Baby food made simple!

Since I am home all the time, I thought it would be fun to start making my own baby food!  So far I have made Dawson applesauce, pear sauce, peaches, butternut squash, peas, green beans, sweet potatoes, avocados, and cantaloupe (I think I got them all!  I guess you could count bananas too, but I just mashed those, so I don't think it counts!).  Below I explain  what I did to prepare each food.  It was super easy and just took a little bit of time :)

Note:  I pureed all the food with a food processor.  To thin the food, I just added water while pureeing until it reached my desired consistency for Dawson!  I then froze all my baby food in Tovolo ice cube trays (perfect one ounce portions).  Once frozen, I transferred them to a labeled ziplock bag and stuck them in the freezer!  I normally then pull out what Dawson will eat the next day and stick it in the fridge to thaw :)  P.S.  When writing up this blog post I realized that I say the word "dethaw" which is NOT a word!  Wow...embarassing!  How long have I been doing that?!?!  "Dethaw" totally doesn't make any sense!  I don't know where I picked that up...whoops! 

Applesauce and Pear Sauce (Just click and it will take you to the recipe!  There is also a link to a webpage with some great baby food making tips on this page.)

Peaches--  Aldi was having a sale on peaches the other day.  They were 25 cents a piece, so I stocked up :)  Peaches are really simple to make.  I brought them home and let them ripen some more.  Once they were really soft, I skinned and pitted the peaches.  Then I cut them into big hunks and threw them in a food processor with a little water. 

 Butternut Squash-- We have a lot of this in our garden, thanks to our neighbor, and Dawson loves squash, so I figured this would be fun to make!  To make, first you cut the squash in half and scoop out the seeds.

Then place the halves face down in a pan and cover with about an inch of water.

Bake at 400 degrees for 40 minutes-1 hour (or until the "shell/skin" puckers and the halves feel soft).
Scoop the squash "meat" out of the shell and place into a food processor.  Add water as necessary to achieve a smooth consistency.

Peas/Green beans--  I did these the exact same way, so I will just give you one set of directions.  I bought these frozen (figured it would be easier this way).  First you have to cook the peas/green beans in a pot in a little bit of water (just follow the directions on the package).

Once cooked, put the peas/beans in your food processor.  If there is water left in the pot that you cooked the veggie in, use that water to help puree the food until it is the consistency that you want.  Super. Simple!

Sweet Potatoes--  Wash and poke holes in the sweet potatoes with a fork.  Then wrap sweet potatoes in tin foil (do not peel).  Place in a 400 degree oven and bake for 45 min.- 1 hr. or until soft.  Remove skins by slitting the sweet potato lengthwise.  Then scoop out the "meat". Then puree with some water.  

Avocados--  Aldi was having a sale on avocados this last week for 29 cents a piece, so I stocked up on A LOT of them!! (Such an amazing deal!  I love Aldi, if you couldn't already tell that from my blog!)  They freeze really well when sliced into chunks, so I cut them into small portion sizes for Dawson and stuck them in the freezer!  Avocados are super easy to mash, so no need to puree them, just mash them up with a fork!  Lately I have been mixing avocado with my homemade applesauce and Dawson LOVES it!

Cantaloupe--  Aldi had these on sale for 99 cents, so I stocked up on these as well.  Cantaloupe also freeze best in chunks (or so I hear), so I cut them into pieces and froze them.  Cantaloupe is easily mashed, so I just thaw and mash it when needed :)