homemade baby food

Try SuperFoods for Babies and Children by Annabel Karmel. I loved this book when I started making a baby food for my son. it has recipes for beginning eaters, as well as, recipes for children as they grow.

I made all of my son's food using my food processor. Every few weeks I would cook up a whole chicken in the crock pot, process the chicken with the stock, cooked carrots, some cooked potatoes, some garlic powder, etc. whatever else was handy that day! Just puree it until it is smooth and freeze it in 12 oz tubs. Make sure you label it. You can also food process things like casseroles, spagetti, lasagne, beef stew, anything that has foods in it you would feed your baby if she had teeth. I stayed away from things that had a lot of flavorings like Chinese food, or spicy foods, though he did like curries. You will need to add vegetable or chicken stock to process most things to make them smooth enough, or else add some warm water after you thaw them out.

I loved doing this because out of my 3 kids, he was the best eater and gained the best. I realized too late that jarred foods just don't have enough protein, and this way I could control how much protein he was getting.

Have fun with it!

Susan is mom to Alexander, Isabel, David and stepmom to Eric. She does community outreach for arizonamoms. Be sure to enter the Back-to-School $1000 Giveaway every day July 4-31!

Thanks! i currently make big batches of veggies and fruit and then freeze them in ice cube trays, perfect size and i think i have four months worth of fruits and veggies in my freezer. i was just a little hesitant about the proteins!
I will have to pick up the book!
Cheers

It's great to cook chicken and meat in the crockpot if you are going to use it for baby food. It gets really tender and mashable.

Brooke Romney is an unbalanced mom of three young boys who constantly has too much to do, and too little time. She writes the Mom Beat column for The Gilbert Republic.

Don't forget to buy chicken free of antibiotics - particularly since you have done such an awesome job of providing healthy food for her to this point. I always buy my chicken from Trader Joe's, but you can find it in the grocery store nowadays. There's been a lot of bad press re: antibiotics/chickens and major distributors know that moms really pay attention to labels.

Mouse_tales is a discussion leader in the East Valley for arizonamoms.com. She is a business owner, community volunteer, and aspiring runner (whew!), who most enjoys her roles as wife & mom. Her children range in age from 4 to 13.