Wednesday, November 17, 2010

Homemade Baby Food: You Can Do It!

I have been making E's baby food for the past 3 months and I truly enjoy it.  I had planned on making Emerson's baby food before she began solids, but after reading that high levels of lead were found in commercial baby foods, I had no doubts about it.  I find peace of mind in controlling what she eats, making sure she has quality nutrition, and I find making baby food incredibly easy.  I use this site as a reference.  They do a really good job of breaking down safe first foods and the site also includes recipes.

Here is a tutorial of how to make zucchini baby food.



Slice zucchini.  Babies under 9 months are unable to digest the peel, so it may be necessary to peel your vegetables.
Steam until extremely tender...this is one time when over cooking your veggies is ok. Retain cooking liquids as they have minerals and will be needed to puree your veggies.  (My camera died, so forgive that there is no picture of the next step).  Add your veggies to your food processor, blender, or food mill and puree to a consistency that is appropriate for your baby.

Pour puree in to ice cube trays.  Traditional ice cubes are approximately an ounce, so they are an easy guide to aid measurement later.  Here I have a regular tray and a sort of pellet tray.  I like having both as they offer two different sizes.  For a while E would eat one regular sized cube and one pellet.


Cover (a good time to reuse those bread bags) and freeze.

  

When frozen, pop the cubes out the tray and store in a freezer ziploc.  When needed, simply take out the proper amount of cubes, microwave 20-30 seconds, add cereal if desired and voila!  

Also, as a side note, if you do not have children who eat baby food, you could use this method in preparing purees ala Deceptively Delicious

Enjoy!

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