Homemade Baby Food

You know you would love to do it......... just keep thinking, I think I can, I think I can.

By the time your ready to introduce your baby to baby food, you most likely haven't recovered from the continuous lack of sleep since that baby came home from the hospital.  So to take on the chore of making your own baby food seems quite daunting.  But you can do it, and you can do it with appliances that can already be found in your kitchen.

What you'll need:  fruit or vegetables to prepare, stove with pots and pans to either boil, bake or steam, mesh strainer, spatula and your blender.  Yep that's it! 

1. Wash, peel and dice your desired fruit or veggie
2. To steam food use your mesh strainer to hold the food over a pot filled half way with water.  Boil the water allowing the steam to rise and steam your food.  Or to boil food simply put it in a pot of water and wait until its soften.  Note you can bake squash at 350 in a pan with about an inch of water.
3. Now its time to place boil, steamed or baked food into the blender.  Try and keep it only about half full it will be easier to process.  You are going to need approximately 1/4 cup water to your prepared food, you can either reserve liquid from step #2 or add water as you go.(or substitute juice)
4. Run your blender on medium or high until the food is blended into a puree and turning over in the blender.
5. Now pour the pureed mixture through the mesh strainer sitting over a bowl.  Using the spatula stirring and pressing the mixture through the strainer.  This will catch any seeds or skins of fruits or veggies that weren't pureed and could get caught in the baby's throat.
6. If you are preparing purees for slightly older babies you could add baby cereals to your puree to thicken the mixture.  Those that would be eating at a stage 3 in baby food you could also add finely diced, cooked or steamed fruit/ veggies into the puree.
7. Next you need to transfer your puree into a storeable container.  Ice trays work nice for smaller quantities or when you are first introducing food, look for small containers to freeze food in.  If you know someone who is using store bought food ask them to save the containers.  (make sure a wash containers with hot soapy water or boil glass containers before use)

That's it your done!  You can store food in the fridge only for a couple days before it will develop bacteria.  Freeze food, for around 3 months, and thaw at room temperature or in the microwave.

Click Here for a schedule of when to start different fruit and vegetables, along with some other helpful tips