Make Your Own Baby Food - Save Tons of $$!

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Awhile back I had posted on my Facebook wall about making homemade baby food. I actually had a lot of inquiries about this process.

First of all, I would just like to point out the financial benefits of making your own baby food. I bought organic carrots (full-size) for $.88 at Walmart. I have made it with the organic baby carrots ($1.94) but have since discovered they're not necessary. The full size are just as good, cook nicely, are just as organic, and cost less than half the price (no, I don't peel them, I just chop the ends off)! One bag of carrots made up a batch of 8 jars of baby food (this is based on the stage 2 size medium jars). If you buy jars of organic baby food, you'll pay approximately $.80 a jar (That's $6.40 for 8 jars of organic baby food) . Regular baby food can be bought for around $.56 a jar (That's still $4.48 for 8 jars of regular baby food!). In either case, when you do the math, by making organic, in this case carrot, baby food, you save $5.52!

Second, making baby food is simple, simple, SIMPLE. It's simply a process of first preparing the vegetable for cooking... removing peels (sweet potato), straining out thicker bits if preferred (post-pureed peas), cooking in a bit of water (I microwave but you could steam as well), and pureeing in your blender with a touch more water. It took me far longer to let the carrots cook on their own in the microwave than it did to prep them and puree them. EASY! Then, the last step is to store your baby food. I've heard of freezing it in ice cube trays, but I prefer to reuse baby food jars and freeze in the jar. (I have plenty of jars since I don't prepare ALL my baby food. You may find that some fruits are not cost effective...) Something you'll notice from the picture is my orange spoon... you might prepare yourself for some stained utensils when taking on the pureeing process. There's something about pureeing brightly colored foods that lets them stain things... I have a sacrificial spoon I use when doing this. Other than that, making your own organic or even regular baby food is a breeze and well worth the time!