With the permission of our pediatrician we started our girl on baby food at 5 mos. She will be 6 mos old in a week. So far she has eaten avocado, sweet potato, peas, bananas, and squash. I have made all of it and so far so good. I have a Cuisinart Mini Prep Plus and use the BEABA food trays.
My only question is making fruits... I have a cookbook and have looked on wholesomebabyfood.com but it doesn't mention about freezing the fruit purees. We are looking into mango, pear, papaya, apple, etc.
What are your success stories on making and freezing fruits. How long do they last in the freezer..
Oh I had great success w/ apples! Very easy. Peel 'em, cut 'em, toss 'em in a pot w/ a little water. Cook till soft (or bubbling). I like MacIntosh. Put 'em through a strainer and into your trays.
All of the things you mentioned freeze great.
Check out this book from the library: http://www.superbabyfood.com/
This lady has every bit of info you could possibly need!
I second the Super Baby Food. She does have a lot of info, including how to pick the fruit, ages, how to prepare, store, how long it's good for, etc.
Good luck to you and your daughter!!
I tried apples, but they didn't turn out so good. We just bought a huge jar of natural applesauce (the unsweetened kind). Peaches didn't work too well, either, and I thought the effort for peaches wasn't worth it. Bananas, of course, mash well, but I never did figure out the whole freezer thing. They turned brown, so I would just mash up the bananas as we ate them, which worked great.
I made all of Marlee's food, fruit I put through the processor then a strainer. I would do it every two weeks when I got home from grocery shopping. Whatever was left from the prior two weeks was trashed. I don't know if it lasts longer than that but I didn't want bags of frozen food all over the place.
I also got some great information from the Ball Blue Book (canning & freezing). It provides lots of information on which fruits freeze well. If you're worried about browning, mix in some Fruit Fresh or lemon juice.
better in the freezer than in the fridge. I stored mine just like veggies. It worked great. My kids loved fruit so it never lasted long enough to go bad. Still I kept some for several months in the freezer for sure. Pear do discolor but my kids never minded.
Also, a tip on apples, save yourself the trouble. Just by unsweet applesauce. Look at the ingredients - apples and water, the same as you would use at home. It's a lot easier to buy a big jar than to make your own apple sauce, trust me.
