Friday, February 6, 2009

Babyfood, homemade style

So, I've been thinking about this for a long time (yes, even before Lily was born). I have always had the desire to make Lily's food myself, I guess I just didn't really known how or where to start so, shamefully, I just let it slide. 

When I first started my online researching of the whole process I stumbled upon this:

...it steams and purees all at once!  But of course at the time it was only sold in Europe. However, it has just recently become available at Williams-Sonoma.  Seeing this has reminded me how much I actually do want to make Lily's food.  But, yet again, I am running into the issue of not really knowing what to do.  Now remember that I don't actually have my own kitchen at this point (our basement kitchen consists of a sink, dishwasher, and fridge/freezer--no stove/oven) and all of our kitchen appliances are out in the garage in boxes.

Do any of you make your kid's food?  If so, how do you do it?  Do you use any special gadget? Or do you just use regular kitchen machinery?  Anyone have any good recipes?  Also, do you know how to make it a little chunky-er as kids get older?

9 comments:

Mommydew said...

That so awesome that you want to make Lily's food. I made Kieralee's food! I used our regular pots to steam the food and then I used a blender to puree it (a vitamix). As she got older I would mix up the puree and then added food at the end on a low setting to get it to just chunk it. Also, you can google it and get a lot of great ideas. I did learn that there are certain food that you shouldn't use the steam water to puree it. Carrots for example because of the nitrates. Then I would just use ice-trays to freeze it. It was so much fun and I loved the feeling of knowing that I was making wholesome food for my little one. Good luck!
Oh, also here is a book that I've thought about buying; maybe you might find it useful (you can probably find it cheaper on amazon or somewhere like that) http://www.onestepahead.com/catalog/product.jsp?productId=335&cmSource=Search

Sarah said...

Hey, I also have made Elizabeth's food. It's fun and super easy. I would make large batches in our vita mix. I also freeze them in ice cube trays which makes serving very convenient. I make my own rice cereal which I use to thicken some purees, especially fruits which are naturally thinner. I've made lots of single foods, but once you know about any allergy issues it's fun to make combos...like apple, pear, raisin, cinnamon...sweet potato, carrot, broccoli...oat and wheat germ fruit puree...etc. Anyway, I have tons of recipes if you want some my email address is neilson.sarah@gmail.com.

Sarah said...

Oh, that link is for the First Meals book...it's awesome. Worth the $20 I think, although it's cheaper here: http://search.half.ebay.com/first-meals_W0QQmZbooks Which is an awesome website for books if you aren't already aware of it...I love it!

Amanda said...

You should make sure Lily will actually eat the baby food before you spend a lot of money on that machine. It looks really great and I would have loved something like that - if Emily ever ate baby food. She just sort of rejected every baby food we gave her and preferred what we were eating (mashed potatoes, apple sauce, yogurt, etc.). I'm not sure how healthy that was, but we could not get her to eat foods meant for babies for the life of us!

Brittany said...

I made most of Jack's baby food, some of Brock's baby food, and so far, none of June's. I guess that's just how it goes with more kids! I just used regular pots to steam and a blender to puree/mix. Jack really liked everything, and June is really struggling to eat most things, so maybe there is something to making your own. Fresh just tastes better, I guess! I'm sure it will go well if you start!

Jami said...

Yes! But...I have another book to recommend - Super Baby Food by Ruth Yaron. I use it all the time! A couple of things I do is add brown rice as cereal (for the whole grain instead of store-bought cereal that's single grain) to some apples and bananas or whatever, and I add some tofu to the sweet potatoes for some extra protein. There are tons of ideas in the book and I'll tell you some more if you want but I'm already getting long-winded. One of my favorite sections of the book is like an encyclopedia for different foods. Like if you look up sweet potatoes it tells you how old they should be to have it, nutritional values, when it's in season, etc. I use a magic bullet and it's great, but you could totally use a blender. I have some silicone ice cube trays that are super easy for popping them out and for cleaning. Mostly I don't steam anything unless the book says it should be b/c you lose vitamins by cooking it. Good luck!

Lauren said...

I've done both for Ethan- sometimes made him some, sometimes bought. A good half-way in between is to buy canned vegetables, (make sure it's NO SALT added), and blend them up just like that. Freeze them in ice cube trays, then thaw them as needed. I use my immersion blender, or use a regular blender to blend. You can't get it quite as fine with a regular blender, so that works better for older babies.

Rookie-cookie has some good advice, as well as some links to LOTS of recipes here:
http://www.rookie-cookie.com/2008/12/into-mouth-of-babes.html

Parkinson Family said...

i never made my own, but i would put our meals in the Cuisinart processor that we have and feed them that, but you got some good advice, so yay!

Susan said...

Everyone's already said most of what I would say. I used a lot of frozen veggies to make Grace's food since, unless the veggie is in season and you know your market gets is really fresh, frozen has more nutrients in it. I know it will be awhile, but a good book for toddlers is Toddler Menus (http://www.amazon.com/Toddler-Menus-Mix-Match-Healthy/dp/1598695630/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1234296578&sr=8-1). It helps us when we get in a food rut and has some yummy smoothie combos like carrot/apple/orange.