Project: Homemade Baby Food

I've made several small rounds of baby food lately, but last night and today I decided to prepare a bunch so I'd have a stockpile in the freezer. Since I chronicle recipes and baby stuff here, I wanted to record how and what I made for my reference, and maybe it might be useful to another mama too.

We are still on first foods and not really mixing yet, so I chose the following foods:

Ambrosia Apples - 4

Rome Apples - 2

Avocados - 4

Bananas - 2

Blueberries - 8 oz frozen bag

Carrots - 6

Bosc Pears - 2

Peas - 16 oz frozen bag

Sweet Potatoes - 4

Preparation for the chosen foods:

Apples - halve, core, bake on cookie sheet for 30 min at 425º, remove skins, puree 

Avocados - halve, remove pit, scoop meat out with a spoon, puree

Bananas - peel, mash with fork

Blueberries - boil in water for 15 minutes, drain, puree with small amount of reserved cooking water

Carrots - peel, chop, steam for 20 minutes, puree

Pears - peel, halve, core, bake on cookie sheet for 30 min at 425º, puree

Peas - boil in water for 6 minutes, drain, puree

Sweet Potatoes - bake on cookie sheet for 1 hour at 425º, remove skins, mash by hand or puree

After all the foods are mashed/pureed, transfer them to ice cube trays for freezing. I only have 4 ice cube trays and ran out of space in those, so I ended up using small food storage containers and leftover unused breast-milk collection cups from the NICU. After the foods are frozen, pop out the portions and separate appropriately into ziplock freezer bags. I labeled the bags with the food and date.

To serve, I thaw selected portions in the microwave for just a few seconds. After checking for hot spots, I stir in a little formula to desired consistency.

I've chosen to make most of my babies' food for a couple of reasons. If I make it, I know exactly what they're getting and it's hopefully more cost effective in the long run. I'm also silly and plagued with mom guilt and I feel like since I couldn't give them my breast-milk for very long, the least I could do is make them fresh good food. It's more work on the prep side, but after it's made up, it's super convenient to get the individually frozen servings out of the freezer.

After a day of taking care of my munchkins (who were detoxing from Thanksgiving craziness), grocery shopping, cooking, doing laundry, and making baby food, I rewarded myself with this.

And this is for my Aunt Tamara, so she can see the babies in some more of the Christmas duds she bought them. :)