Homemade Baby Food
I’m lovin’ me some homemade baby food! Seriously, store bought baby food is SO expensive! When we were getting ready to go to church camp a couple weeks ago, I caved and bought jarred baby food applesauce and prunes. It was basically 0.50 per serving. Yikes! That adds up really fast! I knew that I could do much better, so my journey of making baby food began.
What’s not to love?? It’s a frugal alternative and much healthier than the store bought stuff!
My slow cooker and my food processor make this job SO easy! I just throw the ingredients (fruit and water) or (vegetable and water) in the crockpot and let it cook for a few hours.
Applesauce
At Aldi a bag of apples costs 2.49. This amount made about 30 frozen cubes of applesauce. Ridley usually eats 2 cubes at a time, so that’s about 0.17 per serving. Not bad, huh?
Pears
I cooked the pears on the stove because I had something else in the crockpot at the time.
Ridley played happily in his high chair while I worked. He kept me entertained. Or was it the other way around? We always are cracking each other up!
I paid 1.99 for four pears which made approximately 11 servings at 0.18 per serving!
Applesauce & Pears
Avocado
I put 3 avocados in the food processor with a little water and 2 Tablespoons of lemon juice. The lemon juice helps the avocados not turn brown. Ridley likes pureed avocados rather than just mashed. I think mashed avocados are too lumpy for him.
Three avocados made about 24 cubes (technically 12 servings) which makes it 0.35 per serving. I only feed Ridley one cube of avocado with another fruit to sweeten it a little for him. He likes it better that way and it stretches the avocado for me.
Sweet Potatoes
I paid 1.99 for the bag of sweet potatoes at Aldi. LOVE that place! Our store has great produce. From just one bag of potatoes, I got 24 servings. That’s 48 cubes! So the cost per serving is 0.08! Awesomeness!
Bananas, Prunes and Avocado
I pureed the bananas with some water…done. The prunes I cooked on the stove and then pureed them. Gotta be careful to watch for pits in the prunes. I didn’t keep up with cost on these, but believe me, it’s minimal!
After the cubes were frozen, I transferred them into labeled freezer bags. From the research that I have done, these cubes will keep in the freezer for 3 months. It is best, however, to use them within 1 month.
Ridley enjoying avocado with pears. Yum!
Such a cutie!
Making all this food has made me think about the whole “once-a-month-cooking” philosophy. I like it!
Other homemade baby food resources:
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I was just talking to my husband tonight about starting to make Ella's baby food. I am so glad I read your post and realize it will save money…gotta love that!
This is such a great post! I didn't realize how much money it saves! This is something I'll definitely have to do for our little girl.
Looks like you took pics of my kitchen. Isn't making baby food such a good feeling. And you can do other stuff while it's cooking away getting soft. I started making food 4 years ago for my first and now am at it again with my 5 month old. I save SO much and when I look at the jar food, I realize my food has a different color than theirs. Should tell you something, huh. When I have to prepare and take with me, I put it in a mini canning jar (Ball,Kerr) and it seems to keep fresher than plastic containers.
Enjoy. Today I'll be doing carrots :o)
Myra…I really enjoyed reading this! I don't have any babies yet, but I really hope to make baby food when I do! It's so exciting to be able to be both economical and healthy at the same time…for some reason it doesn't normally work that way. Your blog is a blessing=)
My children are all grown up, but I have grandchildren. This is a GREAT!!! way to save money and also now you know everything that going into the baby food. THANKS!!! for sharing I'm going to pass this one to my daughter-in-laws.
Geri
Baby #1 = exclusively homemade baby food. Baby #2 = lazy mommy. I hope to make my own again for baby #3. It is so easy and so cheap.
I think I am just backwards to what Diaper Diaries said… Baby #1 – young and clueless mommy = store bought food always! Baby #2 – slightly more educated mommy, but still very busy = about half and half. And Baby #3 only got expensive processed baby food when I was on the go and desperate! I never made that much up ahead of time though…just usually enough for a couple days because I would cook down whatever I was fixing for the rest of the family! Should have thought to freeze it too though! 🙂 Good job!
I completely agree! I made the baby food for my 3 kids and it is so much cheaper and better tasting! There is no way I'd eat store-bought baby food peaches — so gross, but I definitely sneaked bites of the homemade baby food peaches!
How long does it take to thaw the cubes or do you microwave them? We don't have kids yet, but this is something I have planned on doing. We already make our dog food in batches so this should be a breeze!
I just found your blog through frugal friday… how do you defrost the baby food? Do you nuke it or wait for it to defrost? I'm SO into trying this and we had a huge garden this year, so I'd like to try using some of our veggies up.
Also, how much water to use?
please email me a little more info! I'd be thrilled!!!
leggo_my_meg-o@juno.com
This is a great idea Myra! I did it for Heath too. Once a month I made babyfood and it took the entire Saturday. It got a little more complicated when he moved to meats, but there again the slow cooker and food processer will still work just fine! It was so easy to transition him to "big boy" food b/c it tasted just like what he'd already been eating (unlike store-bought stuff, which is gross!) Keep up the good work…it is worth it!
I just made a whole batch of sweet potatoes for my little man today. So nice to see other mommies making baby food. My son had avocado for the first time today and tolerated it simply mashed, but it probably would have been easier to eat pureed like you did. Good idea.
Homemade baby food is WONDERFUL! My children are 9 and 6 and both had almost exclusively homemade baby food. I occasionally bought baby food if it was on sale or I had a coupon and even then it was only peaches, mango, and blueberry banana. I made everything else. When they were ready for meats, my husband and I steamed and pureed free range organic chicken for them and mixed in a cube of something orange (carrots, sweet potato, or butternut squash) and served a cube of something green (peas, green beans, lima beans, zucchini, or asparagus).
I liked being able to control the texture and was able to get them used to real food and chewing on my terms, not a big corporate factory baby food company’s terms.
To this day they both love the flavor of raw or freshly steamed vegetables and never turn their noses at them.
We make baby food with our 3 cup food processor. We use organic vegetables. It’s healthy and really inexpensive.
love it! never tried prunes with my first, but great idea for my second in a few months!
.-= Angela Carroll´s last blog ..Baby Food Galore! =-.
I was so happy to run across this post. I just decided to switch to making my own baby food–we need to save $$. This post makes me feel like I can do it!!
How long can the frozen Veggies & Fruit last in the freezer? For how long do I cook the fruits and Veggies in the slow cooker? Oh and how much water to put with the fruits and Veggies????
This is such a great post! I didn’t realize how much money it saves!
My child is grown up.
https://www.taketimeforstyle.com/baby-food-labels/?unapproved=172671&moderation-hash=5f069ce7cb54b4215cc2ee57e79bfdf8#comment-172671
What a great healthy and tasty combo! Those were two of my little one’s favourites!
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