How to Make Easy Baby Food
When my girls turned 6 months old our doctor gave us the okay to introduce solid foods. I hurried over to our local Target (you’ll find me there a lot) and picked up bowls, spoons, bibs, and baby cereal. When I got home I prepared the cereal exactly as the box instructed, except something was wrong. The cereal smelled kind of funny and definitely didn’t look like something that I would want to eat. Being a new mom I ignored my gut and gave it to the girls anyway. Their faces were priceless.
After our first experience with baby cereal, I researched how to make homemade baby food. Our doctor said that we could skip cereal and head straight for fruits and vegetables. I know that there are a lot of great baby foods on the market and in a pinch we would use them, but homemade made the most sense for our family.
There were four reasons why I chose to make my own baby food:
- It’s super easy. If you can heat up leftovers and press a button then you can make baby food.
- It saves money. It’s a lot more expensive to buy premade food than it is to make your own.
- No special tools. I use this blender that we got as a wedding present. A food processor works great too.
- You know exactly what is in it because you control the ingredients.
Homemade Sweet Potato Baby Food
Speaking of easy, you can make baby food in 5 easy steps. These same steps can be applied to many different types of vegetables, including white potatoes and butternut squash.
Cook
I said it was easy! Use modern conveniences whenever possible. I used my microwave to cook one large sweet potato. I washed the potato, pierced it with a fork and popped it into the microwave. Check if your microwave has a setting to cook potatoes. It cooked in 6 minutes.
Peel
I chose to cook the potato in its skin because it helps keep in all of the nutrients. After the potato cooled, I peeled off the skin. Again, so easy.
Chop
Cut the potato into one inch cubes and place into blender.
Add Water
I used 1 cup of water for a thicker puree. Add more water for a thinner puree.
Puree
Puree sweet potatoes to desired consistency.
Serve
Serve your homemade baby food! Wasn’t that easy?
Storage
One large sweet potato makes about 16 ounces of baby food. If you are not going to serve the food right away then it’s best to freeze it. I used ice cube trays from my freezer. One frozen cube of baby food is about 1 ounce. After the food was frozen I stored them in freezer bags labeled with the food and date. To serve, leave out at room temperature or pop into the microwave for a few seconds.
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