Friday, December 10, 2010

First Foods.. Friday! Crunchy Baby Food Maker? You Bet!

After a successful week of homemade sweet potatoes, it was time to move onto some homemade pears! Carter nom noms his way through fruits AND veggies these days and I can't wait to add more to his solids repertoire. He's growing into such a little man!



It amazes me how few veggies and fruits can make so much baby food! Just so that you have a better idea of what I'm talking about, I went ahead and baked four average size sweet potatoes in the oven, pureed them in the Magic Bullet with a touch of filtered water and filled nearly two-and-a-half empty ice cube trays. Alongside the pototoes, I baked four large apples, skin and all, once cooled, peeled the skin off, threw them in the Magic Bullet and filled nearly an entire ice cub tray! Four skinned and steamed pears, steamed in our counter top steamer and then pureed in the Bullet, filled an entire ice cube tray and then some. I also went ahead and sliced four avocados, slipped them into freezer bags and will introduce those mixed in with a little applesauce once we're acclimated to pears and apples!




Once the fruits and veggies are frozen into perfectly Carter-sized one-ounce cubes, I pop them from their ice cube trays and dump them into quart-sized freezer storage bags. I then label them with the date they were made and pop 'em back into the freezer! The next time I run to the grocer, I plan on picking up some fresh green beans, a few bags of steamfresh peas and some butternut squash! Yeah, solids!



I can't stand the thought of cooking, but making my own baby food is SUCH a blast! I used to desperately yearn for the Beaba: Babycook, thinking that it was an absolute necessity if I was going to be making my own baby food, but truth be told? I'm getting by just fine with our Oster Steamer and Magic Bullet. I'm sure I could whip out my Cuisinart food processor, but it's rather large for the job and truly the Bullet does just fine. Just in case there were any of you Mommas out there who, like myself, thought you may need a fancy shmancy baby food steamer or food press in order to be able to do this.

Before attempting to make your own, I would do your research though. I learned some very interesting things in my attempt to become chef-savvy. Did you know that you should never make your own baby food carrots, as they contain too high levels of nitrates in their natural pureed form? If you're interested in making your own baby food, here's a great resource: Wholesome Baby Food.


As you can see, pears were a raging success! Happy baby food-making!

10 comments :

  1. He is absolutely adorable! These pictures are the cutest!!

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  2. I have been wanting to make Coop's baby food, but just haven't gotten around to it yet. Thanks for this, becasue I wasn't sure how it'd work out just using a blender, which is my only option. I too wanted the special steamer but when you think about how small it is, it doesn't seem like it would make very quick work out of it, like it's maybe good for one meal at a time kind of thing. I've asked for a babyfood cookbook for Christmas, not just purees, but with actual meals in it, because giving him MEAT out of a JAR is the one thing that I don't think I can do!

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  3. Those eyes! They are just beautiful.

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  4. Yay for posting this! Sweet potatoes hurt Connor's stomach. He has been grunting like no one's business the psat few days. Isn't it amazing how three or four fruits or veggies make so much? I made quite a bit this past week as well and plan to continue this weekend. I don't want to have to be doing this over my Christmas break when I could be spending the time with Connor!

    Oh, and the Cuisinart food processor? worth it. I steam the food with the Babycook and the process it in the Cuisinart food processor. It is amazing how that thing works when making in bulk!

    I did make Connor carrots. I found two bags of organic carrots and steamed those. I read where it is just fine to make carrots as long as you don't reuse the water that comes from it when steamed. That is where nitrates go when cooked. So I just added some tap water to it when pureeing it.

    If I find any other tips and tricks I will let you know. Have a great weekend!

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  5. We plan on making baby food over Christmas break. Any tips? I've bookmarked that wholesome site to refer to.

    We haven't introduced solids yet because Sawyer was underweight, but I am really excited to see how he reacts in a couple weeks!

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  6. sometimes I feel like a bad mom because I have zero desire to make Em's food. Zero. I thought I'd be the mom making baby food--but nope. I make milk. 7 months going strong. I call that a success.

    Go you for doing it. For real.

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  7. When Jamie is ready for solids I totally plan on making my own...thanks for the tips! We got the go ahead from the pedi yesterday at his 4 mos checkup...but honestly I'm in no hurry. Maybe at 5 mos....or 6. We will see!

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  8. Awe, I love the last picture of him! He has the prettiest eyes!

    I am going to put this in my when I have a baby file because I always wanted and thought it would be cheaper to make my own baby food but I didn't know if I would need to sub for what they would not be getting with bottled baby food.

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  9. what a cute little man!
    this is great info, thanks!
    my little guy is only 10 weeks, but when the times comes to feed him solids i really want to make my own, so this was a great post for me :)

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  10. wholesomebabyfoods is on my FAVORITES! I just made a batch of bananas and am doing sweet potato today! I LOVE making the baby food, just like you said it's so much fun!

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