Adventures in Making My Own Baby Food

I've heard from a lot of my patient's parents that making your own baby food is simple and cheap.  After confirming this with Pinterest, I figured that if I'm comfortable enough in the kitchen to cook for Tom and I most nights, I shouldn't be afraid of cooking for Benjamin.  I'm not sure why I thought making my own baby food would be difficult.  Maybe because I didn't own any of the official "tools" like a Baby Bullet, food steamer, or storage system.

When we visited Ohio a few weeks ago we went apple picking, and brought home quite an impressive bounty.  Unlike the apple farms in New York that require we keep all the apples types (breeds?) separate, this orchard charged a flat fee per bag and so we came home a large assortment of apples, and honestly I couldn't pick one type from another, but they were all delicious.  I'd been eating them for a week or so before I realized that they were going to go bad before I finished them off.  Benji was just shy of 6 months old and had done pretty well with trying rice cereal a few times, so I decided to turn our apples into a puree from him.

I found and quickly fell in love with the Wholesome Homemade Baby Food website.  After looking over the basics, I decided I could easily make my own baby food using a combination of the stove, an immersion blender, ice cube trays, and freezer bags.  I decided that the process for making apples seemed extraordinarily easy, so it was a good starting point.

First Foods: Apples
Makes approximately 9 ounces (make as much as you want!)

2 large sweet apples (I have absolutely no idea what kind I used, I don't even think they were the same)
Tap water
That's it!

Peel and cut apples
Place into a small sauté pan, or pot, your choice
Add water, just enough to barely cover the apples
Simmer over medium low heat until apples are soft
Strain, retaining water for thinning purposes, and place in blending mechanism of your choice.  (I used the mini-blender that came as an attachment for my immersion blender)
Puree, then add water 1-2 Tbsp at a time until reaching your desired thickness
Pour into clean ice cube trays, cover with plastic wrap and place in freezer overnight
Thaw 1 cube as needed in the refrigerator before feeding.  Store remaining cubes in freezer bag, labeled with the contents and date.

I purposely choose to use tap water for my baby foods.  When Benji drinks water, or water flavored with a splash of juice, it is also tap water, not bottled.  Where we live, tap water contains fluoride along with other minute quantities of various minerals.  You can also thin purees with breast milk, formula, or juice if desired.

He LOVED the apples.  We stuck with feeding him 1 cube (about 1 ounce) daily for 3 days before introducing his next food, sweet potatoes.  Waiting 3-4 days after introducing any new food is important to confirm that the baby doesn't have an allergy, which may take a few days to show itself.  I can't believe our boy is old enough for solids, makes me so excited and so sad at the same time.  I'd love to freeze time!