Once, ages ago, I saw someone on TV make baby food and freeze them in ice-cube trays.
I thought this was a brilliant idea and filed it away for when I had my own babies.
Of course that was years and years ago as this whole babymaking business took so long to get sorted.
Anyway, then we started solids.
And I quickly realised that it actually made better sense for me to spoon the food straight into containers and freeze them so that the container served as the bowl.
*sob* no cute ice-cubes for me
But seriously, this works so, so well that be warned, if I meet you, I will strongly encourage you to do your own baby food.
It's sooo much cheaper for one and I know exactly what's in there - nothing but veggies or fruit.
I bought ONE butternut for R12,78 ($1.73).
V peeled and cooked it.
I mashed it all up and portioned it out. There were 6 portions for Connor and 6 for Kendra.
Now if you had to buy Purity (bottled baby food), you'd pay between R5 and R7 a bottle, depending where you shop. Let's say R6.
I got enough food as would be in 9 bottles of Purity. That's R54 worth.
And I paid R12,78.
It is SOOOO worth it!
Same story with the other veggies and fruit. Some work out even better because butternut has that hard outer shell so you're actually paying for that, as you pay per kilogram.
Look.
And it's so easy.
For example, with the gem squash, I poked holes in the skin, popped them into an empty bread packet and into the microwave for about 5 - 7 minutes. Done! Slide open, scoop out seeds, scoop out squash and mash. Easy!
This suits the organising part of my personality just perfectly. I am LOVING preparing their foods and mixing it all up. I was a dud at the breastfeeding but am a rock star at this stuff :)
At one point I thought I'd be doing the Purity thing sometimes when life is hectic but now, I honestly can't bring myself to spend that kind of money. After all, I have twins. That, and I'm cheap!
What are you doing about baby food?
P.S. This is my post for SteadyMom's 30-minute blog challenge (her new book is out - have a look)
I LOVE this idea. WHEN we get there this is what Ill be doing too. Just a tip, I wont ever put plastic into the microwave to cook food in, it releases way to much dioxins from the heated up plastic, rather use glass containers or nothing at all!
ReplyDeleteI should take pics of our baby food making endeavors. Now that they eat more combinations, I make it all together and freeze it in portions too. Right now in our freezer we have butternut squash and barley cereal (all homemade even the cereal) and peas, corn and brown rice cereal. They love to eat, but Liam is a slow eater like your Kendra. He barely opens his mouth and plays hard to get, while Tommy will gladly eat more, but he spits up so much you hate to give him too much.
ReplyDeleteDee, I just had a thought - maybe it's the scientists in us that love all the mixing and portioning, etc :) (I studied biochem and microbiology - don't know what i'm doing in insurance!)
ReplyDeleteI did that for a while with each of my "littles" but in all honestly, I got tired of it & just started mashing up the stuff we ate.
ReplyDeleteOne thing I really liked about it was knowing what was in their food. & just like you said, I was always too cheap to buy it!
If we ever get started on solids this is our path! The girls got a food processor for christmas so that I could do bulk sessions. I use cloth diapers I'm so cheap so of course I'll be making my own food! I just need to be convinced that they are ready for food. They seem quite contend with BM!
ReplyDeleteI made all the girls' baby food until we moved last month. I didn't want to unpack everything, so they are eating from jars for the time being. I do plan to pick it up again when we get in our new house, but they are eating table foods more and more, so we may be past the purees soon. I LOVED making their food too...exactly like you said-I didn't do so well with the breastfeeding, but this, I can do! : ) One thing I have found is that my girls do really well with textures of table food...and I attribute that to the different textures of the homemade stuff.
ReplyDeleteI find it interesting that you do separate containers for each child. We just did one bowl, one spoon and would feed whosever mouth was open. Of course that mean mostly Ned but Penny eventually caught on - instinct for survival I suppose! Great work, Mommy!
ReplyDeleteMommy Esq - LOL – normally I’m all about survival of the fittest but I like to know exactly how much each one has eaten – otherwise I’m SURE Connor would polish off everything. He eats VERY well.
ReplyDeleteHeather, I can’t wait to see that post! Do you feed the boys together from the same bowl and spoon, or do individual portions like I do?
Thanks so much for visiting my blog all the way over in East Africa ! How wonderful that you now have the children you've waited so long for .... falling pregnant was not easy for me, but pales in comparison to what you went through, I eventually had my beautiful baby girl, lost another baby & gave birth to my precious baby boy on 02 June 2009. He has been born with some problems, but nothing we can't overcome. I have started introducing solids recently - what a plaver ! I also make my own baby food and freeze it in in ice cube trays - so far no luck as son far prefers breastmilk, but I will keep persevering ! Glad to find your blog ... will be back ;)
ReplyDeleteLynda, Kilimanjaro, East Africa
I was told that you couldn't possibly parent without Purity... twelve years since our first born was born I am still waiting to use Purity!!! Oh the ideas I had for all those cut little jars!!!
ReplyDeleteLove the post! I'm planning to make E's baby food, too, but also will provide some organic baby food. I buy them on sale with coupons, so they're not a burden @ all on our budget.
ReplyDeleteHow many mL in each container? I heard the ice cubes were great since 1 ice cube= 1oz/30mL & that the baby may not even eat much, so to freeze it in a larger container may waste what the baby doesn't eat... how do you do it? Just portion out so many oz/mL & then place in the container? I'll have to look for little containers, too, but was thinking a bag of frozen cubes may take up less space. Let me know your thoughts on all that & how you work it! I'd be interested in more baby food posts, too! :)
i'm pretty stoked to make baby food now- yay!
ReplyDeleteI actually have a set list of things I give my friends when they tell me they're interested in making their own baby food: http://rodrigueztwins.blogspot.com/2009/04/baby-food-starter-kit.html. I've joked that if I get laid off, I could just make fresh baby food and sell it to my friends to make ends meet! I DID do the cute ice cubes; since the girls' appetites varied from meal to meal, it was the easiest thing to do. I was fortunate that the daycare was completely supportive of my efforts and had a freezer in the infant room I could use, and never once complained about the extra effort of defrosting the day's meals. I just dropped off five or six baggies of deliciousness every Monday morning until the girls were ready for the daycare center's standard table fare.
ReplyDeleteBaby food has now come and gone for me. At the time we did a little bit of everything. I made my own and also bought some from the store. But I can honestly say, I was sooo proud of the stuff that I made and froze in the ice cubes. This felt like such a huge accomplishment for a SAHM who often didn't get a shower :)
ReplyDeleteWOWZER I've had a lesson in solids reading all these comments :) I'm with the knowing what's in homemade stuff comments, AND the el cheapo cuts costs benefits (I too cloth diaper) AND also the feeling that even though bf'ing wasn't flash in our house at least I can do a FANTASTIC job of this. Oh and I'm ice cube-ing the food at this stage because our little Minx doesn't eat huge amounts yet. Tragically there's no real ice for G&T's in our freezer anymore - just babyfood. I guess that's true parenthood huh? :)
ReplyDelete