Making My Own Baby Food - Forest Park,IL

My daughter has always loved eating frozen peas straight from the freezer. If he can eat little foods like cheerios, you could try giving him the frozen peas and see if he'll eat them that way.

I liked wholesomebabyfood.com too...it's a great resource. It's fine to use frozen. They basically put that to try and avoid food borne illinesses that may arise after you cook something, serve it and then possibly put it back in the freezer. If you are just steaming it for puree/baby food purposes, it will be fine to refreeze. I always made a ton, it took about two days between my puree time and freezer space, but then it lasted for a month or so. Good luck! It's a lot easier than it seems and MUCH cheaper!

I made all of my daughter's food too. I did it on the weekends and basically just roasted her veggies and fruits (roasting lends a lot much more flavor than boiling or steaming), then pureed them with a little water. Pour into ice cube trays and then once frozen you can transfer them to ziplocs in the freezer. Just be aware that the natural water content in food comes out when frozen, so don't add too much water when you puree. And when you see ice crystals on the frozen food cubes, it's not freezer burn (unless it's been over 3 months); it's water that has extracted during the freezing process and is perfectly fine to eat.

I used fresh veggies whenever I could, but I did use frozen peas. Trader Joe has frozen sweet peas - I would cook them and then puree them immediately so they didn't sit out at all. Then I'd freeze them. They were fine. I think it's something about being thawed to room temp without being cooked then frozen again.

I used organic cinnamon on some of the foods I made for her (in the puree) - squash and roasted mango. I've read that cinnamon is good for a developing brain. Even if that's malarkey, it certainly broadens your baby's flavor profile.

Also keep in mind you can fresh mash a banana or avocado and serve right away - doesn't get any more fresh than that. :) I can't believe with my first baby that I would actually buy prepared banana baby food - instead of just opening a fresh banana and feeding it to him? It's hilarious.

One other thing we did when I was making her food was to join a local veggie share. We got a box of fresh organic produce delivered weekly to a neighborhood spot close to us (in our case it happened to be the little wine shop down the street - sweet!). So every week I had the freshest local organic veggies to make for her. It would give me different ideas every week and I didn't have to haul it all from the grocery.

Anyway good for you for making his food. You'll never have to worry about food recalls or additives in his food. Big savings too vs. buying individual food servings. And there's just something wonderful about providing everything your baby eats. Have fun!

Here is the website I used.

http://www.wholesomebabyfood.com/pureebabyfoodandstore.htm

If I couldnt find it fresh I bought frozen and steamed and pureed with no problem.

I work full time M-F and had a 3 year old at the time also. I always made sure I made time to do this. He deserves the best.

I used a fork and just smashed up whatever we were eating that was really soft and fed it to my DD. She did great. She only ate 3 containers of baby food ever. Just think what moms did for all of these years before blenders and baby bullets, etc. The kids were fine. Just smash it until it will slide down and don't give too much. I had also bought this hand blender, pureer that I used once for $20 about 5 yrs ago. It worked too, but it was less time consuming to just feed her what we were eating smooshed. ;)

I make baby food for my daycare children. I use canned to. Way cheaper than store bought baby food for sure. Just puree whatever it is (steamed, baked, canned or frozen) add some water for the right consistency and freeze in ice cube trays.

I do both small amounts (stuff thats left in the fruit bowl at the end of the week)...or big batches when I bake a few squash or sweet potatoes, etc.

Its easy..and even portable when you are on the go!

Good luck!

You cannot refreeze after thawing UNLESS you actually cook the food. Then it is fine. This issue is level of bacterial contamination - it is greater than zero in frozen food but generally a safe level as long as you thaw and consume right away or thaw and cook. However if you thaw, allow to remain at warm or room temperature and then refreeze - bacterial levels are much higher. The USDA has a good food safety site with answers to a lot of this kind of question.

We also both worked FT and made our own bf. When we started, we did single ingredients (peas, broccoli, squash, etc). We would cook a bag of peas for example, puree it, feed DS and then freeze the remainder in ice cube trays. Since we cook at home most nights, steaming a few veggies really did not add to the dinner burden. Once we were beyond single ingredients, DS mostly ate what we ate, just pureed. So for example, we had salmon with grilled veggies, brown rice and broccoli on the side, peaches for dessert. DS had salmon, veggie and rice puree with broccoli puree on the side, pureed peaches for dessert. Honestly not much more work. And we never had to worry about running out of jarred bf.

If you're making it on the weekend to serve during the week, you don't actually need to freeze it. Just make sure everything is clean so you don't introduce bacteria into the storage container. This saves steps on both ends of the process and the food will probably taste better.

I am assuming you are cooking it first (either roasting/baking/steaming), if so then it is perfectly fine to use frozen vegetables. Right now, (since I am also working full time) I cook and freeze or store my little one's fruits and vegetables on the weekend. If I have alot of veggies and fruits, i keep some aside for the week in a clean, sealed container and freeze the rest, this way I am not scrambling to get her fed while also trying to get her big brother fed.
I also have started adding a bit of spice to the stuff I cook for her(garlic, onion, cinnamon, fennel etc), since i started making her food, she refuses to eat the jarred variety. Again, it depends on your baby's tastes.

Happy cooking!