Making Baby Food - Dallas,TX

I bought a $10 food processor from target, it was little but the perfect size for making baby food. You can buy fresh veggies, and fruits. I would also buy canned organic vegetables and use that too. I would buy meat from the deli and process it with the veggies for a meal. Or dinners that we would eat, I would throw it in the processor so he could eat it too. There was just something about baby food sitting in a jar for months, I just couldnt stomach for my baby. He thought it was gross himself! Good luck, its pretty easy!

Buy produce inexpensively and in-season so it will be the freshest and most nutritious. Roasting vegetables is a lot easier than I thought it was going to be! Here are some things that worked well for us:

Making a big batch and freezing the leftovers in ice cube trays. We'd pop the food out and store it in freezer bags so we would always be ready. In the morning, we'd set a few in the refrigerator for lunch and dinner, and we didn't have to worry about making anything at the spur of the moment.

Don't be afraid to mix foods. Fruits and veggies pair very well with each other, and you can add in some chicken stock, apple juice, or other liquid to thin the food as necessary. We'd also add yogurt or cottage cheese to the purees, and our sons loved them!

Use spices the way you normally would. It gets the kids used to your cooking. I would roast a squash, add a bit of salt and pepper, maybe some olive oil, and then puree that up. Much less sodium than jarred baby food, and it got my kids used to the way that I cook. Made it easier to transition them to table food.

We used a Magic Bullet, but it gave out. For this upcoming baby, I'm planning on using a food processor. I've already made applesauce and peach sauce because they were on sale at the grocery store. And my two older boys love them, too!

I told my sister that I was going to buy her the baby food maker from Williams Sonoma when she had kids. Looks convenient and turn key. My mother, however, said it is a gimick and that making baby food isn't hard LOL! We both did it, but she was a SAHM, I worked out of the home, so for what it's worth - there is a review of that product.
Me, I just steamed veggies on weekend, pureed and put in ice cube trays for the week and re-heated as needed. So get a good steamer and a reliable hand held stick mixer that has a puree setting and you'll be good to go.
Protiens I either bought for school use or mushed up what we were eating at the table.
Good

I used the websites www.wholesomebabyfood.com, www.homemade-baby-food-recipes.com, and www.homemadebaby.com for recipes/suggestions/recommendations for ages to introduce foods. I also got a couple books out of the library, but I don't remember the names.

I didn't buy any extra equipment, beyond an extra set of ice cube trays. I just cooked the veg/fruits till soft (baked in the oven, with water, usually, or poached on the stovetop) and pureed it with some of the cooking water in my blender, which I already had on hand.

Keep in mind that a serving size for 6-12 months is 1 T, or about 1 cube, and at first (6-9 months), just a baby spoonful or two is fine--you're just trying to get them to taste it and learn to explore/enjoy new foods.

Even though it took time (about 30 minutes of actual pureeing & pouring into trays, for 2 or 3 different foods), I got a lot of satisfaction and joy in making it myself. :)

I did also end up occasionally buying organic baby food from the grocery. There is a chain of grocery stores here (Giant Eagle) that has its own store brand of organic baby foods. Or, you can check out Earth's Best & get coupons from their site. I kept some on hand for those "in a pinch" situations, or if we were going to be away from home for overnight.

I just used fresh veggies/fruits and steamed or baked them. Then used a blender and baby food freezer cups. I didnt buy and special gadgets and my son loved everything I made him and it saved us tons of money.

I never used it, so I can't say how well or easy it got the job done, but I was also wary of that Beaba baby food maker from Williams-Sonoma — making baby food with basic kitchen tools was easy enough. The items I used the most were: a medium saucepan with lid, a steamer basket, and ice cube trays. The items I spend any kind of money on were the Kidco electric blender and some Baby Cubes (which held 1oz of food for when baby was a little older).

My son is now almost 3, and I still use the blender for making small batches of yogurt smoothies and applesauce. Most of the Baby Cubes I gave to my mom because she likes to use them to hold salad dressing and condiments for when she goes to work. I kept a couple to hold small 1oz serving of snacks on the go.

Finally, another vote for http://www.wholesomebabyfood.com!

I made my own most of the time. When we went out, sometimes it was just easier to take premade, but I started jarring and freezing my homemade stuff for that too.

I, too, used wholesomebabyfoods.com as my inspiration. I cooked the veggies/meat/fruits however they suggested then pureed it in my food processor with some water to get it to the right consistency. As for apples, though, I did buy natural (unsweetened) applesauce. It was so much easier and just about as cheap!

It didn't usually take too long. I would make large batches and freeze them then just pull out whatever I needed. I did learn, though, that I only really needed to make food from about 6 months (when we started baby food) to 1 year. After that, we just fed our daughter off our plates. Now (at 27 mo), just just gets what we eat and sometimes eats it. :-)

I used the resource www.freshbaby.com

They have a food kit you can buy (not all that necessary), cookbook and ice cube trays with lids keep other freezer smells out. I did like those a lot. If you go to their website they have a section called Healthy Eating for Babies and they list what foods to introduce at different ages. My cookbook lists great ideas for mixing different foods together (my girls loved peas and pears mixed together - I would have never thought of that on my own) and for adding spices to the food.
I'm expecting my third in Dec and will definitely be making food again for this baby. When I mention to others that I make my own baby food everyone thinks it's so hard but it's really easy and really not very time consuming at all.