Weekend Rewind: Homemade Baby Food

This post was first written on March 30, 2010.  When my kids were younger, I made my own baby food for both of them.  It was very easy, much cheaper, and I knew exactly what went in it!

Here's the post:


After I got done with all of my shopping last week and was feeling so proud of myself for getting everything we would need in the near future (and doing so with two kids tagging along), I opened up the freezer to discover that my hungry little critter was almost out of homemade baby food.  *sigh*  I had also forgotten the main ingredient to the recipe my visiting sister in law had asked for, so back to the store I went.  I came back with enchilada sauce, and three very large sweet potatoes.  I also had a pack of carrots in the fridge.

I baked the sweet potatoes until they were very soft.  I boiled the carrots in a large pot on the stove.

When they are done, I puree them until they are smooth.  My daughter is getting a little older now so I tried to make them a little thicker and chunkier for her.  For smaller portions I use my Magic Bullet , but for large portions I use my blender.  Then I pour them into very small containers or ice cube trays.  Then I put them into the freezer.

Once they are frozen, I will remove them from the ice cube trays and place them into a zip top freezer bag.  Then when it is meal time I just have to take out a few cubes and thaw them in the microwave.

So there, now I have my orange vegetables made.  Who knows a good sale on green vegetables or fruit?

Oh, one more thing!  If the produce you want is not in season, frozen blagged vegetables work just as well.  I have made peas and green beans this way and they work just fine. =)

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My Freezer Meals

I took inventory of my freezer today to see what meals I still had in there and reorganize it.  Here is what it looks like now:

As you can see, I have most of that third shelf left to put food on.  The big brown box is full of frozen uncooked meat, mostly pork.  At the bottom in the bags are two whole chickens, 10lbs of boneless skinless chicken breasts, and some shrimp.  In the door, I also have some fish and sausage.  Anybody have a good pork recipe? 

I took all of the stuff out of the freezer, and threw it momentarily into an empty laundry basket.  I smashed my finger in the process =( so it kinda hurts to type.  I put it back into the freezer neatly, and wrote down everything I found in a notebook. 

I added this all up and found that I have 48 meals in my freezer ready to heat and enjoy.  I then took out my dry erase calender and filled in a meal for each night until payday. 

I will work out side dishes and extras later on, but I have the whole month's menu planned out with plenty meals to spare.  Now did I make all of these in one day?  Oh no!  But I've learned to use my time wisely in the kitchen.  When I find a good price on meat, I buy a lot of it.  I find a recipe, or a few, using the same type of meat, gather all my ingredients, and get to cooking (always when daddy is home of course--he's a lot of help in the kitchen too).  I will double, or quadruple perhaps, a recipe.  Hey, it doesn't take much longer kitchen time to do that.  Then I eat my meal, and bag up the rest in dinner sized portions.  Do you realize that if you tripled the recipe you cooked each night for one week, then you would have two weeks worth of meals in the freezer by the time the week was over, with no extra work on your part.  That saves lots of time, and it saves money too.

Oh, and I found one more thing in my freezer.  Green beans.  I thought I had used them all up.  So....I am making some more baby food. =)

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...and a bowl full of mush. AKA: Making some baby food.

After I got done with all of my shopping last week and was feeling so proud of myself for getting everything we would need in the near future (and doing so with two kids tagging along) I opened up the freezer to discover that my hungry little critter was almost out of homemade baby food.  *sigh*  I had also forgotten the main ingredient to the recipe my visiting sister in law had asked for, so back to the store I went.  I came back with enchilada sauce, and three very large sweet potatoes.  I also had a pack of carrots in the fridge.

I baked the sweet potatoes until they were very soft.  I boiled the carrots in a large pot on the stove.

When they are done, I puree them until they are smooth.  My daughter is getting a little older now so I tried to make them a little thicker and chunkier for her.  For smaller portions I use my Magic Bullet , but for large portions I use my blender.  Then I pour them into very small containers or ice cube trays.  Then I put them into the freezer.

Once they are frozen, I will remove them from the ice cube trays and place them into a zip top freezer bag.  Then when it is meal time I just have to take out a few cubes and thaw them in the microwave.

So there, now I have my orange vegetables made.  Who knows a good sale on green vegetables or fruit?

Oh, one more thing!  If the produce you want is not in season, frozen blagged vegetables work just as well.  I have made peas and green beans this way and they work just fine. =)

Read more...

Coming Soon!

I have a few pictures that I want to share with you of free samples that came in my mailbox in the past week.  I will get those up ASAP.

Also, one thing I do to save money is make my own baby food instead of buying it.  I have some pictures to show how I go about doing that.  Again, ASAP.  So stay tuned.

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