Making Baby Food

A few moms have asked me to post about making baby food so here goes what I did. So a few weekends back I set aside a Sunday afternoon and made Kiley her baby food. I loaded up at Sprouts since the produce is so inexpensive. I bought carrots, lima beans, edamanne, spinach, tomatoes, potatoes, sweet potatoes, squash, corn, yellow peppers, green beans, asparagus, plum, peaches and pears. I set up a pot of boiling and a pot for steaming and went to town! (After I made everything I realized that if she is allergic to something I may have to throw out some food since I used the same water for all the veggies for boiling and steaming) Anyhow, I peeled and chopped everything. I looked up online the times for each veggie (actually my hubby found me a handy dandy little chart that had everything on one page) and would just rotate. Once one was done on the stove, I would stick it in the food processor and blend/puree away. Some of the foods I would add in bmilk. After the food was a good consistency I poured into ice cube trays that were exactly 1 ounce each (make sure to measure you trays beforehand- some lie and say it holds 1 oz but it really doesnt) and froze over night (I learned to not take the things out of the freezer too early- the melt really quick upon trying to put into containers if they aren't ready).   The last step was to empty the cubes into containers labeled with the food item and date it was made (you can keep the food for up to 3 months). Whatever I decided to feed Kiley I pull out the night before and put it into a little container and into the fridge so its all ready and defrosted for the next day. I was so surprised how cheap and the amount some of the items made- I think  I spent around $7 and made over 100 ounces easily. I would love to try to give Kiley home made baby food all the time- but lets be realistic its not always possible so I decided to pick up some Plum organic pouches (got a great deal at Babies r Us-they were having a sale and I used a coupon). Happy food making!