Homemade baby food...

I do have to say that I thought I would never do this.  Making your baby food at home when they are first being introduced to it, that is just not me.  It is so much easier to go to the store and pick up the pre-made packets from Gerber or Breechnut.  

Having said that, I recently read a friends Facebook post about how easy it is, and how much money they would be saving, so I thought that I would give it a try.  I didn't go all out.  I picked six different foods to make, avocado, cucumber, banana, apples, carrots, and yams.  As we speak I have done the cucumbers, avocado, apples, carrots and bananas, and the yams are cooking.  So I can't wait to get the yams off the stove.  

Update:  The yams are done and I have a two more whole ice cube trays of Yams.  Adding only to the monthly count.

Here are the carrots, apples, avocados, cucumbers, and bananas.  I bought these ice cube trays new so that I would use them just for that.  They were way cheap too, $1.17 for three of them! 

 

In less than two hours, I steamed carrots, and pureed them, cooked apples and pureed them, sliced bananas and pureed them, (I added a little formula to these to help with that process for consistency, you could also use milk), chopped the cucumbers and sliced the avocado and the yams are on the stove cooking.  Once those are done it is basically pureeing those and sticking them in the ice cube trays.  Once that is done I will freeze them for a few hours, then pop them out of the trays and place them in labeled bags for the future.  The cucumbers will just be finely chopped and frozen so that i can thaw those and mix with yogurt for breakfast. 

In shopping today I bought:

Cucumbers:  $1.00

Yams:  $2.29

Apples:  $2.89

Carrots:  $1.98

Bananas:  $1.38

Ice Cube Trays:  $2.34

Freezer bags:  $1.32

Total Spent:  $13.20

And this will last me just about a month than a MONTH!!!! WOW!  Saying that just makes it so Sweet!  (As I have not yet seem how many cubes I will use for one sitting, this is counting three per sitting).  Considering I was spending at least $35 a month on baby food, I think I can handle less than half of that for the month.  I am not saying that I won't buy pre-made baby food, becasue there are some foods that I just wouldn't think about doing.

I want to thank Mary for doing this... for as I have only done it today, I am seeing the blessings of being a more resourceful mom.  Anything I can do to help out in little ways, helps up stay on top of things better, and isn't a penny in my pocket better than in theirs?! :)  

On a personal note for moms out there that have little ones yet to be in this stage.  I would recomend that you buy the stage one foods and let their system try it out and see what foods they can handle, as some babies have major allergys.  This way, yes it may be more money, but you are not waisting money on making a bigger amount that you won't end up using.  Once you know what they can have, I would change to this.  This is my second child, and I did all pre-made bought from the store food for my first, and we started doing that with our second.  I have realized that this is just another step in helping out where I can, and how much healthier I know my baby is going to be.  I know what is going into her tummy for I am the one picking out the food, not some company.  With that said, I have NO problem with baby food companies.  

Such an easy task and so worth the time and money saved!