1 Month of Homemade Baby Food, 1 Hour, $20 – Round 2
The feedback from my first homemade baby food post was so wonderful, I thought I’d do a round two. I’m so glad you found it to be as helpful a resource as I had hoped. Hope you enjoy this one as well!
One Month of Baby Food
I still love making food for Liv as much as I thought I would. It’s so much fun to introduce her to new flavor combos and ingredients, and I have a feeling it will be this way… forever.
I make one month of baby food at a time, freeze it all, and then defrost it over night as we need it. It’s the perfect main component of her meal, and I’ll always give her a little bit of what we’re having, too. It always surprises me to see what she’ll go crazy over (salmon! a girl after my own heart) and what she doesn’t enjoy as much, like egg yolks.
Liv is currently 8.5 months and here’s some of our recent stash of homemade baby food. As usual, it took a little under an hour and about $20 to make everything.
(I like to use these storage containers)
7 Homemade Baby Food Combinations for This Month
Apple-carrot
Sweet potato, apple, cinnamon
Zucchini-banana
Broccoli, apple kale
Spinach, pea, pear
Blueberry quinoa (brown rice, or oats)
Plum banana quinoa (brown rice, or oats)
For all of these, see what your baby prefers as far as fruits and veggie ratios go. For Liv, I find that she enjoys the veggies more if a little fruit is mixed in, especially with greens to cut the bitterness. Usually I’ll try to do mostly veggies and a little fruit.
Homemade Baby Food Recipes
Blend these homemade baby food combinations well and thin as necessary with water or breastmilk–especially necessary with starchy mixes.
Apple-carrot: 1-2 peeled, steamed apples and 3 steamed carrots.
Sweet potato, apple, cinnamon: 2 baked sweet potato flesh, one peeled and steamed apple plus a tiny pinch of cinnamon. (A little goes a long way for tiny tastebuds!).
Zucchini-banana: 3 steamed zucchini and 2 fresh bananas.
Broccoli, apple, kale: 1/2 package of steamed frozen organic broccoli, one peeled and steamed apple, 1/2 bag of kale, wilted in a little olive or coconut oil on the stove top.
Spinach, pea, pear: 1/2 package of defrosted frozen spinach (or fresh, wilted in a little olive or coconut oil on the stovetop), 1/2 package of frozen, organic defrosted peas (the other half of last month’s bag) and 2 pears.
Blueberry quinoa: 1/2 bag frozen blueberries and 1/2 cup cooked quinoa.
Plum banana quinoa: 1 banana, 2 plums and 1/2 cup cooked quinoa.
Make Healthy Homemade Baby Food in Under an Hour
Follow these steps for efficient homemade baby food prep!
-Preheat the oven, wash the sweet potatoes and poke with holes. Bake for about 50 minutes at 375.
-Start boiling the water for the quinoa (or brown rice), rinse well and get that cooking.
-Peel all the fruits and veggies as needed and start steaming. You can either microwave in a glass bowl with a little water, or steam on the stovetop. We use this electric steamer contraption, which makes everything easy to steam at once in layers. Apples and pears can also be boiled for 7-9 minutes until tender. (You can do fruits together, like the apples, pears and plums, and then veggies together, like the broccoli, spinach and peas to make less steaming rounds. Remember, it’s not an exact science! Have fun with it)
-Heat up the pan and start wilting the greens as the fruits/veggies steam.
-Puree in batches, adding a little water or breastmilk as necessary to thin out.
-For the combos that use the same ingredients, do those together. For example, I’ll do the quinoa batches right after each other (half with blueberries, the other half with plum and banana)
BONUS: Chicken, quinoa and carrots (You have almost all the ingredients for this already on hand- all you need is a plain roasted chicken breast, season with a little garlic, oregano or cumin as you like)
How to Store Homemade Baby Food in the Freezer
I love the Baby Bullet containers, and will usually fill 2-3 with the purees and freeze the rest flat in Ziploc baggies (all Ziploc products are BPA free).
Ice cube trays are perfect too -I couldn’t find any at Target which was kinda weird- and remember to defrost only what your baby will eat over the next couple of days. Keep the rest in the freezer.
Just for Fun Baby Food Extras
-Happy Baby puffs or Little Ducks dried fruit. Liv loves these for breakfast and lunches! I’ll put a few on her tray with some fresh, soft fruits or veggies (bites of banana, melon, avocado, peeled beans and sweet potato work really well) while I get our meals ready. We used to use the mesh feeder often, but Liv is getting much better at gnawing on food with her gums and swallowing it. She loves to pinch up tiny bites of soft food.
One Month of Homemade Baby Food Shopping List
-3 apples
-2 pears
-2 plums
-3 bananas
-3 zucchini
-2 sweet potatoes
-carrots (buy the long ones instead of the baby ones, which are washed in a bleach solution)
(The following usually last 2 months, with the exception of the fresh kale. I still had the broccoli, peas and blueberries in the freezer from last time. I always have quinoa on hand, but you can buy it in the bulk bin. I only included half a bag of each in the $20 total cost)
-1 package frozen blueberries
-1 package spinach (fresh or frozen)
-1 package broccoli (frozen)
-1 package kale
-1 C quinoa (bulk bin)
*Keep in mind that I’m not a baby food expert or baby nutrition specialist in any way- these are just the foods that Liv likes and an inexpensive list of combos. Always check with your doctor regarding the best method for feeding your baby and before introducing any new foods. We do a combo of pureed food and baby led weaning over here, and it’s working well for us so far <3
xoxo
(Affiliate links are included, which do not impact purchase price but allow me to earn a small kickback. Thank you so much for your support!)
123 Comments
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thank you so much for this great post! i love all of your recipes and did not know where to begine when it came to making my own baby food! thank you so much for all the detail and even a shopping list. i love this simplified and this is perfect! THANK YOU!!!!!
Just found this on pinterest this week and LOVED it! I have a 7 month old and a 3 year old (who loves the pouches still). Your post was finally easy enough to follow that I jumped on it. Got the groceries the next day and got started. Just tried giving them to him though and he wouldn’t eat it. )= Sure did get a funny face though. How do you get it smooth without making it too runny?? Mine is still turning out sort of gritty. My 3 year old is sucking them down out of the pouches like crazy though. I think the little guy is just having texture issues.
Thanks! Can’t wait to adjust it a little
I had the same texture with my 8 month old daughter- my blender was not making the purees smooth enough. I started using the Cuisinart Smart Stick and it was magic. Perfectly smooth purees every time!
Hi! My daughter is 6 months old and also had texture issues. I invested in a baby bullet food processor ($60 at Walmart or target); it comes with 6 storage containers (like the ones in this pin) and a freezer tray for 6 more. It blends them perfect! There is also a baby bullet steamer for about $30 for easy steaming. Good luck!
When you cook with oats. can you freeze the extra? if so how long can it last.
My son only eat vegetables if I mix in pears so I’m excited how he likes these mixtures. Also, If you have not heard of “Squooshi” pouches look them up on amazon. They are the food pouches you mentioned only re-usable and made to put homemade baby food in.
When you are freezing them in ziploc bags how much are you putting in them. I am using the baby bullet containers, but haven’t really found anything that gives good directions on freezing other ways.
Target has a great system for those pouches you talked about in the first post. They are made by Infantino and are for making your own baby food and then putting it in squeeze pouches. It is an amazing product and its only 30 cents a pouch sold in a box of 50! Great deal!
SUPER helpful post. Thank you so much for taking the time and energy to share it. Sending good karma! 🙂
so happy you found it helpful! xoxo
Did you freeze the meals with quinoa in them? If so, how have you found it to taste?
When you say “a package of broccoli” what pound bag are you using?
I just wanted to say thanks for the inspiration. I just made a bunch of baby food. Now hopefully the baby will like it.
If you have a Vitamix, couldn’t you just put the fruits and veggies in there raw?
i definitely want to try some of these fun combos with my daughter! my son was a great eater and would eat any veggie plain, and still does now at 20 months old. the thing the worries me about always mixing fruit in with the veggies is that they will get used to everything being sweet and refuse veggies later on. just my theory.
also, http://www.foxnews.com/leisure/2014/01/07/truth-behind-baby-carrots/
Just a thought but since I’m still nursing my son, would Milk storage bags work too to store the food? Obviously they can withstand being frozen.
The milk storage bags work great for baby food! I have some lasinoh bags that leak horribly for milk but are great for storing purees!
This post is going to be oh so useful to me when my baby girl arrives and she’s on solids!!! Thanks so much, I’m a first time mom and want to feed her well, this is perfect!!!!!
Very much appreciated, you’re awesome for sharing your list/recipe (s)?
These recipes look great. Trying to get a head start on making food for my 5 month old who is still only on breast milk. My question is, have you used breast milk in your recipes before instead of adding additional water? Thanks!
i haven’t, but i never had extra 🙂 if you can, i would go for it!
Just wondering what your advice for a food processor would be. I’m excited to start making my own baby food, but don’t know what to invest in for the process. Baby bulletin is intriguing, but I haven’t read very many good reviews for it and it doesn’t seem like it will withstand a lot of use. So I’m just unsure about what size of processor to get or if I should just use the blender I have. Struggling with the decision and looking for wisdom 🙂
i used my vitamix mostly for the baby food, or the mini food processor (cuisinart). if you have a blender you like, i recommend the small food processor. you should be able to make anything you need that way!
How many ounces per meal does this make for the month worth of meals?
it’s been so long! it’s whatever those baby bullet containers will hold
Hi, did u use spices with any purees besides the garlic or cumin on chicken breast?
nope!
My baby is 6 months old and I am about to start feeding him solids. My Dr said not to make my own carrots, spinach, beets, etc because of the nitrates…how did you deal with that?
Hi, just FYI- the baby bullet storage system is NOT safe for freezing. I have them also and I contacted the company and they let me know they are not meant to be frozen.
wow, good to know! i have a whole bag in the freezer right now. i picked up some of the baby ice cube trays (i think the brand is wee sprouts?) so i’ll be using those more often
I know! I had a bunch in the freezer too. I guess they aren’t made for the freezer and little pieces of the plastic can *possibly* break off into the food or something. I was so sad that I had to throw a lot of food away! 🙁
wow, that’s good to know!
My daughter loved veggies… Still does. And her favorite combo was pear, zucchini, and corn. Honestly, it was my favorite too. Lol
wow, i wouldn’t even think to combine those! amazing
Hi, how long do I steam in the microwave?
make sure you add water and i would check it in a few minutes and see how it’s doing. you just want the food to be soft enough to blend
How many oz do each of your meals make?
i wish i would have kept track of that when i made this post!
Hi! Excited to try these with my little one. Just noticed tho, peas aren’t on the shopping list 😉
Thank You!!!
I just came across this post on pinterest and had a quick question. How many ounces of baby food are you giving her per feeding?
My son is 8 months old and eats soooo much so I was just curious how to alter your list to make sure I have enough for what he eats. Thank you!!
she was so little when i made this post. if your son is a hearty eater, i would double everything. then if anything, you have extra! they freeze really well