Making baby food

This is what I've learned so far about making your own baby food, although I'm still learning.  I make most of Eleanor's, except I buy the stuff at the store whenever we're traveling.  I decided to make hers because it's cheaper, it produces less waste, and, most importantly, I know exactly what she's eating.

Here's what I do:

Step 1:  Buy the food

I almost didn't include this step, but I realized I should because it's important.  I usually buy fresh fruits and vegetables, but I also buy frozen food a lot. These foods are supposedly frozen at their peak, so they are still very nutritious.  Just be careful to check the labels and make sure they don't have other extra ingredients.  I especially like buying frozen peaches because they're already peeled and sliced.  :)  Besides, peaches are totally out of season right now.

Step 2:  Cook the food

Bake:  sweet potatoes and butternut squash
Boil:  chicken (the only meat I've attempted so far)

Steam:  zucchini (leave the skin on), broccoli florets, yellow squash, carrots*, peeled peach slices, blueberries, peeled pear slices, strawberries, peeled apple slices (although now I just buy unsweetened applesauce because it's so much easier), peas, green beans - this is just what I've tried so far.  I steam the food rather than boiling it because boiling causes food to lose more nutrients.

*AAP recommends not making your own carrots because of the nitrates in them, but I do it.  I don't use the water from the carrots for the next step though.

Step 3:  Puree the food

I went out and bought a food mill at Bed Bath & Beyond because I thought it would really help with this step.  It's perfect for sweet potatoes and butternut squash, but that's it.  I use the blender for everything else.  I usually have to add water, so I use the water leftover in the pan after steaming.  (With carrots, I just use water from our filter.) 

Step 4:  Freeze the food

You can just freeze the food in regular ice trays.  I have fancy trays that a friend loaned me though, and they have lids.  I believe this is squash in the trays:

Once your cubes of food have frozen, you can dump them out into ziplock bags.  (Anybody have a more eco-friendly idea for this?  I don't have space for lots of containers.)  I label each bag with the name of the food and the date I made it.  I think you're supposed to throw food out after 1 month, but it doesn't usually last that long for us.  Here is my freezer door, full of baby food:

Step 5:  Feed the baby!

Put a few cubes in a bowl (well, it used to be just one but I have a hungry baby these days!) and heat them in the microwave.  This works well for us, because there are few vegetables that Eleanor will eat alone but she'll eat just about anything if it's mixed with sweet potatoes.  Sometimes I mix in cereal if the food seems too watery. I'm also offering her foods that she can handle on her own sometimes (like chunks of bananas or lima beans cut in half), but I feel like I can offer her more variety this way.