Homemade Baby Food

Over the past year and a half I have seen several blogs touting the wonders of homemade baby food. Two key things kept being repeated that caught my attention - easy and money-saving. :)

When Griffin started to eat at 4 months he started off slow just like most new little ones finding their way around a highchair. He quickly grew to LOVE almost whatever was on the spoon just as long as it was being put into his  mouth. This love of food quickly tore up my grocery budget when shopping at the grocery store.

Most single jar are around .80 - $1.00 (for Stage 1 food). Griffin was very quickly clearing 2 of these and a little oatmeal at each meal. At $6.00 a day with the promise of this number only going up in the very near future I quickly stated looking into making my own baby food.

My Easter gift from my MIL was this!

It's the Babycook made by Beaba. This is the brand that they sell in the Pottery Barn Kids catalog only my MIL found it on sale and scored it for much cheaper in a local store! (Ice cube trays and Ziploc baggies purchased by my frugal self and stuck in the picture because I also used those :) I really liked this system because I have neither a steamer or a blender/food processor. By getting this brand I get both all in one tiny device. I love to save space!

After some cussing, walking away to cool down, re-reading the directions I finally got it all figured out and began by making what I already had on hand, sweet potatoes. I figured that if this didn't work out well then I could just mash them myself and nothing would be wasted.

Steaming away! It's working!

While the food was cooking I checked out the little sample cookbook that came with the Babycook. Some recipes were hilariously time sucking consuming. I decided to go online and see if I could better, easier ones for a novice like myself. It was pretty funny ya'll. This is an example of what I commonly found...

Baby's Stuffed Acorn Squash - MEATLESS 8 months +

2 acorn squash
1 tsp canola oil
1 medium tart apple, peeled, cored and diced
1/2 small onion, finely chopped
1/2 cup chopped mushrooms (we leave out the mushrooms.)
1/2 celery stalk, diced
1/2 tsp dried thyme
1/2 tsp oregano
1/2 tsp dried sage
2 cups cooked whole-grain rice (orzo or couscous are nice as well.)
1/2 cup dried apricots, chopped
1/4 cup raisins or dried cranberries
1/4 cup apple cider (or juice)

 Um what?? I couldn't help but to laugh out loud. Martha Stewart I am not. I will be sticking to things that are like 100 million times easier.

Anyway, moving right along, here is the semi finished product! My little steamed bits are already done! All I had to do was to dump them into the blender which is already a part of this product and viola! (See below :)

Seven full servings for almost nothing! I made this plus one ice cube tray (which holds 8 servings) for around $2.50. I figure I saved around $13.00 or so. 

Oh yeah, I got carried away and also did apples. Also ridiculously easy. I only had 3 apples on hand so this was all that got made :(.  I also did a jumbo bag of baby carrots and will be going back to the store soon to stock up on more! I can't wait to see how great the baby food budget will be once we are able to buy really good seasonal foods!

The finished product! I figure that I don't really need any fancy freezer storage system. 

This is what Griffin's meal looks like. Yummy right! :) Just a quick minute in the microwave (don't worry, I triple check to make sure its not hot) and it looks exactly like the store bought.

See I'm a happy boy! Thanks Momma!