As I previously mentioned, I have recently started feeding my daughter solid foods. As I did for her brother, I am making all of her food (save for her baby cereal) from scratch. While all of the peeling, chopping and pureeing takes time I am fully convinced that the results are worth it! Homemade baby food not only tastes better (have you ever tasted some of those jarred vegetables?!) and is generally more nutrient dense, but also introduces your baby to fruits and veggies as they were meant to taste--generally resulting in fewer rejected foods and less picky eaters.
To help other parents see how simple it can be, I am trying to gather all of my tips as I go along.
First and foremost, you need to gather your tools:
1. Basket steamer--one of those folding ones is great for fitting in different sized pots--for steaming fruit and vegetables
2. Food processor or blender--for pureeing large batches quickly (I think the food processor far surpasses the blender in ease of use and quality or purees)
3. Fine mesh strainer--for straining large batches of fruit/veggies that you have pureed in your Food processor or blender
4. Full-sized food mill--if you want to strain and puree simultaneously--takes a lot of elbow grease ;)
5. Travel-sized food mill for making single portions on the go
6. Potato masher--for later, when your baby is eating chunkier foods
7. I oz Ice Cube Trays and small freezable containers--for freezing portions of pureed food
8. Plastic Wrap for covering ice cube trays when you freeze cubes--to prevent other flavors from your freezer from infusing your cubes
8. Freezer friendly zip-top bags--for storing food cubes
9. Permanent marker--for labeling date and contents of bags in freezer (cubes of similar colors can look the same and different foods have different freezer shelf lives)
Comments