Saturday, March 22, 2008

Homemade Goodness

I used to think that some of the things people did for their babies were crazy, but that was before I had one. For example, I used to think that making your own baby food was crazy. Why would you do that? Gerber really isn't that expensive, is it? Well... yes and no. Its not really too expensive until you've suddenly got a child that can eat through $15 of baby food in 10 days. Then is suddenly seems to much more expensive.

I've been thinking for a while about just biting the bullet and making my own baby food and I finally just did it. Let me tell you, it was a lot more fun, a lot less crazy and so much cheaper than I expected! Check out my freezer door!

I made (bottom shelf from left to right) peas, green beans, garden veggie, carrots, spiced winter squash, sweet potatoes, winter squash, and (topd shelf left to right) melon, banana, blueberry sweet potato pie (blueberries, sweet potatos cinnimon and plain yogurt), peach apricot, peach and apricot baby food cubes. The melon and banana are just diced and ready to thaw and smash before serving (or dice smaller for finger food) and the apricto isn't in cubes (apricots don't really freeze, they get soft set). I also have some apricot winter squash still in the ice cube tray, and blueberries and mangos to deal with. I'd really like to try an apple-peach-mango combo for Allison. Most of my recipes I found at Wholesome Baby Food. Great resourse with tons of information on how to make it, what tools you need, when to introduce what foods, TONS of nutritional info and lots of fun "recipes" and combinations to try.

For most of my foods to make my life easier I bought (on sale!) 1 pound packages of frozen fruit or veggies. So easy to quickly steam or boil, then puree with added liquid in my blender. The only "tool" I had to buy was more ice cube trays, which I found 3/$1 at dollar tree. All in all, I really enjoyed doing what I used to think was crazy. =)

3 comments:

Bridget said...

Awesome! I never got as organized as you apparently are, but my daughter never ate the jarred stuff. This way is really so much cheaper and my daughter actually ate it (unlike the Gerber stuff, which she hated).

Crys said...

Haha...I did something similar for my husband. This week he's going back to Illinois and I'm staying in Utah for two more weeks. For the previous two weeks I kept filling our freezer with bags of food. I told him I was filling it with love. So next week when he is alone all he will have to do is microwave his dinner. Hurray!

Rob and Marseille said...

it's amazing how easy making baby food is, and how you make a ton in your blender and it lasts a long time. I never had that many different kinds at once...good job.