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Tuesday, August 28, 2012

Organic Baby Food-- Homemade is Cheaper!

I'm going to preface this post by saying that my sister-in-law Jillian has turned me on to so many things in life that I enjoy, and making homemade baby food is one of them. I do this in an effort to a) be stingy, b) provide organic baby food to my son. Unfortunately, I would say that a definitely comes before b in this case (I mean, how bad can baby food from the jars really be?)

But I have decided that if it is easier and cheaper then I will do it myself. For example, mashing a banana (or ten for the freezer) and mixing it with formula is not only an excellent source of nutrition for little Rylan, but it is also a tasty treat that can last three or four meals that only cost me $.20. That will be forever the cheapest that I ever feed him! And super easy :)
Look at that mischevious little face! I cannot resist it, even with avocados all over it!

Jillian and I got together a few weeks back and made baby food out of the following produce:

Bananas: Mush then puree. Easy as 1-2-3. Actually there are only two steps there so it would be easy as 1-2. just proving to you all that I can count. And I do it well. All the way to three. Anyways, Rylan loves them-- he sucks bananas RIGHT off the spoon. Hilarious!
Squash: Some of babies' first foods can be squash. It must be cooked first (in the microwave is fine), and it can then be put in the food processor, sans the seeds and skins. Squash doesn't go very far though, and it will be one of the more expensive ones you may try.
Sweet Potatoes: Bake. Deskin. Puree. Freeze. Vwala!
Avocado: Scoop out the insides and mash well.

All of these foods can be frozen except the avocados. Apparently you need to freeze avocado WITH other things in it to prevent it from going bad, like lemon juice, which I'm pretty sure the little ones should not have yet. But you can just scoop and mash the day of and keep the remainder in an airtight jar-- the top may go brown, but you can remove it with a spoon and still serve what's underneath.
*Never freeze formula. If you need to thin out your baby food, you can freeze it thick and ass formula later.

Then in Colorado about two weeks ago, my aunt had peaches FALLING off her trees-- and we all know how delectable Colorado peaches are! So I pitted and deskinned about ten of those and made at least 15 meals out of the pureed form, depending on how well the little man likes them, but they are in the freezer for now.



To thaw: Use the refrigerator or micowave, not the countertop. For some reason that's bad. I find that 2 oz of bananas defrosts in the microwave in less than ten seconds, but you are going to want to make sure your container is microwave safe (I bought some the other day that I discovered are not).

A source that we used was: Wholesome Baby
They provide awesome recipes, nutritional facts, scientific research, and even menus for your baby's age! This was perfect for me since I'm an amatuer mom!

Thanks for reading!


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