Have you ever felt guilty about the food you feed to your babies?  I have.  All the time.  As I would sit there giving them scoop after scoop from a jar, some times forcing them to finish it I felt guilty because there was no way I would ever eat, or even taste much of the baby food I was making my little ones eat.

There was also no way I was ever going to make my own baby food.  At least, that’s what I thought.  I had two kids just fine who always ate their food from jars until they were old enough to eat with the rest of the family.  I had heard about people making baby food, but I thought that was reserved for Martha Stewart types with nothing else to do but twiddle their thumbs and make baby food.  Show offs! Huh. Not me.  Too much time and too much trouble.

Recently however I’ve been affected as so many of us have, by the economic downturn. I started paying attention to every penny spent because I was running out of pennies so frequently and needing to figure out where I could cut spending in order to spend elsewhere. I noticed that I was having a really hard time making my grocery budget each month and then I realized it was all due to baby food.  That’s right…. baby food!

All of a sudden I saw homemade baby food in a whole new light. I no longer considered it a ridiculous gourmet luxury created by well-to-do stay at home moms who wanted to show off. Instead I saw it as the only hope I had left to get my monthly grocery spending back in check. I had no idea if I could really save any money by making my own baby food, or how much I could save, but I knew I had to investigate it, because I couldn’t afford to keep buying the jars.

If I had kept buying those jars of wonderful organic baby food, I would have been spending $360.00 every two months just to feed my one year old.

No matter how great the savings, if I was going to make homemade baby food, it was going to have to be quick and easy to do.  I’ve already got way too much on my plate with home school, home making, church, three kids, a husband, and laundry.  Oh don’t get me started on the laundry!

Now that I’ve given it a try, I’ve learned that I can save a TON of money and I’ve learned that it is VERY easy to make your own baby food.  It has fit into my busy life VERY EASILY!  I am also starting to enjoy being in control of all the ingredients.  There are no chemicals or preservatives being snuck  into the food I’m making.  Everything I’m feeding my baby is stuff I would eat myself.

Bye bye guilty feeling.  Hello fresh affordable ingredients!

You don’t usually think of saving money and going organic as two things that work together. Usually you have to sacrifice one for the other.  AMAZINGLY… when it comes to baby food… I’m getting both.

Here’s is what one of the Costco bags of frozen veggies looks like.  I haven’t run out of one yet.  I know each will last for at least 2 months… maybe longer depending on how many different food options you are using each day.

Now the way I see it, depending on your personality type or the amount of time you have available, there are two ways you can prepare your baby food.

- You can take an afternoon and prepare all of it for the coming month.  For this option you will probably need about 4 hours, a large food processor, and several containers, ice trays, or muffin tins to freeze food in.

or

-  You can do like I’ve been doing, and each night when you are already in the kitchen preparing dinner, as you make green beans, peas, or corn to go with dinner, make the batch extra large. After dinner puree and freeze the left-overs, creating your baby food.  For this option any small food processor or blender will do, and you will only need one or two cupcake tins to freeze the food in and about fifteen extra minutes after dinner, twice a week.

(A lot of people use ice cube trays or Tupperware to freeze their baby food in.  This might be fine, however I have heard that there may be dangerous chemicals released from plastics into food and water when frozen, so I chose tin cupcake pans instead.  I also like the portion size of the tins better than ice cube size portions.)

Scoop the puree from the food processor into the cupcake tin to create your serving sizes.

Make sure to cover your tin or tray with plastic wrap to prevent freezer burn.

The next morning set your cupcake tin of baby food on the counter to thaw for about 5 minutes.  Then using the tip of a sharp pointed knife, slide the frozen food up and out of the tin.  This is very easy.  None of my food stuck to the trays at all, they just slid right out with no problems.

Next label and date a bag and fill it up with your servings sizes of frozen baby food.

I made my first batch of green beans on the same night when I made spaghetti for dinner.  So after dinner when I pureed and froze the green beans, I also pureed and froze some spaghetti.

By the next morning I already had enough Green Beans and Spaghetti frozen and ready to serve baby food dinners for two weeks.

All the meats and protein Llany has been getting have come from my regular dinners.  I’ve pureed chicken, turkey meat, ham, and spaghetti and given it to him at dinner time mixed with some of his frozen veggie purees.  I haven’t tried freezing any of the meats, but I’m sure at some point I will.

This is a website that I’ve found really helpful in giving tips about what kinds of things freeze and reheat well when making baby food, and what doesn’t.

The next night I made peas at dinner.

By the second morning after my first shopping trip for baby food ingredients I was well on my way to having plenty of healthy, organic baby food stored and ready to serve.

My favorite Rice Cereal to mix with fruits, proteins, and veggies is Happy Bellies.  You can learn more about that here.

One afternoon, Remy, my preschooler asked for some apples slices.  While I was cutting up her apple, I set the oven to 400 degrees and cut up 4 extra apples into slices, tossed them into a casserole dish, and popped them in the oven for 20 minutes.  I left the skin on them because that is where so much of the fiber is, and even with the skin, after they were baked they pureed just fine for a one year old. If you want to make pureed apples as a first foods for a 6 month old, you might opt. to leave the skins out of it for a smoother texture.  Also when making baby food for younger babies just add water to your purees to make them even smoother.

Apples were the only fruit I had to prepare ahead of time and make into a puree, freeze, and store.

For breakfast I usually give my baby fruit.  I take out two store-bought frozen strawberries, microwave them, mash them up, and add my favorite organic yogurt.

I also mash up fresh avocado, pear, and banana at meal times and add it to yogurt and/or rice cereal.

Another thing that has been easy to do is to take a few scoops of pumpkin or sweet potatoes out of a can and add it to yogurt, pasta, rice, or cereal.  I just store the leftovers in their can in the fridge with plastic wrap over it until the next time I need it; up to a week.

I would definitely consult your pediatrician before giving a vitamin to your child, but my kids have all been borderline anemic, so making sure that they get plenty of iron is a must.  In addition to giving lots of whole organic milk to drink and at least a serving of some type of green vegetable with dinner each day, I give Llany a dropper full of these baby vitamins with Iron.  This is available in the vitamin section at Wal-Mart.

Whenever I try to take on some kind of change in my lifestyle it seems far less daunting and intrusive to start out small.  All of this is just the beginning.  I’m hoping to add an even wider variety of ingredients to my baby food repertoire in the coming months.

And please don’t get me wrong!  I am in no way against jars of baby food.  I’ve still purchased a few from time to time to take with me on day trips or out to restaurants for a more convenient option.  I particularly like Earth’s Best organic baby food because it comes in glass jars instead of plastic, contains pure healthy ingredients, and comes in some great food combinations.

I just wasn’t able to afford jars of baby food as my only option anymore, and I’m so glad that I’ve discovered how inexpensive and easy it is to make homemade baby food.

I highly encourage you to GIVE IT A TRY!

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