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Homemade Baby Food

i am considering beginning to make my own baby food for my seven month old and looking for some information. It's mainly a cost issue (54 cents a lb. for bananas or 50 cents for 4 oz of baby bananas, crazy!!!) Have any of you done this before? How do you go about it? I was thinking fresh or frozen veggies/fruits with a little water and a hand mixer, is there more to it than that? What's the shelf life and how do you keep it from spoiling? What type of containers? How much baby food does a bag of frozen stuff yield? Appreciate any and all advice!

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Permalink Reply by Shanna Brown Hadden on June 6, 2011 at 11:02pm

I made a LOT of baby food for Cooper...not so much for Seeger, It's pretty time consuming and with two under 2 it was harder the second time.

I bought a magic Bullet from BB&B for $50 and got my money back quick from not buying jars of baby food. I also bought a book of 100 baby foods to make from him. It was broken down by age. I was making a ton of it at a time a freezing it. It thawed quickly, but I would set out the amount I needed the night before so it would be ready the next day.

You can freeze it in ice trays and then dunp like foods into a ziplock bag, or you can use baby food jars (which is what I did. I had friends save them for me to use). They will last months in the freezer. If you need some food ideas just give me your email address and I will send you some of his favorites from the book.

Good luck!!!

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Permalink Reply by Katie Myers Hill on June 7, 2011 at 11:06am

Same as Shanna, I made a lot more for my first than my second baby. With second, I got really good at couponing and stocked up when baby food was BOGO + coupons. Could get Earth's Best organic for around 35 cents a jar and gerber or beech nut for even less. Never buy baby food apples. Just buy applesauce. Same thing and cheaper! Sign up on baby food brand websites for coupons. Also "like" the FB feeds from Thrifty Mama, Southern Savers, Frugal Girls, etc., for alerts.

But, I really did enjoy making baby food. Bananas are the easiest. Just mash up or use a blender. Water to thin more, rice cereal to thicken. Sweet potatos - cook and mash up. For most everything, steam to soften. Then either mash with potato masher, in blender, magic bullet, or the baby food mill which I had. Use the water (now juice) from the bottom of the steamer pot to soften. Like Shanna said, freeze in ice cube trays, then pop them out into freezer bags, labeled and dated. Each cube is about an ounce so easy to know how many to set out. I made fun combos like avocao apple, pear squash, etc.

A great site to give you tips and recipes is www.wholesomebabyfood.com

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Permalink Reply by Christine Bannister on June 7, 2011 at 8:21pm

Thanks for the advice Shanna and Katie. I am looking forward to trying it, although I didn't even consider the time factor with two kids...Sometimes it feels I can't accomplish anything 'til after bedtime and by then I'm pretty beat. Maybe I can devote one Saturday a month to making and freezing a bunch of it.

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Permalink Reply by Katie Myers Hill on June 7, 2011 at 8:29pm

Forgot to add....keep track of how much your produce costs. Then see how many ice cube cubes your batch yields. Divide it up to cost per ounce. Sometimes you'll see how much you are saving. For some foods it won't be worth your time.