By When I was pregnant with my first, I knew I wanted to make my own baby food when the time came. Two main reasons were because it is so much cheaper than store bought, and you know exactly what you’re feeding you’re baby.
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Despite what many people think, making your own baby food is very easy. The good thing is you can use what you most likely already have in your kitchen. You honestly don’t need to buy any of the fancy baby food making gadgets that are out there. As long as you cook it and then have some way to puree it, you’re good!
How to Make Baby Puree
After you decide what you want to make for purees, you need to cook it. You can either steam, boil, or pressure cook. I personally love to use my Instant Pot for this. You’ll want to cook the fruits or vegetables until they’re soft.
I wrote a separate post for using the Instant Pot for making baby food. You can read it here.
Once the food is cooked, you’ll need to puree it. All you need is a blender or food processor. Just throw in your food, add a little bit of water if needed, and puree! Blenders are pretty inexpensive and you’ll get more use out of them than baby food processors if you don’t already have one. Blend your puree until there are no large pieces that the baby can choke on and it’s not too thick. If you find it is a little thick, just add more water.
Next you can portion out your puree. You can get small containers or use silicone molds. I used these containers and they worked out really well for me. They held up great in the freezer and they’re easy to clean. When I didn’t need to use them for baby food anymore, I used them for my homemade yogurt! Or you can use silicone molds, freeze them, and then plop the frozen pieces in a freezer bag so you can label them. Both methods work really well.
Storing Baby Puree
Depending on how much you prepare will determine how you store it. I stored fresh puree in the fridge for up to 3 days. But typically I would make enough to last a couple weeks, so most of it went right in the freezer. Then I would take out what I needed the day before and let it thaw out in the fridge. When it was time to serve it, I would heat it up in the microwave for a few seconds at a time until it was at a good temp. ALWAYS test the temperature before feeding to your baby.
That’s a Wrap!
From the time I started prepping my baby food to the time I was putting it in the fridge, it took me about an hour. And that was for at least 2 weeks worth of food! Clean-up wasn’t bad either. I didn’t have to use a ton of kitchen gadgets, so there really wasn’t a ton of dishes. To me, making my own baby food brought me a lot of satisfaction and it was 100% worth it. I hope this has eased your mind and helped you out with where to start if this is the route you want to go!
Do you have any tried-and-true methods to homemade baby food? Let me know in the comments!
