How to Make Baby Food

It's baby food makin time! See more about The Moose's Baby Food here. The Moose is 10 months old.

I make a lot at once. I steam everything, puree everything, and freeze everything. This amount that I'm making now will last 6-8 weeks. It'll take me about 45 minutes per day for about 3 days to make everything (I have to spread it out because I don't have enough ice cube trays). So less than a few hours, and I have healthy, organic, awesome, super baby food for 6+ weeks!

Here's what I got this round:

From the farmer's market:  Eggplant, butternut squash, turnips, summer squash, parsley, carrots, swiss chard (the onions & peppers are not for The Moose).

From Drug Emporium: Green peas, green beans, northern beans, peaches, cauliflower, broccoli, blueberries, cherries, strawberries, sweet potatoes, apples, avocados.

This is what all that made:

**NOTE ABOUT CANS: Since this was originally posted, I have done some research on canned products. The cans just aren't safe. They have levels of toxicity in them. So I no longer use canned products for his food. In this round, I would've opted for frozen green beans (if fresh wasn't an option), frozen green peas, and opted out of the northern beans (even though I love making him white beans because the idea of him eating hummus is adorbs!)

This batch made 311 ice cubes, which is about 311 ounces!

A note about time involved & cost: On day 1 (shown below), I spent 35 minutes making those 5 foods while The Moose ate his snack pack. In that 35 minutes, I made exactly 100 oz of food. That will last him about 12 days. So about a week and a half of food for him in 35 minutes! Cost breakdown for day 1:

• Avocados: 5 x $1.46 = $7.30 (one of the more expensive foods he gets, but one of the most nutritious)
• Apples: $2.96
• Green Beans: 2 x $1.39 = $2.78
• Northern Beans: 2 x $1.25 = $2.50
• Broccoli: $2.75
• TOTAL: $18.29
• I'm going to add $3 for spices, herbs, and oils. Just a guess (and I think an over estimation). $21.29.

So for my 100 oz, I spent $0.21 per oz. on all organic food. I looked at Babies R Us online. All the jarred food was in the range of $0.20-$0.29, some organic, some not. So my homemade food is right on par with commercial products! And this round I priced had avocados, which will bring my average cost per oz considerably higher than the overall average. Yes, I know it gets cheaper if you order on Amazon or go to Costco. I did not price that. I would still pay a premium to make my homemade food.

I try to give him a couple new things he hasn't had before each time I make food for him. He has not had peaches, cherries, or eggplant yet. The first few months I was very careful when introducing food. Only one new food a week and slowly add it to the mix. But now, he's had over 40 different fruits and veggies, so any new one he has, he's had something very similar, so I'm not worried about new fruits and veggies. Citrus is the only exception in the fruit and veggie category. No citrus yet. His birth mom is allergic, so I'm going to wait on all citrus for a little longer.

Click here to see how I roasted beets for him.
Click here for a cool teething trick using these food ice cubes!

I use an immersion blender, steaming basket, and ice cube trays. I use an immersion blender because I already had one. If you don't have one, a blender, hand mixer, or food processor works. I can think of 2 instances I used a food processor. One is for beets, because I didn't want the beet juice to splash everywhere. The other was for a huge pot of leafy greens. Sometimes the stringy stems of leafy greens can get tangled in the immersion blender. The pot I made this round was a lot smaller and the immersion blender could handle it.

I only have 4 trays. So I can only make so much at a time. While I have everything out, I will make as much as I have time for, fill the trays for the freezer, and then put the rest in containers in the fridge until the ice cube trays are available.

Here's the basic process: I steam what needs to be steamed. I do not peel anything (I peeled everything until he had a few teeth). Puree it. Add coconut oil or olive oil. Add herbs and spices. Fill the ice cube trays. This will get repeatitive, but I'll show some pictures from each item so you can see how it's done. I start with something that needs to be steamed. While that's steaming, I'll do a couple things that don't need steamed. I love lots of good fats. I alternate between coconut oil and olive oil. And I add a lot. (for information on what kind of coconut oil to buy, click here)

At first, I pureed everything super smooth. Removed the skins. Added milk to make the food less thick. Now, I leave it a little chunky, leave on edible skins, and don't add milk.

I use lots of herbs and spices. Some fresh, some dried. I do this for a couple reasons. First, herbs and spices are good for you. They all have a purpose. Second, I am trying very hard to avoid the "plain and dry" toddler stage. I don't know if I will be able to avoid it, but I'm going to see if this works. 

I use as much local, organic produce that is available. However, I live in Texas. It's hot and dry and sometimes variety is limited. I think I saw one fruit at the farmer's market today, Cardo's had 5 watermelons that sold out very quickly. So I buy canned and frozen when needed. The canned beans have 3 ingredients: the bean, water, and sea salt (except the peas, they have cane juice). I'm ok with sea salt. It's a controversial ingredient, but I'm a fan of the trace minerals. When I don't use canned goods, I will add sea salt to what I use. But I have 6 cans of beans, I think there's enough salt for him so I won't add anymore to anything I make.

Day 1: I did apples, green beans, northern beans, broccoli, and avocados.

Apples

 That's ginger in my hand.

 Cinnamon and nutmeg.

Northern Beans

 I drained about half the juice.

 Oregano

Avocados

 Cumin and olive oil

Broccoli 

 Parsley

Green Beans

 In the beginning, I made sure there were no chunks. He now has 5 teeth. So I leave everything a little chunkier.

That's all I did for the night. I have some apples, broccoli, and green beans in a container in the fridge. In the morning, what's in the ice cube trays will be frozen. I will put those in a big container and refill the ice cube trays. The big container will stay in the freezer.

I put the frozen goods in the fridge. It will be thawed in the morning. The fruit won't need to be steamed.

To clean the blender, just put it in a bowl with soapy water and turn it on.

Day 2:

In the morning, I emptied the frozen trays and fill the trays with what was in the fridge that I prepared yesterday. To empty the trays, turn it upside down and run a little warm water over it. That will make it easier. I divide everything over a few containers so that the variety of foods is spread out. Then I just filled the trays with what I made yesterday and popped in the freezer. This afternoon when The Moose takes a nap, that will be frozen and I can refill everything.

 The cubes I put in the freezer last night.

 Run warm water on the bottom of the tray to make them easier to get out.

What I prepared yesterday that was in the fridge.

Sweet Pototoes

 That's ginger in my hand

 Cinnamon and nutmeg

Green Peas

 Parsley and olive oil

Cherries

 Peaches

 Strawberries

 Blueberries

 Cauliflower

Basil

Swiss Chard

 Swiss Chard & Parsley

Carrots

Thyme

Turnips

 Oregano

Summer Squash

Basil

Butternut Squash

I decided to roast the butternut squash and the eggplant in the oven. Just because the steaming basket was going to be occupied for awhile. 

 Cinnamon & Nutmeg

Eggplant

I decided to roast the butternut squash and the eggplant in the oven. Just because the steaming basket was going to be occupied for awhile. 

Here's everything I made today! (the stuff from yesterday is in the freezer) Once what's in the ice cube trays freeze, I'll empty it and refill it with prepared food. 

Here's Ryan & The Moose grazing what they thought was a buffet.

 To thaw the food, just put your desired portion size in your baby food jar (I use Tommy Tippy bottles, they are short and fat and the perfect size). Put it in the fridge to thaw overnight. That's it. I do not heat the food. See more here. 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.

This post was featured on Thank Your Body.