Homemade Baby Food

Hi! This is Jocelyn. I'm a friend of Natalyia's and will occasionally be posting to this blog as well! I have an 8 month old little boy and adding another member to the family has made me (or at least made me want to) be more careful about the way I spend our money, especially on everyday items, like groceries. One thing I have discovered as a BIG money saver has been to make my own baby food. There are a lot of great resources out there and my two favorite are Wholesome Baby Food.com and the book First Meals by Annabel Karmel (got it for $6 at Half Price Books...another great place to save money, also got a box of 16 cute thank you notes for $2 while I was there!).

I think homemade baby food looks, smells and most importantly tastes much better than the jar stuff! I keep a few jars on hand for times when I won't be around a fridge or microwave and I have compared. So, in my first time mom opinion, it is totally worth it to make your own! Get ready, this is going to be a pretty long post!

One 4 oz jar of baby food cost about $1 depending on the brand and where you buy. Here are a few examples of things I made for my son and about how much I saved:

Peas-
2-12 oz bag of frozen peas costs about $3
makes 8 jars worth
SAVES about $5

Sweet Potatoes-
4 sweet potatoes cost about $3
makes about 12 jars worth
SAVES about $9

Carrots-
1-2lb bag of carrots cost about $1
makes about 12 jars worth
SAVES about $11

Pears-
5lb bag (got it at Sam's) cost me $4.99
makes about 12 jars worth
SAVES about $7
TOTAL SAVINGS about $32 :) for 44 jars worth of food..that's over 70% saved!

I could list more...let me know if you want to know a certain favorite food and I may have made it :)

And the best part is that making your own baby food it VERY easy. If you don't already have a food processor this would be an added cost (but you can use it so many ways, so in my opinion you need one!). Here is how I made the previous list of foods:

Peas- place about 2 inches of water in a sauce pan, place a steamer basket in pan and fill with frozen peas, bring water to a boil and steam peas (about 5 mins or less) until tender, place steamed peas into food processor and puree until smooth, you will need to add a little of the hot water from the pan to get it to the correct texture, spoon smooth peas into ice cube trays and place in freezer until firm, pop out into labeled gallon bags and store for up to 3 months in your freezer. Pull out 2 or more cubes and defrost for about 1 minute in microwave, stir and add a 1/2 tsp butter if desired. My little one LOVES these!

Sweet potatoes- bake sweet potatoes in middle of oven or racks for 1 hour at 425 after scrubbing them clean and poking a few wholes in each, pop flesh out of skin and puree and store as described for peas (another favorite in my house!)

Carrots- wash, peel and cut into 1-2 inch pieces, steam as store as described with the peas (my son loves a cube of carrots mixed with a cube of sweet potatoes and a cube of pears!)

Pears- wash and peel pears, cut into 1-2 inch pieces and place in a skillet, cover will about 1 inch water, simmer until soft 10-15 minutes (I seasoned mine with a little cinnamon) puree and store as described with the peas.

I made all 4 of these in 1 day and it took me a bout 2 hours of work. Not to bad for the money saved. I also purchased some ice cubes trays for $1 at Walmart and already had (because I use it so often!) a food processor. You can get one for $20 - $200. Mine cost about $30.

Here is a pic of one of my son's favorite recipes from the First Meals book I mentioned above, Baby's First Chicken Casserole:



I hope you all find this helpful and it inspires you to try to make some of your own baby food. My little guy loves it and it feels great to know that I saved money and that I know exactly what he is eating because I made it!