Make your own baby food

I think it is always important to know what you are putting in your mouth when you sit down for a meal. People now days seem to be so quick to throw processed food into their mouth and I think that is sad. When my son got to the age he could start eating solids I knew I wanted to feed him only organic foods, but I figured I would take it even a step further and make it myself.

I knew it couldn't be all that hard to make it myself, afterall, for many many years people didn't have the option of jars of baby food at Safeway. So here I am to tell you that while it takes more time than opening a jar, that it is still easy and you'll have the piece of mind of knowing exactly what is going into your childs precious belly!

Here is what you need to get started:

1. Blending/foodprocessor/magic bullet

2. Fruit and vegetables

3. Rice cooker/steamer

4. Ice cube trays

5. freezer bags

Most fruits or vegetables will need to be steamed before you can make the food. Lets us the example of making apples. First peel the apples, then cut it into small chunks. Place it in the steamer and cook it until it is mushy. Then you put it in your blender and puree it until there are no chunks left. If you need more liquid to make this happen then add the water from the bottom of the steamer (this way any vitamins lost in the steaming process will be put back in). Once it is blended, fill the ice cube trays with the apple, cover, and place in the freezer. Once the cubes are frozen just move them into freezer bags. Make sure to label your bags with the item and the date. The food is good for about 3 months in the freezer.

When you want to feed your child, simply take the desired number of cubes and defrost them and you're ready to go!

Making your own foods allows you to give a lot more variety and you can mix different fruits and vegetables together to make things more interesting! You can grab one cube of sweet potatoes, one cube of peas, and one cube of apples....who knows, your child may love that combo!

There are some fruits that don't need cooking and you can just make fresh on demand for your child. Is you want to feed them bananas, just mash up the banana and you're good to go! Same with kiwis and berries.

The following is a list of fruits and vegetables that I found great to make baby food from:

Apples, pears, peas, sweet potatoes, broccoli, kiwi, bananas, green beans, squash, mango, and peaches.

There are two vegetables that you should not make yourself because of high levels of nitrates. Carrots and spinach. Just stick to buying these in the jars!

Now you may be wondering about price comparisons - making vs. buying. When I bought baby food and did it all organic and used coupons 90% of the time. When I made the food I also used organic and tried to buy produce that was on sale. The best I could figure was that most of the foods I made came in at or below the price of the jarred food. If you're looking to make the food yourself to save money, you probably won't be saving a lot. Like I said earlier, I did it so that I would know exactly what I was feeding my son. I suggested trying to make baby food yourself at least once....who knows, you may end up enjoying yourself like I did!