Homemade Baby Food Recipes

Dish of homemade carrot baby food. It is surrounded by fresh carrots and a ceramic bunny.

Making your own baby food can be a rewarding experience for you and your baby. Not only can you save money by doing so, you can also control the ingredients, including using only organic fruits and vegetables. This page contains homemade baby food recipes.

Solutions: Homemade Baby Food Recipes

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Using a Drink Mixer to Make Baby Food

Making your own baby food is super easy, not to mention thrifty, and nutritious, too! I found a handheld drink mixer left over from my husband's "powershake" days. I use this to blend whatever I have cooked for the rest of the family at mealtimes. I haven't found anything that can't be blended this way, although some things need a little water added! The handheld mixer is much easier to clean than a food processor or regular blender/mixer, and the preparation time is about 1 minute!

By amylizmc

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Healthier Baby Food

When making homemade baby food, I use our own homegrown veggies. I then cook the veggies a little till soft and puree it in the blender. Then I portion out servings in ice cube trays. Freeze till solid and pop into freezer bags for later use. Then all I have to do is put out the portion I need for a couple of days in a container in the fridge. A lot less work and cheaper than buying baby food.

Source: Book "What to Expect the First Year".

By morbetomommy from Topeka, KS

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Make Baby Food With Your Blender

Save many dollars and feed your baby healthy food. When my children where babies I did not purchase baby food. Take the same food you prepare for your family, after it is cooked run it thru the blender (you can do as much or little as needed), then freeze in ice cube trays. Once frozen, pop them out, and put them in baggies that are labelled with the type of food and a date. Thaw cubes as needed and you won't waste much when you first start your baby out on foods.

By Jackie Cox

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Homemade Baby Food Tips

Salt and sugar are never needed when making baby food. Omit these items, preferably at all times, in your baby's everyday meals! Other spices such as cinnamon, garlic powder, pepper etc. may be introduced as early as 7 months with your pediatricians consult

Keep in mind that dairy in baked goods is generally fine for baby (drinking milk before 1 year old is not).

Honey, even in baked goods, is not appropriate for children under 12 months old!

Some pediatricians will say that it is OK to use one whole egg in a baked good recipe for an infant over 8 months old who has no history or nor has shown any propensity to food allergies.

By JodiT from Aurora, CO

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Make Your Own Baby and Toddler Food

Since my son started eating solid food, I have saved lots of money by making my own "baby" and "toddler" foods for him, armed with my blender, a few ice cube trays, self sealing freezer wrap, and some reusable freezer containers.

When he was eating "baby" food, I would blend up frozen peas and beans, canned peaches and pears, etc., until smooth, and then freeze them into cubes. I stored the frozen cubes in ziplocks, and would pop one or two out for each meal. I would also do this for mashed ripe bananas, and avocado, or buy a can of pumpkin (not flavored - but plain pumpkin) and cube those as well. When pears and apples were in season, we harvested from a friend's tree and cooked up our own, pureed it well, and made more cubes. Another favorite was lentil soup, pureed right out of the can and then frozen. I would make brown rice or white rice cubes out of leftovers from our dinners, and then mix the frozen rice with the frozen lentil soup for a great meal for him. He loved it!

Now that he is a toddler, I am always looking for quick meals for his lunch at daycare without purchasing the processed stuff. His current favorite is Pasta Pucks:

Pasta Pucks

Ingredients

one pound of pasta (I use Barilla Plus enriched elbows)
one jar of sauce (I alternate between store brand tomato or cheese)
one can great northern beans - drained
grated cheese and seasoning to taste

Directions

Cook the pasta according to directions. While it is cooking, put the jar of sauce and can of beans into the blender and blend until smooth. Add the sauce/bean mix to the cooked pasta and add any additional seasonings you like (I add some grated cheese and oregano). Freeze in muffin cups (with papers) or in silicone muffin pans. You can also freeze in small reusable freezer containers. I use the silicone pans, then pop the "pucks" out and put them in a ziplock. One puck for lunch was good from age 1-2, and now he is eating 2 pucks. Saves lots of time for both me and the babysitter, and he gets a good lunch with lots of added fiber/nutrients from the beans. The cost for about 10-16 meals - about $3.00!

We also make a double batch of waffles on the weekend (the big ones that divide into squares) and freeze the extra squares in press-n-seal paper. When the little guy wants a waffle during the week, I can grab one easily, and don't have to buy the commercial ones. You don't need a big freezer to do this, we just have the one on top of our fridge, and it has worked just great!

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Questions

Here are questions related to Homemade Baby Food Recipes.

Making Homemade Baby Food

What is the best baby food? How can I make it myself?

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Most Recent Answer

By Mommy (Guest Post)09/28/2008

I agree with all the other posts but I would add that after having 4 children in under 3 years I learned to make a bag of split peas in the crock pot and freeze in small containers. I also froze large amounts of cooked/mashed squash, potatoes, asparagas, beans etc in small containers. This way they could eat what we were having for dinner (small blener) but when were were gone the sitter could easily feed them by grabbing something from the freezer. Best of luck!

Can I Use 'Fruit Fresh' When Making Baby Food?

I have been making my son's baby food and I noticed that the baby food on the market uses ascorbic acid and citric acid with the jars that contain fruit. I know ascorbic acid is vitamin c and that reduces the browning that can occur with fruits.

I went looking for something like this in my grocery store and I found something called fruit fresh, but it also contains dextrose and silcone dioxide. Are these things safe for a baby?

Julia from Houston, TX

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Most Recent Answer

By (Guest Post)02/04/2008

Don't add anything! The best, healthiest, foods are the ones that are natural with out all the chemicals and preservatives. Just like fresh fruits and veggies without added butter, salts, etc., is the healthiest for you to eat, the same is true with your baby. I agree with the post about freezing the prepared fruits and veggies in the ice cube trays or whatever so your food stays fresh. Good for you for making your own baby food. I wish I would have.

Homemade Baby Food - Tips And Recipes

Tips and recipes for making your own baby food. Post your ideas.

Homemade Baby Food

Don't buy expensive baby foods filled with preservatives. I always fed my babies the same food I ate for dinner. If we ate lasagna for dinner I would cut a piece and put it in a food chopper with a small amount of water and puree the food. Once the food is pureed you can spoon it into ice cube trays and freeze it. Once it's frozen pop the cubes out and store them in labeled freezer bags. You can make frozen baby food cubes out of any type of food. Try it, your baby will be glad you did since there is nothing like home cooking. (01/17/2005)

By Dawn from MA

RE: Homemade Baby Food - Tips And Recipes

I pulled out two of my containers of baby food to check your assertion that they are "filled with preservatives."

Beech Nut Stage 1 Sweet Potatoes lists "Sweet potatoes and water necessary for preparation."

Gerber 1st Foods Peaches lists "Peaches and ascorbic acid (vitamin C)."

Ascorbic acid could possibly be construed as a preservative, as it does protect the color of the peaches, but it does it as side effect of providing vitamin C to the food.

The "preservative" in my baby's food is heat processing, or cooking. I'd imagine most home made baby food is "preserved" in the same way, and then either eaten or "preserved" again by freezing.

I think commercial baby food is expensive compared to homemade, but in no way is modern baby food "filled with preservatives." (01/17/2005)

By Katie A.

RE: Homemade Baby Food - Tips And Recipes

I never purchased baby food for my two daughters. I made all of it myself. I either purchased organic vegetables such as carrots, squash, or sweet potatoes or used frozen vegetables such as peas. I steamed the cut up veggies either in a double boiler with a special slotted bowl for steaming or steamed them in the microwave. After the veggies were nice and soft, I'd use whatever water was left from steaming to puree them in the blender or food processor, which put any nutrients that got steamed away, right back into the food. Then I'd freeze the veggies in ice cube trays. If it was too thick when I was ready to microwave and serve it to my baby, I'd thin it with breast milk, but you could use water or formula as well. For fruits, I either pureed bananas in the blender or purchased fresh fruit and similarly steamed it until soft and repeated the process.

It wasn't much work if you did several types of food in one day and since babies are introduced to foods a little at a time, one days batch of food would last a long time. It was also much less expensive than purchasing processed, watered down baby food and I was confident that my babies were getting the most healthful food I could provide since I made it myself. (01/17/2005)

By ght

RE: Homemade Baby Food - Tips And Recipes

I always used canned vegetables without the salt and drained the water out and put it in the blender and then poured it in ice cube tray and froze them. Then I would put in a freezer bag and get one or two out at a time and microwave and feed the child! (03/18/2005)

By smathis123

RE: Homemade Baby Food - Tips And Recipes

Try reading the labels for the 2nd's and 3rd's. That's where the undesirables are added, in my opinion. All the desserts have sugar and added rice or tapioca starch. Beech-nut brand does not have added sugar but I could not find them in my area. I made my own desserts from fruits. I just always felt better knowing exactly what was in my son's food. Also, 1st's are usually about 29 cents for 2.5 oz jar and for example, bananas are usually about 39 cents a pound. You are paying a lot for convenience. I also really enjoyed making the baby food and I found it pretty easy. (03/30/2005)

By cntryspc

RE: Homemade Baby Food - Tips And Recipes

When my sons were small, I used a small baby food grinder ( a food processor would be easier now) and they would eat whatever we ate at each meal. If it was too dry, I added formula, it was much healthier that way and cheaper! (05/31/2005)

By A. from Mo.

RE: Homemade Baby Food - Tips And Recipes

I am just starting to make my own baby food and I am enjoying it. I joined a yahoogroup and get great advice from other moms. I read that avocados are an excellent "first" food for babies (which I have not seen in a jarred variety) but my son made a face at the texture. I mixed it with bananas and he ate twice as much as he normally eats! I think that there is much more variety in homemade baby food than jarred food and it tastes better, too.As for the post about there being no preservatives in jarred food, jarred baby food has to have some type of preservative in order for it to be shelf stable, homemade food must be frozen in order to keep it fresh. (06/29/2006)

By scruggle