Homemade Baby Food

Abigail has been eating pureed fruits and veggies for a couple of months now but I am just now getting around to writing about it.  I started out wanting to make our own food but I was afraid it would be too hard.  I talked to some friends and did some online research and found out that its not hard at all.  A little time consuming and messy but not difficult.  The first fruit we tried was banana...it was very easy.  Just peel and mash.  Unfortunately, Abigail did not like banana very much.  Next was apples and pears.   I peel all my fruit mainly because its hard to get the peel pureed smooth but also because I can't always buy organic.  Apples are one of the "dirty dozen" foods that are the most highly contaminated with pesticides so organic is best but peeling solves the problem too.  After trying a few fruits I moved on to trying sweet potatoes, carrots, peas and green beans.  Sweet potatoes and carrots are easy and very yummy.  Abigail loves them.  On the other hand, beans have been very hard for me.  I can not seem to get them pureed smooth.  It would't be such a big deal (it doesn't have to be totally smooth) but Abigail so far will not eat anything with pieces in it.  I finally gave up and got some store bought organic green beans.  I am glad I did because green beans are another one of her favorites.  I did not want to throw out all the peas I spent time cooking and pureeing so I mashed them through a strainer to get all the pieces out of them.  Here are some pictures of the process.  As you can see I started out using my grandmothers old food processor.  It is a beast and works well but I am very excited because my in laws gave me a new immersion blender for Christmas.  I am going to use it this weekend and will post some new pictures. 

Peel...

Steam. I use a basic streamer basket to do this.

Puree.  Most fruits are juicy enough to not need anything extra but some vegetables need a little liquid to thin them out a bit.  I add some of the water that I used to steam them in (you can use breast milk too but I don't have a lot of extra lying around).  

Let it cool...

Scoop it into ice cube trays to freeze into 1 oz servings.

Once frozen, I pop them out and store them in labeled freezer bags.  They are good for 3-4 months like this.

When its time to eat I pull a couple of cubes out and pop them in the microwave for a few seconds to thaw.  If I have time I will let them thaw in the refrigerator or out on the counter.  Then they are ready to serve.