My son is 6 and a half months old (yikes! where did that first half of a year go?) and we are now on a new adventure called SOLID FOOD! My little man is taking to it slowly, he's still a big fan of the breastmilk (which is still the main thing on his menu, and will be for the next 6 months) but he does like some of his solids (I think his first tooth, whenever we see it, is going to be a sweet tooth, because he is a huge fan of bananas, or 'nanners' as we call them, and pears) 




Just as a disclaimer, I am no babyfood chef...this is basically a combination of what I've learned from reading and asking, what I've seen written on Gerber babyfood, what my son likes, and what seemed easy enough for a novice baby food-maker like me to takle.  THAT BEING SAID, I found that making my own babyfood is one of the best ideas I've had for several reasons, which I will share--then I'll share some recipes.  

1) I know exactly what is in his food--I get to pick out the fruits and veggies, organic or not, and check them for ripeness, sweetness, color, and overall quality. Veggies and fruits with the brightest colors contain the most vitamins, and since you'll have to steam some of those vitamins out, start out with the best.  I have no idea what the pre-puree version of babyfood in a jar or bag looked like.   On top of that, it's fresh, and immediately frozen, and I can add breastmilk for extra benefits!
2) Its good for the environment-- 'green' 'natural' and 'organic' mommies would be appalled at the fact that I use disposable diapers, and the sheer number of disinfectant hand and face wipes I use on toys, grocery baskets, and pretty much everything he touches, BUT I am proud to say that I can feed my son without tossing a single jar, bag, can, or plastic container, yay! I want to be 'green', I really do...and I'm getting there!
3)Its actually pretty easy -- Yeah, it's about an hour and a half's worth of work every 2 weeks, BUT, you control the portion size (which means no wasted food--because you know once you dig into a batch, it's lifetime is limited).  It's also easy to take along, just throw it frozen into a cooler without an ice bag, and it's nice and thawed in just a couple hours (I feed it to my son cold or room temp, so he doesn't always want it warmed up--something that is usually impossible on the go)
4) It's cheaper -- I'm all for ANYTHING to save money:  2 medium sweet potatoes for $1.09=10 meals.  1 squeeze package of sweet potatoes for $1.56 or 2 tubs for 99 cents = maybe 2 meals...you do the math




RECIPIES

Now for the fun part! Lots of companies that make baby items would have you believe that you need some sort of special baby blender to make baby food, and just so you know, this is a marketing scheme, and I almost fell for it too.  All you really need is a magic bullet, a smoothie maker, or even a blender would do the job.  You will also need a metal strainer (for peas and greenbeans) and some individual freezer-safe, microwave-save, bpa free plastic containers (you can get a 16 container set for $7.50 at toys-r-us) 



Single Fruits and Veggies

A serving size for 2 adults will produce about 8-10 meals for a 6 month old

1) Steam cut-up squash, carrots, peas, greenbeans, pears, or apples in a steamer or on the stove until they're tender ( you can steam some frozen veggies in the bag they're packed in).  You can also steam in the microwave--add about a half cup of water in a microwavable bowl/plate  and put your cut-up fruit or veggies in.  Put another bigger bowl overtop the bowl of plate and microwave in 2 min increments until tender. 

2) Blend until food is the desired consistancy--for stage 1 foods, thin with breast milk, formula, or nursery water.

3) For most fruits and veggies, that's it! For stringy foods or foods with outer shells like greenbeans and peas, you'll have to use a spoon to press the veggies through a metal strainer.  I know that sounds annoyingly difficult, but I promise, its easy and worth it for fresh sweet veggies.

Avocado-Nanners/ Avocado Apples--surprisingly yummy and super healthy--you'll be licking your fingers! 

1 advacado
1 banana or 2 apples
1/2 lemon

 Peal, cut, and prepare the apples as detailed above

1) Mash the entire peeled banana with all of the meat from the advacado
    
2) Add 5-6 drops of lemon juice to limit browning (if you want to...you can skip this step, but the mixture will brown and look pretty gross--it'll taste the same though)

3) Blend to desired consistancy, thinning with breastmilk, nursery water or formula

4) For the Apple variation, just replace the 1 banana with the 2 prepared apples


Pear 'n Oats

This is good for constipated baby bottoms that can't handle cereal alone all of the time (like my little man), but benefit from the feeling of fullness that cereal provides.  Pears are good for stopped-up tummies 

2 pears
1 1/2 tbsp baby oatmeal

1) Prepare the Pears...or should I say prePEAR them
2) I do apologize for the previous corny comment....mix oatmeal with pears and thin
to desired constancy with breastmilk, nursery water or formula.

That's it!


By the way,
These Munchkin strainers are AWESOME-- and under 7 dollars at Target and Walmart.  I put banana slices and avocado slices in them for my son to suck out, and I don't have to worry about him choking--and he LOVES the fact that he can do it himself.  tip* you might want to strip your little one down and put them on a washable surface for this one...just sayin'...