I made all of both my daughters’ baby food for stretches of about six months per child. It sucked at first, but I slowly got into a rhythm that allowed me to make it in large batches. Look, being a working mother is hard (being a mother is hard, period). And I can see why folks don’t make their own baby food if they think it’s going to take six to eight hours on a Sunday. It doesn’t. I promise.
When Jasmine was a baby, we lived in Freetown, Sierra Leone, and there was limited baby food available locally. Jasmine also had some severe intolerances that made me reluctant to try out baby foods imported from countries with less controls on food production than we have in the States. When Grace was ready for solids, we were in DC, and while there certainly were plenty of crunchy organic baby foods available, I was already meal prepping for the rest of the family, and it wasn’t a huge deal to add another hour of cooking in order to prep a week’s work of food for the baby.
Making your own baby food in two hours per week absolutely requires investment in terms of equipment and time. However, it is less expensive than buying baby food over the course of your child’s infancy. And if you’re a control-freak type-A crunchy mother like I am, it allows me to be 100% certain of the ingredients in any particular meal.
(Note: I’m talking about two hours of work, not two hours of in and out of the kitchen dicking around with Netflix and hollering at your older kids to stop coloring on the walls. Add more time as needed for all of that other shit.)
As always, there are no affiliate links in this post. Links are to products I liked and found useful.
Supplies you’ll need:
Food processor (you could do this with a magic bullet, but whhhhyyyy)
Ice cube trays (don’t bother with the special “baby” ones … just buy cheap plastic ice cube trays in bulk)
Steamer (I bought mine at Good Will for $5)
Pots for boiling
Cookie sheets or other pan for roasting (and parchment paper if you’re into that)
1. Decide what you’re going to cook.
Depending on where your baby is in her solids-eating adventure, you may need more or less of this. I let my guide be: two to three types of vegetables, one type of fruit, one type of protein, and two types of starches. A typical week early on in the introduction to solids might look like:
- Carrots
- Peas (from frozen, what kind of monster do you think I am?)
- Pears
- Apples
- Sweet potatoes
- Chicken thighs
- Oatmeal
- Rice
2. Prep everything.
Spend 30 minutes measuring out vegetables into plastic bowls, peeling and chopping sweet potatoes and pears, and defrosting your chicken. Doing so will make flying through the following steps much easier! All you’ll be doing once you’ve prepped is cooking, food processing, and spooning into ice cube trays.
3. Begin steaming protein and peas.
Start with your protein because this will take some time. Just dump your chicken thighs into the steamer and cook ‘em to death. Once the chicken is finished, take it out and steam your peas. (Or, if you got a two level steamer, steam the chicken on the bottom and the peas on top).
4. Roast vegetables.
Toss the sweet potatoes in a bit of olive oil, then spread on a cookie sheet. Do the same for your carrots. The carrots will cook more quickly, so don’t do them together. Roast the carrots for ~30 minutes at 375. Roast the sweet potatoes for 45.
5. Boil fruit.
Place your pears and apples in separate pots, then add just enough water to cover them. Boil until soft and squishy. Do NOT discard the water you’ve boiled them in. It’s full of nutrients and deliciousness, and you’ll use it to puree the fruits later on.
6. Cook starches.
Make oatmeal. Make rice. You want your rice nice and liquid, so add more water than you normally would for an adult. Cook the oatmeal until it’s done. Over cook the rice (and as with the fruit, keep the water!).
7. Run ‘em through the food processor.
This is the tedious part. Run each cooked food item through the food processor, pureeing to an appropriate density for your child’s development. Add water while pureeing as necessary. I actually added formula to my kids’ purees to make them a bit nutritionally and calorically dense — there just aren’t a ton of calories in 1 oz of cooked apples!
Freeze in ice trays then place in zip lock freezer bags.
Make sure you label each bag with the type of food and the date you made it. Store food for no longer than three months in your fridge.
Et voila!
Baby food resources
Superfood Baby – a great book that walks through current best practices for feeding schedules, nutrition, and food introduction, as well as recipes. I didn’t follow it 100%, but it’s a great resource for getting started.
Wholesome Babyhood – this site was invaluable as I tried to figure out the best whole food recipes for Jasmine. It has tons of recipes, as well as an extensive section on allergens.
Oh my! Impressive. I have always been a marginal cook and tended to shy away from the kitchen. This is awesome.
Debby, the awesome thing about baby food is that you don’t have to be a great cook!
I LOVE making our own baby food when my kids were a baby. I always prefer it than buying store-bought food.
One Awesome Momma
It was so so so nice to know what was going into their bodies that age, particularly as my oldest had severe intolerances. Now that they’re older, I’ll admit to being lazy and buying LOTS of store bought snacks. :)
You make it sound easy! You are right – once you get into the rhythm (like most things) it’s much better
Elizabeth recently posted: why i buy organic-sometimes
That’s a great way to put it. Just getting in the habit makes a huge difference for stuff like this.
Have you looked into baby-led weaning? That’s what we do, and it involves no prep at all!
We did consider it! In our case, our kids were super interested in solids super early (four months, in Jasmine’s case), and I was already supplementing with formula, as I couldn’t pump enough to keep up with their appetites! Baby-led weaning is a great philosophy though, and I definitely agree that it works for lots of families.
Oh my gosh … you do actually make it sound easy. Sometimes I wish I had made my babies foods, but I decided to focus on different things and fed them mostly organic baby food in jars.
I’m glad you did what worked for you! Raising kids is hard enough, and I definitely understand why folks don’t go the DIY route.
I have a magic bullet and have never used it!I need to try making some baby food!
THEFOREVERTEACHER
Let me know how it goes!
Wow! I never even thought to do this when my kids were little because it always sounded so hard. But you’ve made it actually look doable!
It 100% is doable, but … i totally get why people don’t go this route. Raising kids is hard! In our case, making baby food actually relieved stress because of my kids’ intolerances.
These are great tips for making your own baby food. I really like the idea of knowing exactly what is in the food, and the fact that it is minimally processed. My mom made all my baby food, back in 1988, but without the benefit of that handy steamer!
Honestly, I never would have done this myself if it hadn’t been for Jasmine’s food intolerances. The minimal processing was an added bonus! I can’t even imagine being your mom and doing this w/o a steamer. Yikes!
Wow! You make it sound so easy!
It was! It just took getting into a rhythm, as Elizabeth commented above.
Such a smart idea! I never understood the baby bullet myself. I actually might make some of these as snacks for my toddlers. Thanks!
Shann Eva recently posted: Smiling through the Fight, Dior’s Story
Yes! My toddlers still eat pureed pears and apples for snacks. It’s delicious, especially now that I can add spices and more flavors.
This is pretty cool, you impressed me😊
Stacy- Taylor411 recently posted: No Sleep in the Small Town
Thank you!
I absolutely love this post! I have one similar and I honestly think that it’s easier to make your own baby food! There are so many benefits and so many ways that it’s more flexible! Love this.
Sooooooo much more flexible! I also found it easier than trying to buy (and worrying about running out), especially as an expat.
This is fantastic! I had every intention of doing this for my Pea but just didn’t pull it off!
Thank you! I bet your Pea doesn’t care either way. ;)
This is awesome, thanks for sharing your process! I wish I had made more baby food for my little guys!
Erin @ Stay at Home Yogi recently posted: Christmas Cards to Candy Canes! | 16 Fun Holiday Traditions!
Nah, no reason for regrets. Your kids are great, right? ;)
This is seriously impressive! I need to try this for my next baby.
Definitely let me know how it goes! Making baby food can sound intimidating, but it’s really pretty simple.
Thanks for sharing! I always spent way too much time making food for my little one.
It can be reallllllyyyyy time consuming when you’re first getting started. I wrote this in hopes that it’ll help some folks do it faster!
Really nice way of explaining it. Seems super easy the way you do it. I’m going to share this post with a few of my expectant mom friends.
Thank you, Candace!
Wow, I will have to remember these tips for when we have our 2nd child! You make it looks super easy and I love that this can be done in less than 2 hours each week. Thanks for sharing.
Definitely less than two hours per week. Let me know how it goes for you–it’s great to hear how other moms do this.
Before I had my little man, I loved the idea of making my own baby food. But then I just felt way too overwhelmed. I think it’s great that you put it out there in a manageable way for moms. We pretty much bypassed purees and went straight to finger food, so it worked out alright but this is a great post.
You know what? You did what works for you and your kid and that’s what’s important. I think you did the right thing by reducing how bloody overwhelming a new baby can be.
Wow! Your steamer is so cool! My tot is beyond needed baby food but I really wish I would have seen this post about 18 months ago. I was definitely struggling during that phase. Best of luck to you and your family!
Thank you!
You make it sound pretty simple. it even looks good!
Thank you!