Homemade Baby Food :)

What Sadie eats (even more: what she doesn't eat) is extremely important to me. I want to know what the ingredients are without using Google, and I want it to be healthy for her. Don't get me wrong - I'm a lover of sweets and I have no intention of talking the Easter bunny into only bringing veggies or of robbing her the fun of raiding her trick-or-treat bucket, but while she's young enough for me to monitor what goes in her mouth, I'll try to keep it healthy.

When we buy baby food, we get Plum Organics.. Sadie loves every flavor they put out; I love that its organic & the ingredients are all things I could buy at the store. We'd recommend it to anyone! But with two trees loaded with ripe pears in my back yard (and no desire to can them all), I decided to hit the produce section for stuff to mix with them to make Sadie some yummy combos. :) I mimicked flavors I know she likes.


Flavors we made:

• Sweet Potato, Carrot and Apple (Stage 2)
• Blueberry, Pear and Carrot (Stage 2)
• Butternut Squash and Banana (Stage 2)
• Sweet Potato, Butternut Squash, Pear and Blueberries (Stage 2)
• Mango and Pear (Stage 2)
• Spinach, Peas and Pear (Stage 2)
• Sweet Potatoes (Stage 1)
• Pears (Stage 1)

I'm not going to lie - this took some time.. but only because I made a ridiculous amount! It really is easy to make it. I started by cooking everything that needed softened.

The sweet potatoes, carrots and butternut squash were peeled, diced, washed and put in foil-lined (for easier clean up) casserole dishes. I added enough water to almost cover them (no seasonings), covered the dishes with foil, and put them in a 375 degree oven until they were soft.  (The squash took about an hour, potatoes about 1 1/2 hours, and the carrots about 1 1/2 - 2 hours.)

The pears and apples were peeled, cored, diced, washed then put into covered pots with water on the stove. Again, no seasonings. :) They boiled until they were soft. (About an hour for my larger pieces - time depends on how you cut them.)

The blueberries and spinach were washed and put in uncovered pots of water on the stove. The spinach simmered until it was bright green and soft; the blueberries simmered until the skins started to burst and the water was beginning to turn. Blueberries don't really have to be cooked if your baby is used to eating them, but I think they puree a little smoother when they've been cooked.

Frozen peas were steamed in a glass bowl in the microwave.

Mangoes only need washed, peeled and roughly cut up, and bananas only need peeled. :)


As things start coming off the stove or out of the oven, you throw each fruit or veggie individually into a food processor or a blender and let it do its thing! Carrots and sweet potatoes require a good bit of water added to them, and any food you plan on making into stage 1 will also need more water.

Now you'll have bowls of colorful mash all over the place! :) And this is where the fun part comes in.. mixing them up. Make whatever combos your baby loves.

When they're mixed, you're ready to bag them up - the finish line is in sight!! Measure out single portions and pour them into ziploc-style sandwich bags. I put 4oz in each bag - that's just right for my little squirt. :) Once they're all filled, zip the bags and put all of the like flavors into a labeled gallon freezer bag & freeze.

That's it! Easy and rewarding! :) Happy cooking!!


Helpful Hints for this project:

• For easy bagging, get out any small cups or juice glasses you have and line them up on the counter. Place an open ziploc-style sandwich bag in each one, folding the top of the bag back over the rim of the glass. Then measure out the food and pour it in. This prevents spills and saves time by pouring all of them in one swoop without stopping in between to seal each one.
  
• 2oz = 1/4 cup, 4oz = 1/2 cup, 6oz = 3/4 cup
  
• When putting sandwich bags into freezer bag, grab them all by the top of the bag in a single stack, put the stack in the freezer bag, zip it shut then lay it flat. Put them on a cookie sheet to get them in the freezer flat. Keeping them flat will prevent them from becoming a squished up mess that freezes into one solid pile of bags that you can't get apart.