Making my own baby food

Ok, so I am a little kitchen challenged but am discovering that due to lack of products where I live that I will have to make my own stage one baby foods. The plain stuff. What is the easiest one to make - perhaps carrots?
Do I just peal, steam and then stick them in the food processor? Then into ice cube trays, and then in freezer bags marked with the date?
What about peas - use frozen peas, steam them, then do I have to strain them to get the shells out?
What about zuchini - do I have to peel it first?
As for Fruits - Do you steam fruits as well? Do you peel them first?
I have checked out some website, wholesomebaby - and it has been helpful, but I am such a dummy in the kitchen I need step-by-step instructions - with no steps left out!

Thanks

 

I didn't really try too many veg or fruits on their own... my rational was why carrots for 2 weeks then beans, etc. every book says something different. Who is allergic to carrots ? And why not brussel sprouts ?

So I went from cereal to pears to a mixture of everything else. Yes even custard and yogurt... (my pedi recommended and heck my formula's second listed ingredient is "low-fat milk product")

So peel whatever you have carrots, sweet potato, squash, pears, apples, and either one at a time or like me mix them up. Zucchini I didn't peel. Then microwave -- much easier. Get a hand held blender and mix away. I use a larger plastic container since with twins we go through it quicker. buy ones that stack nice in the freezer and buy say 6 or more. I used masking tape for the label.

I just made pear/ apple sauce then added cinnamon tonight. Then I made up like oatmeal but made with "oat bran" since it is smaller in size than regular oatmeal. Just need a small amount -- made it up like you do oatmeal (hot water) then added it to the pear/apple sauce mixture. This will be for breakfast tomorrow. Mine are 8 months and I'm trying to get things more chunky in texture.

With the blender you just puree less and less as they get older. I make food once a weekend and then use jars to fill in. This way I don't get sick of it.

Soon they can just eat what you are eating--

heather

 

I would probably puree in food processor and then strain because you don't want any lumps in there. I would assume for any fruit or veggie with a hard skin, you'd steam, peel, puree and strain. By steaming it you will break down the fibrous parts of the food and soften it. Let it cool for a bit, then peal (should be easier to peel for most things) and then puree.

Also, if you can get no sugar added applesauce you can give that to your kiddos. Oh and if you want to save a step by steaming or cooking, maybe you can get pealed canned fruits. Then you can just rinse it and puree and strain. GL!

 

Hey Isis,
I make all of my own baby food and always have. It's a lot cheaper. It's easy and fun too!! (I am a domestic-idiot so if I can do it-- anyone can.) I do not cook AT ALL... EVER! I never have. DH does all of the cooking.

So... here's what I have done.

In the beginning, I bought ALL organic stuff. Avocado is easy. You just cut it in half and dig it out w/ a spoon. You can blend it with something.. I always bought canned pears, rinsed them well with water and poured a can into the avocado mixture and blended. That way, the avocado wasn't too intense. You can add like 4 or so avocados and one can of strained/drained/rinsed pears. Pour from blender pitcher into ice cube trays. Freeze overnite and pop them out into a freezer bag. Soo simple.

I also bought and peeled yams, squash, pears, apples, carrots, green beans (didn't peel obviously) and COOKED them all day in the oven at 450. This is time consuming but a good way to keep all of the nutrients IN.

Now I just buy cans from Walmart of: Pears, Peaches, Peas, Green Beans, Pumpkin (soo easy you just serve them the pumpkin from the can and they love it-- add cinnamon if you want to.), carrots etc..

Anything that you can get in a can is good. I always rinse it well tho just in case there's salt or sugar. Once I've rinsed it, I pop it in the blender for a sec and then pour into ice cube trays, freeze and into freezer bags.

Like PP mentioned, for apples, you can just buy applesauce.. They have flavors of applesauce too and those are great.

You can also buy ANY frozen veggies or fruits, nuke them, mash them and you're set.

It's all very simple and you can pretty much use anything. I have blended cooked chicken breast with a veggie, steak, soups etc etc.. Lentils.. Pretty much anything!

Good luck. Once you get started you won't be able to stop.

 

You have it all right with your questions. In the beginning all foods should be cooked (even frozen peaches). I use a metal steamer in a regular pot on the stove. Then I cool the food and process it (I think my food processor is BPA so I don't do hot in it). The cooling first helps because lots of foods get more watery when frozen. I bought the trays with lids at BRU, they are great. Then I just pop the cubes into a ziplock, label and take out 2 cubes of this and of that each night and we have enough for the next day. I do big batchs and then just freeze/empty/refill for a day or so. It freezes fast in little cubes.

I find that organic produce is cheaper to make your own then even the non-organic packaged food. The easiest is sweet potatoes, carrots, broccoli, winter squash (frozen bags), peas. Green beans seem to get really watery but now we just give them whole beans. With making your own you can control texture and get way more variety.

Good luck - PM me if you need help as you go!

 

I might get laughed at for this, but I actually consulted "Martha Stewart" when I made baby food for my first child.

You can go to www.marthastewart.com and do a search for "baby food". There are good directions and some recipes there to get you started, if that helps!

 

Hi there, I'm sure you've visited wholesomebabyfood.com - I get a lot of recipes from there. Here's what I do:

Sunday: go grocery shopping for peas, carrots, sweet potatoes, butternut squash, apples etc. (you can buy all of these frozen if you want or buy them fresh and peel and dice them)

Steam each veggie or fruit in a Ziploc microwave steam bag and then process in a cuisinart mini-prep ($25 at target) add water to thin if needed - freeze in ice-cube trays (I recommend the silicone ones because they are easier to get the food out of). I never strained and the girls did just fine - if anything it got them used to texture.

Monday: take the cubes out of the trays and put them in individual zip-locs in two's (a serving size) write the name of the food and date with a sharpie. Food will last for two months just fine in the freezer.

Each evening: take out of the freezer enough food for the next day and put it in the fridge. If it's still frozen before meal time just put the plastic bag in a bowl of hot water.

It is super easy and super cheap and then you know what they are getting and who prepared it - with love!

 

I used wholesomebabyfood.com as well, it has great receipes and suggestions about what to offer when and how to make it!! I buy fresh or frozen (not canned), steam it and then put it in the blender to puree.

Good luck, it really is easy and cheap

 

No on has mentioned bananas yet - you don't have to cook those at all. Just like avocado, you mash them up really well and serve as is. You can do sweet potato and regular potato without a blender, too. I microwave them a couple for about 10 minutes, let them cool enough to handle, and then mash with some liquid...water is fine if you're going to freeze, or use breastmilk or formula if you're going to serve right away. Try to get all the lumps out for the first couple of months. Try to match the texture of the stuff you find in jars.

My babies favorites were squash, sweet potato, pears, and broccoli. I loved making the broccoli because it was so cheap, GREEN and they loved it...it's actually kind of sweet! Steam it a little more than you would for yourself - either in the microwave or on the stove - and then throw it in the blender with a little of the water you used to steam it. Like girls! said, add a bit more water if necessary.

We started meat around 7 or 8 months, a little early. I bought ground turkey and later lamb, cooked it gently in some water to keep it soft, and then put it in the blender and whizzed like mad. Dark meat turkey and lamb are great sources of iron and protein, but you might want to ask your pediatrician about when to start them.

I use the blender instead of the food processor because my kitchen is tiny and I hate hauling up the processor every time I make a batch of food...it works just fine.

 

This sounds not good but it actually is.... avocado, banana and either yogurt/ cottage cheese/ ricotta cheese

Heather

 

Some great tips - thanks all. I was so motivated I bought sweet potatoes (ok, my dh bought them because I don't get to really leave the house!), I boiled them, and then used our food processor and blended them, added some water to thin it out, then froze them in ice cube trays, then today I put them in labeled bags 4 portions/bag. I did it - I think it is right - we will see once I start to try and feed it to them, which is still a few weeks away.
Next I am on to carrots!

 

I started making baby food this weekend too. I also started with sweet potatoes on Saturday. I baked them for about an hour, scooped the insides into the food processor, added a little fresh breast milk, and pureed. I froze it in ice cube trays and then put the cubes into freezer bags. Yesterday I made acorn squash using the same process. I'm going to try some green veggies next, but the beans didn't look good at the grocery store, so I'll try later in the week.