I am really into finding out what foods are cheap and easy to make and freeze. Madison is almost 7 months and we just started her on pureed foods about 20 days ago (delayed due to constipation) and I have already prepared many foods for the next few weeks in advance. She LOVES to eat!
I am giving one new food every 4 days and it is crazy how giddy I get over trying a new food.
We started her on organic brown rice cereal (definitely recommend over white rice cereal-SOOO much healthier and not expensive).
Ok soap box for a minute. . .I had been looking for an organic brown rice cereal for a while and every box I looked at had at least like 10 ingredients. Albeit some of those were probiotics and vitamins but some were not, like oils and such. I was shocked! I had just about decided to try just blending up brown rice myself when I found the Earth's Best whole grain rice cereal with only 3 Ingredients: Organic whole grain brown rice, Vitamin E, and Iron. But seriously why all the additives in an "organic" whole grain rice cereal. . .
So then we moved on to the orange veggies as recommend
ed by her pediatrician. Sweet potatoes were first, then carrots. She LOVED both. I boiled them in some water and used that water as the additive before freezing. Although if you wanted to not add the water and just puree it, then freeze it you could always add water, breastmilk, or formula after you thaw (sometimes the foods are watery after thawing anyways). I usually thicken my foods a little rice cereal or oatmeal and it makes the meal bigger and more substantial for Madi.
So I was going to do squash as the last orange veggie but I didn't have one and couldn't get to the store the day for adding a new food. (Remember I am too impatient from my giddiness to try new foods to wait one more day!). We are flying to Austin TX in 2 weeks and I have been concerned over being allowed to take my homemade food on the plane and read that a banana is allowed and you can mash it with a fork. So I tried that. . .it didn't go so well and she spit most of it out. I think it was because there were still chunks and she didn't like the change in texture. The next day I pureed them and she ate them well with some oatmeal (oh I added in whole grain Earths Best oatmeal cereal too).
So today I get to add another food. I can decide what to try. I now have already made and in the freezer butternut squash and apples. I have pears that i still need to make. I also read that avacados are a great first food but brown easily. They don't need to be cooked either (another thing to try before my trip to Austin) so I just cut them into slices and will thaw and mash them when I want her to eat them. SOOO EASY!
Some of the foods in my freezer, I use both ice cube trays and these little individual trays I got at Baby's R Us. The containers are microwaveable and BPA free-really great! Oh make sure to date your food and try to use it before a month is over.
I am pretty sure making my own baby food is becoming an obsession. Can't wait to start mixing things to create yummy gourmet meals for my daughter (which I don't even do for myself).
Cost:
So much cheaper than buying baby food in cans/tubs (especially the organic food).
I bought 2 sweet potatoes (organic) for $2.99 peeled, cut and boiled them and they made about 7-10 meals for Madi (the organic food 7 jars is about $5-7
1 bag organic carrots $1.29 and again I made about 7 meals
1 small butternut squash ($2.50) one ice cube tray full (about 8 meals-2 cubes per meal)
5 medium organic apples ($4.00) one ice cube tray full (8 meals, or great for adding with other things)
I haven't determined if the apples will be worth it or if I should just buy organic applesauce. I need to price it out. I ended up going to the small expensive health food store in town b/c our regular store did not have organic apples. Whole foods or Stop and Shop might be cheaper and have larger apples to make more. . .or applesauce might be the way I go.
Organic or not?
So as much as I don't stick to this myself I am with my newborn baby. I go by the Dirty Dozen (I try to buy organic everything else unless it is on the Least contaminated list)
The 12 Foods with most pesticides
- Peaches/nectarines
- Apples
- Sweet Bell Peppers
- Celery
- Strawberries
- Cherries
- Blueberries
- Pears
- Grapes
- Spinach/Kale
- Lettuce
- Potatoes (ironically sweet potatoes are not included in this list)
The Foods with least amount pesticides
- Onions
- Avacado
- Sweet Corn
- Pineapples
- Mango
- Sweet Peas (in the pod or frozen)
- Kiwi
- Watermelon
- Bananas
- Cabbage
- Broccoli
- Papaya
- Eggplant
- Tomato
- Sweet Potatoes
Anyways my favorite 2 websites I have found with easy recipes are:
If you have any questions about recipes or feeding please ask!
