Mama’s & Dada’s, I’ve made homemade baby food, again, and it’s pretty amazing. It can be time consuming but if I can do it {working 50 hours a week, husband deployed, with an infant} then you can do it 🙂 Unless you don’t want to. Then don’t do it 😉

Here are some things I learned the first go around!

Tips:

1. Boil/Steam most of the produce. It’s much easier.
2. Make sure the produce is thoroughly baked or boiled! This is so important for babies safety!
3. Peel your sweet potatoes before you bake them { I didn’t the first time and it was a mess. Woof}
4. Puree/Blend baby food for at least 3 minutes and even up to 5 minutes for a smooth consistency that is safe for your baby.
5. Have lots of pots on demand to boil lots of water at once. I made 3 items of food at a time. Froze them. Started the next 3 and froze those. Then I waited about 6 hours while they froze and put them in zip lock bags.
6. Don’t add too much water BUT DON’T make it too chunky.  Peas and Green Beans have thick skins so make sure you have thoroughly blended them so your baby doesn’t choke.

Making your own baby food:

Purchase your produce. We used the following and it made about 3 months worth of baby food.  When you calculate your savings it’s so worth a day of making and freezing baby food.

4 Squash | 4 Pounds Carrots | 4 Zucchini | 4 Sweet Potato | 2 Pounds Green Beans | 4 Apples | Avocado {we make on demand. Just smash them up real nice} 

Prep:

Squash | Zucchini | Green Beans : For each, bring a large pot of water to boil. First, cut off their ends. Then, cut up into pieces {not the green beans} and boil for 10 minutes.  Add 1 cup of the boiled water and blend for 3 minutes in a blender. If the mixture is too thick add more water.

Green Beans {left} Zucchini {right}

Apples: Bring a large pot of water to boil. Cut up the apple discarding the seeds and any dead/hard parts.  Boil apples for 10 minutes. Add to blender with 1 cup of the boiled water. Blend for 2-3 minutes or until desired consistency. I left the skins on the apples because I’ve read there is a ton of fiber in them! My baby needs help with her BM so this helps her out 🙂

Carrots: Cut off ends. Cut up all of your carrots. Bring a very large pot of water to boil. Boil carrots for 10-15 minutes {or until tender} place as many carrots in blender as you can with 1 1/2 cups of water. Blend until they turn a deep blood orange color. Add all your carrots and 1/4 cup {or more if needed} until you get to a desired consistency. 

Make sure carrots are 100% organic and free of chemicals!!

Sweet Potato: I did it different this time :) and it turned out so much better! Preheat oven to 425 degrees. While waiting, peel skins off sweet potato. Cut them up into small piece. Place sweet potatoes in a nonstick pan with 1/4 cup of water {makes the sweet potato more tender and easier to blend} bake for 45 minutes. Add to blender with 1/4 or 1/2 cup of water and 1/2 tablespoon of cinnamon {optional}.  Blend for 2-3 minutes.  

Squash {Yellow} & Sweet Potato

Oatmeal: I bought organic quick oats from Sprouts.  I placed 2 cups in my blender and put the blender on high for 5 minutes. Until it turned into a powder.  

Serving Oatmeal: bring water to a boil, add 1/4 cup water to 1/8 cup of oatmeal and mix until desired consistency.  I also add cinnamon and apples {that I made}  🙂 It’s yummy. I even eat it while I feed her! Isla won’t eat oatmeal or rice cereal no matter what consistency I make it. But I’m not giving up because the doctors say it’s a wonderful source of Iron. 

Freezing & Storage: 

I bought 20 ice cube trays on Amazon for $8.  I froze the baby food in ice cube trays for 6 hours. When they were completely frozen I placed them in gallon size zip lock backs and labeled them. They will be good for 4 months in the freezer. 

Serving Frozen Baby Food: 

{This is what it looks like frozen}

1 ice cube = 2oz serving  {only serve 2oz when introducing baby food}

2 ice cubes  4oz serving  {start giving your baby 4oz three times a day when baby is ready to eat 3 servings of solids/day. Isla is 6 months old and still isn’t ready for this. Every baby is different!}

I used to tell parents to microwave until I did some research.  Microwaving is not the way you want to heat up your baby’s homemade food. Click here for an alternative.  When dealing with our children’s food it is ALWAYS better to spend more time and money for the sake of their health. 

Introducing Solids To Your Baby:

When introducing these fruits and vegetables to a 4-5 month old start with one {I used sweet potato first} offer once a day in the morning time for 3 days to make sure there is no allergy.

{repeat this same step every time you add something new to your babies food bank. Once you start with a veggie and know your baby is ready to add another start by offering it in the morning for 3 days to make sure there is no food allergy/reaction. It’s a slow process but worth it for babies safety. By 6-8 months they will have a wide variety of fruits and veggies they have tried and love or hate 🙂 }

I then offered avocado mixed with some breast milk and she now LOVES avocado. When we go out to a restaurant I usually order her one and she just eats it so quickly!

Doctors used to recommend you start with rice cereal or oatmeal. They now recommend you start with green veggies. I think this is UP TO YOU 🙂 My baby will NOT eat oatmeal or rice cereal but we aren’t giving up because it is a great source of Iron! 

After you feel like your baby has got the hang of solids you can offer it twice a day if he/she will take it. Don’t decrease formula or breast milk just yet. Once your baby has sufficiently tried and accepted a wide variety of fruits and vegetables start offering your baby 2-3 ounces of breast milk or formula followed by 4oz of veggies at appropriate meal times {Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner}. The other feedings remain the same without solids {bottle or boob}.

Around 6-8 months your baby will have tried a variety of fruits and veggies. Up until the point they are eating great servings of solids every day an infant should continue to consume a majority of their calories from breast milk or formula {around 25-32 oz/day}. This is what Isla’s day looks like at 6 months:

7am aka breakfast: 6.5 oz bottle {Isla should be eating solids here but she refuses so we don’t push it. I don’t see the problem with that}

10:30am: 8.5 oz bottle

12:00pm aka lunch: Solids {usually 4oz of sweet potato, squash, or green beans}

2:30pm: 8.5oz bottle

5:00pm dinner: Solids {Usually 4oz of avocado, carrots, or squash}

6:30pm: 8.5oz bottle and down for the night at 6:45pm {she sleeps until 6:30am}

Eventually around 7-8 months this is what I will be attempting:

7:00am:  3oz- 4oz bottle + 4oz solids + oatmeal

10:30am: 8.5oz bottle

12:00pm: 4oz solids + oatmeal

2:30pm: 8.5oz bottle

5:00pm: Normal dinner with family 4oz solids + oatmeal and eventually finger foods from mama

6:30pm: 8.5oz bottle and down for night

{Around 9 months I will more than likely cut out one of those bottles and add more solid food like chicken & rice, or Risotto, Lots of solid veggies, eggs, beans, and other proteins with veggies}

Lets crunch the numbers!! Not only is this better for your baby it WAY better on your budget! So just how much do you save? Let me show you 🙂

1 pack of Gerber Sweet Potato (comes w 2 servings) and costs $1.19

$1.19 x 7 days = 8.33/week = $41/month

$41/month for one veggies x 6 (the amount of veggies I made) =$250

I spent $35 on everything above AND it was all organic from a farmers market. I’m confident you can get cheaper produce and just as good of quality at your local grocery store.

YOU SAVE $215.00

I’m going to stop there. I made 7 different types of baby food for $35 and it will last well over 3 months. Which is around the time my daughter won’t need puree baby food anymore.

I wanted to make my little bambino some yummy baby food. She isn’t totally sold on solids yet so I didn’t make too much. Just enough to last us 3-4 weeks.

My squish eats about 2-4oz of solids twice a day.  She is slowly getting the hang of it. Sometimes she loves it and sometimes she ma-goo about it 🙂 If your baby is eating a hearty serving of 4oz of solids 3 times a day I would double or even triple this recipe 🙂 You’re still only paying a fraction of what you would in the stores (2 2oz servings of Gerber Sweet Potatoes is $1.19. I made 10 times that much for $1.09)

{I mean isn’t that the cutest darn face you ever saw?}

First things first

1. Pick what type of baby food you want to make! I made peas, sweet potatoes, apples, and avocado {make on demand because goes bad quickly}

2. Find the BEST deals. We go organic with produce. Our local farmers market {about 3 blocks down the road} is Sprouts.  The most inexpensive produce in San Diego and it is by FAR the best quality.

3. Get started 🙂

For all my recipes I used The Baby and Toddler Cookbook ..

Also keep in mind the amount of water you use when you blend depends on the consistency your baby needs for baby food.  Younger babies need it smoother (extra water) older babies, or babies with experience with solids ready to move up in the world, add less water for a chunkier texture.

Peas

1 bag of frozen peas. Mine was a 16oz bag for $1.29. Bring a pot of water to a boil. Add peas. Boil until tender.  Use 1 1/2 cups of the water you boiled the peas with and place it into a blender. Then add your peas {keep some water in case you need more}.  Blend in a blender, food processor, or puree machine until done. Make sure you boil and blend thoroughly! If the pea skins are not pureed enough baby might not like it or be able to swallow them.  At least my baby felt that way! 

*Chase and I have a simple Ninja blender and it works perfectly!  You don’t need a $500 Vitamix to make this work! 

Sweet Potatoes 

I used 2 sweet potatoes I got at Sprouts for .59 each. Cut them in half and then I baked them for 1 hour at 450 degrees. Then I added 1 cup of water to the blender. When the potatoes were done I used a spoon to scoop out the meat from the potato and added it to the blender 🙂 DONE.

Apples

These apples were $1.89/pound at Sprouts so I paid less than $2. First I simply cleaned and cut up the apples. Added them to boiling water for 20 minutes 🙂 I put a dash of cinnamon in the blender along with 2 cups of the boiled water.  I added the apples and blended for a good 3 minutes. These took a little longer to blend! Also, I did not remove the skin. I read there is a TON of fiber in the skins and my daughter has poopy problems so she can use the extra fiber!

After I blended the food I just added them to ice cube trays {that I sanitized}.

Each cube = 2oz. So Isla can usually eat 1-2 of those ({which is 2-4 ounces} 🙂  so that’s 8-16 days worth of baby food.  These peas made 3 ICE CUBE trays = 24 or 48 days of baby food. Depending on if she eats 2oz or 4oz at dinner.

The 3 apples made 1 1/2 trays. We eat apples for breakfast and only 2oz (or one cube) so those apples will last us 24 days!

The sweet potatoes filled 1 tray of ice cubes so it will last 1-3 weeks 🙂

My daughter refuses to eat rice cereal or oatmeal. But we are going to keep on trying!!

Avocado

Mash up with 1 oz of breast milk or formula. Make sure it’s to the right consistency for your baby!

{we used the rest of this avocado for the big kid dinner 🙂 }

STORAGE:

When making solid food I use ice cube trays to freeze the baby food {sanitized}. Once I’ve made and then frozen the baby food I pop it out and keep it in labeled gallon sized zip lock bag 🙂 When I want to make Isla some food I chose the veggie, pop it in the microwave for 15-30 second, stir it up, and serve it 🙂 

Next up we will be making:

1. Summer Squash
2. Blueberries & spinach
3. Pears
4. Peaches
5. Beats

This took me about an hour to do and that’s only because I had to wait on the Sweet Potatoes to bake. I’ve heard some mom’s boil the sweet potatoes in water. Maybe I’ll try that next time because my bambino LOVES sweet potatoes!

My next step (8-9 months) is to add protein and more flavors like cumin, cinnamon, and some other tasty goodness

I hope you guys love making your own baby food as much as I do 🙂

Love,

J xo