Making Your Own Baby Food || Carrots and Apples

I realized that I haven't made any posts on making your own baby food, so I thought I would share with you what I did yesterday. The cost of baby food is ridiculous. I mean, really. Nathan can eat up to five or six jars of baby food a day. I have always wanted to puree my own baby food and I have a done a little, just not a lot. I'm slowly working up to feeding him homemade food exclusively. It saves money and I believe it is healthier. Plus, it provides a fantastic sense of satisfaction! :) 

I have pureed apples, avocados, and sweet potatoes for Nathan, but I have always made a small portion that lasted a day or two. Fresh, pureed homemade baby food should be stored no longer than 48 hours (many food safety authorities say that 72 hours is fine.) in the refrigerator. This applies for veggies, fruits, meats etc. So because of that, I only did a small portion to be stored in the fridge that Nathan ate through quickly. Yesterday was my first time to FREEZE the food I made. I made a slightly larger amount than my first time, although I would hardly call it a lot. It is less than a week's worth, but it was good for the first batch. With that said, here is how I did it:

I chose to do carrots, then apples.

1. Start by cooking the vegetable/fruit either by steaming, baking, microwaving or boiling.

Steaming maintains the most nutrients. Steaming, baking and boiling all allow for big batches of foods to be made at one time.

2. Take the cooked vegetable or fruit and remove them into the machine you have decided to use for pureeing.

3. Set aside the liquid that the vegetable/fruits were cooked in. This will be the liquid you add to make the puree. Adding this liquid also helps to preserve any nutrients that may have leached into the water during cooking. (Do not use reserved water from carrots or other high nitrate veggies for a baby under 7 months old.) You may also thin with Formula, Breast Milk or Plain Water. I used our Alkaline machine with purified water and also a little of his formula milk.

4. Set your machine to puree or grind and begin to mash the vegetables or fruits.

5. As you are pureeing or blending, add the liquid or plain water. These liquids give a little nutritional boost and add a familiar taste for baby.

6. Once you have a nice liquid baby food puree you will then transfer the puree into ice cube trays for freezing/storage. Never freeze homemade baby food in glass that is not specifically labeled as "safe to freeze." For example, old baby food jars are not meant for freezing.

7. Fill each cube with the puree, as though you were filling the tray with water to make ice cubes.

8. Cover the tray with plastic wrap (foil may be used however is not

recommended as shards of the foil may be left on/in the food cubes) and put it in the freezer. Repeat this process until you have filled all the trays and no puree remains. Each cube is equal to approximately 1 ounce of food.

9. Once the cubes of puree have set and are frozen, take the trays out of the freezer and transfer the cubes into freezer bags.

10. Be sure to label the bag with the date of preparation as well as the type of food. The baby food cubes should be used within a month of freezing.

11. When it is time to feed baby, simply take out the number of food cubes needed and thaw and then reheat.

There you have it! I am anxious to make more. :)