Adventures in Baby food

No picture of the baby food because let's face it, my daughter is much cuter than mush. Making your own baby food is so easy that I'm kicking myself that I didn't do it more with my first two children. In fact you probably have instant babyfood around your house already (and much cheaper than commercially made food).

Applesauce - a staple in two forms at our place. I always have a large jar of the unsweetened organic kind on hand for baking as well as the individual apple sauce mixes around for the boys (and now girl too). By mixes I mean the apple/peach, apple/grape, apple/berry combos.

Canned Pumpkin - I usually have this in my cupboard for making pumpkin pancakes, or pumpkin bread. You don't need to do anything to it to serve it to baby, just heat it a little and it's ready.

Bananas - this is one I shake my head at. Why oh why do people pay 60 cents or more for a tiny container of baby food banana? This is the easiest and handiest baby food to make. You take a piece of banana and mash it with a fork. That's it.

Avocado - as with the banana, mash it with a fork

Brown Beans/Chickpeas/Kidney Beans etc... - we usually have the canned versions of these in our cupboards. I drain and rinse first and then use a hand blender or food processor to puree.

Peas and other frozen veggies - steam cook, drain and then puree with a hand blender. Add water a little bit at a time to get a nice, fine puree.

Carrots, green beans and other fresh veggies - same as with the frozen veggies. Just make sure you fresh water, not the carrot water when you are puree-ing. That water will have some things in it that isn't good for baby.

Squash and sweet potato - I like to bake these as opposed to boiling them. Bake until soft then puree with a hand blender or food processor. Add a little water to it if you think it is too thick.

Adding Meat - Another wonderful use for those rotisserie chickens. I add some chopped cooked chicken to the sweet potatoes, or squash and then blend it all with a little chicken broth. This would be my daughter's current favorite food.

Mesh feeders - I have a couple of these for my little darling to try harder to puree foods like watermelon fresh apples and cantelope. She loves gnawing away at them and it's great for her teething gums.

That's where we are so far in our food adventures. She does eat the baby food cereals but that's about it as far as commercially sold food goes. It's wonderful to use what we already have around. We're saving money and I think she's getting a better tasting food.