Homemade Baby Food

As a new mom, I was so excited for my daughter to start experimenting with food. As I was brimming with excitement, my daughter wanted nothing to do with food. She was content with her milk and that's all she wanted. Eventually, she started to get the hang of this whole baby food thing and slowly got won over by the tastes, textures and smells. We happily went to the store to pick out new flavors to try. When we got to the cash register, all the excitement disappeared as we realized how expensive organic baby food can be. I decided to start making her food at home and it is so easy, inexpensive and actually pretty fun to do. You will know exactly what is in your baby's food and can control the ingredients and additives.

One of my girl's favorite foods is kale. I will go through what you will need, how to prepare the food and how to store it. 

Ingredients:

1. 1 bag of organic Kale. I get mine from Trader Joe's
2. Large Pot
3. Water
4. Ice Cube tray with a lid on it (I got  mine from Target)
5. Hand Blender or Food Processor

What To Do:

1. Fill your pot about half way with water and bring it to a bowl.
2. When it is boiling, open the bag and put your kale into the boiling water
3. Cook the kale for 2 -3 minutes or just until it start to wilt a little
4. Take the pot of kale off the heat and use a slotted spoon to put the cooked kale into a large cup/bowl and let it cool for a bit. Save the water in the pot, you will need it for the next step!
5. Use the hand blender or food processor to blend the kale into a paste. Use some of the water that you cooked the kale in to help thin out the mixture to the consistency you want. For babes just starting out on baby food, thin the mixture out to a soup consistency. For babes that have been on baby food for awhile, use less water and make into a paste.
6. Place the blended kale into the ice cube tray and freeze
7. When the cubes are frozen, place into a ziplock bag and label it
8. The cubes are good for several months after being frozen

Kale cooking in the pot of water

Blending the kale mixture

Place mixture in ice cub trays

Put lid on ice cube tray and place in freezer

I get all my organic produce from Trader Joe's. It is easy and inexpensive. For other veggies, I use a double bowler to steam the veggies. To thin out the veggie puree, I use the water that I steamed the veggies in. The only veggie that you don't want to use the water for would be carrots. I researched this and there is a chance of nitrate poisoning with using the carrot water. So, for carrots, I just use purified water to thin out the mixture. 

You can also use the ice cube trays for fruits. If you are making fruits, just blend up the fruits and thin the mixture with purified water. Then, pour directly into the ice cube trays. I do this with bananas and apples. 

Making your own baby food is very easy and can be done very quickly. It is so much fun to experiment and seeing your baby's reaction to all the new tastes. Each ice cube is about 1 ounce of food. If you would buy a baby food pouch in the store, that would be 4 ounces. I use 4 cubes at each feeding and warm it in the microwave. 

She loves her kale. . and so does her bib

If you have any questions, feel free visit my website