Making Baby Food
I have been making baby food for five months now. Pretty much everything my little guy puts in his month I have made. I take pride in being able to say this and just like with breastfeeding, I know I’m doing what is best for my baby.
I am no chef, as I described in
"Experimenting with Cooking". I’m pretty new to this whole culinary thing. I don’t usually enjoy cooking but I enjoy making baby food. There is something heart-warming about hearing "mmmm" as your baby enjoys food you created especially for him.
I chose to make my baby food because I wanted to avoid the cost, preservatives and environmental damage associated with purchasing jarred baby food (due to production, distribution, etc). I don’t always make the most environmentally friendly choices but I do try to when I can. So while I was pregnant my husband and I tried to figure out how we could raise our baby in the most eco-friendly way possible without breaking the bank.
We didn’t re-do the nursery in eco friendly products but we did decide to breastfeed, make our own baby food and use cloth diapers. I also like knowing exactly what goes in to my baby’s food and this way I get to choose. We buy as much locally grown, free run, organics as we can. With that said, we have used disposable diapers and Parker has had jarred baby food on occasion but because it isn’t an everyday thing we feel that we are still making a difference.
I won’t lie, making your own baby food does take effort and time, but I’ve devised a method that has worked for me and made the whole thing way less overwhelming. Once a week I make either a lunch or dinner meal and a desert. This basically takes a couple hours of chopping, baking, blending and storing.
Kidco Healthy Snack Multi-Slicer saves me time chopping and I use
Kidco hand mill or my food processor to blend. Then I freeze everything in ice cube trays or
Baby Cubes. After the food is frozen in cubes I put the servings in labeled freezer Ziploc bags. This process allows me to adjust the texture of the food to suit my growing baby, I can add new foods and I have a constant supply.
If you are considering making your own baby food, I say go for it! The pride I feel is well worth the efforts I put in.
Do you make your own baby food? If so, how do you keep it from becoming overwhelming? What products have worked best for you?
~Sarah
Labels: baby, baby food, baking, Cooking, envirometally responsible, Sarah
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