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Friday, April 8, 2011

Frugal Friday

Today I wanted to talk about making your own baby food. This is great for several reasons. First it saves sooooo much money, 2nd it is so much better by 1000% for your baby. I made up Jeremiah's first foods this last weekend. Squash, sweet potatoes, bananas ( I do daily), pears, apples. All you need to purchase is 1 sweet potato, 1 squash ( I bought butternut), 2 pears, 2 apples and 2 bananas will last a week or so. Besides that you need a small food processor ( the small ones that are around $4.99, I bought mine free with register rewards from Walgreen's). And the last thing you need is either small baggies or some small little containers that hold approx 2 tablespoons. Apples or Pears Peel and core cut into pieces Boil in water just covering fruit, Boil just about 5 minutes until tender. Keep liquid in pot until you are done blending. Add your fruit to the processor and puree until all pieces are pureed. If it seems a little too thick add some of your reserved fruit water until right consistency for baby. Add 2 tblspoons to a baggie or small container and freeze until ready to eat. Sweet potato Peel potato, chop into pieces, boil in water just covering potatoes. When fork slides off easily ( Just like making mashed potatoes) add to processor. Keep potato water just like with the fruit, You will need it with the potatoes to thin them out a bit. Puree until all pieces are pureed adding potato water as needed. Package same as fruit. Squash Cut squash in half lengthwise. Pour 2 cups water into baking dish. Scoop out seeds and place squash halves cut side down in water. Place baking dish uncovered in oven at 350 until the skins is bubbly and wrinkly. Remove from oven and let cool enough to handle. When cooled scoop out meat and place in processor. Again reserve squash liquid from baking dishes to use to thin out squash. Same mixing as above and same packaging as above. Bananas Cut bananas up, Place in processor, puree and add water as needed to get right consistency. Use immediately as these will brown fast. I made all this in about 2 hours while holding the baby and taking care of the little ones. Quite easy. Now I have premade baby food, I just take out a baggie in the morning set in fridge to thaw and Waalaa. The best part about this baby food is it is nothing but the fruit or veggie and water. No complaints from Jeremiah or any of my other children. * Best containers to use are used baby food jars. So if you know a friend who feeds their baby only store bought and they have used clean baby food jars ask if you could have a few and use these to store homemade baby food in. * I would purchase a food processor to be used solely for baby food. So that it does not get contaminated with any foods you don't want baby to have and be vigilant about cleaning it really well. Don't want baby to get any bad bugs. Have a great weekend. Michelle *** I am so sorry I still don't have my camera fixed yet. My son is working on fixing it. As soon as it is fixed I am just going to do a post of pics lol.

2 comments:

Mrs. S said...

Thanks for this post!

I don't know if this works (my little guy isn't eating solids yet), but I read that you could spoon the baby food you make into ice cube trays. Then, once it's frozen, you turn out the cubes into freezer bags. After that, just defrost a couple for mealtimes.

frugalredneck said...

I did read that and have used that method before when my older kids were small, But I did not have any ice cube trays on hand. I have all my ice cube trays used up with frozen eggs. I need to buy some more ice cube trays because I rememeber that being so very easy. Michelle