I have been making the girls' baby food since they began solids. It is my way of contributing to their nutrition since I wasn't able to breastfeed them as long as I had hoped. It makes me feel good to know that I am limiting their early exposure to preservatives, and hopefully making them more open to eating different types of food in the future. Really, have you ever tried jarred baby food? In my opinion, it tastes nothing like what it's supposed to, very processed, very fake (ie. bananas, peas yuck).
The website wholesomebabyfood.com has been my guide for this whole adventure, and I recommend it to anyone who wishes to get started with making your own baby food. Now, I know that the girls will get jarred baby food, especially when they start daycare. I'm not sure how regulations are with food prepared outside the center, etc, so we're just going to stick with the food they have available at daycare, and we're okay with that. They will be getting food that I've made while they're at home.
It's not as hard as you might think to get this all accomplished. Really, the only tools you need is a blender of some sort and ice cube trays. I use the Magic Bullet, and it has been worth it's weight in gold. It is easy to clean, and works very well. I started making purees back in July, when peaches were in season. At that time, after I pureed them, I froze them in ice cube trays (one cube equaled about 1 ounce) and once they were frozen, I would vacuum seal them in 4 ounce portions. Nowadays, though, the girls are eating them as fast as I can freeze them, so I just keep the cubes in a ziplock bag in a rubbermaid bowl, and pull out the cubes as I'm ready to thaw them.
The following is a list of the foods we've pureed for the girls and how they've went:
- Avocado - This is what I decided would be the girls' first veggie. The reason I decided on this is that it purees well, has a very smooth consistency, is very high in a lot of nutrients (avocado is very high in fats, the good kind) and it really doesn't have much of a taste at all. Avocado, like banana, don't require much prep, just scoop out the meat and mush. The girls were like their mother and loved avocado. Yay!
- Banana - Easy peasy. Just peel and mush. I pureed banana in my Magic Bullet, and I was surprised how slimy banana's were, but the girls at them well.
- Peaches & Nectarines - I halved and pitted them and put them face down in a pan with a little bit of water, then baked them in the oven until the skins were wrinkly. That makes them easy to peel, then I just pureed them up!
- Sweet Potato - Prepare them just as you would a baked potato. When soft and cooked through, just puree. I had to add quite a bit of water, as the potato can be quite thick.
- Apples - Prepared the same way as the peaches were, I halved and cored, placed them in a baking dish and cooked them until they were soft. Baking brings out a lot of the natural sweetness, without loosing too many nutrients.
- Carrots - You could bake the carrots, and truthfully, I may try that at some point, but I just boiled a bag of baby carrots and then pureed them. One important note with carrots...do not use the water used to boil carrots to thin out your puree. Nitrogen from the carrots leeches out into the water, and sometimes extra nitrogen is could cause problems for little ones. Most of the time they tell you to use the cooking water to thin out because any extra nutrients could be in the cooking water, but it is not the case with carrots.
- Peas - I just used frozen store bought peas. I cooked them on the stove just like we would normally, then pureed them. You really have to let the peas sit there and blend for a good while, because, if not, you will still have pieces of the outer casing of the peas. My girls love love love peas, and I love giving them peas. Peas have more protein in them than the same amount of peanut butter! Their little growing muscles need that protein!
- Acorn and Butternut Squash - We got these from my Uncle Tony and Aunt Rachel's garden. I halved them, scooped out the seeds and baked them in the oven. I was really happy with the taste of the squash. I would almost compare it to a sweet potato, it was that good!
- Pears - My girls loved these. Again, I halved and cored these and baked them. Pears are great when your little ones have a constipation issue. I need to make some more, so I have it on hand if Avery has a pooping issue, lol.
- Green Beans - I realized about 2 weeks ago that I haven't given the girls any green beans yet! So I have a package of frozen green beans that I'll be preparing (probably the same method as peas). We'll see how that goes!
We also use cereals quite often to thicken up the purees (pears and apples, for example are quite watery when thawed). Wholesomebabyfood.com does give instruction on how to make your own cereals, but I was quite okay with using the dried Gerber version. We use oatmeal because of the high fiber content, and Avery could use the fiber. The rice just bound them up.
I find that making my own baby food is very rewarding. It is very cost effective, and takes very little time and effort to actually do.
