I said I would try it

Several weeks ago I counseled with my friend Mary Avery about making baby food. She told me that she was doing it for her son and really enjoyed it. I had been researching it a little but was still unsure about it.

So the time came for Kinley to start foods and I decided I was too lazy to try making baby food. I would just go the Gerber route. Things have been going well with store bought foods. Kinley loves bananas and green beans best! We've also tried pears, apples, sweet potatoes, and as of today, corn.

The past few days K has been rather cranky and for a couple of day was refusing to eat her fruits and veggies. After the second day of throwing away what she wouldn't eat it began to hurt my pocketbook. I started thinking that I had thrown away about $4 of food each day and that was only a few containers of food.

So yesterday I decided I am going to be brave and try making Kinley's food. So I went to Walmart and purchased

• 4 ice trays $6
• 1 small strainer $2.50
• 1 sweet potato $1.40
• 3 apples $1.55
• 3 squashes $1.25
• 1 bag frozen corn $.98
• 1 bag frozen sweet peas $.98

Other items required includes a food processor which I already have. For those not familiar with the cost of baby foods, it is much less costly going the make your own way...much less.

This am I woke up and was ready to start cooking. I pulled out the great book lent to me, Blender Baby Food. Here's the play-by-play:

Squash, peeled and cubed

apples boiling...all the other fruits and veggies were cooked by bringing to a boil then simmering for 15-20 mins until very tender

then put into the fod processor to puree. so far so good...easy really.
this is the step where I said thank you Lord for Gerber! Because of the corn kernels I had to mash the corn through the strainer. This was a little challenging! But I survived.
The 3 apples made almost a whole tray (15 servings) of apples!

it just took a few hours for the foods to freeze. then I took them out of the trays and placed them in labeled baggies and can simply pull out one serving.

My overall thoughts on the making baby food experience was pretty good. It was time consuming, but I think worth it. Next time I make it I will increase the quantity. Wouldn't be anymore difficult to cook 3 apples instead of 6...and it would last twice as long.

I want to hear from those of you who make your own baby food. Got any good tips or tricks?

Here's what Kinley was doing while I was making her food. She is sitting up pretty good, but we have the Boppy for just incase. Can't believe we are coming up on 6 months!