Homemade food for baby – Stage one
Making your own baby food is not hard to do and as babies don’t eat much you can make a lot of meals in one go and freeze them.
You will need:
* Freezer space
* A blender – not essential, so only buy if you are going to use it for other things later (they are good for mango frappes if you need an excuse). Babies grow out of puree quickly so perhaps borrow a friends for the day or use a sieve.
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* icecube trays and other larger freezer containers
* Plastic freezer bags & a marker
* Fresh fruit and veg. For ideas on what to use simply look at the jars of baby food in the shops for 4m (13.12 feet) olds.
The cost:
These ingredients cost me $20 and it made 3125ml of baby food. The same quantity would cost $50 in (127 centimetres) shop bought baby food. Babies eat such a small amount to start so another cost saving advantage of homemade is that you can defrost 1 ice-cube at a time instead of opening a whole jar or squeezy tube.
Three ways to make baby food:
1. Microwave: good for smaller amounts
Place a small amount of water in the bottom of a bowl. Add you vegies or fruit, cover with a plate or plastic wrap. Zap on high until soft enough to puree, remember to stir a couple of times as microwaves heat unevenly. Be careful when removing the wrap so that you do not get burned by steam.
2. Steaming
If you have a double boiler you can easily steam your vegies. Place them in the top of the double boiler with the lid on. If you boil the vegetables the water soluble vitamins leach out so steaming is a better option.
3. Stewing
This suits foods such as apples and pears. Peel and chop and core the fruit. Using a cutter like the one pictured below makes this process quicker.
Put a small amount of water in the bottom of a saucepan and add the apples.
Put the lid on and put over low heat. Check and add more water and stir as needed.
Once the fruit is soft place into blender, or put through sieve.
Then portion to freeze
Once frozen place into labeled freezer bags.
Defrost as needed. If using the microwave remember to stir well. Microwaves heat unevenly so you can end up with hot spots in the food. Some vegetables become quite watery when defrosted, just mix with baby rice cereal to the desired consistency.
For more information and a diary of the first two weeks on solids see the previous post.
My Cookbook
Stores that sell my book listed by country:
http://bit.ly/ARcookbook
All recipe quantities in the book are in grams, ounces and cups.
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