Making Baby Food

One of my favorite things to do these days is to feed Emily fruit and veggies! I started giving her food when she turned 6 months old. It took about a month for her to really seem to enjoy eating from a spoon. Now she likes pretty much anything I give her (though she did balk at green vegetables at first). While I have bought some commercial baby food, I have also made some myself. Some friends have thought this is a bit crazy, but I have found it to be really fun, plus it saves a little bit of money. So far, I've made mostly vegetables- sweet potatoes, butternut squash, carrots, and green beans. Apples are the only fruit I've attempted. I decided I needed to expand my horizons and make some more fruit, so I made a quick trip up to our new Whole Foods store and bough one bag each of frozen peaches and mangoes.

Peaches are one of Emily's favorites, plus they have a good amount of vitamin C and are great for easing constipation. Emily really likes mangoes as well, and after reading about their anti-viral properties, I thought it would be especially beneficial for her to eat them during this flu, cold and RSV season.

Even though making baby food seemed a bit intimidating to me at first, you really don't need very many items to make it. A steamer basket (baking or steaming seems to be the best way to cook the fruit/veggies to retain the most nutrients), large pot, a food processor or blender (the Magic Bullet is SUPER easy and fast!) and ice cube trays.

Since I know Emily likes both peaches and mangoes, I thought it would be fun to prepare them together. (Adding yogurt and maybe a little fresh banana sounds like a very delicious and nutritious breakfast!) I added about 2 inches of water to the bottom of my pot then inserted the steamer basket, followed by both bags of frozen fruit. Then I covered and steamed the fruit for about 15 minutes.

After the fruit was tender, I put about half of it into the large Magic Bullet cup. Since I had previously read that both mangoes and peaches could be pretty runny when pureed, I didn't add any water.

After blending for about 20 seconds, the puree was creamy and the perfect consistency and texture for mixing with oatmeal cereal or yogurt.

I then spooned the puree into ice cube trays. There was exactly enough to fill both trays with some left over to give to Emily right away. The ice cubes are about 1 oz each, and Emily eats 1-2 oz mixed with oatmeal each morning. For her afternoon/evening meal, she has 1-2 cubes of veggies.

While I cleaned up the kitchen, Matt fed Emily the peach/mango (meach? pengo?) combo and it was a huge hit!

I calculated that the cost per oz was approx. $.24. Since these were organic fruits, the cost to buy commercial baby food would probably have been about $.40/oz. So the savings for this batch was approximately $4. While that doesn't sound like much, I believe I've saved at least $25 so far by making my some of my own food. If I was better about buying the fruit/vegetables when they were on sale, the savings would be much higher. Vegetables are definitely cheaper than the fruit! I have given Emily both organic and non-organic food, and have tried several different brands of baby food. I just think it's fun to try lots of different things right now! I also bought frozen blueberries and peas, so I plan to make those this week.