I've been making baby food. A lot of baby food. I never did this with Reagan. I think I was overwhelmed with the new parent feeling and making baby food would have been another thing on my plate. But I've decided to make my own food for Elisabeth for a few reasons.
1. The cost savings. Holy cow! I didn't realize how little it actually took to make my own food. I think I'm averaging about 8 cents a serving. I pay 50-75 cents a serving when I buy prepackaged foods. Wow.
2. The product. I know with baby food, especially stage 1 foods, the FDA is pretty strict on regulating what goes into the food. But how awesome is it to pick the freshest, most delicious peaches and give them to my baby? It's way awesome. And I can mix my own in season fruits and veggies. For example, my yummy plum/banana mixture I made or my fall veggie mix I plan on making in a few months.
3. The waste. I'm a big recycler and try to do my part for the environment. I'm not crazy granola (hello, I drive an Expedition!) but I try to do good when I can. For making my own food, I buy food in bulk, freeze in ice trays and then seal the frozen cubes in vacuum bags. I purchased the ziploc hand pump set for 3.99 and a bunch of quart size baggies. The baggies say not to reuse them but I don't see why not. Probably a ploy by Ziploc to get more of my money. The bags are perfectly reusable! Just wash them out! So, my total waste for this project is the packaging the food comes in, if any. That's cool.
4. It's fun. I've thoroughly enjoyed making all this food. It's fun coming up with flavor combos and I can't wait until Elisabeth is older and can eat more variety. Oh, the possibilities!
So far I've made green beans, peas, carrots, peaches, plums, bananas, mango and I've frozen up some avocado slices. The hardest part is waiting for the ice trays to freeze so I can make more food. The website I used was wholesomebabyfood.com. I really like this site, it tells you how to cook the foods and has different recipes. Yummy!
4 comments:
wow, you are so awesome.
I don't know if you have heard of this or not but check it out and see if they have it in your area...
bountifulbaskets.org
It's a food co-op. I do it for our little family about every-other week!
It's a good way to get good for for way cheap...
I miss you too friend! I think it is so great that you have two little girls and way awesome about the baby food! I need to do that whenever we have the next baby. Your girls are soooo cute!
Wow! I'm glad you wrote this post. I made baby food for the first time last night. Pears and Sweet potatoes. The pears ended up not being much cheaper than buying, but the Sweet potatoes were a REAL money saver AND they happen to be Charlie's favorite. I actually though it was good and fun to do. I felt so self sufficient! It was fun to see all the things you have tried. I will have to try more!
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