DIY Baby Food Tips

So, I made a MESS of my kitchen last week trying to make baby food for the first time. I did a ton of research on Pinterest for recipes, tips and more. But, NONE of them really told you the stuff I learned that day. So, hopefully this one will even it all out.

There's plenty of ways to do this, so I'm sure as I keep making food for RJ I will have more tips. Such is life. But, here is the few things I learned and what I did.

First, I bought organic veggies from the store. I buy organic because I have a puker who tends to have food issues. And because I love Good Earth! But, even Wal Mart/Maceys (Target?) has an organic section if you don't want to have to shop at two different stores. RJ loves sweet potatoes, avocado and carrots. I would say this method didn't really break down his food to the 4 month old mush type food. So, I would say this is probably safer for 6 month olds, since it ends up a little thicker.

I bought the following items from Wal-Mart and Amazon.com to get started:

*Infantino Fresh Squeeze Pouches (these are AMAZING) -Wal Mart & Amazon have them at the same price. I love the quality of them, and the one I bought at Wal Mart came with the pump to add the food to the pouches. And on Amazon you can buy just the pouches (50 for $12.99). So, you HAVE to buy the pump/syringe thing to go with these, or you'll hate your life. My first kit I got came with like 25 pouches and the pump for $10. Buy the cute little spoon attachments too!

*Cube Freezer Trays obviously it doesn't need to be fancy like this - but they're cheap so why not? I did find that it is a ROYAL pain to get the food out of these after they're frozen. Kind of a pain, so I would go with pouches instead of these. Seriously. I swear the Pinterest articles LIE, this is not an easy method for my type. Ha. I froze them, then broke them out (swore a lot in the process) and then put them back in a tupperware and in the freezer. Then I just grab a cube when I'm ready to feed him and let it thaw. Kind of annoying. The pouches you can just throw in a cup of hot water to thaw. So, I'm not a HUGE fan of this method.

*A super awesome food processor  I won't link this one because I am sure there's better processors than what I have. I have the Ninja food processor and blender mix and it worked just fine!

So, that is all I purchased to get things started. Then I did this...

Avocados

I just mashed up the avocados and put about 1/2 cup water in the bowl and then stuck it in the freezer cubes and BAM, you're done. I'm sure there's other fancy ways of doing this.

Sweet Potatoes & Carrots 

I started off by peeling them, and throwing them in a pot of water to boil for a bit. I did the avocados while these boiled. Then I put them in the food processor with about 1 cup of water - ish. Then, I put them in the syringe/pump and BAM right into the pouches.

I found one bag of carrots filled about 10-12 of the pouches and 4 sweet potatoes filled like 15 pouches. RJ eats 1 pouch a day so really, it is a great deal!

I'm not a pro at ANYTHING. So, these are all rookie tips from ONE time of making food. So, take it for what it's worth. I went through tons of dishes, and found that my blender SUCKS for making baby food and to stick to my food processor. Ha. Maybe that is common knowledge, but I'm awesome like that.

I would LOVE to hear your tips if you've done this before. I also realized afterwards that it might taste yummy to add coconut oil to some of these? Who knows. Tell me what you do!

Ready, go!