Sunday, January 22, 2012

Easy-Peas-y: DIY Baby Food

It is a rainy, cold Sunday here and we are staying cozy inside. I thought this would be a great time to share some tips for making your own baby food! I used to be so intimidated at the thought of this until Avril, my sweet and most amazing sister-in-law from Ireland showed me just how easy this is!

Now I would never go back to premade baby food...unless in a pinch. It's happened and we don't get too crazy over it. But if given the chance we'll always go with the homemade option. I get to control what goes in my babies' tum while saving a ton of money. Hurrah! And you can too with just a few minutes every week or two. It's even easier if you have a couple of essential kitchen tools which I'll cover below. Ready? Off we go!


The first step is to base your purees off of your pediatrician's recommendation for introducing foods.
At nine months old Isla's at a fun stage where she has been cleared of any allergic reactions to various foods. She is even eating table food. So now instead of purees with one ingredient we are using our creative juices to combine lots of fun stuff!

This picture shows off two of my very favourite kitchen tools. First there is my rice and veggie steamer from Crate and Barrel. This is six years old and we use the steamer several times a week. I couldn't manage without this in my life! Next is (seriously ya'll) the BEST veggie peeler. Ever. It comes as a set with a julienne tool from Bed, Bath and Beyond. Believe me when I say for the last two years it has gotten a workout. Still going strong even in an Irish home filled with a love of spuds!




This morning I made a puree.
 1 kiwi, 3 apples, 1 pear and 1 cup of spinach

This is my food processor. Oh how I love you Food Processor. A constant friend.
But no worries if you don't have one of these. A blender works just as well.

One tip is to use the water from your steamer if you need to thin the puree out. 


Hey! It's Teagan's favourite color!
Sometimes my two year old will ask to have some of her sister's food just as she would eat applesauce!

These containers are handy dandy for freezing your foods. We got them at Buy Buy Baby.
I have also seen moms use ice trays for this.


Next I made spinach and carrots with a cup of lentil soup. Lentils have a ton of protein and iron. I love getting bags of lentils from the dry bean section in our store. Ours come with a seasoning packet so to make soup you just add water! Easy, right? I also throw in celery and carrots or whatever else I have on hand.


Ok, maybe it looks awful but let me assure you that your baby will L.O.V.E. it!! Isla had this for lunch and went bananas for it!

Some of our other favorite combos include:

*avocado and banana
*apple, pear and banana
*sweet potato and carrots
*Irish Beef stew with veggies
*peas, spinach and sweet potato


If you still need inspiration for how to combine different foods there are a ton of great books on the market for making your own baby food. We love this by Annabel Karmel.


I had to post a picture of this quinoa (pronounced "keen-wah") and brown rice mix from Costco. Quinoa is packed with fiber, calcium, iron and folate so I was delighted to find Teagan and Isla love it just as much as I do! We haven't convinced Daddy just yet. But he's missing out because it is amazing so give it a try!

Happy pureeing everyone! And if you have a baby recipe for us to try please leave a comment below. We'd love to hear from you!

1 comment:

  1. Michelle I love this!! My mouth was watering at the spinach, kiwi mix! I need to get on the ball!

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