Make your own baby food...it's easy!

It's incredibly easy to make baby food. No one should be afraid. It requires virtually no skill in the kitchen and takes no time at all. Best of all you can make and freeze big batches at a time. I'm going to lead you through step-by-step in a sort of Master Class in baby food. I kind of borrowed this teaching idea from blogger mommy Jemma.

Anyway, we're going to make some pears. Choose organic ones if you can for obvious reasons. If you find this daunting looking all over for expensive produce, at least buy your bananas organic. The toxins on those are some of the worst and the skins are very porous. Okay, enough preaching. Where were we? Oh yes, pears. I chose to make a batch of four. You can make as much as you think your baby will eat.



First you'll want to peel them.

Then you will steam them for about 15 minutes. If you don't have an electric steamer like mine you can just use a covered pan with about 2 inches of water. Keep the heat on low. It's a good idea to at least invest in a little steamer tray if you can. You can usually find these for just a few dollars at most discount stores carrying kitchen supplies.




After steaming, you simply cut them up any old way in chunky pieces, discarding the core and seed of course.



Put them in a food processor or blender with a little water to help smooth out the consistency. I used about 1/4 cup of water with my pears. Let the food processor run for about 3 minutes on medium speed. You should have a very smooth constancy if your baby is just starting solids. You can also use a fork but I really recommend the blender or food processor because it's less work!

You really don't need to strain it if you mixed it well. I never strain anything. Now get out your ice cube trays. Wash these well with hot soapy water . You can even sterilize them in boiling water if you feel they aren't clean enough. Be careful not to melt the plastic though! Okay, now spoon your mixture into the trays and freeze.



The next day you should have some nice cubes like this ready to be thawed and fed to baby. I store mine in Tupperware. If plan on storing alot of varieties and quantities you may want to start putting them in ziplock baggies and writing the date on them.



You can also do vegetables this same way. Be certain to slightly overcook them though. They can be hard on little stomachs otherwise. Along with water you can add a few drizzles of olive oil to smooth out and flavor your vegetables. Don't use salt though! Salt is very bad for babies.

Later when your baby eats more varieties you can also make concoctions of beans, rice & meat in your steamer. The possibilities are endless. Steal all your ideas from the labels of the baby food jars!

I should mention that you don't need to steam bananas but you do need to make sure they're ripe. I put a little warm water in the mixture for consistency when I blend them.

Also remember that you can mix formula or breast milk with the food if you like. I simply chose not to because I found it too time consuming.