One of the big ways we’ve saved money as parents is to cloth diaper. Another is that we make our own baby food. Rarely do I buy jars or pouches of baby food. Typically I reserve those for convenience, particularly when we are traveling. We make our own baby food because it saves us money, but we also love that we can control what goes into our babies’ food. We’re able to make organic baby food with nothing artificial in it and I love that.
Making your own baby food is easy. Here’s my simple recipe for carrot puree:
Step One: Peel and chop some carrots.
Step Two: Steam the carrots. I use my rice & veggie steamer to do this, but if you don’t have one you can steam them on the stove top.
Step Three: Puree the carrots in the blender (or food processor). Or just mash them up.
Step Four: Divide into ice cube trays.
Step Five: Freeze trays overnight. Then pop cubes out of the trays and into a plastic bag. Write the date on the bag and put the cubes back in the freezer.
The night before you need the puree just pull a cube (or two) out of the freezer and put in a container in the fridge to defrost over night. You can follow this same basic recipe with other veggies. My sons have particularly loved sweet potatoes and broccoli. I can’t believe it, but our little guy is getting better and better at eating and we’re moving out of this stage soon. He’s eating more and more finger foods and bigger chunks of table food, so this will probably be one of the last batches of purees that I’ll ever make.
Cat is a teacher turned stay-at-home mom of two boys. She shares crafts, DIY projects, kids’ activities, and a little bit about life in Ohio. Learn more about her and the blog on the About page.
Leslie
Tuesday 10th of June 2014
This is a great tutorial!! I had good intentions to make Joy's baby food. Oh Well...just trying to keep my head above water. But...I really need to do better. BTW...LOVE your pig cutting board. Is it bad that that's the first thing I noticed. Love it!
Cat
Tuesday 10th of June 2014
Don't feel bad for not making her food- none of us moms can do it all. I might be making my own baby food, but you can't see the piles of laundry I'm way behind on. Always. There are tons of things you are way better at as a mom than I am! And thanks for the compliment on the cutting board... I love it too! It was a wedding present. My dad actually talked about how much he loved it on his last visit that I bought him one. It's a popular pig.
Stasia
Thursday 5th of June 2014
We are like you and almost never buy baby food, but also never made baby food! We did baby led weaning and loved it. I think either making your own baby food or BLW are both great methods to save your family money… you just have to pick the right one for your family! :) Thank you for sharing!
Cat
Friday 6th of June 2014
I've heard lots of great things about baby led weaning. We chose to go the more traditional puree route because my first one had some major gagging and choking issues and we were more comfortable with purees.
Ai
Wednesday 4th of June 2014
I didn't start making my own veggie purees until my kids were too old for baby food and suddenly decided they didn't want veggies anymore. I had to mix the purees in their food to make sure they were getting veggies in their diet. Thankfully, they're good with eating non-pureed veggies now ... well, most of the time. :-)
Cat
Wednesday 4th of June 2014
I'm not actually all that fond of veggies either so I add pureed veggies to a lot of my soups and my marinara sauce. I love the little extra boost of veggies!
Chelsea
Wednesday 4th of June 2014
I've been making some baby food too. It's really not that time consuming or hard, and it does save some money! The easiest is probably carrots or sweet potatoes, but I'll have to try the broccoli too.
Cat
Wednesday 4th of June 2014
Sweet potatoes really are the easiest, and my boys loved them.