Lets talk a little about baby food...
Yuck! How many times have you opened a jar of baby food and held your breath; not even wanting to smell it let alone taste it! Pureed chicken and greens in a shelf stable jar, no way that can be as health as fresh cooked veggies. Please throw away that ridiculous "Baby Bullet" and let me teach you how to make easy baby food.
TOOLS:
-Fresh fruits and veggies ( remember 1 sweet potato is enough food for 10+meals so don't buy too much!!)
-Steamer, I have a cheap $20 rice cooker from target that has a steam insert. Great multi use tool.
-Blender, I have a Ninja. Again great multi use tool
-Ice cube trays, $1 store ones work great
-Gallon zip lock bags
Start by buying fruits and veggies at your market. Do remember babies do not eat much so no need to buy 20lbs of peaches. Buy approx 2lbs of each tasty looking piece of produce. Buy organic if possible, but if not just be sure to peel or wash all produce well.
When babies are learning how to eat solids they will only be attracted to sweet things. No point in fighting this natural instinct, give them sweet food. Use ripe bananas, sweet potatoes, carrots, parsnips, butternut squash, peas or mangoes as the main ingredient. Use somewhat tart things like peaches (yes they are tart to babies), plums, kiwi, green beans and melons as additions to the main item. As a baby gets older you can start introducing more savory flavors. I wouldn't recommend this until they are quite good at eating from a spoon. Please be cautious of food allergies! Do not give your baby berries, nuts, citrus, honey or eggs until they are old enough. I used to use
wholesomebabyfood.com as a reference when I was in doubt.
Once you have all of your produce home set it all out on the counter and start to mix and match. You want 2 or 3 kinds of produce per batch. Remember you need a sweet item as the base. Examples of mixes I would make are...
Carrot, Avocado, Green Bean
Banana, Apple, Blueberry
Parsnip, Peaches, Banana
Sweet potato, Plum, Spinach
Mango, Melon, Kiwi
Sweet Corn, Carrots and Swiss Chard
Pears and Cherries
You need to think past putting veggies with fruit and think more about texture and sweetness. Some of the most disgusting sounding combos were the most delish!
Now, grab the fruits and veggies, peel what needs to be peeled, wash everything and start cooking! Steam all the root veggies and most of the fruit, roast all the sweet potatoes and squash (350' until soft to touch). DO NOT BOIL ANYTHING! THIS REMOVES NUTRIENTS!
Now start pureeing. Put hot fruits and veggies into blender and add fruit (ie bananas)/Veggies (ie spinach) that you cannot cook. By putting them into the blender with hot food it will kill any bacteria that my be on it. Adjust consistency with apple juice if needed (we like Simply Juice since it is just that Simply Apples, nothing else!) Be sure to make it very smooth for beginning babies and get chunkier for older babies
Once you have a batch pureed put it in a plastic pastry bag (or zip lock with a corner cut off) and squeeze it into ice cube trays. Stack trays and freeze. Pop out of trays and put into ziploc bags labeled with ingredients and date it was made. Store in freezer for up to 3 months
Now when it comes time to feed baby, simply take cubes out of bag and heat gently in microwave. You can easily adjust serving size by thawing more or less. Don't be afraid to mix and match cubes. There was days when my daughter was eating 10+ kinds of fruits and veggies in one meal.
Notes:
Be sure to check potential allergens
When starting solid food be sure to give the baby the same food for 3-4 feeding before moving onto the next kind, this allows you to check for allergies
Never add salt or sugar and NEVER ADD HONEY!
Do pay attention to what baby likes. We would "hide" veggies she didn't like amongst fruits she loved and in the end she eats them all.
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