Homemade Baby Food

With Deane I used canned baby food, usually Earth's Best, but I was considering making Kate's food.  I read a lot of great testimonials of other moms about the satisfaction they got from doing this and of course the money they saved.   I researched several baby food machines to help make this process easier and decided on Baby Brezza

It's very easy to use, makes a decent size batch, is fairly easy to clean.  From all the reviews I've read, I believe that areas with hard water will have more trouble keeping the machine clean.  I clean with soap and water every time I use, but then I go through the suggested process of using vinegar to remove residue every week or two.

Using fresh fruits is pretty self-explanatory in that you just peel, chop and throw it in.  I think vegetables are much more work because they seem to require more steps to get to the "meat" so to speak.  The first time I made green beans, I (thougth I) had to rinse, trim, boil, and grind. 

I know this looks delicious :)

Then, I read other were using frozen peas and green beans and life looked much easier.  I thought this was a good compromise on nutrients, cost, and time.

I have made butternut squash, summer squash (very runny/watery), carrots, green beas, sweet peas, bananas, pears, apples, peaches, plums, and sweet potatoes.  Kate hasn't met a fruit or vegetable she doesn't like as evidenced by this enthusiasm.

I do buy some package fruits and veggies as backups when I don't have small container already defrosted to go somewhere or if we get low.  I just started introducing Sprout Organic Meals to her that you can purchase at Wal-Mart.  So far, the fruits and veggies are bigger hits.

I use Fresh N Freeze containers (although they were better portion size intially, around 6 months), Fresh Baby trays, empty baby food jars, and empty dairy products containers mainly.

I think the investment in Baby Brezza (approximately $100 from Toys R Us*) was worthy to save money on baby food, know exactly what I'm serving her, and fulfill my desire to "cook" for her.  I also buy fruits that are on sale (<$1.50/lb.) and generic veggies when they are on sale to help keep the overall cost down.

This is my favorite website about making homemade baby food.  It has a lot of great information what foods are appropriate at what age. 

Next up on our agenda is making baby food out of our meals to introduce more seasoning, textures, and flavors.

* I used those Toys R Us mailer offers where you buy 2 boxes of diapers and get a $20 gift card or whatever the deal might be to pay for part of the Baby Brezza getting something I needed anyway and saving on another.