My son would, almost literally, eat anything! I got lucky with him, but my daughter is another story. Now that I am home with them both it seems easier for me to try to make purees for her, and I only wish I had tried it when I was working because I discovered it’s not really that difficult or time consuming!
There are two great resources I use. The first is Jessica Seinfeld’s new cookbook “Deceptively Delicious“. This is NOT a baby food cookbook, but it does have great tips for making and storing purees and includes the recipes that your WHOLE family will eat so you don’t feel like you are pureeing just for the baby. The second is a website with some great baby food recipes and tips, http://www.wholesomebabyfood.com/ .
There are some things I just can’t get pureed well enough to get my daughter to eat (yet)! Peas and carrots for some reason give me trouble. I’m not sure what I’m doing incorrectly. I have discovered though that I can puree almost any family meal once it’s cooked and give it to her. I think this is a great way to start introducing her to new tastes and textures. As long as you aren’t cooking with a lot of artificial sweeteners, added fats or oils you should be fine. I started broadening my baby’s palate with these new foods when she was about 7 months old.
Of course, the basic stuff will still be your primary diet. We do a lot of homemade pears, applesauce, all varieties of squash (her favorite) and some sweet and plain potatoes. I still buy carrots, peas and green beans from the store.
I store all of my pureed food in those great plastic containers that Gerber uses (you can get them from friends if you don’t buy baby food at the store) or in sandwich baggies. I then bag them in freezer storage bags and put them in the freezer. You can just keep reusing the same supplies over and over. I do this once a month or every three weeks after the kids go to bed. It takes me a couple of hours to cook and puree several pounds of food and portion it out.
Try just one fruit or vegetable if you are new to this or unsure cooking your own baby food will work for you. Add one each time until you are providing most of your baby’s food rather than buying it. I think you’ll see it is not as complicated as it may seem at first.
Good luck and let us know how it goes or if you are doing this already please share your tips.
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