Note on baby foods: Baby food is not a free-for-all. Babies little systems can not handle all foods from the moment they turn 4 or 6 months. If you want to make homemade baby food, please find a chart somewhere that tells you what foods are ok for what ages.
Well, #3 is now well over 6 months and crawling headlong into 7, so I guess it’s time for her to start some solids. With my first baby, I was so excited to start him on solids, and had this whole big event for the moment he turned 4 months. Ah, how things change between #1 and #3! Now, I’m thinking, “Ugh, the bother and the stinky, stinky diapers! We’ll wait until after Christmas. . .”
When I first started solids with #1, all my girlfriends/work colleagues were making their own baby food. Since everyone I knew was doing it, it seemed only natural that I would, too. I never considered buying jarred, because no one I knew did it. Now, I realize that it’s actually a bit odd and crunchy. That’s me: Unwittingly crunchy.
I still make it, though, because I think it’s cheaper and I like knowing what goes into my baby food. Plus, I figure why should I pay for the baby food maker’s water (which is freeish here) and jar (which I’m just going to toss). I’ll save the money and make my own.
My girlfriend, MC, heard I was making baby food and said, “Good gracious, woman, is there anything you can’t do?” Ha! While I appreciate the compliment, making baby food is SO EASY. It’s just cook/squish, cook/squish. You could do it, too!
So, baby food making day came, I visited my local Earthfare (I do organics for baby food), and got to work. My method is always take the easy road as long as I’m not sacrificing nutrition. I cook it (if needed), squish it, and freeze it. Later, after it’s frozen, I separate into individual tupperware containers.
So, first, the really easy stuff (read: doesn’t have to be cooked): Bananas and avocados.
Don’t they look good? Just cut them open and remove the pits.
Then just squish them up. I used a fork. Now, for babies under a year old or who haven’t been introduced to lemon, you do not want to put any lemon in this to preserve color. Don’t worry! They will not go brown. Just move quickly, get them into your ice cube trays (or whatever you’re using to freeze in), and cover tightly. They won’t get brown. I promise. I don’t know why. They just don’t.
Hmm. . . here’s where I ran into a problem. See, normally I’d put them into ice cube trays at this point. However, after starting this project, I realized that I don’t have ice cube trays any more. I have ice in the door of my fridge, and must have freecycled the trays after #2 got out of baby food, thinking my baby days were done. Oh, well, just as well, as those trays were probably leaking BPA or some other toxic substance. I used these muffin tins instead. They worked ok, but they were a pain to get the food out of later. I had to loosen the edges with a knife to pop them out. It worked, but it was a pain. Use trays.
Note: Fill the trays only with as much food as your baby can eat in a sitting. You can always defrost two cubes, but it’s hard to divide one cube in half. Also, really pack the food down. If you don’t, little bits will flake off the top, and it’s super annoying to have these leftover, frozen flakes wasted in the bottom of your container.
Desperate times call for desperate measures! The little heart candy molds actually worked out pretty well.
And, really, how sweet are those little banana hearts?
Then the real work began. I like making baby food in my crockpot. A couple reasons:
1) I am lazy
2) I read once that foods retain more nutrients if cooked at lower temperatures.
3) Cook and squish in the same pot.
So, crockpots it is! I have four. I love having an excuse to use all of them at the same time. If only I had four plugs together so I could have them grouped together on my counter.
Making baby food in the crockpot is super simple. Sweet potato first:
Peel it and chop it up into still large chunks.
Put it in the crockpot with about 1/2 cup water.
Put them in the crockpot. Mine took 2 hours on high to get just right. Then, just smoosh them up. I don’t have a picture of this, but I used my new immersion blender. Then, separate into ice cube trays.
Now, decision time: You can either thin your baby food out now, before you freeze it, or wait until after you thaw it. There’s no right way to do it. I usually thin mine with water now, so that it’s ready to go when I pull it out of the freezer. If you want to thin with formula or breastmilk, you should probably wait. Whatever works for you.
I also did oatmeal. I bought bulk, dry oats and put them in my little crockpot.
Then I covered them with water. Remember, with crockpot cooking, there’s not a lot of water evaporation, so don’t drown them if you want them thick. I used a 1:1 ratio for water, and then added more water for thinning after they were cooked so that mine wouldn’t be too runny.
The oats took exactly an hour on high. Then, I blended them with my immersion blender.
Easy as pie!
Now, the immersion blender certainly isn’t the only way to go. Before I got this, I used a magic buller blender, and, before that, I used a mini cuisinart. So far, I’m digging the immersion blender as the easiest, but any way of pureeing this stuff will do. I have never found the need for a fancy, dedicated ‘baby food maker.’ I’d rather have something I can use for other purposes afterwards. And some of those baby food grinders are pretty pricey. You certainly can use one, but it’s not your only choice.
Carrots: I bought baby carrots, dumped them into the crockpot with a little water, and cooked on high about 2 1/2 hours. It took this long for them to get soft enough. Of everything, these took the longest to cook. After you cook the carrots, drain them. Carrots can contain nitrates, and dumping the water afterwards and using fresh to blend in can decrease these nitrate levels. (Honestly, if you don’t introduce baby foods before a baby’s system can handle them, nitrate poisining really isn’t a problem, but it never hurts to be cautious. Different foods should be introduced at different ages, so make sure you have a chart on what foods to introduce when!)
I also did Butternut Squash. I love squash, and making them in the crockpot is so easy! Simply take your squash, cut it in half, and scoop out the seeds. Put a cup of water in the bottom of your crockpot and then place the squash halves, flesh up, in the crockpot. Mine took about 90 minutes to cook all the way. Then, scoop out the cooked flesh and puree. So simple!
(I didn’t take any pictures of this because the kids were kind of melting down at this point, but it was real simple.)
There are some foods I do NOT homemake for baby food. Like apples. I did it once. What a pain in the butt, all that peeling and coring. Why should I, when THIS is available on the market?
Not convinced? Look at the ingredients:
Yes, it’s in a jar and that kind of sucks, but it’s way better than spending two hours peeling and coring apples, and then cooking them, and then pureeing them, to end up with about 2 oz of applesauce. Trust me on this one. When baby is small, I freeze little bits of applesauce in ice cube trays, but, when they get bigger, I just always have a jar in the fridge. Honestly, if it wasn’t for applesauce and peanut butter, my second child would starve. So I might just keep this jar in my fridge. We’ll see.
So, the wrap up of homemade baby food:
Pros: WAY, pretty easy, good for the environment, you know what’s in the food, you control the portion sizes, you aren’t a slave to running to Target for more mini jars, good excuse to get yourself an immersion blender.
Cons: You’ve got to prepare/cleanup, takes up a lot of room in your freezer.
Give it a try. oh, and check out www.wholesomebabyfoods.com for more tips – I love that site!
