Homemade Baby Food

When Jack was a baby, I wanted to try my hand at homemade baby food but I never did.  It was mostly fear because I thought it would take forever but would be really hard to do.  It was just easier for me to buy the little Gerber $.99 baby food packages and just buy his favorites.  You see, Jack was a picky eater even as a baby.  I didn't want to make batches of baby food for him to not like any of it.

On Saturday I bit the bullet and got a few things I would need to make baby food:  A little food processor, some extra ice cub trays, and some fruits and veggies.

You absolutely do not have to buy a food processor specifically to make baby food.  I have a food processor but it's incredibly loud and takes a million pieces.  This processor is small, quiet and was inexpensive.  I bought ice cube trays to freeze individual portions of the food in.  These are also not necessary if you want to freeze your food in some other way.

I got this nifty baby food processor:

It's by Boon and called Mush.  It's a manual processor and you pull the orange handle to puree the food.

I started with yams, carrots, peaches and peas.  I prepped all the food first and then cooked it by steaming it on the stove using my steamer basket.  The pieces of food were all small enough that nothing cooked longer than about 10 minutes.  Then the cooked food went into the processor.  

Depending on how many pulls you do, you can have big chunks, little chunks or puree.  I had to add a little of the steaming liquid to the processor in order to get the right consistency.

The carrots turned out nice and thick and I taste tested them.  Yum!  

All the food was frozen in individual servings and then bagged up into a bigger freezer bag for easy storage.

If I add up the cost of the fruits and veggies, I spent $.30 on the yam, $1.00 on the carrots, $2.00 on the peaches and the peas were free (had on hand already).  I would guesstimate that if I were to buy the equivalent amount of Stage 1 baby food, it would cost $12.  In the end, this will be a cost saver.

The verdict?  SUPER EASY.  It hardly took any time (I made all the food during the boys' nap time) and the clean up was pretty simple.

I can't wait to see what Cal thinks of some of his special food.  I saved out some of the peas to give him - his first.  I also can't wait to start really being adventurous with some flavors.  Apples, pears, plums, apricots, rice, pureed chicken and all kinds of other ideas.