Monday, February 21, 2011

Baby Food

I learned how to make homemade baby food at a mom's group I attend.  I was super excited to try it out.  The first thing I did was sweet potatoes.  

I bought 2 sweet potatoes at the store for under $2. 

The first step was to peel and chop them.

Then, as you see below, boil them until they're soft.  3 is to puree, which I used a food processor for.  {A blender supposedly works as well.}

Step 4- blend and blend {or process and process?} until it's as smooth as you can get it.  Add water from the pot you boiled the food in to get it the right thickness for your babies' age.  The younger they are, the thinner it should be.  Also, you keep the water you boiled it in to use because that water has vitamins in it from the boiled food. 

Step 5 & 6- scoop out and pour into containers.  I used washed baby food containers and ice cube trays.   After doing both, I prefer the ice cube trays.  After they freeze, you put them all in a freezer ziploc bag.  Then you can get as little or many cubes out at a time.  The little baby food containers can be hard find in the freezer and get lost. 
Step 7- label your bag {if you used one} with what it is and the date.
For less than $2, I made a TON more baby food than you could buy with $2. 

It wasn't hard and I actually enjoyed doing it.  I can't wait to try a new vegetable... maybe carrots next!

3 comments:

Miranda said...

This is GREAT! I want to do this!

Amanda Duke said...

I made a lot of the boys' baby food. One really good one is squash with apples. I would just cut a butternut squash in half and scoop out the seeds. Then I would chop up apples and put them in the center of the squash. You can put a little bit of cinnamon on it too if you want. Place in a pan with a little bit of water in the bottom, cover with foil, and bake in the oven until soft. Then I just scooped it out and pureed it in the food processor. It was actually quite yummy and the was definitely the boys' favorite.

Amy @ Increasingly Domestic said...

Rockstart Mom award! Great job Jenna!

I made most of Travis' babyfood(and still do) using the book Super Baby Foods(great book) and Wholesomebabyfood.com.

I still make purees to mix into his oatmeal and to mix with rice as well as adding some to our family meals for added veggie power.