How To Make Baby Food-Learn to Make Homemade Baby Food for your Baby

Remember my post the other day about how I taught my baby, Baby Sign Language, and how I pretty much said I wanted my baby to be the smartest little thing anyone ever knew, and how I wanted only the best for him? Well it was no different when it came to making homemade baby food. But I had the same question that may have brought you to my post today: “How to make baby food?”

I’ll start off saying that anything that I recommend is NOT approved by a doctor, and I DO NOT consider myself an expert in this field, so hear me loud and clear: these are just suggestions of how to make baby food, and are solely my opinions. {Ok, now that THAT’S out of the way, let’s roll on.}

Now that I’ve had my second baby, I will be the first to tell you that every baby is different. He/she may not eat as much as your friends baby does, he/she may not like the same foods, and he/she may not be ready to eat baby food at the same time or age that they did. My first son was ready to eat baby food at 6 months. My second was 8 months old before he’d even look at it.

Here’s where some people differ. Some mom’s start out feeding their baby “cereal,” as a first “solid,” food, but I didn’t. Why? Honestly because I didn’t see much nutritional value in it. I’m sure it claims to say it supplies vitamins whatever, whatever… but I just had it in my head that feeding my kids veggies & fruits would be healthier for them. Here’s where some of you moms may say, “Jessica, you’re totally wrong.” And that’s ok! I love hearing everyone’s strategies to how they feed their baby.

 

 So the big question: How To Make Baby Food?

I bake, steam, and boil my fruits and vegetables. With my first baby, I had read that microwaves may not be the best way to prepare homemade baby food, due to the radiation it puts off. Well, you already know my stance on providing the BEST for my baby, haha… so microwaves were out of the question. Have I used microwaves to make baby food for my second child? Yes. Why? Frankly because the baby was screaming to eat, I had ran out of homemade baby food, and a sweet potato cooked quickly  in the microwave was going to be the solution.

Depending on the fruit/vegetable, is how I cook it.

• I boil apples, pears, zucchini, frozen peas and green beans {I peeled and seeded all of my apples}
• I steam carrots, butternut squash, sweet potatoes, and zucchini.
• I bake sweet potatoes and butternut squash

For bananas, I just mash them, since no cooking is required.
{Yes I know I listed some of those twice. I did that because I switched from time to time, depending on if my steamer was tied up with other fruits & veggies or not.}

Of course there are WAY more fruits and veggies that you can make for your baby, but those were my repeated staples.

Today, I made a small batch of baby food, to help walk you through how I do it. So if you’re a “picture-instruction,” kind of person… I snapped a few JUST for you. 😉  I made butternut squash, apples, and zucchini.

 

Step by Step on How to Make Baby Food

I begin by washing all of my fruits and vegetables with a veggie wash or a water/vinegar wash. Even if I plan to peel the fruit/veggie, I still wash it. Why? Because I’m probably going to “cut” in to the food and the germies will enter the flesh. Yuck. {Yes, I may be a bit of a germaphobe, so do as you wish}

This is the butternut squash. Today, I decided to steam it. So after washing it, I cut the squash in half, scooped out the seeds a loose fleshy strings (like you would a pumpkin), and placed each half in to my steamer.

Next, I prepared my zucchini. Yep, I washed it, and cut it in to small pieces. No, I didn’t peel it because the skin is soft enough to digest and blend down to the baby food consistency that I wanted.

When I was done chopping it in to pieces {you may not have to do that for zucchini, and it may steam just fine sliced in half like the squash, but it’s just a habit of mine to cut in to pieces.} I put it in the second tray of my steamer. {I don’t combine the different veggies during the cooking process because I like to keep it separate for making different blends of food later, and one veggie/fruit may cook faster than the other.

While the zucchini and squash were steaming, I cut, seeded, and peeled my apples. {and washed them} 😉

The skin on apples is pretty thick, so I’m always afraid of leaving the skin on for my little guys stomach.

Today I boiled my apples. I just put purified water in to a pan, brought it to boiling, and then added my apple pieces in. I boiled those until they were soft and tender, and removed from the heat to cool down.

Oh yes, my third favorite kitchen small applicance! {#1: Keurig, #2 Kitchen-aid mixer}

This bad boy is a power house food processor, when it comes to making baby food.

 

Since my apples were done before the other goodies, I started with those. I added the cooled apples to my food processor, and pushed the “on” button. Within seconds, it was baby food. Yum-O!

I pour the blended yumminess in to a small bowl, and rinse out the processor for the next batch.

Zucchini was next up. Same process… add the zucchini, turn it on, and viola. It’s baby food.

With the butternut squash, I scoop out the middle and discard the skin. Then… repeat the puréeing process.

There we are. My three different veggie/fruit purees are completed. Now what, right?

Well when my first son was 6 months old, I bought these precious little baby food storage containers. They’re absolutely wonderful. I bought them at Babies R Us, but I have NO idea if they still carry them or not. I love them because the lids are attached, and they just press down to seal. No fumbling around with containers AND lids.

With this batch, I made single containers of just one fruit/veggie, and then I combined a few for a little variation. I like leaving them in layers, rather than mixing them, so I can see later exactly what is in it.

I found these super awesome labels in the dollar bin at Target. {Yes, I know… I’m addicted to the dollar bin at Target. Hush}  But they work fantabulous for this. I make sure to label each baby food container because I may make a new batch before this one is gone, and I’ll want to know which is which, and what date I made it.

Yep, my super cool containers came with super cool trays to store them in too. They’re ready for the freezer, and ready for my little guys belly.

A Few Q&A:

Remember I’m no expert. But from my experience this is what I know.

• Remember if you’re just starting out with feeding your baby, foods like this. It’s best to start out with one type of food, and stick with it for a few days to make sure there are no allergies associated with that food. If you mix and match at first, and your baby has a reaction, it will be hard to pinpoint which food caused that.
• Some have said they add breast milk and/or formula to their baby food before they freeze it. I don’t. Why? Because when I first started, I read somewhere that it doesn’t freeze/mix well with the fruit and veggies. So if you’re needing a super thin consistency for your baby, you can always add the milk when you thaw it out.
• I always put 2 or 3 {depending on how much my baby is eating at the time} in the refrigerator to thaw out. That way I’m not always having to go to the freezer to get a new container.
• When I plan to feed my baby, I pull a container out of the refrigerator, and let it get close to room temperature, so it’s not freezing cold when I feed him. {Yes, I’ve stuck it in the microwave before, when he’s super hungry and I’m not on my game. So kill me.}
• If you put labels on your containers like this. My recommendation is to remove the label before you wash them. If you don’t, your label may peel off and get in your dishwasher. If it doesn’t peel off during the wash, it’s probably going to be harder to get off after it’s been wait. So peel off before washing.
• Is it hard and time consuming to make baby food? Yes and no. When I first started, it was an all day affair for me. I started out using a small “baby food purée machine,” and it took FOREVER making small little batches. Now, with my food processor. It’s a breeze. Plus, you get a system down, and it gets faster/easier over time.
• Do I still use store bought baby food? You bet. Sometimes, life gets in the way, and I run out of food before I can set aside some time to make it.

Did I miss anything? I just know I did. If you have a question… leave me a comment below and I’ll be HAPPY to answer it the best I can.