Recommendations on a Machine to Prepare Baby Food at Home

If you have a blender with a puree function, that's all you need. As for recipes, this is just baby food, not gourmet meals. Mix a few things together, and that's it. You won't be using sauces or spices, or anything. Peas and carrots, chickpeas, and pineapple, etc. There are websites that provide good combos, and that's all you need. No fancy "cookbook".

I used a Magic Bullet, you can buy them in sears, macy's sam's club etc. They are great for baby food and also as a small blender and food processor. My daughter is two now so we don't use it for baby food anymore, but it is great for drinks, salsa, smoothies, milkshakes, soups, gucamole ect!
It comes with great storage cups, and we froze extra servings in icecube trays which are the perfect serving size for a 6-12 month old.
www.wholesomebabyfoods.com has great baby and toddler recipes and the magic bullet comes with a cookbook which includes some as well.

The Magic Bullet is awesome. Now that my kids are older we often make fruit smoothies.

I also made all of my daughter's baby food. I just needed a steamer basket and used my blender with the puree button. I loved the So Easy baby food cookbook, simple and easy to follow. The kit also came with the icecube trays with a lid to freeze the baby food. Once frozen I would pop out, date, and store in freezer ziplock bags. I would recommend buying an extra ice cube tray so you can make more food at once. I would spend an hour or so every other Sunday and make her food. Good luck and have fun!

I don't think you need a specific machine that only makes baby food. A lot of babies don't want to eat baby food anymore even before they are 1 year old, so you'll be stuck with a big machine that can only be used for a few months. I used a blender (with a glass container) and a Cuisinart food processor. The blender was great for making the really smooth (like stage 1) foods. I used the food processor a lot more when she was a little older, but I've since learned that the Cuisinart bowl contains BPA. I'd recommend a hand immersion stick/blender instead.

I also loved the Super Baby Food book, that I see others have recommended also. I used a small food processor or occasionally my blender and that did the job. have fun!

Hi E.,

I used a little machine called Baby Cook. I bought it in Germany but I did see one last year at William Sonoma. I love this machine. I used it for all three of my children (it has lasted 7 years). It is one machine that does it all. You steam your food, tip the basket and then puree. I don't know what the price is on it but I know we spent around $100 - it was well worth it !

C.

I have made food for all 3 of my kiddies ..... still making it for the 9 month old. If you do not have the book Super Baby Food by Ruth Yaron it is a great book to have for quick info as well as www.wholesomebabyfood.com. I use an attachment for my kitchenaid mixer LOVE IT!!! I also use a stick blender. Quick clean up and does not take up a ton of space. Yesterday I made a batch of peaches. I like to cook with the skin to get all the vitamins ..... so I cooked and pureed' with my stick blender.... they skin was still there but chopped fine so I just pushed it through a fine strainer ... it took a few minutes. In the beginning you have to make sure everything is a true puree'. Sweet potatoes have tons of strings so you have to watch that. If you have a kitchen aid the attachment is great but if you do not I would not invest in the mixer just for that. A stick blender to me works better then a blender because I do not have to make another big thing dirty I can blend in the pot. You can pick up a food mill at William Sonoma too to go along with the sitck blender. The stick blender is also great for soups and my kids eat a ton of soup. I can blend right in the pot and it is a super fast clean up. I do use my blender on a regular basis for cooking and you will need that if you are going to grind your own grains for cereal because they have to be a fine powder. If you have any questions you can for sure contact me. I love to cook and with this being number 3 I have the baby food thing down so I could do it in my sleep if I have too!! Have a good day!!

I second the recommendation for the website www.wholesomebabyfood.com. They have great ideas and recipes. I printed out their suggested menus and put them on my fridge for easy reference. In terms of what appliances we needed, I used a hand blender to blend all food and then froze the food in ice cube trays and then kept the cubes in a container in my freezer. The Magic Bullet is nice, but it seemed so small to me. Plus, my husband is a chef and refused to have one in the house. He too loved the wholesomebabyfood website and referred to it daily. Happy cooking.

the magic bullet is the best way to go. quick and easy. you can throw it in the dishwasher when your done. small so it doesn't take up alot of room in your cabinet or counter or in your dishwasher. i find blenders to be too bulky. It's also GREAT when you get to the meat stage... purees in a flash...

I use the Magic Bullet- it's very compact, inexpensive, and now that my babies have outgrown baby food, I use it to make them (and me!) healthy smoothies. As far as recipes go, just be creative. Be sure to use plenty of liquid when pureeing so that you get a nice smooth result. Some of my favorite combinations were apple blended with butternut squash or sweet potato, and when baby got older, I would add some roasted chicken or turkey in with it. I just used whatever I was making for the adults (as long as it wasn't an allergen). For snacks, I gave my babies lots of whole foods as well--peeled apples that they could gum, the pit of a mango so they could gnaw and suck off the rest of the pulp, and fruits inside of the baby safe feeder (mesh feeder).

When my younger child was a baby I cooked the veggies and puree them in the blender. Added some formula and he loved it. Maybe you could try this. I also learned must cook the veggies because if not they get brown fast. Also you can make applesauce out of apples with much less sugar or no sugar.

I've been using the magic bullet to blend my daughter's food. It's fast. Great time saver!

Hi E.,

I love Super Baby Food by Ruth Yaron. To make your baby food you can use a food processor, blender or food mill. I am having a free workshop, Babyfood 101 at Giggle in Soho in a few weeks. If you would like to come just email me at ____@____.com luck and please know you can always contact me if you need more help. Making your own babyfood is the best, most nutritious way to go.

I went out and bought a Magic Bullet to prepare baby food but it didn't really work any better than the blender I already had.

So...if you have a blender (or food processor), use that rather than buying something new.

I also suggest the Super Baby Food book and wholesomebabyfood.com.

Hi E.,
I made all my children's baby food. It was many years ago. But I used a blender. I had a friend who also had a little one she would save her baby food jars for me. I would fill them and freeze them.
When you see the difference from fresh food to baby food you will never want to feed your child any store bought food.
I do have to say my kids turned out to be picky eaters after all my hard work. They are now 12 and 14.
I wouldn't have changed it.

I made all my daughter's food with the magic bullet, not its intended purpose but it worked great, was small and easy to clean. I used the book super baby foods for recipe ideas.

I bought a baby mil from babys r us for about $20. I cooked vegtables or meets and rice, and then in the mil they went to grind. That was my baby food. make sure you make the food moist, or add a bit of water when grinding for looser consistency.

Super Baby Food by Ruth Yaron!!!

Magic Bullet! You can't go wrong.

I use a spoon to mash bananas,avacado and ripe pear, ripe peaches, apricots etc. I steam carrots, sweet potatoe, apple etc and also mash with spoon. When I got to peas and string beans I just used my cuisinart. I never really used or needed anything else. By the time I went through fruits and veggies and my son was ready to eat meat I shredded with my fingers in really small pieces and he ate as finger foods

Personally, I started on whole foods--just made sure things weren't too big to choke on. But all you really need to make baby food is a fork or a potato masher ;-) As long as you cook veggies long enough to make the soft, you can easily mash them up with your fork or a spoon. Blenders, handmixers, stick blenders and food processors are a plus if you want to make some purees to stock up on.

Really, if you can make a smoothie with it it's fine for making baby food :D

A regular blender works best especially if it has a puree button.
As far as kid baby cookbooks i used Top 100 Baby Purees by Annabel Karmel. It was pretty good. It gave recipes plus some useful tips and general info on food prep, allergies and stuff.
Godd Luck!