Equipment

There is a lot of new equipment out there to make baby food. I honestly have never tried the systems I see advertised and I know they might be nice, but I just use a couple of simple things I got for not a lot of money. I use the pots and pans I already had in my kitchen mostly. I use a blender to puree the foods because it allows me to do big batches and then I don't have to make food every day. When I made my oldest daughter's food, I was outside the home at least ten hours a day, so I only made food on the weekends and pulled from my stash throughout the week. If you have time to cook more often, then something smaller might work for you. How I cook the food depends on what it is, but a lot of things I steam, so I bought a steamer basket that I can insert into my stock pot and I can do big batches that way. I also bought special baby food ice cube trays. I bought them because they were BPA free and they have lids so I can stack them. I have about eight and that can usually handle my biggest batches. Once the food is frozen, I pop them out and put them in ziploc bags I label with what they are and the date I made them. A lot of the foods look the same when frozen and that way I can use the older things first.

How I Introduce Foods & Sweet Potatoes

I start feeding with rice cereal mixed with breast milk or formula. After that, I switch off between a vegetable and a fruit every three or four days. I started both of my girls with sweet potatoes.

Sweet potatoes are really easy and yield a ton of food. I just bake the sweet potatoes like you would normally (oven at 325 until soft), and then peel off the skins and put them in a blender with some filtered water until they are the right consistency. A lot of times I don't water them down completely because I can always add more water later. You could also use breast milk or formula, but I just like using the water. If I know I won't be able to use them all in a couple days, I freeze them in some special baby food ice trays I bought that have lids and then pop out the cubes and put them in ziploc baggies.

Why I make my baby's food

There are a lot of reasons I make my own baby food. For one, it saves me a lot of money. I kept track of how much money I was saving on a spreadsheet with my oldest daughter, and I had saved $600 over buying jarred food before I lost track. I also like the fact that the food is fresh and doesn't have that "jarred" flavor. I mean honestly, how often would you like to eat canned foods instead of fresh? Something I also didn't anticipate was how good it was to have a variety of fresh fruit around the house. Everyone in the family benefits from having the fruit around since we're all more likely to eat it.