Making Baby Food - Ponder,TX

Williams-Sonoma has this babyfood machine- it steams and blends in the same container! Expensive, but it has great reviews.

http://www.williams-sonoma.com/products/5279732/index.cfm...

For store bought food (always nice to have when you are on the go) I recommend Earth's Best. They smell and taste better than Gerber.

In my day many moons ago, I would buy the smallest cans of vegetables at the store and drain them and then whirl them in the blender. It was usually good for a couple of serving.

I made all of my son's babyfood - he never ate any store bought. I tried each and every method - blender, food processor, baby mill, etc. The best method I found is an immersion blender hands down - the stick kind. Get yourself a tall quart container, any kind, maybe even a washed yogurt container. Steam or bake whatever you want to puree until soft, put in container and use the immersion blender to puree. It's easier than the blender because you can move it up and down and around and get every bit in there pureed. With a blender I found I had to scrape the sides and that dirtied a spatula and blender, etc. Pain to clean. With the stick blender there's nothing else to clean, when you're done you just rinse off and turn it on in a container of water and it's clean. I put the puree in glass babyfood jars and froze them. I would make several batches at a time. A great website is www.wholesomebabyfood.com. I would bake apples, butternut squash, pears, sweet potatos and plums (never had luck with those however - they never seemed sweet enough). And steamed and pureed spinach, green beans, broccoli, peas, carrots etc. I often mixed spinach into other things such as carrots, sweet potatos and squash. Just look at the store bought varieties for ideas. So much fun, so much better tasting and so much better for baby. Also, consider giving mashed avocado and bananas, they love it. In fact, mix avocado and banana together. Sounds gross but very tasty - bananacado. yum. Also consider making your own steel cut oatmeal, much better than the powder stuff. Also consider making yogurt or buying plain whole milk yogurt and mixing fruit purees in the yogurt instead of sugar. Steamed berries mashed in yogurt is so yummy. I would buy several ripe mangos and puree them and freeze them. I also would buy organic dried prunes and apricots and reconstituted them in water or apple juice by boiling them on the stove with the liquid until soft. Then puree. With those, however, it is practically impossible to completely puree the skins and they are rather tough. For those I would break out my food mill - a metal strainer type thing with a handle where you grind the food through the strainer, it takes out all the yummy pulp and removes the skins. To this day I use the pureed prune and apricot to add to yogurt and eat that instead of store bought. So much better tasting and no added sugar. Good luck, have fun, and let me know if you have any additional questions.

No advice on the baby food but wanted to say sorry for your losses. It is not easy to bear but as you have discovered, God will comfort us if we choose to accept Him. I lost my son James at age 8 in Dec. 2005. It takes a daily decision to choose to trust the plans that God has for us and lean not on our own understanding.

God bless you!

M.
"My son eats all his veggies now. Even the green ones."
View my Mamasource profile to find out how

I used a blender when making my baby food for both fruits and veggies. I liked it because I could make in bulk and then make "ice cubes" with all of the food. For fruit (apples & pears) I would cut it up and boil it in water. Once soft, you put the cooked fruit in the blender with some of the water you used to cook it in. Veggies...just depends on what you are cooking. Green beans, carrots and peas can be handled the same way.

J.,
You need a good food processor to make your baby food. The one I used was a cuisinart one (it did cost me 100 bucks for it, but it worked wonderfully). I usually cooked the veggies first and than processed it. I also used a baby food cookbook by Annabel Carmel. It was great and my son loved everything I made from it. Good Luck.

A.

Hi there!
My daughter is 13mos, and I made all her baby food. I started with the small food processor, but it didn't get a lot of veggies (like peas & green beans) very smooth. So I got the Kidco Electric Food Mill from Babies R Us and LOVED it! I don't know how or why, but it made the food so much smoother than the food processor. I would highly recommend getting one, it made things SO much easier. Good luck!

I made babyfood. I use a babyfood mill. I would steam or bake the food really well, then puree in my food mill. Some veggies take longer to cook so you can get them pureed enough, like green beans. I boiled those and used the water in the food so I could recapture some of the nutrients. I would spend a day every other week doing this, then freezing the finished product in ice cube trays. Once the cubes were frozen, I'd bag each flavor in it's own ziplock.

Foods that I did include: apples, sweet potatoes, peas, carrots, green beans, squash.

I used my mini Cuisinart, and it worked beautifully. Our immersion stick blender also did the trick. The book Blender Baby Food has a ton of easy recipes and is available at many local libraries.

I had a baby food grinder. My youngest never even ate pureed baby food, OK, maybe 2 jars. Until he figured out we were eating something different. Once he had a small bite of table food he NEVER, I mean NEVER, would eat baby food again. NO matter how I disguised it. So I just started using my grinder that I had used to transition the first two boys. Never had a problem. I just ground up what we were having and added a little extra sauce or gravy. His first table food was Ranch Style beans. So we just gave the rest of the baby food away. I think that as longs as all the chunks are out of it, it doesn't necessarily need to be pureed. As long as the texture is managable.
Good luck,
L.

I have used a full size food processor (cuisinart) and have had really good luck. My daughter is now 10 months old so I am making her food a little chunkier but in the beginning (I started her on food at 4 months) the key was adding enough water to make it pureed enough. My favorites are sweet potatoes and peas. I just boil in water on the stove and then use the water that I boiled them in to puree them with. This keeps some of the nutrients that boil out into the water when cooking. I then freeze in ice cube trays and pop out and put in a ziploc bag once frozen. In the beginning one cube would represent one feeding. Now she's up to 4 cubes+!
Good luck. It's so much better food and a lot less expensive

I didn't read all the responses, so I apologize if I'm saying the same thing that everyone else said, but I used a hand blender (or immersion blender) to puree cooked (but not overcooked) vegetables, and roasted veggies and fruits (they retain more nutrients and the flavor is fantastic that way - roasted). To bake fruits, peel, cut in half and remove the pit/core/seeds, place cut side down in a shallow baking pan (I used a brownie pan), add in enough water to fill the bottom of the pan, and bake at 400F for about 40 minutes. You can use the syrup that's left over after baking for flavoring oatmeal and yogurt. I froze my purees in an ice cube tray or mini-muffin tin, then popped them out and put them into resealable bags. We liked to mix different things - sweet potato, squash and oatmeal was a favorite. I have the Super Baby Foods book, but I also found lots of great information online at www. wholesomebabyfood.com. Have fun!

ps-my mom made food with a baby food grinder 30+ years ago, and still has it. She made food for my daughter using it when we were visiting at Thanksgiving, and it still worked just fine!

I just used a blender and would use the water I had cooked the vegetables in to help thin them if needed. Then I would pour into ice cube trays and freeze. Makes very handy serving sizes.

I always just used my food processor or blender so sorry not sure about a grinder.

I would usually steam veggies and stuff first, and then pour it into ice cube trays and freeze. There is a great book called "Super Baby Food" that has TONS of info. It really is easy once you do it and get a routine and saves a ton of money. Good luck!

I used a regular blender, and that worked great! you can do a variety of things like baking apples or sweet potatoes in the oven then blending them....this website http://www.wholesomebabyfood.com was a great resource! it has tons of advice and recipes for how to bake veggies, fruits, etc...:)

You can also use a regular old blender or "magic bullet" type blender. It works just as well as a food processor.

I made our boys' food for several months. It was time consuming, but very easy. I bought an Oxo food mill at Bed, Bath, and Beyond and then would freeze the food in ice cube trays (BB&B also has Oxo ice trays that have slide on lids, which we used). I would either steam or boil first and then run through the food mill and add some of the cooking water if I needed, then spoon into trays and freeze...very simple. The Oxo food mill comes with 3 different sized blades, so we started with the smallest and then moved up as they were ready for chunkier food. I also used this website for recipes or cooking suggestions for certain foods:

http://www.wholesomebabyfood.com/

Hope this helps...good luck!

I made babyfood for all three of my kids. I just took any fruit or veggie and steamed them until they were very soft. I then put them in a food process (I've also used a blender) and pureed them. The bigger the baby gets, obviously the chunkier the food can be. With meats, I would cook chicken or pork in the crock pot all day until it was falling apart and then add some breastmilk or formula to it to make it the right consistency as I pureed it. I would also make combos like sweet potatoes & chicken or chicken and apples or pears. I pureed EVERYTHING, even beef stew I'd cooked for the rest of the family. Once you puree the food, you can freeze it in ice cube trays & this makes one once serving sizes that are easy to store in a freezer bag and thaw out as needed.

Just an aside, Fuji apples make the best applesauce. You can steam frozen veggies & they are pretty much as good as fresh. Just note that veggies with skins (ie: peas & corn) are a little harder to puree, but the older babies can handle that thicker consistency.

If you puree something too much or it seems to runny (squash always was too runny), you can add baby cereal to it to thicken it up.

Hope this helps some!

I actually wrote an article about this recently, if you would like to read it, here's the link:

www.associatedcontent.com/article/1529228/no_more_baby_fo...

This website was my life line in making my homemade baby food. I was on it almost everyday!!!

http://www.wholesomebabyfood.com/

Hello,
I also used the blender for the baby food. Will steam the veggies and boiled the chicken and just used the blender. He loved it! Usually will make his food 2-3 times a week. It really saves you a lot of $$$ and you know your baby is eating healthy. I never froze it but I think it is a really good idea.

I did some with my last baby and I think the trick to getting it pureed enough is to add a bit of water to it. If that doesn't work, it may be your food processor. I had a small oster and it worked fine. (they may not even make them anymore it's so old!)

I also recomend the book called Super Baby Food. I made baby for for all three of mine. It was very helpful--goodluck.

At first it is a little hard, because they only eat one or two things. As soon as they have a better variety then you don't have to make it as often. I would sometimes only do it once a month. Two ice cube trays of the most popular and one of the others.

Hi J.,
I have a 8 month old baby and I have been making baby food since he was 6 months. The best way to puree it, is to put the boiled or steamed food in a magic bullet. It blends the food completely and you really dont need to add any water in it.

Good morning, J.,
I used a baby food grinder when my kids were little - just put some of whatever we were having for dinner in it and ground it up for baby. This way your little one gets used to what the family eats on a regular basis - no special meal preparation - always a plus for a busy Mom!
Also please accept my heatfelt sympathy for the loss of your little ones. I have had 4 miscarriages and birthed 4, so I understand your heartache. Fortunately I married a man with 4 kids, so I got my 8 kids after all. Isn't God amazing?!!!
B. G. (mother of 8, grandmother of 4)
B. G.

I make my own food right now, I bought an inexpensive food processor at WalMart and it does a fantastic job, it's a Black and Decker. I also bought the So Easy Baby Food Kit from Target online, it came with a DVD(it lays everythings out in an easy way), trays, and a cookbook. I probably didn't need the kit, but I need the reassurance that I am doing things the right way. So far so good, we have a ton of food frozen in the freezer! Good luck:)

18 yrs ago when my 2nd child a Daughter was born i stayed home with her for some years and use to make home made baby food by simply mashing up fruit like softest Banana with a spoon other fruit just boil with boiled water and then mashed it up with a Spoon or potato masher i use to boil veges and mash them up but use to feed her right away never kept any left overs she turned out to be pretty healthy...

I used the immersion blender for the most part it made things the smoothest and was good for quick batches that I either froze or served immediately. But we also had a food mill and it served it's purpose especially when we were out and about. It was better with meats than an immersion blender because it left them with a little more texture- we did this with chicken etc when he was about 10 months old and eating solids pretty regularly and easily. I have also heard good things about those little "pops" or mesh sacks on a handle - you stick a whole slice of peach etc in them and they gnaw on that.

An imersion hand blender will really help to puree the food better than the food processor. You can just stick it in whatever pot you were making the food in. Steaming food helps to keep more nutrients in than boiling. You can also bake veggies and fruits in the oven and then puree them.

we used a tea strainer to puree our baby's home made baby food. you put the cooked and softened food in the little wire basket thing and use a spoon to push it through.it really works great. and the food turns out so smooth, kind of like the stage 1 baby food, thats smooth.