Hello Mamas! My almost one year-old still LOVES jarred baby food, but I really want to expand her diet as well as her palate so I am looking into getting some device to puree the food I make for myself and hubby. I have a cuisinart but it is huge, heavy and kind of a pain to clean. I am wondering if any of you have a smallish mill/grinder that works well and cleans easily?
The best thing we used was a hand food grinder, http://www.happybabyproducts.com/kidcofoodmill.html. It was easy to use with each meal, just grind the food you cook (unseasoned at first), very portable, and cot too expensive. We loved it and I have given many as gifts. We used the blender or cuisinart for larger amounts of food put in the freezer. Good Luck!
I just used a regular hand blender to puree my baby food and that worked well. As she is a year old though you do need to start introducing foods that have more texture , try mushing veggies and fruits with a fork and see if she will take it like that.
I used a Magic Bullet. You can get them at Bed Bath & Beyond, Kohls, Target, etc. About $50. I already had it because I made smoothies for myself while I was pregnant to get my milk/dairy everyday. (I hate milk). I was given as a shower gift a small Cuisinart food processor, along with a babyfood book. Very small. Easy to use and clean in the dishwasher. I believe it runs about $30. I went back and forth between the two of them because some things would puree better in one than the other. But that was for when he was first eating and it needed to be smooth. I definitely got the most use out of the magic bullet and still use it. I use it for other stuff too, like dicing onions quickly and tearlessly. At a year old, you could easily get by with just the bullet. You will be able to leave stuff chunkier to get her used to textures, too.
I used the Magic Bullet, too! They have them at wally world, now!
The Magic Bullet is perfect for this. You blend it in the cup, and then if you have leftovers, just screw a lid on the bullet and store it in the fridge (if you pureed a lot of food and you're not going to use the leftovers within a day, I recommend dishing out what you are going to use into a bowl right after you make it and store the rest in the bullet in the fridge, since you don't want to contaminate the leftover food with the saliva bacteria). What I would often do is scoop whatever I was making for dinner into the bullet and feed it to our baby, so she ate what we were eating. If it was before she could eat dairy, then I would just scoop out the food (soup, pasta, etc) before I added cheese or milk to it or whatever ingredients she wasn't old enough for yet. It made feeding baby super cheap and easy, and freshly cooked food/veggies are MUCH healthier and tastier.
For large batches I would use a blender (the Magic Bullet comes with a blender too) and freeze the baby food in an ice cube tray and then put in freezer ziplocks. At breakfast I could easily put 2 or 3 cubes in a bowl to thaw for lunch or dinner, or microwave if I didn't plan ahead.
Actually, I love using the Bullet. Its fast, small, easy to clean, & works perfect to puree foods for baby. I add more liquid for smoother consistency or less for chunkier foods. I pretty much use that thing for everything now, protein shakes for me, etc. Hope this helps.
-C. from Scottsdale, AZ
I pureed all my baby food with the oster hand blender and comes with all the attachments, that I actually got for my wedding (who woulda thunk?). I wouldn't pay for anything else though honestly (just use your mixer that you already have!) since she might change her mind overnight!
Hi E.,
I highly recommend you buying Ruth Yaron's Book "Super Baby Food". You will love it! She not only recommends what to use to make food but also give recipes, food lists according to age (6mths- beyond a year), healthy homemade snacks, and even how to make your own play dough!
Buy it at your nearest book store or Amazon is where I bought mine and purchased others as gifts. They use to have it at Target too.
Hope you get it and enjoy it as much as me and my friends did!
A.
The easiest question there is:
"The Magic Bullet"
I bought them for everyone for the holidays at Costco, $40. (they ahd a special online for $10 off so it only cost me $30 and free delivery!)
They sell them many places, Macy's has them too and gives 40% off sometimes...but it still seemed dear there).
You can even make soups,cakes, carrot juice.....it's unbelievable what you can do in them. I bought it for my teenage son to make his protien shakes in. He uses it daily.
Have fun!
I used the magic bullet. It was so awsome because you can make small amounts, which is what you need, and it's not hard to scoop it out of the cup. If you use the short cup, you can just feed her from there. It's SO convenient and easy to use & clean, not to mention that it can leave whatever texture you want because you can pulse it. PLUS, I use it for all kinds of stuff not just baby food.
A kitchenaid stick blender. It was great for baby food, and allowed me to totally puree, or make it chunkier, to help him gradually get ready for real food. Plus, so useful for everyday cooking, and a snap to clean!
