Making Baby Food- Part 2: What and How I Made Baby Food 

After our trip to the grocery store (see my previous post, Part 1: The Why and Preparation), I got started.    Honestly, it hasn’t been that bad. I never expected to be the mom that makes homemade baby food but, surprisingly, I actually enjoyed it. I went into it without recipes but more of a general idea of what I thought might go well together. Here’s what I made:

• Apple cinnamon sweet potatoes
• Corn and green peas
• Corn and bananas 
• Peas and lentils
• Carrots and lentils
• Green beans and lentils
• Spinach and lentils
• Bananas, blueberries, and strawberries
• Blueberries and strawberries 
• Green peas and wild rice. 
• Blueberries 
• Strawberries 
• Bananas 
• Pumpkin carrot
• Pumpkin bananas 

Here was my process:

1. Get food processor ready
2. Have hubby unpackage all of the new ice trays and start hot soapy water to wash trays before use
3. Cook steamer pack of corn as directed
4. In the meantime, start cooking lentils as directed   
5. Once corn is finished, start steamer pack of peas. 
6. Pour finished corn into the processor 
7. Wash a few trays and put on drying mats to dry while peas cook
8. Once peas are finished, add them to the processor and start mixing  
9. Add water (some people add formula or Breastmilk but I didn’t) to get to the consistency you want. You can always add more water when you are ready to feed your little one. 
10. Spoon or pour the processed food into the ice trays. They’re easier to get out once frozen if your food stays inside the tray rather than overlapping. 
11. Smooth the food out as much as possible   
12. Put on a level surface in the freezer. Top with Saran Wrap if you’re going to be stacking any in top of these so they don’t freeze together (like mine did the first round).  
13. Repeat this process with other combinations or single foods.     
14. Once the trays are frozen, put them into labeled freezer bags and store in the freezer. 

Note: Here are a few variations from the above process that included other preparation:

• Finish the lentils and use with combos, as you wish
• Cook the frozen spinach on the stove rather than the microwave 
• Cut the apples up and roast them in the oven with cinnamon 
• Peel and cook the sweet potatoes 
• Open the cans of pumpkin 
• I had to do two rounds of the freezing process because it required more than 18 trays. I put the mixtures into bowls and stored in the fridge until the first round was finished.   

This made 465 cubes of food, using the $49.99 of food I listed in my previous post, Part 1: The Why and Preparation. The girls usually eat 2 cubes for lunch and 3 for dinner. Soon they will be eating one with oatmeal or cereal for breakfast too, which is 6 each and 12 cubes used a day for both.  At that rate, what we made should last us about 38 days. My estimate is that we would go through 7-8 jars of store bought food a day, so that means I would spend between $266-$304 in 38 days if each jar costs $1.00. (Try not to be jealous of my killer math skills). 

I would say that’s a pretty good savings. Now we’ll see how Clara and Kate like them. So far, so good. 

Let me know if you’ve made baby food and what combos you’ve made.