Fool Proof Baby Food Making

If someone had told me making my own baby food was this easy I soooo would have done it for L too. It's absolutely fool proof! We follow some pretty basic steps to get the job done, and Abbott just loves it. Here is what we've been doing to save a little money around here...

 First, we picked super yummy adult veggies and fruits. So far we've done squash, sweet potatoes, peas, and bananas. I am hoping to to as much fresh as possible, but we did start with frozen peas and I was okay with that. It was just easier! We bought the other veggies fresh though, as they are easier to prepare.

Next, we bought these great Ziploc steam baggies from the store. You get maybe 10 for around $3.00, but it is so worth it! We simply peeled the fresh butternut squash, chopped it up, threw in a little water according to the directions on the bag and steamed in the microwave. I was a little leery about how soft the squash would get because they were so hard I could barely cut through them, but they were perfect for blending when they were done! I couldn't believe how well the bag steamed them.

Then, I just threw my steamed squash in the blender after they had cooled down a bit and blended with a small amount of water. The amount of water depends on the amount of veggies. I have typically started with around 1 oz of water in the bottom of the blender and worked my way up as needed. (A good tip I read for the first round of veggies is to mix them with formula or breast milk when blending, that way it is creamier and has a familiar taste to the baby. We did this with our first round of peas and Abbott loved it!)

When we had our veggies blended to the consistency we wanted we just loaded up an ice cube tray and let them freeze overnight. In the morning we popped them out and stored them in a labeled freezer bag. It was so super easy.

I spent about an hour maybe one night, start to clean up, making 4 different types of baby food. All together, steam baggies and freezer bags included, I spent about $12 and got about 60 servings worth of food for Abbott's age. It was unbelievable! Being acutely aware of how much we started spending weekly on L's baby food as she grew, I know this will be a big savings for us. And it feels good to be making something a little healthier for my baby too.