I will post pictures of the actual process soon. But I puree every fruit or vegetable that has existed, put it in ice cube trays, and freeze it. That's it.
I started him on solids at 4 mo. which is the earliest recommended age. I did that because he wasn't breastfed. If he was breastfed, I probably would have waited a few more months.
His first food was avocados. I mashed them and froze them in an ice cube tray. Each ice cube is about 1 oz. Just thaw out your servings the day before (or a few days at a time like I do). For the 1st week, he got 1 cube of avocado a day. The 2nd week, he got 1 cube of carrots a day. The next week I mixed them and he got 2 cubes a day.
Above: Avocados and carrots were his first foods. The carrots are from Cardo's Farm Project.
For the avocados, I mashed them and put them in the cube trays. For the carrots, I steamed them first. I use an immersion blender just because I have one. A blender or food processor or even a fork works.
He is 4 months in the above pictures. He is now 10 months. Here is what I have pureed for him (in no particular order):
- Avocados
- Carrots
- Bananas
- Apples
- Spinach
- Garbanzo Beans
- Green Beans
- Green Peas
- Blueberries
- Strawberries
- Carrots
- Sweet Potatoes
- Mango
- Broccoli
- Cauliflower
- Cantaloupe
- Swiss Chard
- Kale
- Beets
- Pears
- Plums
- Cherries
- Eggplant
- Peaches
- Sunflower Greens
For the first couple months, I peeled everything (like apples, sweet potatoes, etc.). By about 6 or 7 months, I left the peels on. For the first couple months, no seasoning. After that, lots and lots of spices and herbs, fresh and dried. Including:
- Cinnamon
- Nutmeg
- Ginger
- Parsley
- Basil
- Cumin
- Coriander
- Cilantro
- Garlic
- Sea Salt (good quality with trace minerals)
And everything got LOTS and LOTS of fat and oils. Lots of olive and coconut oil was added as I prepared it.
If it doesn't need to be cooked, then I just puree it and freeze it. If it needs to be cooked, I steam it.This is a pot of Swiss chard, beet greens, carrot greens, and sunflower greens (all from Cardo's Farm).
Once it's frozen, I put it in a Tupperware or ziploc bag. For the first few months, he got a new food on Sunday. I kept that food separate so he got only 1 cube per day for the week of that food. But other than that, the cubes just got thrown in together. Your baby will let you know how much solids he wants/needs. Depending on teething, growth spurts, etc., some weeks he would eat 12 cubes a day and sometimes 2.
By chance, he has Tommy Tippee bottles which are the fat bottles. They work perfectly for his food. So I didn't need to buy anything for serving his food. NOTE: I use the plastic Tommy Tippy bottles because I had them. If I needed to purchase something, I would opt for glass, not plastic. I worked up to this proportion, but now I put 4-5 (whatever fits) cubes in each bottle. I do about 5 bottles at a time (depending on what's clean) every couple days. I really don't pay attention to the combos. I just like to make sure all the colors are represented. A lot of people get wierded out by fruit and veggies touching. But people do that in juicing and smoothies all the time. I taste his food all the time and it tastes delicious! Which is another thing people think is weird. That I taste his food. But why would you give your baby something you wouldn't eat?
So I put 4-5 cubes in a bottle. Then put it in the fridge and let it thaw. That's it. I do not heat it up. Again, people don't heat up their juices or smoothies. But if I were to heat it up, I would use my bottle warmer which steams it (however, I don't use those for bottles either. He drinks cold milk. The bottle warmers are already back in storage because I don't use them). I will blog the whole process soon from chopping to pureeing to freezing. As you can see, I do a lot at a time so it will probably be a month or so.
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