Baby Food Making 101

The only baby food I ever made for Jackson was mashing up a banana.  I assumed it would be a mindless task, especially since I'm no stranger in the kitchen.  I should have known better!  I attempted to make homemade applesauce by boiling apples in a pot with about an in inch of water.  Ten minutes later and the water had evaporated, natural sugars had crystalized, and I almost ruined the pot.  After a bit of web surfing, I found this website to be the most helpful resource.  I used a Target gift card we had generously been gifted to purchase a food processor and some really cheap 4 oz Gladware containers.  I spent most of the day in and out of the kitchen.  Here's what I made:

Homemade Applesauce

Slice and core a bag of apples.  (Clearly, I had not cored them yet.)

Place apples in a shallow baking dish with an inch of water.  Bake at 400 degree oven for 30 minutes.

Once tender, place the baked apples in a bowl of ice water. This allows the peel to be easily removed using a paring knife.  (An alternative to baking would be to core and peel the apples, then steam them.)

Place apples in food processor. Use the water from the pan to thin out the apple puree to your desired consistency.
 

Pour puree into small, freezer-safe containers.

Sweet Potato Puree

Place bag of washed sweet potatoes into a roasting pan.  Bake in a 450 degree oven for an hour.

Slice baked sweet potatoes.  Scoop out flesh and place sweet potato in food processor.

Use liquid (water, formula, breastmilk, or homemade vegetable stock) to thin out puree to desired consistency.

Spoon puree into freezer-safe containers, ice cube trays, or muffin tins.  Cover with plastic wrap or wax paper.

If using ice trays or muffin tins, freeze for a few hours, then empty puree into a freezer-safe bag.

Pureed Carrots

Peel carrots and cut ends off.  In all my reading, carrots are questionable because of the excessive level of nitrates.  You should not use carrots that have roots or and hairs sprouting as that indicates higher levels of nitrates.  It was also not recommended to use baby carrots as they are often washed in a chlorine solution prior to packaging. 

Steam carrots for 5-10 minutes.

Place in food processor and pour puree into ice cube trays, muffin tins, or freezer safe containers.


Pureed Peas

I just used a 1 lb bag of frozen peas,

steamed them for 5-10 minutes,

tossed them in a food processor with a fair amount of liquid, and froze them in ice trays.

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I included a similar version of this handy dandy chart in my previous post, but I wanted to include it here as well so I could easily search for it. 

Amount	Price of Produce	Total Oz of Baby Food	# of 4 oz Jars Produced	Price per jar
1 lb bag of carrots	$0.99	20 oz	5 jars	$0.20
1 bag of sweet potatoes	$1.69	24 oz	6 jars	$0.28
1 bag of small apples	$3.29	28 oz	7 jars	$0.47
1 bunch of 8 bananas	$2.68	32 oz	8 jars	$0.34
1 lb bag of frozen peas	$1.25	18 oz	4.5 jars	$0.28

Next items for the baby test kitchen are avocado and squash.