Homemade Baby Food

You may be thinking don't I have enough to do as a mom? who has time to make baby food? Well now that I've done it, its actually not that bad.   Plus, what could be better than fresh organic fruits and vegetables.   I'm not knocking food from the jar...that's what I grew up on, but if you have the time and interest you should give homemade a try.   You could buy all the recipe books out there, but I think for first foods there's really not much to it.  As they get older the books will help with variety.

Here's what you need:

-a food processor (I bought a cuisinart mini)  saves space

-a steamer/oven

-ice cube trays  (Kid co. with lids, but I like the plain ones too, but they don't have lids)

-freezer bags

Here's what you need to think about:

-Fruits or veggies first? (apples, pears, squash, sweet potatoes, carrots, peas are good 1st foods)  Some say start veggies  first because they are less sweet. 

-Pick one and stick with it for 4 or more days before introducing another food to test for allergies.

I started with butternut squash and my son loves it.  5 days later I gave him pears.   He made faces like it was tart, but still ate it and it helped with constipation.  It really moved things along which was great. The rice cereal was filling him up and he would only get a bm every 5 days.  Recently I also added oatmeal cereal which has more fiber.

Recipes 

Butternut squash Puree

Wash, cut in half, bake 400 degrees for 40 minutes with water, scoop out, add water from pan or fresh and puree in food processor, cool, save 3 servings in fridge to eat immediately and freeze the rest in ice cube trays, then pop out and store in freezer bags with date and labels, use within a month. (For a $3 squash it made about 25 2oz cubes)

Pear Puree

Wash, cut pears into quarters, de seed, steam for few minutes, cool, puree a few slices to eat immediately and keep in fridge for next 2 days, freeze the rest and defrost, mash or puree when ready to eat.(pears don't freeze as well pureed)

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