I am 1.5 months into the baby food making journey and so far I have really enjoyed it. I love the fact that I know exactly what she is getting, which is organic fruits and veggies mixed with water. No additives, preservatives, etc. Also, it saves so much money! It is a little bit time consuming but if you set aside an hour a weekend, you can knock out a few batches that will last you weeks. I found a few blog posts very helpful when I was first starting out so I thought someone else may find my tips helpful.
So far I have made:
sweet potatoes
butternut squash
broccoli
green beans
pears
apples
avocado
peas
carrots
peaches
blueberries
pineapple
prunes
mango
To prepare the fruits and vegetables I clean, peel, then chop them into cubes if needed (butternut squash, carrots, apples, sweet potatoes, etc.). Then I throw them in this steamer over a pot of boiling water until they can be pierced easily with a fork. Then into the Baby Bullet they go. For the soft fruits and veggies like avocado and peaches, I just put them directly into the Baby Bullet without steaming them. Honestly, if you don't have a Baby Bullet already, you don't need to go out and buy one. Any high powered blender would work just fine but we were gifted one and have used the heck out of it. Plus I really like the containers and gadgets that came with it.
Once the fruit/vegetable is in the Baby Bullet, add some water. Always start with a little because you can add more if needed but you can't take any out if you make it too thin. For the vegetables that I steam, I add the water from the boiling pot. I blend and keep adding water until at desired consistency. Then the purees go into these baby food storage trays and into the freezer. Once frozen, I pop them out of the trays and put them in labeled ziplock bags. They will stay good in the freezer for 6 months. Every night I decide what I want her to eat the next day and I take cubes out of the freezer and put them into individual containers and into the refrigerator to thaw for the next day. The food stays good in the fridge for 3 days. So easy!
We started out with sweet potatoes and every three days we added a new fruit or vegetable to make sure she wasn't allergic. We also started with just one "meal" a day which consisted of two cubes of a vegetable at dinner time. Then we added two cubes for lunch and then two cubes for breakfast. Now she gets three "meals" a day, each consisting of about six cubes, usually three different fruits or veggies at each meal.
A typical day of purees for Vivi looks something like this:
Breakfast: prunes, pears, mango
Lunch: broccoli, butternut squash, apples
Dinner: peas, carrots, sweet potatoe
Veteran mamas, what tips would you add?! What other fruits or veggies should I introduce?
