Come Save Away

This post contains affiliate Links

Hello Everyone!

So with the birth of my nephew coming *any*day*now* (hopefully) I feel like I am all about babies! I started baby girl with solid foods at around 6 and a half months old. Up until (aside from a two week stint on formula because of her hospital stay and needing to find out what was wrong) she was exclusively on breast milk.  This is something I am incredibly proud of.  Much more so than I ever expected to be once I entered into motherhood.

But like all babies eventually solid foods needed to be introduced.  I knew before baby girl was ever born that I wanted to make her own baby food.  So once my husband and I decided to start solids I went to work!

I researched everything from what food to start with all the way to ‘the proper way to use the spoon’ when trying to feed your baby for the first time.  Basically the stereotypical over prepared first time mom stuff.  (although I am shameless about it because I would much rather be over prepared than under prepared).

After posting the ‘first time with solids’ photos on facebook I mentioned I made the food myself.  I actually had a couple friends message me asking me how I did it.  Then a few weeks later I posted a photo of baby girl mowing down on some homemade avocado baby food (her all time favorite so far) and I received even more messages asking me how I make it, what I use, how I find the time to do it.

I figured if so many of my friends had asked me how I did it, there would be many other Mama’s (Dad’s too!) who were wondering the same thing.  I know I read almost every article I could find from google!

Without further ado…

1.  The first thing I do is choose the food I want to make – I usually end up making two different types of food at once.  For instance I made butternut squash and apples one day – or carrots and pears a different day. I stuck to a veggie and a fruit a day (because I had a plan of introducing certain foods at particular times) but it really doesn’t matter. Just choose the foods you want to use.

2. Prep the food.  This typically means peeling it (at least for most of the items) and then cutting it into small manageable pieces.  (I’m not talking about dicing it – just don’t peal a sweet potato and then work with the whole potato intact – cut it into smaller pieces).

3. Cook the food.  So far for me I’ve only steamed it.  I am going to be making my way into peaches and nectarines in the near future – and I don’t believe you can steam them – so I’ll have to let you know how that goes.

4. Blend the food.  I have a VitaMix – they are kind of pricey but they are so very worth it! I’ve had mine for a couple years now and I just love it.  Basically you take the food from the steamer and blend it – but don’t throw out the water from the steamer! I also recently started using the Baby Brezza maker.  It literally steams and processes the food for you – it’s great!

5. Fix the consistency.  From everything I have read on the topic there ends up being a lot of nutrients from the fruit or veggie you are steaming in the water left over.  I always take some of the water and add it back into the puree I just made.  This helps with thick consistencies you typically get with carrots, potatoes and squash.  Don’t add too much though! Just a little bit – I even add breast milk to the food *day*of* eating it.

6. Freeze.  So I switched to the Mumi & Bubi freezing trays.  They are super easy to get the food out of because it is just icecube like – you push on one side and it literally pops out. The cubes themselves are around 2 tablespoons each so it makes measuring out the amount of food easy.  I found them on Prime Day for amazon and hopped on the deal right away.

7. Store.  I store the food in freezer bags and make them about as air tight as I possible can.  I label and date the bags and put them in the freezer.

That’s it.  When I make two foods (pears and carrots) this is how it typically goes.

I peel the pears, cut them, and throw them in the steamer.

While they are in the steamer I get the blender out, the trays ready and I peel the carrots.

Once the pears are done I take them from the steamer and put them in a bowl.  I then take the left over water and put that in a separate bowl.

I clean the steamer, throw the carrots in and get them steaming.

While the carrots are steaming I put the pears in the blender, blend, and add the water until I get the consistency I want.

I then take the puree and put it in the trays.

By this time the carrots are usually done and I clean the blender, throw the carrots in, puree them, add water as needed, and put them in the trays.

Voila, homemade baby food and it *might* take me an hour and a half to do it all (depending on how much food I’m making).  The most time consuming part is the actual steaming of the food.

I’ve made sweet potatoes, butternut squash, apples, pears, carrots, avocados, mangos, and bananas so far.  I made all of these on 4 seperate days  and I’ve probably spent a total of 5 hours making all of this food.  It has lasted a month and  a half so far – and I still have enough for another 2 weeks at least!  Hopefully that helps everyone gauge how *time*consuming* it is… because I really don’t think it is too bad.