Tons of Baby Food

Baby food can get expensive. PB is 8 months old and she is starting to need more food too. I made food for her in the fall that was all fruit that she has eaten for breakfast since she turned 6 months old that we recently ran out of. I decided to stop buying such expensive food for everyday. It is convenient to take when we're not at home for dinner but I decided to make her more food. I used a few online resources.

First I used this guide to what is in season so I could make sure I was getting good prices.

Second I used these information pages to make sure I was getting good produce for the stuff I was unfamiliar with. For example I had no idea what a good eggplant looks like.

Third I went shopping. I spent $15.10 on food. I got bananas at Costco and the rest of the food at Kroger. My  MIL gave me a sweet potato she had left over.

source

I used:

Fruit:

Apples

Pears

Bananas

Vegetables:

Sweet Potato

Eggplant

Green Beans

Carrots

Beets (yes beets)

Butternut Squash

The apples, sweet potatoes, green beans were cooked on the stove top and the rest were baked. I prefer baking because I find it's easy.  A few tips I found are:

Beets: Get EVERYWHERE and stain EVERYTHING! I didn't stain anything luckily while making them and this is how I did it. I bought them in a bunch of three. I washed them and put them in aluminum foil stems and all. They baked for an hour (look at website for specifications) and after I took them out I transferred the foil straight to the cutting board. I put on gloves and with a knife I chopped off the tops then scraped the skins off. They were very tender so I chopped and put them straight into the blender.

Eggplant:: I was very disappointed with my eggplant it had very little flesh after baking it so I ended up just putting it in with the bananas. I don't think I'll make that again.

Green beans and carrots: I got 1.5 lbs. and a 3 lb bag of carrots and those both yielded A LOT of food.

Freezing: I bought an ice cube tray last time I made food and used it this time but I found I wanted to do more at once. I used plastic wrap and a mini cupcake pan and that was much better. I cut the wrap just bigger than the tin and pushed it down into the cups. I used a spatula to push the food down into the cups. After they froze I popped them out and put them in labeled freezer bags. Before I go to bed I pull out a fruit and a vegetable and let them defrost over night. If I forget I just microwave them when I need.

Have you made food for you baby? What is your favorite things to make?