Wednesday, February 11, 2009
Help with making baby food
I know that this post is a little premature...but do any of you out there make your own baby food? What food processors do you like? Do you use any certain recipe books? Do you use any special brand of trays to freeze it in. Please help and share in as much detail as possible because it's something I want to do in the months forthcoming and I'm trying to plan ahead. How do you do meats?
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I obviously don't make my own baby food, since I don't have a baby. However, I do "juice" and being an infant coordinator I have some knowledge of making food. Most people like a small processor such as the magic bullet because it's easy to clean and it doesn't heat the food. Heating the food while pureeing it takes out some of the nutrients. The best way to do it is to steam the veggie or bake the meat and then mash it while it's warm. Be careful of strings in things like green beans.
I'm glad you posted this question and am looking forward to reading some of the answers (even though I'm a few months away from this as well).
I posted this same question a little while ago and I got some GREAT feedback. Here is the link if you want to read the comments I got. http://odelltrips.blogspot.com/2009/01/been-doing-some-figuring.html
I did start making my own and I love it. I have made bananas and peas so far. For the bananas, I just puree'd them in the blender and added a little water. For the peas, I used frozen and boiled them until they were tender. I didn't add too much water because I wanted to puree them with the water they were cooking in so I could keep all the good stuff in there.
I froze them in ice trays and then popped them out and am storing them in freezer bags.
I've only used the bananas so far and it's about 1 cube per baby per feeding.
Hope that helps!
I didn't do anything fancy. I would boil or steam the food then put it in a blender (I also have an emersion blender that works great). For freezing I put the food in ice trays although this time around I may splurge and get some freezing things specifically designed for the purpose.
You really do not need to spend money on special kitchen items. Your own pots, pans, blender can do it.
I just did single foods. Nothing fancy. Nothing that would require instructions. Just the food, maybe some water and no salt. Uncomplicated.
I'm about to start. My plan is just to use the small hand held blender I have. I did buy a set of freezer trays since I don't have any ice cube trays. I'll let you know how it goes!
The book Super Baby Foods by Ruth Yaron (sp?) is great!
I have used a blender and a hand food mill (by Kidco), and both were great/fairly easy. Ice cube trays work well. Jarred baby foods worked best for us when we traveled, but my brother and SIL make their own food wherever they go (same hand food mill).
Meats I did jarred baby food for a better texture, then shredded chicken, turkey, and hamburger when they were able to eat table foods.
http://www.wholesomebabyfood.com/
I make just about any veggie/fruit that I can think of. I use alittle spices. We freeze them in ice cube trays also. I bought them at the dollar store. Austin is up to 3-4cubes at lunch, 5-6 cubes at dinner and a pureed fresh fruit.
Each cube ~ represents 1 oz
We did bananas and avocados and froze them - warning they turn brown from the oxidization. It's totally ok but freaks me out. So I just do those when we are going to eat them that day and put them in a container in the frige. (the top layer still turns brown but it will last in your frige for up to 3 days)
We are just now pureeing meats. Chicken has been the best liked so far
We do baby-led weaning (so no "baby food", and it's natural, fun and EASY. http://tribalbaby.org/babyLedEating.html
I second the wholesomebabyfood.com website.
DH got me a Beaba Babycook from Williams-Sonoma for Christmas so I plan to start making my own purees in the next week or so. It steams, purees and defrosts all in one so it seems really easy!
My buddy, Mrs.Spock is a whiz at making her own baby food. Her blog is http://mrsspock.blogspot.com/
Good luck and my boys recommend Flaming Hot Cheet.os, but I told them Brynn is a little too young.
Oh that's way more ambitious than I was. I have no knowledge and therefore will just say Good Luck!!
And where is the gratuitous baby pics. No post is comlete without baby pics. Sheesh Sara!!
Interesting comments. I've got a baby food book and some baby food freezer trays, but obviously we haven't used them yet.
I also used the Super Baby Food book. It was great, but I didn't do a lot of the extra recipes for toddlers as it went on -- just transitioned to feeding the lowercase the same foods we were eating. I used our small food processor and just steamed fruits and veggies every few days, pureed them to a level that he was capable of eating at the time, and froze them in an ice cube tray. I did weigh as I went so that each cube was only 1 oz. That way, I was able to mix fruit into his oatmeal without waste. I could also feed him a wider variety of food at each meal without feeling like I was wasting anything. I think most kits on the market for freezing baby food make 2 oz cubes and if your little one is a light eater, picky, or you want to give multiple different fruits/veggies in one meal (when age appropriate), I found that larger than 1 oz cubes caused too much waste.
Found you through LFCA. Here's a great site for recipes and info:
http://www.wholesomebabyfood.com/index.htm
I refer to it all the time.
I have no baby of my own, but my three nephews all pretty much ate what their parents ate, ground up when necessary in a food mill - you can find an example here: http://www.kidco.com/main.taf?p=2
Cooked veggies, fruits, plain meats - it all grinds up really easily in here, and because it needs no power, it's easy to travel with or use in a restaurant. Good luck!
I second the Beaba Babycook - it got rave reviews and I'm psyched to get it. BPA-free, too!
I never did meats b/c the ones I tasted were so nasty that I just skipped it until he could chew actual soft meats. However, to still get some good protein, I would cook beans and rice and grind that up along with avocado and my son (15 months old now) loved it and still does! He wasn't a fan of it without the avocado, but with it, he loves it. And I've tasted it, it's not too bad!
You can make it in the crock pot! www.crockpot365.blogspot.com
I use regular ice cube trays, freeze the stuff in there, and then pop it out into a freezer bag. 1-2 cubes a meal. Meats by themselves make my son retch and puke. I mix chicken in the food processor with sweet potatoes, and that works great.
I saw your request on the lost and found.
Here is a post I wrote last year about homemade baby food. I hope you find it useful!
http://stickyfeet2.blogspot.com/2008/05/homemade-baby-food-part-deux.html
I'm also here from the lost and found. My baby is 10 months old and this is what I did...
At first I bought jarred foods so that I could find out which he liked best. I didn't want to go making a whole batch and then findout it was going to go to the trash! (Also at the beginning he ate so little at each meal that it was economical to buy jars.) Now that I have discoved what he likes I make food in HUGE batches.
I have found that steaming veggies and fruit, and boiling meats works best. Then I use the food processor to puree. I found that using a smaller gizmo (like the magic bullet or hand blender) didn't get the food smooth and even textured. Also, seeing as I made a big batch, I would have to puree like 4 times what I can do in one go in the processor.
I use ice cube trays to freeze. I measure out a tablespoon (1/2 an ounce) and glop it into the tray and then freeze and pop them out to freezer bags or glass storage containers. Now I am finding that I can freeze 2tablespoons (1oz) at a time, as I can be assured that my son will eat it. I hate trowing away food!
Also now that he is older and doesn't need things so smooth I find that I can just mash with a fork. And then I freeze in cubes the same way.
I have pureed lots of things: green beans, carrots, sweet potato, butternut squash, acorn squash, zuccini, applea, pears, bananas...
Plus meats: chicken and lamb. I just boil them up and puree. The thought of jarred meats gives me the heebie jeebies. granted it is a little "gross" pureeing them, but alot less gross than in the jars in my opinion! It is impossible to get them smooth like you can veggies and fruit, so if your baby has a texture aversion the jarred meats might be better.
Oh, one last note: always use the water that you have cooked the food in to add to your puree. When you cook the food the nutrients go into the water, so by using the water you are recouping some of the good stuff.
Good luck. If you have any queations you can always leave me anote on my blog.
I think the Weston A. Price Foundation website has some really great articles on what foods to introduce and when, and how to introduce them. They have some good recipes, too. Here's a couple links for you to start:
http://www.westonaprice.org/children/nourish-baby.html
http://www.westonaprice.org/children/foods-toddlers-preschool.html
Hey, I was reading your blog to see how you were doing. Brynn is adorable.
I never made my own food for my son (working full time didn't allow for it), but I did recently see this really cool thing that william sonoma has http://www.williams-sonoma.com/products/5279732/index.cfm?pkey=cwskids&cm%5Fsrc=hero. I would definitely consider it with #2.
Are you going back to work?
Hope all is well,
Robyn (fellow gas passer, SU)
I don't have a baby (as you already know - lol) but my S-I-L made Jackson's baby food. She would just steam the veggies and then throw them in her small food processor. I've seen a baby food maker in Williams Sonoma and thought it looked neat. They also have a cookbook with recipes that goes with it. Here's a link. http://www.williams-sonoma.com/srch/index.cfm?words=babycook
((HUGS))
Everyone already said what I would have already said, so I'll just say "hello!" and I've missed you. I hate being so behind in my blog reading! Glad to see you are making your own food. Good for you!!
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