Monday’s Meal: Baby food!
Hi! Cammi again! When I had my first child and it was time to start the dreaded baby food stage, I scoffed at the mom’s who made baby food. Or maybe I even judged them. I’m sure I thought to myself that it would be nice if I was able to stay home with my baby, and then I’d have time to do things like make her baby food. So I ended up buying baby food. Jars and jars of it! When baby #2 came around, I happened to be laid of off work when he started baby food. Since we were strapped for cash, I decided to try it out. I pulled out my dusty blender (I washed it first!) and searched for recipes online. I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. Surely it wasn’t that easy to make baby food. Wrong! It was that easy! And cheap! I ended up paying $.03 a serving compared to $.50 pre-made. And I was using fresh food, no processed stuff! And it only took 10 minutes from fresh produce on my counter, to baby food in the freezer. I berated myself for being such a snob over it one baby ago.
Now I’m on my 4th kid, and we’re entering the baby food stage again. I haven’t fed my kids baby food from a jar since my first. Woot! Not that I think there’s anything wrong with jarred baby food. I’m just a thrifty spender, and love saving money!
So…how to make this baby food you ask? It’s simple! I’m going to give you a recipe for carrots, but you can substitute the carrots for lots of other types of produce and cook similarly. Please remember to consult your pediatrician before introducing solids to your little one!
Carrot Baby Food
Using a bag of baby carrots, boil in 1 cup of water until tender. Usually 5-8 minutes. Put in food processor and blend until pureed. Add breast milk, formula, or the water the carrots were boiled in to make a thinner consistency. Add puree to ice cube trays and place in freezer. Once frozen you can move to ziploc bags. I typically will put 4 in a bag.
Here’s a great website with all sorts of baby food. There are introductory baby foods, and then older baby foods. There’s so much you can do!
Here’s a pic of my little one enjoying unsure about her first taste of baby food.
