Baby Food Making

I never thought we would make our own baby food. When Eliza first started solids, Nathan and I were both working full time, so we didn't even entertain the thought of adding another item to our "to do" list. I assumed it would be too difficult and time consuming. This time around, though, we both have the luxury of working from home (until Nathan returns to school).  And after our experience with Eliza refusing all baby food and now being the world's pickiest eater, we thought we would give baby food making a try.

We started with bananas and avocados. These are the easiest to prepare because all you do is simply mash the fruit with a fork. Simple, right? We then tried butternut squash and sweet potatoes, which you simply put in the oven and bake for 45 minutes. After the veggies have been baked, you add a little water (or breastmilk) and blend them. Sweet potatoes were hugely successful with Ezra and Elliott. The boys loved them so much that I actually tried sweet potatoes for the first time ever--and I liked it!

After we saw how it easy it was to make batches of veggies and fruit, we decided to take an evening and stock up on our baby food. We began our adventure by choosing a selection of fruits and veggies to prepare.

(Bananas and avocados are not pictured, but are regular staples that require no real preparation.)

The carrots, pears, broccoli and beets are diced, steamed, and then puréed . The zucchini and apples are diced, boiled, and blended to perfection. 

The mangoes, plums, and apricots are peeled and then blended with other fruits or vegetables. We also buy frozen peas and blend them, as there are never fresh peas available at our grocery stores. After everything has been cooked and puréed, we put the blended food into ice cube trays and allow them to freeze. 

We then pop the cubes out the next day, place them in a gallon sized Ziploc bag, and take cubes out when needed. We like to blend veggies and fruits, so we often take a couple of different foods and warm them up together in the microwave for a few seconds.

As for the strawberries and blueberries, we add those to bananas for a smoothie-like dessert. Lastly, watermelon and cantaloupe have been huge hits with the boys. We put them inside these nifty mesh feeders, and they chew away. Elliott can eat several pieces of melon in one sitting!

The babies seem to really enjoy our creations. Nathan is the the master of great baby food inventions. He tastes the food before giving it to the boys (which I never do) and always insists he is feeding them something good.

The most recent hit was blended black beans and mangoes. They loved it!

I'm pretty proud about my delicious blend of bananas, plums, and strawberries yesterday. Nathan says that it's hard to go wrong with fruit, but I still feel successful.

Don't they look happy?