First Homemade Baby Food Recipes

I am all about doing it myself, etc., but I read just last week that many fresh veggies are high in nitrates and that the companies that make baby food have to use stringent screening to avoid those veggies, so it's best to buy the food in jars. ? Maybe research a little more. I know I will, as I am just embarking on solids this week!

J.,
Great job on making your own baby food. I did it with 1st child and am doing it with my 10 month old too.

Good first foods are peas (you can buy a bag of frozen peas) - boil them and puree them. Do you know the ice cube tray trick? Once the food is pureed, put them into ice cube trays and freeze them. Once they are frozen put them in a ziploc bag with a label that says what it is and when they were made.

A few other good ones are carrots. Peel them, steam them (or boil them) until they are soft and then puree.

Sweet potato. Bake it and then puree it.

Definately use your breast milk to add liquid. You can also use a little bit of the water that you used to boil the veggies in.

We do green beans, apples (peeled and cored), nectarines/peaches (peel and remove pit), pears (peeled and cored), squash, zuccini, eggplant (cut in 1/2, bake and then spoon out the soft parts, and steam broccoli, cauliflower, potatoes, spinach. The "regular" squash that you may want to try next is smaller than the spaghetti squash (more like a "gourd" and can fit in your hand).

Things you don't have to cook are bananas, grapes, cucumbers and avacados. Just mash those things up and serve them!

As she gets older, you can really just use whatever you are making for dinner and throw it in to get pureed. It is sooo easy! Also, breast fed babies actually do well with homemade food because they are already used to the "taste" of all of these foods since your breast milk changes its flavor with whatever you eat. I have thrown a chicken breast in the blender along with carrots.

I think I also went to the store to see what the baby food jars were. So then, I would just buy those fruits and veggie combinations. The book I have is called "Homemade Baby Food Pure & Simple" by Connie Linardakis. Its got some good recipes, but also a great chart that tells you at what age you can add new things. I do mostly fresh fruits and veggies, except for peas. But you can do a lot of frozen fruits and veggies too.

I hope this helps. Let me know if you have any questions!
B.

Hi
I saw someone already recommended the Wholesome baby food site. its great. My daughter is now 13 months and I exclusively made all her food and this site was very helpful.

I started with Sweet potato as it was easy to prepare. Thinning it with breast milk is definitely the way to go. It gives them a familiar taste. Just remember when you calculate how much milk you baby take to add what you put in her food as well. It does count and a lot of mommies get freaked out because once they start on solids they tend to take less milk.

Another product I bought when I first started was the So Easy Baby Food Kit: Make It Natural, Make It Fresh. by Ahlers Joan. It is a cookbook that list all the food your baby can eat by age as well as recipes on how to buy, prepare and freeze and store everything and it comes with the 2 trays with lids, you need for freezing, as well as a handy reference chart. It is available at Amazon or at a Borders for around $20. Hope this helps

I too make my own baby food and it is sooo easy. I picked up a book by Ruth Yarron called Super Baby Food (i think). It is very helpful and explains the ice cube method the previous poster talked about. It goes into great detail about what foods you can start when, how to cook them and how to freeze them.

I do want to add that you do not want to re-freeze food that has already been frozen. So if you buy frozen veggies you will want to only make what you will eat in the next couple of days as you can't freeze.

Buy the book if you can as it was a great lifesaver for me.

The Super Baby Food book is a good one. Also check out wholesomebabyfood.com and askdrsears.com - they both have good suggestions on baby food preparation and when to introduce what foods. I took the information from all three sources and put it into an Excel spread sheet. If you would like it you can PM me your e-mail address and I send it to you. The list focuses more on when tointroduce which food that how to prepare. I would make huge batches of food on the weekends and freeze it in ice cube trays. Once frozen I would transfer the cubes to freezer bags and then take out and heat up as many as I needed.

Hi J.-

You've gotten some great ideas from the other moms. I made about 75% of my daughter's baby food myself (when we traveled or went out it was hard to take along homemade so then bought organic jarred food at Whole Foods). She loved sweet potatoes, carrots and peas too which are great first veggies. It's also been proven that you do not have to start baby on veggies first. Some used to say that fruits were so sweet that the baby wouldn't want veggies after fruit but that's now said to be a myth. Carrots and sweet potatoes are also very sweet.

The two things that really made my life easier were a baby food blender which I ordered from Target for $30 and made perfect purees and a rice cooker which I used to steam the veggies. Now I use it every week for everything from steamed veggies to chicken/salmon for her. It retains all the nutrients/flavors in the foods and is a cinch to use. I also loved the books by Annabel Karmel. "Super Foods" and "Favorite Family Meals" are both good books by the author.

Good luck!
D.

J.,

I made most of my daughters foods, and found this website very helpful: http://www.wholesomebabyfood.com/

The have a chart of the order in which to introduce foods, simple recipes, and even more advanced recipes for slightly older kids. It's a great place to start.

Good luck!

A.

Try butternut squash. My kid loves it! Cut in half, take out the seeds, bake on a sheet inside part down for 30-45 minutes at 400 degrees. Then turn them over and continue baking until it is a golden brown. Just scoop and puree or shred with a fork.

Hi J..

I made all of my daughter's food, and she loved it. I could barely get her to eat any jarred food when necessary. Check out the website wholesomebabyfood.com. They have charts that suggest when to introduce different foods and offer lots of yummy baby recipes. Once you add meat, my daughter just loved the chicken stew recipe (I think that's what it was called.). I think I also found a few recipes on Martha Stewart's website. I know she has some suggestions for different purees that can be mixed together to add a little variety.

Good luck:)
A.

You might try some mushing up some baked sweet potato, baked butternut or acorn squash. We also had very good luck with mushed up avacado and pureed green beans.

When I made homemade squash, I used the butternut squash. It is really easy to make. Cut it in half/scoop out the seeds and place on a foiled lined cookie sheet. Bake until tender....scoop out and place it in a blender. I did add formula to thin it out a little bit. My son LOVED it! He also loved zuccini which was really easy. Cut it up and steam. Place in blender and then freeze in an ice cube tray. Have fun and good luck!

I did not make my own food :(
However I read something recently that said you should be careful with some fruits and veggies, something about e coli and other icky things. Maybe research some websites or books from a library about this.
Good Luck

We started both of our kids on Avocado. I love it because it's easy to mash up and it's loaded with great vitamins, minerals, and oils!

You can also steam up (I feel this is the best way for most veggies because the steaming helps the veggies retain their good nutrients) carrots, peas, butternut squash, and apples.

As you begin mixing foods together, you can do a cereal, banana, and apple mix.

They have great little storage containers at One Step Ahead.

Hope that helps!!

I made a lot of my own foods - it's pretty easy, especially if you already are cooking fresh vegetables for your own meals. The jars were so expensive and took up so much room. (although we also used jarred food - in January, I felt like whatever fresh produce I could find in Chicago probably had less nutrients than quality organic jarred food.) I found that a hand food mill was better than a food processor or blender for foods that were less smooth like peas (the skins) and apples. Butternut and acorn squash will be in season in a few weeks, and they make great baby food. I tried to buy all organic produce, too.

i did homemade baby foods with my daughter, and her first foods were avocado and bananas, she loved them and still does 3 years later