Homemade baby food - Pears

[ScottyG]

This is so ridiculously easy that it seems silly to post a recipe, but I've known a lot of people who shy away from making their own baby food because it seems like a lot of work. So, here's how I do it:

ingredients: SOME PEARS, no pesticides please.

peel the pears. cut them in half and take out the seeds and the really rough woody part near the middle. put them in a microwave-safe bowl and nuke until tender... usually about 3-4 minutes for a cereal-bowl sized vessel.

toss the pears, along with any liquid that's formed in the bowl, into a blender. blend for longer than you think, until very smooth. pour blended pears through a wire mesh strainer, just to make sure there aren't any big pieces.

pour strained mixture into ice cube trays, and freeze. the next day, remove from ice cube trays and put in a big ziploc baggie for frozen storage. takes about 1 or 2 hours total for a whole lot of baby food.

 

[Nuggetsowner:)]

When my boys were young I made all of thier baby food. I never froze it, just took whatever we were having and ran it through a small food grinder that my mother had given me. It worked great and saved a ton of money!!

 

[ScottyG]

Very cool, Nuggetsowner. I plan on doing that too, once she's old enough for such things. Right now, she's really only eating one or two things at a time, and no salt or sugar yet... so that's a bit boring for ME to eat! But I can't wait until I can just mash up my dinner and share with her; she always wants to eat what I'm having, anyway.

We bought a little plastic food mill with a travel carrying case for this purpose... only 9 bucks or so, and it'll turn anything you put in it into baby food, and is small enough to stick in a bag or purse and bring with you places. We'll see if it was worth the money once she's on to bigger and better foods.

 

[Quail_Antwerp]

I think it is wonderful you are making her own baby food! We did buy baby food once upon a time, but I found that it was just easier to make it, and took up far less cupboard space!

 

[poppycat]

We made a lot of our baby food too, once upon a time. My DH is a big proponent of the papa bird method, chew it up for them a little. Pretty gross, I know, but it still works.

 

[TanksHill]

One of the first things my babys ate was avocados. I allways made my own sweet potatoes and butternut squash. So much in fact my son turned kinda orange. I did use the ice cube trays for freezing little portions then ziplocking them. I had a great book once, Super Baby Food or something like that. It was a great book. Good for you making the effort. gina

 

[2dream]

Scotty, when I cooked for us I did not use any seasoning. Once the vegies were done I took out enough for baby food and then seasoned and let ours cook a little longer while I blended, strained and put the baby food in the ice trays. It sure saved a lot of time trying to cook just for baby food. Some of the food was not really as seasoned as we liked it but after a time or two of doing that you have enough baby food stored that you can go back to normal cooking.

 

[FarmerChick]

Nicole maybe ate 2 jars of baby food in her life......it was formula to solid food. The Dr. said keep her on formula for 1 year...and I did and then after refusing baby food, LOL, she went straight to steak! That'a girl!

just what I did. I never had to make baby food and when I did kinda make "baby food" for her plate it was cut up spaghetti, cut up real small pieces of meat etc. etc.

So kinda missed that step..LOL

 

[Nuggetsowner:)]

2dream - that is kinda what I did - before I really added anything to the foods I would grind up the baby food and then add the butter, or salt and pepper or whatever to our food. We did introduce things slowly and started with things like carrots, squash, peas, and that kind of thing. It must have worked out ok cause I have three strong healthy boys now!!

 

[miss_thenorth]

I made all my own baby food. the Braun hand blender was my best friend. And ice cube trays.