Re: Making My Own Puree Baby Food

I just buy unsalted and no-sugar-added canned fruits and veggies, sometimes add a little water, blend them in my blender, and freeze it in ice cube trays. It's quick, easy, cheap,... works for me. I don't see the need for a food processor - my blender works just as well.

Reference the Super Baby Food book by Ruth Yaron. I used it to make baby food for my two boys and the steps are simple. The recipes in the back of the book are really beneficial for feeding toddlers too. It's my favorite baby food book!

super easy and fun... all you need is a steamer basket, a food processor (or hand grinder) and some ice cube trays (makes good single serving sizes). I used to spend an hour or two making purees on sunday evenings... would freeze it and then rotate the stock in the freezer.

try this website... wholesomebabyfood.com

good tips and recipes.. its easy when they are starting out.. pears, apples, sweet potatoes... lots of single food item stuff. later you can start pureeing and freezing food you make for the rest of your family (I started making extra before things were seasoned)...

I made my own, sort of. My daughter loved it. She wouldn't eat commercial baby food after a few weeks on the homemade stuff. I did go the easy way though... I used forzen fruits and veggies for the most part. Cooked them real well (mostly steamed to keep in as many nutrients) then tossed them in the blender, added water as needed. I did cook fresh squash for her... and sweet potatoes and things like that. a great website and resources for ideas is www.wholesomebabyfood.com. Good luck! Its worth it, and its not hard at all!

here are a few ideas.....
can pumpkin
can sweet potatoes
can veggies
fresh carrots, fresh fruit, bananas
pretty much anything that can be blended.
good luck and god bless!!

I did some of that when my kids were small, and I bought a very simple , inexpensive food grinder made by Gerber. It is a hand grinder, not electric. Very easy to use on veggies that are soft enough. I used it for bananas too, but didn't want to cook the fruit as I was unsure about how long, what would it taste like, etc. so I bought jarred food for that and meat. One tip I picked up is if you make something like carrots, make extra and freeze it in ice cube trays then transfer it to freezer bags. Easy to thaw and serve later! Hope this gives you some ideas!

I love the book First Meals by Annabel Karmel. She takes you through every age as they are eating.
Her book also tells which purees are best for freezing. I really enjoyed the book and my dd loved the food as well and I knew she was getting lots of healthy foods.
I'll share a couple here--then definitely check out the book from the library if you can, that's what I did, then I loved it so much I bought it.
anyway--
her first tip is to make sure that raw fruits are fully ripened and sweet...
3 dried apricots or fresh apricots
1 eating apple, peeled cored and chopped
1 lg ripe pear peeled cored and chopped
1 large ripe peach or plum pealled pitted and chopped
Simmer fruit in a saucepan with a little water until soft (8-10 minutes)
then blend to a puree of desired consistency

takes 5-10 min makes 4 portions, Rich source of Fiber and Vitamin C, Suitable for freezing.

I would freeze them in an ice cube tray with press and seal over it then put them in baggies in portion sizes so that they were ready when I needed them.

Sweet Potato, Carrot and Broccoli
2 Medium Sweet Potatoes, peeled and chopped
1 Large Carrot, sliced
1/2 cup of broccoli florets

Put sweet potatoes and carrots in a steamer and cook for 10 minutes. Add the broccoli and continue to cook for about 7 min. or until all vegies are tender
Blend with 6-7 TBSP of water from the bottom of the steamer to make a puree of desired consistency.

5 min Prep, 18 min cook time
Makes 6 portions
Rich source of beta-carotene, fiber, folic acid and vitimin C
Suitable for freezing.

Sometimes I would make larger batches of the purees so I didn't have to cook them too often since that saved a lot of time.

She also has some with the basic meats you add as they are growing up, and at the 9-12 months, she adds textures etc. It felt good doing these so I knew my dd wasn't getting funky preservatives

i make my own and just buy the veggies or fruit. boil them in water and blend them in a blender. alot of times i buy the fruit at safeway....organic in the freezer section and just boil it and blend it.

ANY veggies and fruit - push it with the spoon through the sieve (strainer) with very small holes: like for the tea, for example, I mean that metal one. It makes excellent puree, fresh and with no additions that you don't even know what is added there in the box. When you boil veggies, it's fine, steam is excellent,but also, you can bake them, especially apples (mmm!) which will keep more vitamins 'alive'. Carrots cur in thin slices, and steaming goes fast :). And if you have time, then FRESHLY MADE is always the best!!!

Happy healthy eating! Way to go, L. H !!! I am proud of you!

I'd highly recommend buying the Magic Bullet - it's a smaller version of a blender. Then you can puree, and then slowly start serving her food with more texture. Whatever you are having, put it in the bullet with a little BM, water, juice or formula to get it to the consistancy you want. In the past few days I've blended up strawberries and silken tofu, whole wheat pasta and sauce, and rice, chicken and veggies - all meals the rest of the family was having. It's soooo easy, HEALTHY and cheap!!

I used to make my own when my girls were small. I would buy canned fruit or veggies..and rinse them very well. Then blend them up and put them into ice cube trays and freeze them. For each meal I would just take out a few cubes....chicken, beans,...ect. Thaw them and that was dinner.

Hope this helps.

Well, this worked great for my twins and our family..

We cooked dinner at home pretty much every night, but whatever we cooked for dinner went into the blender..

Add a little water- more if they are younger- less as they get older- and feed them what you eat.

Then for veggies, just steam fresh veggies and blend them up- carrots can be tricky- I would boil those to get them soft enough- other wise they can take an hour to steam to soft.

Fruits- good advice above- I usually just mashed up bananas and used organic baby food jars for them til they got older.
Peaches are always a favorite for babies too!

Stick whatever you are eating in a blender!

Definitely the Super Baby Food Book, and I also used the website wholesomebabyfood.com. I only used my blender to puree and it worked fine.
It was a fantastic experience for me and something I am thrilled to have done for my baby. Have a great time!

I made most of my boys' baby food. Basically, you cook fruits or veggies and then my favorite tool was my hand-blender. We did bananas (although my second son didn't like cooked bananas--I had to mash a fresh banana with a fork every time I fed him one), frozen peas (canned peas are awful!), banana squash, mashed potatoes, carrots, broccoli, etc. I utilized the ease of frozen berries and veggies. Berries or any fruit that ended up too tangy was stirred into regular unsweetened applesauce.
My boys really liked oatmeal infant cereal mixed with peaches and a little cinnamon, or bananas and cinnamon for dessert or breakfast.

My favorite thing was to boil some veggies in the rice cooker, and steam even more in the steamer basket at the top of the rice cooker. I don't have that one anymore, but if you do, it cooks a lot at a time. When you're boiling food, keep an eye on the water. Try to have just a little cooking water in the bottom when the food is tender. You usually need to add some water to puree food, and lots of vitamins are in that cooking water.
Depending on how much food your daughter eats at a sitting, you'll have to decide how to store the food. I saved baby food jars from when I had to buy some and put the puree in there, then into the freezer. I also bought small plastic containers and used them that way. At first, I tried spooning it into ice cube trays, then thawing as many as my boys would eat, but I realized I was thawing 9 cubes of food and realized I didn't need to freeze them that small. I would also forget to pop them out of the trays sometimes and ended up with freezer burned baby food. 3 cubes is about 1 jar of baby food.
Sorry, I'm really tired, so hopefully that made sense!

I would just try several different combinations of food. My daughters loved steamed sweet potatoes as a favorite. I would just prepare a large amount of several healthy foods ahead of time and than I would put them in ice cube trays to freeze them. You may want to put the trays in a freezer bag as well to protect it more. Than it is very easy to take out a couple cubes at a time, thaw them and heat it up. It worked great for us. To prepare it, I just used a food processor. There is also wonderful little hand held babyfood grinders where you can even take it with you to restaurants, grind up a little bit of a food your baby likes and feed them there. It's an easy and healthy way to go!

I used Super Baby Food by Ruth Yaron as my bible! You can pick it up used on Amazon for $5. She tells you at each age what foods you can introduce. You can learn how to batch cook, food safety and how long each food lasts in the freezer. I do remember the book being a little over the top at times but it's a great tool. Good luck! After making your own b-food you will look at the stuff in jars and gag!

Jessica Seinfield just came out with a cook book called deceptively delicious. It is how she purees food and then hides it in her kids food. She started out by making baby food for the baby and would just throw some in what she was making for the family. You can just use her pureed food recipies.