Making your own baby food

Have you ever read the ingredients that make up a jar of baby food? It's quite disgusting and because of this fact I decided with Eli that I would try to make my own (as much as possible.) When we would travel or were going out to eat, I would just bring a jar of pre-made, but I would only buy organic. You have to really read the label because even some of the organic have some strange ingredients, so I would only buy Earth's Best. If you read the label for their food it has very few ingredients and are all organic. It's of course a little more pricy (okay...maybe a lot more), but to me I feel better knowing exactly what I'm putting in my baby's mouth.

Making your own baby food is EASY! Yes, it takes a little more time, but if you do it all on one day, such as the weekend, you are set for the week! With Eli I purchased the Beaba food maker, which I LOVE, but you can easily use a food processor. I saved my birthday money to buy mine. (funny how things change once you have a child!)

Miles has just started eating solids and I thought I'd show you how I made some fresh peach puree. It took maybe 15 minutes total and we are set for the week. I always look for fruit and veggies that are on sale and stock up. When they get older, around 9 months, you can add meat as well. You can do a mixture of fruit/veggies or just keep it single.

First I started with some peaches:

Next I peeled them and diced them:

The next step is to steam the fruit. The beaba cooker does this for me, but if you were using a food processor then you would have to do this step yourself on the stove.

While I steam...we play!

After steaming, I then puree the fruit to make it to my desired thickness. I make it really thin at first and then thicker as they get older.

I also have the Beaba storing trays which I love. I just pour the puree into the cubes and then pop one out at a time when I want it. Ice cube trays work as well and also canning containers (just make sure they are BPA free)

The finished product looks like this:

There's also a great website with recipes:
http://wholesomebabyfood.momtastic.com/

Let me know how it goes if you try it! I forgot to mention how much money it saves as well! Always a bonus!