Just Stick it in Your Food Processor and Puree it, Already...

Hahaha... I imagine myself saying that in the tone of "take this job and shove it".  However, this isn't a negative post!  It's a fun post, because it's about baby food!  Although I took the risk of appearing as if I was going full blown hippie, I decided that I'd look into homemade baby food.  It didn't sound too terribly hard, and if you do the math, even though those tiny baby food jars appear cheap, when you add it up, it ends up saving quite a bit of money. 

I bought this book as a reference and for ideas.  I also did some googling and found a couple good websites like this one that gave me lots of tips.  I decided for my first puree I would try carrots.  Just an FYI on savings, a large bag of carrots will make approximately 24 1 ounce servings.  This bag costs around $2.  A two pack of servings from Gerber costs about $1.  So I technically saved about ten bucks doing just this batch.

We recently bought new pots, so I got to try out our new steamer.  I've never had really nice pots and pans before, so this was quite the treat.  Like I said, I cleaned, peeled, and chopped up a big bag of carrots.  I then steamed them for a little longer than the recipe called for, about 25 minutes, just to make sure they were soft enough (since I used so many).  All I had to do then was throw them in the food processor, throw in some fresh water, and puree! 

My new pot and steamer.  I've never had a steamer this awesome.  I was just excited to get to use it!

Now, there are those out there who will freak about carrots because of nitrates.  But according to the website I linked (plus several other sources)  poisoning comes from well water, NOT carrots.  And always add FRESH water, not the steamed water, when you puree.  There's basically a 0% chance of this happening after 6 months with any type of food.  There isn't a difference in nitrates in store bought versus homemade carrot baby food, unless I could somehow track down organic carrots which MAY lessen the amount.  This is what the AAP says:

"Because vegetables, including green beans, carrots, squash, spinach and beets, can have nitrate levels as high or higher than that of well water, infants should not eat these foods until after age 3 months."
AAP

So, after reading that, I wasn't so terribly concerned.  Considering green beans are another heavily pushed first food, I figured if babies out there everywhere were loading up on green beans and carrots and not getting sick, well, I'm pretty sure my kid will be fine.

I must say, the cooking and pureeing of the carrots smelled delicious.  I was a little disappointed when I tasted it, because darnit if they didn't just taste like cooked carrots.  But hey, if you've only been eating rice cereal, oatmeal, and formula, well, I imagine carrots are quite the delicious treat.

So, I poured the puree into a measuring cup and used a small spatula to evenly fill out my fancy food storage ice cube trays.  I certainly didn't do a neat job of this, but they turned out okay.

Again... these LOOK like delicious popsicles, but I ate a piece that fell off, and they still just taste like carrots.  Bummer.

I stored the frozen cubes in freezer bags (so I can free up the trays for more food yet to be made!) and I'm storing them in our deep freeze.  Most guides say you can store frozen baby food in your freezer for around 6 weeks, and the deep freeze can keep it fresh for 3-6 months.  Since Claire won't start eating these for a month, I was hesitant to start so early, but I worried if I didn't have anything ready to start out with, I'd instantly resort to jarred food. 

I don't want to poo poo on jarred food by any means.  I see a point in it.  I like, however, with homemade food I know what goes in the food I'm feeding my daughter.  There aren't preservatives.  Her food hasn't been sitting on a shelf waiting for her since she was born.  I can also make creative purees, once she's become acclimated to all the different food types. 

I'm curious how she'll take to new foods.  She certainly didn't care for rice cereal at first, even though she eats it now without complaint.

Baby's first feeding at 16 weeks... did. not. want.

She took to oatmeal like a champ--in fact, I think she's eating better in general from her excitement with the oatmeal.  For some reason, I think it might be more filling to her, because she certainly got the point of eating once she started eating it. 

Claire at five months, eating like a hungry little baby bird!

So that's how easy it was to make baby food!  I'm not going crazy with it, and I certainly do not know if I will actually tackle making meat purees for her (that seems yucky).  I'm also excited that I can make neat purees and offer foods that aren't in your traditional grocery store--like zucchini, broccoli, avocado, strawberries, mangoes... oh the list goes on!  We're excited to try something less bland in only a month's time.  Can't wait to show you Claire's response!  Hopefully she doesn't end up like me--apparently I had quite the fetish for orange foods and my skin stained orange!  Eek!