I have made my own baby food off and on throughout the years of having babies. I believe that it has to taste better and is cheaper than buying baby food in the store. Here is how I have done it…
DECIDE WHAT YOU WILL STORE THE BABY FOOD IN
The first thing you need to do is find someone who buys their baby food so they can save their jars for you. I had a mom who buys the expensive organic baby food…those jars are wonderful because they have the nice twist and lock lids (not like most other baby food lids that you screw them on and can’t get them on straight, etc.). Anyway, I have a bunch of these jars that I brought up from the basement this morning. I peeled the labels off and ran them through the dishwasher. I hand washed the lids.
If you don’t have access to jars you can also freeze your homemade baby food in ice cube trays and then pop them out and put them in freezer bags (label and date the bags!). When you want some baby food, get out one or two cubes of food and warm on the stove or in the microwave.
HOW TO MAKE THE BABY FOOD
I usually start out with making peaches, pears, applesauce, sweet potatoes, and peas/carrots.
To do the peaches and pears, I buy canned peaches and pears with NO SUGAR ADDED. Buy the biggest cans you can find so you get a greater value. To make the peaches or pears, simply open the cans, drain off most of the juice, put the fruit in your blender, and blend up until smooth. Add a little water if you need to so that it is smooth and not too thick. Pour the blended fruit into your baby food jars ( be sure to not fill them too full – leave room for the mixture to expand when it freezes). Put the lids on and place in the freezer. If you want, you can put the jars in large freezer bags and label the freezer bag so you know what food is in the jars. I can usually tell by the color.
For the applesauce, I buy natural applesauce with no sugar added, and simply pour into the jars as described above, put the lids on, then freeze. Easy!
For the sweet potatoes, buy fresh sweet potatoes and cook them like you would to eat them for dinner. Once they are cooked, cut into chunks and place in the blender. You will need to add more water to this than you did the fruit to get it smooth. Blend and continue to add water until it is nice and smooth. Pour into jars, cap, and freeze.
For the peas and carrots, I buy frozen peas and carrots. Steam them, keeping the water to add in to the blender as needed. Once the veggies are cooked, then transfer to blender and blend, adding water as needed to get it smooth. Pour into jars, cap, and freeze.
You can also do green beans, although I found it kind of hard as the green beans were stringy and the blender didn’t make them very smooth.
If you just did these few foods and bought some, you would save a bunch! It doesn’t take that long and is so easy to do! Have fun!
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