Hey Guys! Hope everyone’s had a great week! I’ve been wanting to touch base with yall on this topic for a while now. To be honest I never really thought twice on whether or not I would ever make Mason’s food. I’ve always cooked for myself and Josh so it just seemed second nature to do the same for Mason. Starting out I tried to make everything, but soon realized some foods were waaaay easier to make than others. For instance.. bananas, you just peel them and throw them in a blender. THAT’S IT. Super easy right? But on the other hand, apples… You have to peel and chop a million of those suckers, boil and then blend them – only to get like a cup of apple sauce. SO. NOT. WORTH IT! So for me, that’s how I decided on what to make verses buy. Because let’s be honest, for the foods that ARE easy to make you’re just putting in a teeny tiny bit of effort to save a lot of money AND you are controlling the ingredients! WIN WIN WIN!
So let’s break it down, the foods I personally find easiest to MAKE are sweet potatoes, carrots, bananas and avocados. I love that they are a great base to build other food combinations off of as well. The foods I BUY (premade) are apples, pears, mangos, peaches, peas & prunes.
For Mason, being at a stage 2, he is eating about 4oz of baby food 4 times a day. So when I make my baby food I freeze the purees in 1oz portions. And for all the premade baby food, I buy single ingredient pouches. This makes it super easy to mix and match flavors.
Now let’s talk about ingredients. It’s funny how I allow myself to have cheat meals or indulge in sweets every now and then, but with Mason I’m like “he WILL NOT eat crap” haha. Because of that I always go to Earth Fare to buy his food. Their whole food philosophy gives me such a peace of mind when I’m doing my shopping. They don’t carry any foods unless they meet this standard: no hormones, artificial fats/trans-fats, artificial sweeteners, bleached or bromated flour, antibiotics, high fructose corn syrup , artificial preservatives or artificial colors or flavors. Think about that for a second. You can go into the store and buy ANYTHING knowing that none of it will ever have any of those awful ingredients/chemicals! Isn’t that AWESOME! I’ve been obsessed with Earth Fare for years now. It just makes shopping so much easier knowing I don’t have to read a millions labels to know if what I’m adding to my cart and feeding my family is actually good for them or not.**
So how to make baby food?! Let’s start with sweet potatoes..
SWEET POTATOES
Peel, wash & chop 3 organic sweet potatoes and add to a large pot with 3 cups of water. Steam (cook on low heat) for about 30 minutes or until potatoes are very tender. Add water and potatoes to a blender and puree until desired consistency. Then add the puree to ice cube trays and freeze overnight. Once frozen, store in a zip lock freezer bag for up to 6 months.
CARROTS
Add 2 lbs of raw organic carrot chips and 4 cups of water to a pot and steam (cook on low heat) for about 45 minutes or until carrots are very tender. Add water and carrots to a blender and puree until desired consistency. Then add the puree to ice cube trays and freeze overnight. Once frozen, store in a zip lock freezer bag for up to 6 months. Sounds familiar?
BANANAS
Add 6 medium organic bananas to a blender and puree until desired consistency. Then add the puree to ice cube trays and freeze overnight. Once frozen, store in a zip lock freezer bag for up to 6 months. Starting to see the pattern?
AVOCADOS
Peel and remove pit from 4 organic avocados. Add to blender with about a cup of water. Puree until desired consistency. Then add the puree to ice cube trays and freeze overnight. Once frozen, store in a zip lock freezer bag for up to 6 months. Ok I think you get it now 🙂
How easy is that? This amount usually lasts me just about a month!
Now, to defrost and get the food ready to eat is also super simple. All you need to do is defrost the cubes in the microwave :15 at a time. I usually do 2-3 cycles. Then stir in whichever other ingredient you want! Here are a few of Mason’s favorites beyond just the single ingredients:
banana + apple
banana + pear
banana + peach
carrot + peas
carrot + sweet potato
carrot + pear
carrot + mango
sweet potato + pear
carrot + sweet potato + pear
avocado + pear
I try to keep his fruit to veggie ratio (per day) to ¼.
I will say, and I mentioned this in my insta-stories earlier this week, if you’re going through the trouble of making your own food and/or food combinations, you’re probably someone who enjoys cooking. Either that or you’re trying to save money. Both are great reasons to try this out! Otherwise, there is absolutely nothing wrong with buying store bought baby food! At the end of the day, all these decisions us parents make for our children are out of love and what works best for our families!
** SIDE NOTE!! If you’re local to the Chattanooga area, the Earth Fare over on Gunbarrel is having a huge customer appreciation event tomorrow 10/20 from 7am-noon. They are handing out 100 mystery gift cards valued up to $500! YOU KNOW I”LL BE THERE haha. They’ll also have a ton of samples to try while you’re shopping, product demonstrations and more!
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