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Baby food can cost you upwards of $50 per week. Yikes! I was buying my daughter the organic stuff. When I noticed how much I was spending, I decided there had to be another way. And, I realized that I could make a lot of that stuff myself. Recently I was talking to a friend of mine about her experiences making baby food. She thought the food came out gritty. She  was told to boil the heck out of the food and blend it. I also tried that at one point and found the food to be gross also.  So, I tried baking the food. I found that the food better retained its flavor and my daughter LOVED it!

Also, as a tip, many doctors recommend that you try one food at a time to see how the baby reacts. Each baby can digest each food differently. When I was a baby and my mother gave me bananas for the first time she panicked! As she was changing my diaper, let’s just say it was digested very interestingly! :)  SO, my advice is introduce foods one at a time then you can get creative with it.  

And one last tip, if you are a parent on the go and need to sometimes have prepared baby food but want to try to make it on your own you can do the Ice Cube Method. So you prepare the baby food and put it in an ice cube tray and freeze it. It takes about three to four hours to freeze. It freezes faster the further back in your freezer you put it. But, it is a lot easier to just pop out ice cubed baby food than making it everyday from scratch.

So, here are 7 of my No Blender (or food processor) Required recipes:

1. Sweet Potato Mash

• 1 Peeled and chopped organic sweet potato (medium sized)
• 1 teaspoon olive oil

Heat the oven to 400 degrees. Rip a sheet of tin foil (large enough to cover the sweet potato). Place the chopped sweet potato in the tin foil. Add the olive oil. Close the tin foil and pinch the ends upwards so no oil spills out. You are making a boat looking mold. Put the sweet potato boat in the oven and cook for 30 minutes or until the sweet potato is extremely soft. After it is done let it cool for about 10 minutes. Then put on a plate and mash it. Voilá, you have a great dinner for you little one!

2. Savory carrots

 

• 1 cup peeled and chopped organic carrots
• 2 teaspoons organic olive oil
• 1 teaspoon organic orange juice

 

Heat the oven to 400 degrees. In a mixing bowl mix the carrots, olive oil and OJ. Rip a sheet of tin foil (large enough to cover the carrot mixture). Place the chopped sweet potato in the tin foil. Add the olive oil. Close the tin foil and pinch the ends upwards so no oil spills out. You are making a boat looking mold. Put the carrot mixture in the oven and cook for 20 to 30 minutes or until the carrots are extremely soft. After it is done let it cool for about 10 minutes. With a slotted spoon take the carrots out of the boat, with a fork mash the carrots then add the juice. It makes a sweet veggie dish for your baby.

 

3. Spicy Applesauce

 

• 3  organic apples seeded and chopped
• ½ teaspoon cinnamon
• ½ teaspoon nutmeg

 

Heat the oven at 350 degrees. In a mixing bowl mix the chopped apple cinnamon and nutmeg. Rip a sheet of tin foil (large enough to cover the apple mixture). Place the chopped apple mixture in the tin foil. Close the tin foil and pinch the ends upwards so nothing spills out. Put the apple mixture in the oven and cook for 20 to 30 minutes or until the apple is extremely soft. After it is done let it cool for about 10 minutes. Mash the apple. It makes a great applesauce.

 

4. Butternut Squash Mash

(almost the same as the Sweet Potato Mash)

• ½ peeled, seeded and chopped butternut squash (medium sized)
• 2 teaspoon olive oil

Heat the oven to 400 degrees. Rip a sheet of tin foil (large enough to cover the squash). Place the chopped squash in the tin foil. Add the olive oil. Close the tin foil and pinch the ends upwards so no oil spills out. Put the squash boat in the oven and cook for 40 minutes or until the squash is soft. After it is done let it cool for about 10 minutes. Then put on a plate and mash it. So easy and quite yummy!

5. Avocado

 

• ½ organic avocado
• Drizzle of olive oil

 

In a bowl mix half of a ripe avocado with a drizzle of olive oil and mash. It creates a great mixture that is easy for the baby to eat. The first food my daughter had was avocado. She still loves it!

 

6. Banana & Orange

• ½ a banana
• A few pieces of orange

 

Mash the banana in a bowl. Take a few pieces of orange and peel the thin skin layer off. With a knife, slide it down the bottom of each piece as to take the pulp out of the orange. Put the pulp into the bowl with the mashed banana and mix. I usually used one piece of orange per half of a banana. My daughter liked this because it spiced up a basic mashed banana.

 

7. Split Pea Soup

(See One Pot Dinner post)

This is a meal the whole family can enjoy!

As your little one gets bigger and likes the food you can mix and match things such as sweet potato and apples or broccoli and cauliflower. Have fun with it and your little one will enjoy it.

March 23rd, 2009
Topic: Food, Living Tags: Baby, family, Food, Homemade-Baby-Food

This entry was posted on Monday, March 23rd, 2009 at 12:54 am and is filed under Food, Living. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.