UUOtPtucW-hoaAo228P8HAQ, and then whatever the adults are eating for a given meal gets scooped, ground, and fed to baby. No extra cooking, 1 minute of prep right then and there, and everyone is happy.

You're allowed to lurk! And post!

I thought about getting the thing you linked, but my husband said "we have a steamer basket and a Ninja blender. Isn't that the same?" A friend also told me that if you have those things already, you don't need the "special" baby food making things. But, I'm a newb, so I am not the authority on such matters.

I personally think that any food making machine that's marketed strictly for making baby food is a waste of money. Steam the food on the stove in a pan, then blend it up in a blender, food processor or a Bullet. Done. It's really, really easy, just a tad time consuming.

Good to know--that was my thought on the matter when I first saw the special tools for baby food making.

I had one of those with my first son and they do not work well. They are a pain to use and a major pain to clean just a thought I know they are only $7 but it wasn't worth it for me. Pureeing in the blender workednmich better and easier cleanup.

golfingdarwinfish · August 2014

We bought a bunch of glass storage trays, but they won't be as practical as the silicone ones since it's harder to get the cubes out. I have few shapes and sizes, but we will see how long I actually use them before resorting to silicone or plastic.

LightBright515 · August 2014

I'm going to be making baby food. I just plan on roasting a lot of my foods rather than boiling/steaming them.

I'll most likely do silicone trays and freezer safe ziplock bags. I will also be trying spices with the guidance of my pediatrician in the future.

I already have a ninja blender, so unless I feel the need to purchase something better during the holidays, I won't bother.

hippohat · August 2014

I did regular ice cube trays (they pop out very easily) - Oxo makes trays with lids so I could stack them up until frozen. I just steamed/baked/boiled then used my regular blender - it worked great to make a big batch of each ingredient at once. Like others I kept an array of fruits/veg in the freezer, one cube was one serving.

If it hasn't been mentioned I found this site to be a great reference :https://wholesomebabyfood.momtastic.com

Want a personalized experience?

Making Your Own Baby Food

Re: Making Your Own Baby Food

Choose Another Board

Search Boards