Hello, I am currently making my son's baby food. I am switching over from jarred foods and so far my son is adapting well. However, all of my veggies seem to come out "gritty" when I use our food processor. I add water to make it thinner, but it doesn't help with the gritty factor. My son spits out any food that come out this consistency. Will he just get used to it or is there a way to help with that?
Thank you!
I tried the basic food grinder and it is way too annoying to use, especially if making big batches of food. Then I tried a magic-bullet type blender, then our blender. Once I switched to the food processor, I find it actually purees down to the consistency that I want (my son is 7 months) and it much easier to use. I think it might actually be the types of foods I was making, after reading your comments. I was making variations of green beans, and I think their skin might be the culprit! Thank you for all your helpful comments!!
I used to make baby food, and then freeze it. Freezing veggies somehow breaks them down and softer. This may work. I hope this helps.
Added question...We are just starting to make some of his baby food and are mostly doing the jar food...Any good suggestions on what to use to blend the food? Maybe you could try using formula in there instead of water maybe that might help..not sure though :)
I made all of my daughter's pureed food when she was that age. The only veggies we had problems with were the ones with thicker skins...green beans and peas. You can strain/rub them through cheese cloth to get rid of the chunkier pieces. My daughter would not eat them if chunky.
I then put my cube or two of homemade food with a scoop of cereal and a scoop of formula and mixed them together. She seemed to like that combination better than the food by itself. I used formula to supplement her iron since I was still breastfeeding.
I also used the recipes from www.wholesomebabyfood.com.
Best wishes!
Hi, C.. The reason the jarred baby food is smoother is because they use cornstarch and/or a bit of rice cereal or other pureed starchy product in the mixture. You can do this, too, with a bit of pureed rice cereal. I made my own brown rice cereal for my son's first food by boiling brown rice the normal way and pureeing it in a blender with a little formula. When it was a nice pudding-type consistency, I could mash bananas into it and mix it up or use it as a base for veggies or meats. You have to be careful to cook the veggies just enough so that they are no longer extremely fibrous anymore. That's hard with green beans, for instance, because they have a lot of fiber in them. They will take an extra amount of time and effort to get to a smooth, pudding-like consistency in the blender, and they will take a little more cooking before you blend them, too.
Veggies that blend up well are things like cauliflower, yellow squash, sweet potato (my son LOVED sweet potatoes even without the cereal mixed in), white potato, even spinach -- but start out sparingly with spinach because a lot of kids don't like the taste of pure spinach. Once you figure out what he is and isn't allergic to, you might want to just combine veggies like cauliflower with spinach or brocolli (use only the florets/flowers because the stems are too woody). It's OK to have a nice mixture. The idea is to get the vitamins and minerals into his stomach and have him enjoy the process.
Sounds like you are well on your way in this process!
Peace,
Syl
you can strain it before you give it to him. When I make nut milks and yogurts for my kids, I have to strain it to get the "pulp" and seeds out. and then it's nice and smooth. Hope that helps!
V.
Hi- I made and still make alot of my son's baby food. We use the Magic Bullet and depending on how long you grind, the food can be completely pureed or as gritty as you want it. The MB is pretty inexpensive and can be used for tons of things. Good Luck! K.
I made almost all of my daughter's baby food (she's 19 months old now) and it never turned out gritty. I wonder if it has something to do with the way you are making it. I never even had to add water. How are you preparing the food before you put it in the food processor? How old is he also? I steamed the veggies until they were super tender and then just popped them in the food processor. Hmmmm.....
Get a baby food grinder, they are like $10.00 and they make the best food! JUst grind the organic foods and add water. PERFECT!
I used a hand blender rather than a food processor , it's easier to get into all the little bits. Also when blending veggies I used a tiny little bit of butter (I mean teeny tiny) just to make it a little creamier on the texture , once I started adding other foods such as meat the butter was no longer needed. If you don't want to add butter then if you add sweet potato or butternut squash to the mix then that makes it creamy aswell.
I used the Magic Bullet also; it is my all-time favorite kitchen appliance! But when things had a weird consistency that my son didn't care for, I would just mix in some plain yogurt or applesauce (unsweetened), and he would chow down. Someone also mentioned mixing in some rice cereal... We did that as well sometimes, which may have helped disguise any strange textures. Good luck, and good for you for taking the time and effort to make his food!
I made all of my daughter food. Meat, veggies, fruit, beans, ect. I steamed, baked, grilled, ect. If you could be more specific as to which foods are gritty that would help. I do not recall any foods being gritty. The only problem I had with any food being gritty was chicken or pork. It wasn't exactly gritty but would "ball up" like when you cook ground beef in a skillet. She still ate it. But it was a bit messy b/c it was crumblely... i don't think that is a word. I used formula, or milk, depending on age. You can also use cream, canned milk, powdered milk. These are high in fat/calories so it might be some addition nutrition, if you need it. Add it when you puree and it will help things to stick together. Also chicken broth works good. I used low sodium organic broth but whatever you have will work. Beef broth and veggie broth. I also used just a $50 puree from Sears, so don't spend a ton on that it is not needed.
If you would like some more info or ideas send me a message. I loved making food for my daughter, at 18 months she eats everything.
I used an inexpensive food grinder and that seemed to work better at making the food less chunky than a blender or processer. And I could take it ANYWHERE with me!
I must second the Magic Bullet. I actually bought it to use Jessica Seinfeld's cookbook that has recipes for purees for older children. I LOVE it! I use it all the time for all kinds of stuff.
I started by making my own food. On the rare occasion I tried to get her to eat jarred food, she spit it out!
The jarred food is strained, but that adds another step and something else to wash. I second the idea about adding plain yogurt. My daughter liked veggies and yogurt together and it gave everything a smooth consistency. You could also mix a smooth veggie like squash or sweet potato with something that ends up chunky (like green beans).
a great web site with tips on making your own food is wholesomebabyfood.com. re: gritty veggies, i've only ever had this problem with things like peas. they do need to be strained after because the skins are kind of rough and don't process well. i use a blender and do not have a problem with gritty veggies, maybe you should try a blender? good luck. :)
