I am sooo not a fan of processed food of any kind. I try to make most of my family's food from scratch, so why should the baby's food be any different? At the suggestion of the kiddos doctor, I started Sophie out on avocados and sweet potatoes, instead of the boxed cereals. She started at about 4 months, when she was holding her head up and taking food off my plate. The avocados I would just mash and give them to her as needed. The sweet potatoes I would boil and toss in the food processor with either the water from boiling, or breast milk if I had any on hand. I would do a whole sweet potato and freeze it in the ice cube trays with covers. I LOVE these trays. The covers keep the germies out and the tray makes the portion size easy.
When it came time to introduce new fruits and vegetables, I found the site Wholesomebabyfood.com really helpful. Actually, I am addicted to it and have it on bookmark tab. For each fruit and vegetable, the site lists the vitamin and mineral content, the recommended age of introduction, and recipes.
Another thing I love when making Sophie's meals is my immersion blender. Honestly, we had gotten this thing as a wedding present and I had no clue what to use it for. One day (4 years after it had been shoved in a drawer) it clicked that I could use it to smash baby food. I will throw some organic frozen veggies (right from the bag that I bought at the grocery store) in the microwave (enough for one serving). I use the water it's cooked in to thin out the consistency and maybe add some apple sauce, or a cube of sweet potato (thawed) and blend it all together. Voila, one serving of baby food!
Thursday, July 30, 2009
Homemade Baby Food
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2 comments:
I used to make my sons baby food (when he was so little!) and even made his own cereal using oven toasted whole grains ground in a coffee grinder (uniquely used for this purpose!) and storing in a ziplock bag in the freezer.
Several tbsp of cereal mixed with some boiling water (let set to the right consistency), sometimes sweetened with fruit puree or yogurt and he was good!
Good on you for your efforts and happy eating!!
I didn't know you had a blog, I just found it. I made baby food too, when E was young, I was worried mainly about allergies to milk, and started looking at commercially available (meaning affordable, not organic by a long stretch) baby food jars and found that nearly everything, even for very small babies, had nonfat milk powder in it!!! (isn't there a reason we don't give children cow's milk until they're one year old ?). The rest had added sugar and was watered down to make it the right consistency. I actually got mad about it. Plus, I have a pretty significant garden, so I busted out the food processor and strainer and went to town. Used the ice cube method as well, they traveled to daycare easily and you know they are still cold and fresh until they get served. And by making it myself, I got to give him much more variety in his diet.
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