Making baby food

HOMEMADE BABY FOOD


It's so easy, and takes about 20 minutes to make one batch of one kind of food. and it's cheaper. You can't go wrong with that! I'm cheap, and I have a very hard time justifying spending $1 on half a meal--cause my munchkin can EAT!! and just this one batch will feed my munchkin for about 10 meals. . .give or take on how much she feels like wolfing down.

This is what you start out with. Pick your food. Today, I'm making pears. Why? Because the sunflower market on them on sale this week for like $.75cents a pound. We like pears here. Except for Captain Jax. He's the odd one out. But you could pick any fruit or veggies to blend up. It's that's easy! You'll also want some ice cube trays. I got these ones, and I love them because they have a lid on them. And they came with a little 'cookbook' that gave me estimates on when I should give her what. Y'know, those foods your 'supposed' to avoid until after a certain age or whatnot.

anyway, you'll need your choice of food, a bowl, your trays, and a food processor or blender.

Go ahead and wash and peel the pears. Sometimes skins are hard for babies, they could choke on them or whatnot. Or maybe it's the texture. I don't know, it's what the book said to do!

Dice them up into about 1 inch cubes. It helps if they're close to the same size, then they steam evenly, and you don't end up with chucks that won't blend up well.

It also helps if they're pretty ripe. Mine weren't yet. . .

Place all your chunks in a bowl and put a few spoonfuls of water in there to help them steam. I just run the water for a second in the bowl. I don't really measure things very well. I blame my dad for that. :) Throw them in the microwave for about 10 minutes, covered with plastic wrap (otherwise we're not really steaming them are we?) You could steam on the stove as well, but I happen to find it easier in the microwave. . .that and I don't have a steamer basket.


After about 10 minutes, they should be fork tender. Meaning, a fork should go in them easily. If not, stick them back in for a few more minutes.


When they're ready, stick them in the food processor. I run it for a few minutes, and sometimes I have to add more water to get it to blend up nice and smooth. That doesn't hurt anything. You want a smooth texture, not lumpy. Well, unless your baby can handle the lumps. Mine can, so I'm not too partituler anymore.


Looks like applesauce eh? but it's pearsauce.


Spoon it into your trays. I have a perfect spoon that each spot perfectly!


This is the result of 2 average sized pears. My munchkin eats two-three per serving.


Pop the lids on them and throw them in the freezer! Usually by the next day they're ready to go!


Check out the ice crystals! yikes! and that was with a lid on them. We need to fix our freezer.

Pop them out the tray and throw them into a freezer bag with the name, and a date about six months from when you made it. they probably won't last that long though!

See? just a little bit of effort and time on you part, and you can save some money on that expensive baby food! and not throw about all those containers.