For the next few weeks I am going to be sharing my experiences as a first time mommy and what has worked for our family during this past (very soon to be) year. Sigh. I can’t believe my baby is going to be year old in June. If you are just joining me here are my previous posts:
I knew early on in my pregnancy with Caden that I wanted to make his baby food as opposed to buying numerous amounts of squeezable pouches. I am not against the squeeze pouches and always have several on hand for a quick meal or when I am running low on my homemade purees, but they are expensive. I also like knowing exactly what Caden is eating. Plus I am not limited to predetermined flavor combinations which has allowed me to be creative with his feedings.
I know making your own baby food can be overwhelming so I am going to share what has worked for me. These are the products that I use to prep, store, and serve my homemade baby food.
Cuisnanrt Food Processor | KitchenAid Immersion Blender | Ziploc Freezer Bags | Sharpie Marker | Ice Cube Trays | Spoons | Bowls
There are so many products on the market that are tailored specifically for making baby food but for Josh and I it made more sense to purchase a high end food processor that we would use for numerous kitchen prep tasks. I can’t tell you how happy I am that we made this decision. If you are wanting to stick with a lower budget option I would recommend an immersion blender. These are great for smaller sized batches of baby food and do not take up much storage space.
I like to freeze the purees in ice cube trays and place a layer of saran wrap over the top to prevent freezer burn. After the baby food is frozen I pop the cubes out of the tray and into ziploc freezer bags and label them with the name and date. When I am ready to feed Caden I will take a variety of cubes out of the freezer and prep them for the next day by letting them thaw in the fridge.
If you are wanting to make your own baby food I would highly recommend visiting the Wholesome Baby Food website and buying a copy of Super Baby Food by Ruth Yaron. Both of these resources are amazing!
Do you make your own baby food? What products do you have in your kitchen?
Have a fantastic weekend!
xoxo, Tamara
PS…Stay tuned for my breastfeeding story, an overview of what we feed Caden, losing the baby weight, and other random goodness in the upcoming weeks.
We were given a Baby Magic Bullet and a homemade baby food cookbook as gifts, so I enthusiastically set out making my daughter’s first foods. It worked out great, although I found that she was really only in the “puree” stage for a very short period of time, and as she started moving into finger foods it became a little more challenging. So now I rely on a combination of homemade and store bought foods. I bought the “Little Green Pouch” so I could offer her a squeeze pouch of homemade food or yogurt, and those have worked pretty well for us (and so much cheaper than buying the pouches at the store!). I also make her a lot of muffins and healthy “cookies” where I can add veggies, and keep them in the freezer. Oh, and one of her favorite recipes is from Wholesome Baby Food’s website – Broccoli and Cheddar Cheese nuggets. Delicious (my husband and I love them too! :))
Loving these posts! Thanks for sharing. A have a random yoga question for you. I’m looking into getting back into yoga and was wondering if you have any good dvd/video recommendations?! I would love to eventually join a class but for different reasons it’s not an option for me right now 🙂
Yeah, making baby food is great. It saves so much money and really only takes a little prep time to make a weeks work or more of meals. We already had a food processor from our wedding and it is fantastic. We just bought some smaller tupperware containers and we were set. It really is very easy honestly. Jack loves to eat so much though that I ended up just keeping them in the fridge unless I made a ton–in the very beginning he would eat 4 plus oz of anything at each meal!
I agree! We made all the baby food for both our kids and will for #3 also. It’s so easy and saves a ton of money. My husband and I both work and still were able to make it all so you don’t need hours of extra time to do it! We never had anything fancy, just our food processor, a couple of ice cube trays and some small plastic containers for larger servings. I always encourage people to at least give it a go–most are surprised how easy it is!
The one additional item that I used a ton and generally recommend is a food grinder. They cost about $12 and are great once baby is past the pureed phase. I would just take a bit of whatever we were eating for dinner and grind it up for the baby. Easy, portable, and it allowed us to start introducing the tastes of our table to our kids (not that it makes much difference once they hit the toddler picky phase, but I’m still hopeful it will pay off one day!).
Thank you for the suggestion! I have seen them at Target but was not really sure what they were for. This makes perfect sense :).
This is too cool! I didnt make any of the babyfood for my kids, but I will with the next one! Thanks for sharing the tools of the trade! 😉
Hey! Found you through the blog hop and love your site! Such great info! I’m your newest follower and would love a follow back at New Mrs. Adventures. Thanks and have a great weekend!!
Love the idea of using the food immersion blender. We got one as a gift and have never used it!!