8.06.2009

For Mekonen's Tummy!

Today was making baby food day! I have decided to make Mekonen's food as much as possible. It's healthier, I know what's in it, and it's way cheaper than buying baby food in little jars. Since blog posts are way more fun with pictures, here are some pictures of my endeavor today. It was 4 hours of food making and I have quite the stash of plums, apples, nectarines, peas, carrots, squash, and sweet potatoes. I actually had a great time making all this stuff!This book "Baby Blender Foods" by Nicole Young is awesome. It has all the info you need for making baby food. It's really way easier than I imagined it to be. The book is separated into various ages, meal plans, etc. It's a great book!


My first batch! PLUMS!!!!

Plums and sweet potatoes cooking on the stove!

Next, blend it together (Not the plums and the sweet potatoes. yuck). (FYI: those baby grinding mills are not as good as an old-fashioned blender from what I hear).

After blending the food, I put it into ice cube trays to freeze. Each ice cube is a serving size of 2 tablespoons. Perfect for sizing portions!

Yummy... peas and sweet potatoes. (I am practicing telling Mekonen how good these veggies are because I hate pease and sweet potatoes!)

After freezing, I popped them out of the trays and stored them in Ziploc freezer bags. When it's time to eat, just take out the amount of servings needed, thaw, and serve!

I am psyched about how much I made for the prices of what I bought! From what I've read, at about 6 months old, babies will eat about 4 tablespoons at a meal in addition to 2 tbsp. of iron fortified infant cereal and their formula throughout the day. The ice cube trays I used are 2 tablespoons servings each. (I realize that every baby is different and needs differing amounts of food, and Mekonen may need extra additions of various things to help his nutritional deficit).

Here are some of the items I made and how cheap it was!
12 Plums- $3.20 (yielded 21 cubes) enough for 10 meals
4 Large Sweet Potatoes- $3.23 (yielded 44 cubes) enough for 22 meals
1 Bag of Frozen Peas- $1.98 (yielded 38 cubes) enough for 19 meals

8 comments:

Kathie said...

I used to make Carson's baby food too! It was so much fun and saved a ton of money. I would check my local grocery store's flyer each week and buy whatever fruits and veggies were on sale to make that week.

Amy said...

Thanks for this information girlie! This is DEFINITELY something I am going to do, I was even thinking about getting one of those machines, but now I'll just start looking for a good blender! I know it's a long ways away, but never to early to start planning! Thanks for the book recommendation too!

Brian and Autumn said...

Takes me back...I made all of Elias' food too. It was easy and I would only have to make food like once every 2-3 weeks. It's really not hard and I loved knowing that he was eating the healthiest foods possible.

amy said...

I did this for aderyn. I kept it up by doubling veggies when I was cooking for the rest of the fam.

Another tip... he is probably already accustomed to lots of flavors, but feed him just veggies for a few weeks first. Dont' start with fruit, it's sweet and to go from something sweet to peas or carrots doesn't really seem to work. We did with both our kids, and they are fantastic with veggies now!

We 'R McGee said...

WOW! I'm not sure I'm brave enough to try, but this sounds like an awesome idea!!!

Emily B. said...

I loved making Dawit's baby food. But where did you find 2 T icecube trays?? I've only ever seen 1 oz cubes.

Also, check out http://www.wholesomebabyfood.com/
for some more recipies and ideas.

PS- be careful not to make too much. They only freeze for 3 months and he won't be eating very much when he comes home.

doddyj said...

way to go girl! it takes a lot of determination to make your own food (because it's SO much easier to just buy the stuff), but it's totally worth it. I made Natalie's food and it saved us so much money - and it started to get easier around 9 mo, when we could experiment with food chunks for her (pending teeth, that is). Thanks for the book idea - I used a diff. one, but I'll have to find yours and leaf through it. :)

Katie & Tim said...

very cool. i made all cale's baby food and it was WAY cheap. same way you are. we had "baby food making weekends." what i would suggest to you is dont worry so much about the tbsp per age. just feed him what he wants. babies will stop when they're full. perhaps adopted babies will be different (and i'll learn that as well), but i usually just unfroze a few meals at a time in different little tupperwear containers, like 2 days worth. for bfast i did a fruit, lunch, a veggie, and dinner, both. i often added cereal on the side of both meals. here's another way to save more money and use up every last bit of stuff. you can use the leftover "flavored" water (after boiling) and mix THAT with your baby cereal...that way you dont need to use more formula. cale LOVED it.
good luck! let me know if you need any help. it was really very fun.