making your own baby food?

I have been thinking about making my boys' baby food when they get ready. Is it cheaper or about the same as store baby food? Also, how hard is it to make and is there a website that I can go to so I can learn how to make it and what supplies I will need?

Just wanted some feedback!

 

I plan to make it for my twins, as I did with my two year old too. It is easy and cheaper than jarred food. I bought a book at Barnes and Noble to learn how to do it. You need either a food processor or a blender for most recipes. And, you can make a lot in one batch and freeze it, so it really is a money saver and a time saver.

 

I used this site to help when I was looking at baby food. I made some and bought some - I wasn't fanatical about making my own, but I found that there really wasn't any use to buying the packaged stuff except to have to take somewhere. Making my own was cheaper, easy, and tasted better. (and I never did the pre-packaged baby food meats - I couldn't stomach them, so why feed them to my babies!)

Have fun and take lots of pictures of your kiddos eating!

Baby Food Website

Edited to make link work

 

I love it. I have been making food for a month now and I have a full freezer! It is SO easy that I cannot believe it. I take $40 to the farmers market and buy fresh, organic fruits and veggies. I will have to admit, one spoon for Jonathan, one spoon for David, one spoon for mommy. It tastes so good.

I priced it out and one ice cube tray is about $10 jarred food from the grocery store (14oz)....I get about 48+ ice cubes trays a week from the produce I get at the market. My friend who is also doing the same as me and she goes through 5 ice cubes of food in a sitting. Her boys are 7 weeks older than mine.

Totally worth it!

Jenn

 

Do you heat up the ice cubes? Do you store the ice cube trays in anything or leave them open?

 

Hi - I've been making my own baby food from the time my girls started solids at 6 monts. I use the same website as referenced in one of the above posts, and a friend bought me a book, Annabel Karmel's "First Meals". I have found it to be a really useful book, & overall, I do think that making your own baby food is cheaper, especially if you buy fruits & veggies in season. I use "Fresh BabY" trays that I bought from Amazon.com. They have a lid, so it is really easy to fill them up, stick the lid on & stick them in the freezer. Once the food is frozen, I remove it from the trays & store it in the freezer in ziploc bags. I have managed to get by with only 2 trays, but I think 4 would be better, especially when you batch cook!

I'm at the point now where I cook extra of what my DH & I are eating, then puree it and freeze it. I have also always added lots of seasonings e.g. fresh herbs in meat and veggie dishes, also cnnamon and nutmeg and allspice. My girls are only 10 months old, so they are't really picky eaters yet. I'm sure it's coming, though!

 

like the prior posters said, you just cook, puree and freeze. I still actually do this somewhat with lentils... just so I can make up a big batch and freeze in smaller quantities.

I also found these great silicone style muffin pans that you can freeze in too... you'll be freezing a little more quantity... maybe 3 oz at a time, but once they start eating more its handy to have bigger sizes to choose from... and you may already have a muffin pan you can use to freeze in.

I also used the wholesomebabyfood.com website and the Super Baby Food book by Ruth Yaron.

You can also make the cereals that you need too... basically you buy the whole grains and grind them up in the blender for a few seconds. for breakfast I still do a mix of millet/barley/lentils/quinoa and 1/2 oatmeal. I don't grind it up anymore, but when I started, I just started with millet. there is great info on all the grains on that website. I never bought any of the baby cereals and our babies did great on their iron testing at 12 months. they never had any of the iron fortified cereals.

as for pricing... yes, it was cheaper, but more than that you know what's in your food and what's not... good luck!

 

Let freeze in ice cube trays open, pop into freezer bags and heat up what you want!

It is really nice knowing what is in their food. Plus, hae you seen the amount of sodium in some of the jars....WOW it is amazing and I dont cook with salt!

Anyways, I can't make any milk for my babies, but I can make baby food!

Jenn

 

I make it for my guys and feel so much better about it. I also started out w/ the wholesomebabyfood.com site and Ruth Yaron's book as mentioned above. The difference in color of my homemade food vs. the jarred stuff is amazing and its JUST food....no preservatives, added sugar, salt, etc. I make large batches, use the ice tray technique for freezing, and I'm set for a good while. Saves lots of money, and lots of trash too!

 

I made most of the twins' food, and loved doing it! I used the wholesomebabyfood.com site as a guide.

 

I love making baby food for my boys. I make in big batches and freeze them in trays then transfer to freezer bags. I have used the receipes from this site, some are kinda crazy but lots are good. Way more nutrishous and tasty for your kids. WWW.kidco.com

 

Can I just say, YUMMY to pureed and frozen plums? I cannot wait to make food again for my boys. I did it for my older son and it was fun cooking for them at such an early age.