12.10.2009

Yummy …. Homemade Baby Food

This past weekend, I made some baby food for Emmy Cate.  I wanted to see if it really would save some money as everyone says and I wanted to make her some things that you just can’t buy in a Gerber jar.  Also, I’m fine with the plain veggies, but I am wary of things like the “meals” and “smoothies” and “custards” because of added ingredients and preservatives.  I’m fairly adventurous when it comes to food, including veggies, so I’m scouring the aisles looking for things like pureed rutabaga, Fordhook lima beans, and even your basic mashed potatoes (Daddy’s fav)!!  So, I figured it couldn’t be hard to make, and it wasn’t!  I just bought bags of frozen veggies and followed these simple steps:

Boil or steam for a few minutes on the stove according to the directions on the package …

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… throw into the food processor with a little bit of water and puree …

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… and voila, homemade baby food!!

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I put each veggie in empty Gerber jars, popped them in the freezer until frozen, then popped them out into ziploc bags and labeled those.  It was pretty easy and didn’t take too much time.

As far as the financial stuff and whether it was worth it, here is how it breaks down for me.  Each bag of veggies was $1 and made approx. 6 jars of food.  If you buy premade Gerber food, a two pack is $0.90.  So homemade, each “jar” is $0.17 and Gerber is $0.45 per jar.  If Emmy Cate eats about 2 jars per day, then that’s a savings of about $4/week.  Since she will only likely eat baby food for a few months, I don’t think the cost savings is worth it to put in the effort.  Still, it’s great to make for those things that you simply can’t find in a jar, or if you don’t want your little one to eat things that you can’t pronounce!!

And because everyone wouldn’t be happy without seeing EC’s smiling face, here she is hamming it up:

EC sitting up 2 EC and Mommy EC sitting up

1 comment:

DeDe said...

Yum, Yum, Emmy Cate - you will be the healthiest baby ever!! (Cute outfit!!)