When my son was a baby, I liked to prep meals for him as well.  I pretty much made all of his baby food, except when we were traveling.  He LOVED to eat and I made his food from the beginning.  I plan to do the same thing with our next child.  One of my shower gifts was a Baby Bullet and I definitely put it to work.  It is easier than you might think to prepare healthy meals for your baby and you don’t have to own a Baby Bullet to do it.

My husband and I like to eat organic as much as possible, so we wanted our son to eat organic as well.  As many of you know, organic baby food can be pretty pricey, but making your own food makes it very affordable.

We started with a brown rice cereal and then moved on to avocado, bananas, peas, pears, apples, squash, sweet potatoes, and zucchini.  All of these foods are great foods to start your baby’s eating journey.

As they grow older you can try asparagus, carrots, green beans, white potatoes, oatmeal, and peaches, as well as other veggies and meats.  You want to stay away from honey, peanut butter, citrus fruits, raw berries (strawberries, raspberries, and blackberries), egg whites, whole milk, and shellfish/crustaceans.

To make your foods you need either a good blender, food processor, or some sort of food grinder/masher.  For my son, we usually did a brown rice cereal mixed with a fruit and/or veggie.  To make brown rice cereal you will grind the rice up into a fine powder with your blender and then cook, similar to regular rice, with water on the stove (1/2 cup rice to 4 cups water).  You can add more or less water to change the consistency.

I liked to make big batches of the food to last for a few weeks.  Fresh food in the fridge will last for about 3 days, but food in the freezer will last about a month.  To store my food I used my Baby Bullet containers, but since I made such large batches I also use ice cube trays.  These are a great way to store exactly one serving of food.  Plus once your baby begins to eat more you can give them different foods at one meal, such as a fruit and a veggie cube.  I liked to make two fruits and two veggies, plus rice cereal at one time.  That way and I could mix up different flavors and my son didn’t have to eat the same food everyday.

Here are some recipes for beginning foods:

Bananas – 1 banana to 1/4 cup water (blend)

Sweet Potatoes – 1 peeled, steamed potato to 1 cup water (I used the water leftover after steaming since it has some of the nutrients from the veggies in it).

Zucchini – 1 steamed zucchini to 1/4 cup water

Pears – 1 steamed, peeled pear to 1/4 cup water

Peas – 1 steamed cup peas to 1/4 cup water

Squash – 1 steamed squash (remove tips) to 1/4 cup water

Apples – 1 steamed, peeled apple to 1/4 cup water

Avocado – 1 peeled and pitted avocado to 1/4 cup water

(Note: for all foods you can add more or less water to change the consistency)

With all of these foods you will add them to your blender and then blend until they are smooth.

Do you have any favorite baby food recipes?

❤ K