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How to Make Your Own Baby Food – Phase 1
Making your own baby food
When the time comes for your baby to make the transition from liquids to solids, preparing your own baby food puree is the way to go. Why rely on commercial baby foods to fulfill baby’s dietary needs when you can take matters into your own hands? By making baby food yourself, you have direct control over your little one’s nutrition, and can encourage baby to develop healthy eating habits from a young age. Preparing your own baby food puree also allows you to introduce baby to ‘real food’ flavors and textures, easing your little one into the transition to table foods later on.
Making baby food yourself is beneficial to both you and your baby. You’ll soon discover that homemade baby food puree is not only a good healthy option, but is also very easy to produce. You select the ingredients yourself – you can be as creative as you like and your baby’s age will allow. Most of the tools you need will be readily available in your own kitchen. No fancy, expensive equipment required! Making baby food consists of three main steps: cooking, pureeing, and freezing, so a pot and steamer basket, pureeing tool and freezing tray are really all you need to get started.
Simply follow these baby food recipe steps, and you’ll be underway in no time.
Step one: Cook the food. There are many ways to do this, including steaming, boiling, baking and microwaving. Choose your cooking method according to your baby food ingredients. Microwaving is quick, easy and less messy than other methods, but may cause some foods to lose significant amounts of nutrients when cooked at high temperatures. Steaming is your best option, as it makes food soft and easy to puree, not to mention easy for baby to chew! Steaming also maintains most of the nutrients that may be lost when boiling fruit or veges.
Step two: Allow your ingredients to cool, and then begin to puree. A food processor with a ‘puree’ setting will provide great results, but a hand puree appliance will do the trick. Add small amounts of liquid, such as formula, breast milk or plain water while you puree in order to thin. Adding such liquid gives the puree a nutritional boost while providing a familiar taste for baby. Make sure you allow the puree to cool properly before freezing to avoid bacteria growth.
Step three: Freeze your baby food puree for storage. Ice cube trays are great for this purpose, but the MumiandBubi Solid Starter Kit trays take out all the guesswork; freezing your puree in small amounts means that you can select the number of cubes required at baby’s meal times, without having to throw away excess food. Fill the MumiandBubi Solid Starter Kit tray with the puree, cover with the lid and freeze. Once frozen, remove the cubes from the tray by pushing down on the edge (do not twist the tray) and transfer them to freezer bags. This frees up your trays so that they can be washed and used again immediately. Label your freezer bags with the date and type of food, and store at the back of the freezer for up to a month.
At baby’s meal times, simply remove the required number of cubes, thaw, and reheat. And there you have it! Healthy baby food puree made from scratch with the love and care that your baby deserves.
About the Author
Francis Frost is the owner of Module Marketing in Auckland New Zealand. He is the new father of a 8 week old girl and an advocate of making baby food with the MumiandBubi Solid Starter Kits.