From Scratch Baby Food

My third baby girl Gigi was just starting on baby food a few months back, when my kid sister Caley came to visit with her own baby girl.  She watched me pulling out the over-priced little jars of baby food and kindly told me that I needed to wise up and make my own. 

What?  Make my own? 

I vaguely recalled attempting it once before, yearrrrs ago.  I had saved a couple thousand of the little glass jars and for some reason thought that I needed to find a way to refill them. 

Disastrous results ensued.  It was tedious, slow, and extremely messy trying to spoon food back into the little jars.  Not fun.  Also all those jars took up way too much freezer space and were annoying to defrost.  

I never tried it again.  The convenience of the store-bought baby food prevailed.  Big time.  

Well my wise sister shared with me a much smarter approach to homemade baby food, and I love it so much that I now deeply regret not doing so with my two elder daughters.    

Here's what ya do.  Cook, blend, mash, steam, puree, chop, dice, etc. any food of choice that you'd like to see your fat gurgling baby consume.  Season it to taste if needed, or just leave it au naturale.  Using a spoon or spatula spread the cooled prepared food substance into an ice cube tray.  Take care to keep the food relatively level with the form of the tray so that your frozen food cubes will pop out nicely. 

Cover with plastic wrap and freeze.  Piece-o-cake.        

When your lovely baby food trays have completely frozen, pop 'em out and toss 'em into a zip lock freezer bag--  the easy open and close zippered bags being the most ideal.



And there you have it.  Stinkin' brilliant!

Perfectly portioned little food cubes that are a breeze to reheat.  Simply plunk them into a little glass dish or bowl ('cause I believe microwaving food in plastic = cancer poison) heat for 10-15 sec. intervals, and stir between each interval until you achieve the perrrrfecto warmth and consistency. 

Tips: With some foods like oatmeal for example, you'll need to add a little bit of water when reheating or it can be a little dry.  Also carrots can contain large amounts of soil minerals and have been known to start sparking and even cause fires in the microwave.  I speak from experience.  Kinda freaked me out.  So be sure to just cover your carrots in water while reheating and you'll avoid the whole flaming microwave fiasco. 

I love that I know exactly what my baby is consuming and that I'm saving lots and lots of moolah.  I have not bought another jar of baby food since and I feel so smart and victorious about the whole thing.  It's caused me to ponder, what else should I stop wasting money on and just make myself?     

And so I'll ask you. What do you make from scratch that makes your life better and saves you some dinero?