Making Baby Food

I love making baby food because it gives me total control over taste (not to mention quality and source), texture and price. It's really sooo easy. Not until Petrea was 7 months old did she start liking food. Nearly one month later she's ready for more thick and chunky varieties. In the beginning she ate quite liquidy (like cream) fruit and vegetable purees. This is what I first fed her:
avocado (fresh, mashed and mixed with water)
banana
apple
sweet potato
parsnip
yellow squash
pears
rice cereal

This is how I did it:
wash and peel (I left the peel on the yellow squash.)


cut and put in saucepan

add water (this amount varies depending on how much you are doing, but I generally put 1/2 inch in or so the water covers about 1/4 of the fruit/veggie.)


cover and cook at a simmer until soft (the apples took about 10 minutes. don't worry about overcooking, just don't let it boil dry, add a little more water if this happens.)

add veggies/fruit and water to blender or food processor and blend until smooth. you might want to add a little more water if mixture is too chunky. for bigger babies you might want a thicker puree. So, remove veggies/fruits from water and blend, adding cooking water as needed.


Pour into ice cube trays.


Cover with plastic wrap. Be sure that the wrap is touching the surface of the cubes. (If you don't do this you might get crusty tops.)


When completely frozen, pop cubes into freezer bags and label.

You can store baby food for 1 month-6 weeks in a fridge freezer and for 4 months+ in a deep freeze.

To feed: just take out 1 cube, (now that she's nearly 8 months she'll eat two at a feeding) microwave and add water if necessary. This doll size glass that came with a tea set of Roxcy's has been the perfect size to teach her to drink out of a cup.


Keep in mind that you can take any extra veggies you ate for dinner and puree them right up. I have done this with extra potatoes, sweet potatoes, carrots, green beans, asparagus. I don't worry if they have salt, oil and spices on them. In fact, have you heard about this line of baby foods? Dr. Susanna's World Baby Foods. They have flavors like ginger, edamame, brown basmati rice, apple (that's all in one jar) and cumin, coriander, brown rice, lentils, carrot, apple. They've inspired me to start mixing herbs with my veggie purees.

Next up for Petrea:
cottage cheese
tofu
egg yolk
asparagus
carrots
peas
plums
melons
kiwi