Making homemade baby food! It’s not as hard as you think
It’s Fall and that means it is harvest season. My Father in law grows a big garden every year and we’ve been lucky enough to get a ton of veggies to make baby food for our kids both with Danika last year and now Aiden. Making your own baby food may sound intimidating, but I promise you it is so easy! I made all of Danika’s baby food from scratch and saved a ton of money doing it. I also felt more peace of mind knowing exactly what was going into her food.
So since I’m having a baby event this month it is only fitting to share with you how to make your own baby food and offer up my favorite (easy) recipes! First I’ll share one of Danika’s favorites when she was a baby and that is squash!
You can use any type of squash you’d like. Cut it in half lengthwise and spoon out the seeds and “guts” if you will. It makes it easier to slice in half if you microwave it for a minute or two or just use your muscles and slice it (that’s what I do).
Place it “meat” side down in a casserole dish and fill with an inch or so of water. Cook it at 400 degrees for 40-60 minutes. You’ll know it is done when the skin is easily poked into with a toothpick and the squash meat is really soft and easy to scoop. If it is hard to scoop out then it isn’t cooked enough yet.
Scoop out all of the meat and put it into a food processor and puree it until smooth. Some people will tell you to thin it now with water or breastmilk, but I’ve found from my experience that it is better to wait until you serve it to thin it or it tends to get overly watery when you defrost it.
Scoop it into an ice cube tray and cover with plastic wrap. Put in the freezer until frozen solid. Once frozen remove from freezer and dip the bottom of the tray in hot water to help release the cubes. Put the cubes in a freezer bag and label with what it is and the date. Put back in freezer and you’ve got a good supply of food now! 
Thanks so much for sharing this! I want to make my baby's food, but am overwhelmed since I'm not a very good cook. 🙂 Keep the recipes coming! Thanks again!
We skipped the freezing and thawing and thinning altogether and just did baby led weaning. We would still spoon feed her cereal or applesauce, but at 8 or 9 months she was gnawing on a whole peach down to the seed and loving every juice filled minute of it. We roasted potatoes, sweet potatoes and carrots and let her gnaw on those, etc. Always be wary of course, of seeds in things. The good thing about kids is that they know their limits. When there are able to sit up and move food around, THEN give them food. We waited til 7 months. It took about a month before she actually got enough in her to make chunks in her diaper, but she rarely gagged on anything, and only choked once, and my husband had it out in a trice. I think it was something soft like a chunk of banana that would have been the same size as something in regular chunky babyfood, just got it in the wrong way. She's not even 2 and eats whole pieces of fruit, like an apple with the skin, whereas some of her counterparts still wont' eat anything that isn't super fine diced or mushy. It was the right route for us, and you could still use the same recipes, and let the kid go at it with a spoon or fingers, instead of spooning it in yourself. The motto of baby led weaning, by the way is 'food before 1 is just for fun'. They should still be getting most nutrition from breastmilk (ideally) or formula anyway. The mesh teether thing was awesome for frozen raspberries for a bit of 'un'supervised eating while warming up my food or making a quick sandwich.
I have a huge garden too and have thought about doing this, but thought it looked rather complicated. Guess I was wrong…super easy! Thanks for posting.
When my friend first told me she made her own baby food I was shocked. It sounded like so much work! But I was really surprised at how easy it was. We started off small with sweet potatoes and last week I actually made my 10 month old her own lentil stew! There are some great books and websites out there that helped me a lot, and if you make things in big batches, you only have to do it once a month. I really love how much $$ we save! A jar of baby food costs about 70 cents on sale, whereas I made her a month's worth for $1.10 (the cost of a few sweet poaatoes).
Love this idea Nicely said Repined