Little Brother (who just turned 6 months) has now entered the realm of solids, which means it’s time to start whipping up batches of baby food again. I’m always amazed at the reactions I get from people when I tell them we make our own–it seems some people think it is quite the undertaking, but I assure you, it’s not.
- You need a food processor or those expensive baby food machines. Not so!! I don’t own a food processor (though I would love to! 🙂 ), nor do we have any of those fancy baby food machines. I have a hand blender that I use, but you could even use your regular blender.
- It takes a long time to make. Again, not so (well, depending on your definition of long I guess)! It took me less than 5 minutes to prep the foods (sometimes prep can take longer depending on what & how much you are making) and I baked them while I was making dinner anyway. Then, it took me less than 30 minutes to puree, fill my trays, and clean up.
So, for little brother’s first foods (other than plain ‘ole rice cereal of which he was decidedly not a fan) we are doing orange “veggies” (yes, squash is technically a fruit), then green, then fruits. Squash was on-sale for 49 cents/pound. So I grabbed a couple acorn (I really wanted butternut, but they were out) and a yam.
Once everything was fork tender, I took it out and let it cool just until I could handle it safely. Then, I scooped out the insides of all the squash and placed it into a medium sized mixing bowl. To puree, I use a hand blender. (In these early stages of baby food eating, I add a little water to make the texture smoother).
Once you have the desired texture, scoop out & into your containers to freeze. With Big Brother (3 years ago), I used ice cube trays. This time around I wanted something a little more functional and I found the solution…Wilton’s Bite-Size Squares Silicone Baking Pan! Love it!! It’s much more versatile than ice cube trays (since we have an ice maker & don’t need them) and the food comes out MUCH more easily. If you fill each well completely full, it is 1 oz. So, you can fit about 24 oz. in each pan.
(And, just in case you were wondering…Yes, I have purchased store bought baby food–especially for long distance travel situations and for a few fruit flavors that are a little more difficult to do yourself because of the season & availability of the fruit. Also, I am only recently a “stay-at-home” mom. I did this when I worked full-time outside the home with Big Brother–I just did BIG batches on weekends.)
6 Responses
Great post. We are just getting in to doing our own baby food. Who knew it was so simple?
I use the Wilton pan too and I love it!!! They need to advertise it for baby food because the other trays out there are totally the wrong size. These are perfect!
How long is the food good for in the freezer?
Hi Heather! I don’t know that I’ve ever kept track, but it certainly keeps for a fair amount of time. As long as it doesn’t get defrosted & refrozen or freezer burnt, it should be good in the freezer up to a couple of months (just like any other food would be).