Making Own Baby Food - Orange,CA

We used this book: "Super Baby Food." It was FANTASTIC! Recipes and EASY ways to make food ahead. I recommend it highly.

We didn't have a special processor, just the regular blender.

I love making my own babyfood!
A great website is ...
www.wholesomebabyfood.com
You dont need to buy expensive food preocessors !
You can find one for $15 at Target but, the William Sonoma one is nice because it steams the food as well.

First Meals, by Annabel Karmel is what I used. But it's pretty basic, you just boil or steam until it gets mushy, and I use a hand processor called KidCo, it was less than $20. To save time I cooked in bulk and then used plastic ice cube trays to freeze-each cube is 1oz-and microwave it later. I hope this is helpful, it is simple, saves some money, and, I think, tastes better.

Hi W.,
you have received lots of great advice. I agree with many mamas. do in bulk! Freeze in plastic ice cube trays. wholesomebabyfood.com is the best site. it even tells you which foods to add fresh water etc so that you are not giving your little one too many nitrates etc. You don't need a fancy machine, just a blender. I used my basic blender. I used to do 2 lbs of each veggie at a time and would last 3-4 weeks so about once a month. It taste better, looks bright, fresh and better than store bought. Plus, you know what you are giving your baby. If there is a recall on food or certain products you dont have to worry, cause you know what you made. I can not cook a well tasting meal for me and my hubby but I can make the baby food so if I can do it you can do it!! I am proud to say that my 1 year old son has never had a store bought food, no chicken "fingers", no fries, no pizza. It gives me great pride and it will for you too! Best. -J
Oh, and you save a ton of money making your own! Dont by the silly machine and you save a ton more!

I made my own baby food and it was a lot easier than I expected. I just used a regular food processor but when I first started out I would also strain the food to get any chucks out. As my son got older and was able to handle the chucks I skipped the straining part. Then I would put the baby food in an ice cube tray and when frozen pop them out into a ziploc freezer bag. I would usually make big batches of baby food on Sunday and then defrost the cubes for meals throughout the week.

You can do this with almost any fruit or veggie and then mix/combine whatever you think would taste good. I didn't really use a recipe book although I had a few. Trader Joe's has a lot of frozen veggies that were really easy to make (my son loved the organic sweet peas and sweet corn). And any fresh fruit will do (although apples were kind of hard because you have to bake them first to make them soft). Squash and sweet potatoes are also good. Some things like bananas and avacados you can just mush through a strainer without blending. You can also mix in a ilttle rice cereal with the fruits and veggies. Oh, and when my son was constipated I would make pureed prunes.

Just try it, it's not hard. And it's much cheaper and healthier! Have fun.

I also used the Super Baby Foods book and loved it! I loved the information on grains and which ones contained protein, etc. Also, I used to add flax seed oil to my recipes.
As for equipment, I started with a regular blender, but then ended up simply using the Braun multi stick blender. It's small and easy to clean up.
By the way, if you're on the road, you can also use one of those little food mills that will mash it up easily. You can just stick it in your purse.
Have fun!

I bought a baby food mill online, $14. However, there is a lot you can do w/a regular blender, food processor, fork... Enjoy! Thanks for doing the healthy thing for your child!

www.weelicious.com

I love this site because she incorporates SO many yummy things!
I made much of my son's food at home too, just used my immersion blender's various parts... could probably do it with a regular blender too, but we got an immersion blender for our wedding and it's been the MOST USED kitchen appliance for chopping, pureeing, blending, etc...

Have fun!

I use Ruth Yaron's Super Baby Food. The book a lot of healthy things I never would have thought to feed my son, when to introduce each fruit or veggie, nutritional and serving info, and freezing/saving info. Making your own baby food doesn't take much time, and the taste is always great (I normally eat a little bit when I'm making large quantities). I did buy a baby food processor, but I think a blender would actually be better. If you want to grind up beans and grains for quick cooking, you need to have something that can do that kind of heavy duty work. I have to cook everything whole, and it takes forever on certain types of beans.

My son is now 20 months and I have been making pretty much all of his food using standard steaming or baking, and then pureeing in my electric Kidco food mill (not the hand-crank style). I then freeze in the Kidco frozen food trays that come with lids and, I must say, those are really helpful since they easily stack. I just freeze, then remove the "cubes" and store in labeled/dated ziploc bags, and the trays are ready for another use right away.

That said, I have to say that the Beaba Babycook (which I do not have) seems like a great, though pricey, kitchen tool. I only learned about it after I had already been making the food for many months, so I didn't buy it. But, a friend of mine who has one really loves it. It seems so much easier to set up and clean than the typical pots/pans, puree device, etc. The only problem might be that you can't cook large quantities at one time.

W., My son never had jarred food as a baby. I made all his food. You actually don't need any recipes...just follow the introduction of food guidelines (no strawberries before age of 2, for example). As you are preparing dinners, eliminate the seasoning until after you've taken out the portions you are setting aside for baby foods. Then season your food for the adults at the table. You can process veggies through a food mill to puree them (removes tough fibers). Freeze ice cube trays - pop out once frozen and store in baggies in the freezer. YOu can use as many cubes as you want for a meal that way; the cubes defrost quickly and you can gently reheat on stove top with a little water in the pan. Your blender also is a good tool to puree foods in. As baby starts on chicken you can cut into bite size pieces and puree with water or a little broth. Fruits are easily mashed and pureed usually without cooking and will retain more nutrients.

Hey W.! I've been making some babyfood for my little guy since about 6 months (he's 9months now). It's been pretty easy and I know it's quite healthy for him...
I have a food processor but haven't used it yet because I don't usually make batches that big. I use a nifty little hand held blender (like a $25 investment) by Cuisanart.

So far Ive steamed veggies like carrots, sweet ptatoes, and squash/zuccinni and then I blend them up with pumped milk... so easy for them to digest and if you are a nursing mother your little one will likely enjoy a hint of the familiar sweet milk. If not formula would add that creamy texture, too.(Jar foods are blended with water)

I've also slowly simmered fruits like apple & pear (peeled and cored) and again blended with breast milk... I'm careful to really slowly simmer (lowest heat possible for about an hour) so as to retain as much vitamin as possible AND more importantly not heat to the point of creating a more refined type sugar. Similar to RAW food stuff, but I'm not a complete expert nor an extremist.

Now we're doing avocado blended with goat milk yogurt (approx 1 avocado and 1/3 cup yogurt). This makes a wonderful pudding like consistency, it's an awesome brain food, healthy fat, and my little guys FAV... (it's also the easiest to make!) I use goat milk (yogurt) because it's closer to human milk and therefore easily digestable, yogurt of any kind is recommended after 7 months as I recall.
Anyhow, hope you can benefit from something there, Kudos on going the extra mile, your little darling deserves it and you're awesome for providing it!
Hugs and Smiles, M. in Redondo Beach

Hi W., be happy you are a SAHM it's the best job in the world if you can get it. I make homemade baby food in my daycare, no special r me recpies needed, I have a magic bulet, and what ever we eat i put in the magic bullet, I steam fresh vegetables, i put fresh fruits in their, spagehtti, before i season it i take out enough, to put in the bullet, soups, lasanga, canned peas, eggs, depending on the age of the bay of course, you can make it up ahead of time and freeze it. If you need or would like some tips on how to be a happy sucessful SAHM let me know I'll share somethings with you, not to say you are not happy, just in case you want to be happier. J. L.

You can find recipes online. I think there is something with the carrots and iron absorbs iron so maybe just buy the carrot baby food already processed. You can get a small magic bullet or any food processor. If you look on the baby isle at the grocery store or Walmart/Target, you'll see a little net feeder that opens and closes. I just put bananas and other fruit in there and my baby eats mashes it up and eats it himself. He's been doing it since he was 5 months old. They are wonderful and the baby can't joke because only tiny amounts come out at a time. I think it has helped him learn how to feed himself too.

I have the BabyCook that you refer ro. It makes the job so easy...probably not necessary, but I am not sure I would be as faithful to making all of my son's food without it.

I loved the book, "Super Baby Food" by Ruth Yaron. It was a lifesaver for those first 6 months of transitioning to solid foods. It has two features that were great: Individual chapters for each month of baby's life (What To Feed Baby at 6 Months, 7 Months, 8 Months, etc.) which included recipes and information on how to store the foods, as well as an awesome overview chart that showed everything at a glance. I couldn't recommend this one more. Good luck!

www.wholesomebabyfood.com

www.weelicious.com

Those were the sites I used to get ideas. I steamed fruit or veggies and pureed them with a stick blender right in the bowl. I also froze things in ice cube trays and transferred to ziplocs. I used the brown rice cereal for babies for awhile, then decided it was a waste of money. You can make your own cereal by blending uncooked brown rice to a powder then cooking with water. But we started on oatbran cereal that I buy in bulk at Whole Foods and we still eat that. I freeze coconut milk from the can in ice cube trays and put it in his morning cereal or in with sweet potatoes, bananas, etc. And at 18 months my son still eats the banana, avocado and yogurt mixture everyday for lunch. Couldn't be easier!

Hi W., I have just been using a blender/food processor (the Cuisinart combo) and a silicone steamer insert and freezing food in ice cube trays. I do not like to cook, and I have no time, but I really wanted my daughter to have fresh, good food. I came really close to buying one of those euro Babycook machines. Now my daughter is a year old and eating mostly finger foods and I would have had an $150 piece of equipment taking up space in my kitchen. Also, making the baby food is very easy, just a few hours each month of steaming and cooking and freezing. (And I am a person who loathes washing dishes and gets out a recipe book to boil an egg.)
I haven't read through all of the responses, but in case no one has brought it up: Good recipe websites I've used - weelicious.com and wholesomebabyfood.com.
-R.

I made baby food for all 3 of my kids. I think I made the most for our 3rd. It is really easy. You can make several batches at once and freeze them in ice cube trays. I just used our blender. I used a book called Super Baby Foods by Ruth Yaron. What I really like is she has a section that you can look up most fruits/vegetables and she gives you recommendations on what age to start certain fruits/veggies and the best way to prepare them. It is a very comprehensive book. It includes recipes for toddlers and even a section on making your own cleaners. She has a website: www.superbabyfood.com. Even if you don't read the whole book, there are lots of sections that are helpful.

Hi W..

I've been making my son's food for 6 months now. I have the Williams Sonoma product and while it's wonderful, I find myself doing it in a steamer and a food processor because I like to make larger quantities. What I would do is make a bunch of single ingredient foods, freeze them in ice cube trays, transfer to ziplocks, and mix cubes together to make "dinners". Doing it this way, if there was a combo my son didn't like, I wasn't stuck wasting a bunch. I could just mix differently to his liking the next time. Piece of cake. I got the best help from www.wholesomebabyfood.com

Best of luck.

B.

Hi, I made all my son's baby food and will do so for my daughter when she starts solids in two weeks. I liked Annabel Karmel's books. You don't need any special equipment at all. You can just mash some things raw (like avocado and banana) and cook then puree in the food processor other things (like butternut squash or chicken). I usually also passed things through a sieve at the beginning to make sure there were no chunks. You can prepare batches of food ahead of time and keep in ice cube trays in the freezer for easy meals in convenient portion sizes.

Hi-
"Super Baby Food" is a good book for kid recipes.

I bought organic veggies (broccoli, spinach, sweet potatoes, frozen peas, cauliflower, edamame, etc.) and fruits (peaches, bananas, plums, apples, canteloupe, etc.) from the farmers market or Whole Foods. Then I used my food processor to make veggie and fruit purees. I freezed them in ice cube trays (the ones with the lid are helpful for stacking). After the little food cubes are frozen, I would just put them in a ziplock bag in the freezer and label them.
Tastes sooo much better than the jarred stuff. Good luck!
L.

Hi W.,

I am a SAHM to a 13 month old boy who has been a very picky eater and I cook ALL of his meals. He has NEVER had a single jar of baby food a day in his life, I'm proud to say, because I cook it all!
I have the Williams Sonoma baby cookbook you are referring to and I do use it frequently. It is called "Cooking for Baby" and it cost me about $20. It is even better if you buy the Babycook cooker from Beaba sold at Williams Sonoma but it cost $150. I got it as a Xmas gift but I must tell you, it is a LIFESAVER and I use it for 100% of my son's meals. It only takes me about 3-5 minutes to make enough of one recipe. I cut up the raw meat, veggies, or fruit and steam cook right in the Beaba Babycook cooker. All I do is turn the knob and it does the rest. When it's done, I pour out the water and puree the food right there in the same Babycook. It steam cooks and purees all food and it's perfectly safe and sterile. Minimal prep time, minimal mess and cleanup.
Each recipe makes up to 10 servings for my son, so I divide the cooked food into 3-4 small tupperware containers, label it and freeze it until ready for him to eat. It comes with it's own small cookbook which I use, or you can use the "Cooking for Baby" cookbook which I also use.

Doing it all the old fashioned way of boiling water and steam cooking on the stove is time consuming and messy. It's just a headache and if I didn't have this Babycook cooker I don't think I would enjoy the process as much as I do. I cook several meals easily while my son is having is midday nap, and I don't even have to stand in the kitchen and watch anything once I load up the cooker. The light goes off and it lets me know it's done steaming and time to pour off the water and turn the puree knob, and voila..it's done!

I used my regular food processor and blender. I steamed the veggies and then pureed with water until I got the desired consistency. No special recipes to start. Same goes for fruit. Good luck!

I was ALL about this. It's so easy & really cheap. My girls are 16 months now & they've still not had jarred baby food or any pre-made meals like that. And, trust me when I say that I am not into anything high maintenance. I have always worked full time (outside of the home). I used the website below & our Magic Bullet. Good luck & have fun!

http://wholesomebabyfood.com/

I know I'm repeating what everyone else must be saying. It's so easy. Steam vegies and puree them and freeze in ice cube trays. Once they're frozen, you just pull out the cubes you want for each meal.

We used Ruth Yaron's Super Baby Food, but mostly for the grain cereal recipes and to keep track of which foods are best introduced and which ages.

We just used a glass blender.

There's a great DVD called "Chef and Father" that shows simple foods you can prepare yourself as you start babies on solid foods. It's so important to know what's going into your kids and the best way is to make it yourself. This DVD shows you the very simple and inexpensive tools you'll need.

Also guides you through gradually adding new tastes and textures, which is really important since most babies are resistant to change. This helps them develop better eating habits that will make them less picky about what they'll eat as they grow older.

The DVD was produced by a guy who is a professional chef, but considers himself more a father. Unlike most chefs, he makes it so simple to follow and try yourself - definately not a complicated cooking DVD. Laid back pace and tone, little bit of philosophical advice on parenting thrown in, sone important food handling and safety tips and actually enjoyable and entertaining to watch.

You can rent it on Netflix or order it from www.theparentingspace.com I think you'll like it.

I made baby food and it was super easy. I had a recipe book, but I didn't use it that much. The Williams Sonoma product is tempting, but I just steamed the food on my stove with my spaghetti pot (the double kind with the strainer) and then pureed it in my blender before pouring it into the ice cube trays to freeze. All that I had to buy that way was extra ice cube trays. You can also use the ziploc steaming bags too. As for the food, I just steamed whatever fruit or veggie I was making and then blended it pure. I would add extra water from the steaming pot if it needed more water to blend. Super easy and he got the pure taste of the food! Later on, after he was used to the pure flavor I would try the recipes that had the fruit or veggie combined with something else. A good dessert is to cover apple slices in a little bit of apple juice and then put a cinnamon stick in the pot and let it simmer for about 30 minutes. Then take out the cinnamon stick and puree the apples with a little of the apple juice if needed. Another favorite of my son's was to slice up bananas and cook that over low heat with some orange juice and cinnamon and butter until you can stir it smooth. That one doesn't freeze though, but it is easy to make a small amount for just a couple meals. Good luck and have fun with making your baby food! It really does feel much more rewarding than just opening a jar. The time and effort are worth it!

the book super baby food is great.

you'll need a blender, ice cube trays and freezer ziplocs if you want to make quantities. Bananas are a good 1st food. just mush em really well w/ a fork.

Green beans are easy-cook a bunch of them blend them up-pour into ice cube trays-freeze, and then pop out the cubes into the ziploc and you are ready to make your next batch.

I think carrots and spinach are the 2 you need to buy in the jar. there is something unsafe about them homemade, but, i can not remember what.

Also, when she gets a bit bigger and starts eatting real food-like spaghetti or roast beef there is a hand crank food grinder available at babies r us for under 20 bucks. it's perfect for 1 meal-and you can feed right out of it.

have fun. I have 3 kids I made all their food-and I am so not the homemade type. but, it's easy and cheap.

Annabel Karmel's books are great as well as some of the websites suggested in previous responses along with simplybabyfood.com. I really believe that cooking your own food helps you baby develop a great pallet for all foods. My daughter eats all veggies and fruits with out a fight or hiding them in food!

W.,

When we started making baby food for our daughter, we'd steam the veggie (or fruit, like apples) till it was very soft, puree it with an immersion blender, then strain it through a sieve.
With soft fruits such as avocado, banana, and peaches, etc, we didn't steam them.
She didn't like the pureed stuff (and didn't want to eat till she was 9 mos old and had a few teeth), so we'd chop up teeny tiny bites of food for her instead.

If your baby does eat the pureed stuff, I don't imagine you will need to purchase any special equipment - you probably have an immersion blender, regular blender, or food processor already, and can use any of those items.

We bought Super Baby Food but didn't love it. Petit Appetit was much better. But really, when she first started eating, we just used a list of fruits/veggies our pediatrician gave us that also included some feeding guidelines.

My suggestion is don't purchase books or food processor. Its really so easy! Like another respondent, I just used ice cube trays for mashed food. Yam, squash, potato, banana, peach, plum, avacado, etc. Look up what you need on the internet. If you bake/cook and you can't mash it w/ a fork yourself, more than likely she shouldn't eat it just yet. Now we're vegetarian, so meat wasn't an issue.

Highly encourage and laud you for making your own food because you KNOW what your baby is eating! Additionally, if you can do organic...

Best to you and your family!
Jen

I did it and it wasn't that tough! The super baby food diet book was awesome. Good luck!

Haven't read the other responses yet so sorry if I'm being redundant, lol...

I made my own baby food and it is so much easier than people think!

For example, some fruits can easily be mashed by hand with just a fork; avocado (excellent brain food for baby;)), bananas, papaya, mango, etc.

Same with certain steamed/cooked veggies; sweet potatoes (orange and purple), carrots, peas, etc (sometimes I would add just a bit of breast milk to these to help with the consistency and to make it more of a "familiar" taste for baby).

Then, once she starts meats, this was one of my daughter's favorites; I would boil some chicken, cut it in small cubes and toss it in the blender with a bit of whole grain pasta (cooked of course), some veggies, and a bit of the "broth" (the water I cooked the chicken in). It's like homemade chicken noodle soup in a blender! hehe And it doesn't really need any seasoning - babies don't really know the difference (unless you really wanted to add some healthy and fresh spices, but no salt or anything...)

Just have fun with it! You can easily make up your own recipes as you go ;)

Have fun and Good luck!!

We used Annabel Karmel's New Complete Baby and Toddler Meal Planner. It's a terrific book with great recipes and lots of good tips. We use a regular food processor, and got a small hand food mill (for about $10, made by Kidco) at Babies R Us for things that need to be strained. For example, blackberries need to be strained through a mouli (food mill) to get rid of the seeds, etc. These days (my son is now 14 months) the only time I use the food mill is for straining the fruit for his morning oatmeal and everything else that needs to be blended goes in the food processor. There's such a small window where kids need everything pureed--just a couple of months really--that if you already have a food processor, I'd just get the cheap food mill and go with that.

It's really not as big of a hassle as it might sound--especially if you're clever and organized enough to make some of the same stuff for yourself (so that you're chopping vegetables for baby food AND your own dinner). Our son has been wonderfully open to trying all sorts of recipes and now happily eats most table food--he's used to flavors like garlic and basil and such.

One note about Annabel Karmel's amazing book--she's from the UK so sometimes you'll need the internet handy to translate British...we didn't know what a courgette was (it's a zucchini) and there are a few other words that don't correlate, but Google and Wikipedia solve that easily.

We steam most of the vegetables and fruits before blending--the other post said you had to bake apples, but I just peel, chop, and steam them, or use a cheese grater to make quick apple & pear sauce (just peel, then grate!).

For storage, I recommend either using ice cube trays or muffin tins, then put into ziploc bags after freezing. We bought a bunch of little tupperware-type things because my son goes to daycare, but in retrospect, I think the ice cube tray route is the way to go. At this point, the only pureed food my son eats is the fruit purees, which I add a tablespoon or so of rice cereal to in order to thicken it up.

Also, I highly recommend a kitchen scale since most of the recipes ask for things in ounces. You can get a decent one for under a hundred dollars at Bed Bath & Beyond.

Have fun! We made cooking for baby one of our new hobbies--my husband and I sometimes chop veggies and fruits together in front of the TV after our little one goes to sleep. :-)