Yes... I'm doing it and I love it. So much so that I have to post about it in the chance that someone reading this who thinks it's too much work will realize how easy it is (and so much cheaper) let alone healthier for your baby.
Thanks much to Reagan and her book loan as well as this website, to make me see that it's EASY.
Let me tell you just how easy.
First, you need food you want to puree, a blender or food processor, ice cube tray, heavy duty foil, and freezer qt sized ziploc bags (and a sharpie for labeling).
Pears are in season, right? Yummy, delicious pears. Pears are one of the foods that are just mushy enough, soft enough, etc that you don't have to cook them first before pureeing them. Just core, seed and peel them, then pop them in your blender or food processor and you're done.
Let's break that down... Put your cored, seeded, peeled pears in here:
Then, scoop out puree and put it in here:
Cover with heavy duty foil and place in freezer (helps to prevent freezer burn):
Wait until frozen, and pop out into freezer quart sized ziploc bags:
Label and you're done! For a fraction of the cost, you have delicious ready whenever you want them to be homemade baby food. 
Really... it's so easy. If I had known it was this easy (and if it hadn't seemed so very daunting to me the first time around) I would have done it with Sam.
Some other foods that are SUPER easy.
Applesauce - buy it at the store natural with no sugar added. You can freeze as is or puree it a bit more if the texture isn't fine enough.
Pumpkin - buy it in a can (but not the pumpkin pie filling... just pumpkin). Again, use it as is and freeze the rest. No need to puree.
Banana - Mash and eat as is, or puree and freeze. You might want to add some lemon juice to keep from browning.
Peaches - Cook (see the website... boil, blanch, microwave or bake. You choose), puree, and freeze.
Peas - Buy a bag of frozen peas. It's so cheap. Cook on stove (or in microwave), and come back when you have 10 minutes to puree and freeze.
Basically, I just keep an eye out for good produce deals when produce is in season and nab it. Sunflower Market has fabulous produce deals (thanks Leese).
Hopefully someone out there now wants to try this. And if you are a babyfood maker-at-home, share any tips with me! I'm just a beginner!!!
7 comments:
I loved making my own, too. Yours are prettier than mine, but it really is easy.
I know! I made all of Samantha's baby food. I haven't started with Callie but told Marcus that this shopping trip I'm going to buy the right foods to do it. It's so easy and great. Plus, I feel like I'm doing something good for my kids when I do it. That's the same website that I used when I did it a couple years ago. It has some great ideas. When I needed some new ideas, they had some great ones. Anyway. Way to go! I'm a big make-your-own-baby-food supporter!
I made all of Claire's food, for a LONG time, it is fabulous and it was great for Robb too. Took the guess work out of things. I used a book called "First Meals" by Annabel Karmel. I still use it for family meals too (it goes up to age 7, I think and then family meal options). I love that Claire still has no idea what fast food or junk food is. I think having food made ahead of time made a big difference from the beginning. All the best!
I too have been making as much homemade baby food for Kaden as possible, but for convenience sake have also used the organic jarred stuff. I use the book "Super Baby Food." It's the baby food Bible - it's huge - and I read it almost daily for reference.
Congratulations Marci. You did it. You've inspired at least one person to try making their own baby food. Matt mentioned once that I should try it, but I said no way, thinking it would be too much work. But after reading your post it looks really simple. Thanks for the inspiration!
marci--i don't know exactly how much of the fact that my kids are good eaters is just natural, or how much is cause they see their parents eat EVERYTHING. But i do believe that part of it is because i never fed them jarred baby food (I shouldn't say never, cause about once a week i'd need the convenience of gerber). And as soon as they can eat most foods (8-10 months) i just start feeding them exactly what we're eating--with the spices and all. Sometimes i blend it up, sometimes they can handle the texture. I think that that's KEY!! Abby was about 10 months old when she had her first Tikka Masala. Grace was eating Greek food by 10 months -- especially falafel.
so, i applause you in your new found kitchen endeavor. You do make it look so easy and pretty:) hopefully little Z will be a good eater for you. No parent deserves to have that battle with more than one child!!!
I'm a big fan of making baby food. Couple of hints -- green beans are virtually impossible to get to a good consistency so I buy them. Crock pots are another great way to cook the foods, especially squash. Put the whole thing in there with a bit of water and walk away. When it's fork tender take it out, cut it in half, and scoop out the innards. It's so much better than peeling it! Also, I made a huge batch of applesauce in the crock pot and it was a breeze. Carrots, too (which also tend to be difficult the puree down to a good consistency).
Keep it up. I gave up on it right about the time my dad passed away and I ended up with a horrible eater. Drew will be different!
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