Homemade Baby Food

Ever look at the selection of baby food for your 8 month old?  You know - those cute little jars of orange and green mush that you find in the baby isle of your grocery store.  While I appreciate the convenience of ready-to-serve food for my youngster, I'm often disappointed in the variety of food they get to eat, not to mention the high prices.  If your kid is like my son, he LOVES to eat, so why not give him some new flavors besides carrot, squash and green bean and save yourself some cash at the same time?

Homemade baby food is your answer!  It's not hard to make, but does take a little time.  I can't take credit though.  I love the bestselling book Super Baby Food by Ruth Yaron.  She tells you what your baby can eat at what age, how to buy and prepare the food and best of all, how to store it - in an ice cube tray!  "The Cube Method" is fantastic.  Most foods can be bought fresh, steamed in the microwave, pureed in the blender and then scooped into the ice cube tray.  Freeze it overnight, then transfer it to a ziplock freezer bag.  The frozen cubes will keep on average for about 2 months.  When its time for him to eat, pop a couple cubes (or for my son, about 10 cubes!) into the microwave and defrost for a couple minutes - then walla - homemade baby food!

This has saved our family a fair amount of money.  Each little jar will run about $0.50-.80 per 3 oz. jar.  But today I picked up broccoli for $0.88/pound. So I spent about $1.50 and will make about 20 ounces of baby food.  I would have spent more like $4.50 if I had bought the jars.  

Even more than the cost-saving though, I love the different food my baby eats.  He's 10 months old and has already tried spinach, brussels sprouts, sweet potato, avacado, squash, cauliflower, black beans, green beans, peaches, plums, bananas, applesauce...all through the food cube method.   I also have high hopes that my kids will like more foods as they grow older due to trying them at a young age.  All in all, homemade baby food has plenty of benefits for frugal wives (and mothers)!