Today I decided to make some baby food, and I've documented the steps to show you how I did it!
Since Bree was born I wanted to make my own food for, and do baby led weaning. Before Bree began eating foods she was exclusively breastfed, and is still predominantly breastfed with complimentary foods as infants should get most of their nutrition and calories from mama milk before the age of one.
Many BLW parents like to skip pureed foods and let babies finger-feed themselves off mommy or daddy's plate, and while that works for lots of people, after a few choking episodes we decided to do pureed and mashed foods until the little one gets more teeth for chewing.
We have given mashed avocado and mashed banana before, and Bree wasn't a fan. At the grocery store one day we happened upon a pouch of food called Happy Baby Organics.
One of the reasons I wanted to make our own food was because of all the unhealthy fillers in most baby foods, GMO ingredients, and the fact that many have been recalled for various things, including glass being found in the food.
But when we spotted this pouch (Dr. Sears approved btw, love that fellow), the only ingredients are the ones on the cover! No additives, no preservatives, just whatever fruits/veggies were used, and vitamin c. So we got a few. And Bree loved them! Totally scarfed them down. So we have totally been enjoyed the ease of store-bought baby food from a pretty decent company (I hate Gerber).
Recently however I decided I still want to try homemade, because it
does save money. A wonderful cousin also gave me a baby food mill/grinder with jars as a baby shower gift, so I decided to put them to the test as you will see below.
For my first baby "recipe" I chose to stay simple and just do pear and banana. I got my
Green Sprouts food mill and my other tools ready.
I peeled the pear, and diced some with banana and threw it in the bottom of the grinder.
I used
Ball brand plastic, freezer safe jars to pour the mixture in when it was down. It took some elbow grease to grind the pear, and the mixture came out with a chunky texture. Some babies like that, some don't, so do whatever is best for you. I assume if you used steamed veggies and fruits, or just more ripe ones it may have been easier too.
For the heck of it, I decided to use the ingredients in our Bullet to see how it worked.
Definitely much smoother and quicker, something I would definitely recommend for someone short on time, or for a baby just starting purees.
All in all, the process didn't even take half an hour, and I got nearly a week's worth of meals for Bree! I enjoyed the "cooking" time, and it was easily done while Bree napped, and I'm sure I could do it with her crawling around or playing as she does now.
Next time, we'll be trying some broccoli!
If you want to make your own baby food, it is so easy, just use whatever veggies or fruits you wish, you could use a bullet, grinder, food processor, blender, or even just mash with a fork! It is pretty simple and the possibilities are endless.
~The Crunchy Mama
