1st baby food recipe!

Having a 7month month old daughter is a fun stage. I like to make my own baby food.  I have a lot of new mothers ask me how to make your own babyfood, it sounds like it might be complicated so a lot of them just decided to go the easy route and do jar food(with is totally fine, everyone has to do what's best for them. So I'm passing no judgement if you don't make everything home made. I have used jar food sometimes, my kids just liked the home made much better)

 I wanted to make this post so that new mommies(or any mommies that don't know) will see how simple making baby food really is. Its cheaper, healthier, tastes better(I've tasted the jar stuff and it was pretty gross) I will say I would eat any of the baby food I make for my daughter myself.

At 4months I start baby rice cereal twice a day(ask pediatrician first). I used organic whole grain brown rice in a box. I have always wanted to try making my own rice cereal, just haven't got around to it. I like the Earths best brand. When they start fruit (after 6months old)I will mix the fruit with the cereal, I also mix veggies with the rice cereal and my daughter likes it.

At 6months old I start veggies, starting with the yellow/orange veggies like different kinds of Squash, carrots,potatoes and yams, then green veggies like broccoli, peas, green beans etc,then on to fruits, then later meats and pastas(no dairy, wheat, honey or nuts until after 12months of age)

Each  week I introduce a new veggie(I wait a week because its easier to pinpoint a food allergy if you know they had only had one new food that week). Right now we have had carrots, sweet potatoes and butternut squash. Here are a couple ways I prepare my home made baby food


Fresh organic carrots:

Wash, Peel and dice the carrots and place in a pot, cover with water and boil until tender.
After cooked scoop out carrots and place into food processor(or blender, but the processor works best to purée the veggies)
Add some of the juice from the pot to the carrots(replaces some of the vitamins that were lost while boiling them) purée the carrots and add more juice if its too thick.

The first time you feed your baby real food you will want it to be pretty thin because they won't know how to chew yet and if its too thick they may gag a lot.
(As they get bigger and learn to make the chewing motions with their mouth you can make the food more thick and even chunky as they develop more teeth, eventually you will work your way up to just boiling and mashing it with a fork, and then dicing it up as they get bigger and want to start using their fingers to pick up the food and feed themselves.)

After you purée the carrots, using a spoon, scoop out spoonfuls and place in ice cue trays. Cover and place in the freezer. After frozen,  pop out the cubes and place in a ziplock freezer bag, label and date the bag and store in the freezer. When you are ready to use the carrots place 2cubes(more or less depending on how hungry they are) in a bowl and microwave until heated. Stir and serve (add water if necessary)

That's it! Pretty simple huh? You can make a whole months worth in under an hour!

I don't add seasonings to my baby food and definitely no butter. Starting off with bland foods are best so you don't spoil them to salty foods, as they get older they will know no different and won't need a lot of seasonings on their foods. I wish I never ate salty foods! It would make transitioning over to sodium free or low sodium much easier. :)  salt also makes you retain water and bloat. I lost 5 lbs when I cut salt down in my diet(I gotta have a little though, sea salt is the best option)