Raising A Family

I know we all want to give our sweet little babies the best food possible to start off their lives just right. With our first child, we bought the store bought baby food and felt like things were just fine. Then when he was ready for more solid food, he had a very difficult time with texture. It made me stop and think about how refined and smooth the store bought food was.

By the time we had our daughter, I decided to get domesticated and make my own. It was a lot of fun and I felt like I was providing for her more than I did with our first son. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not knocking the store bought food, I just preferred mine more. It was simple and fun to do. With our little baby boy now I am, once again, cooking it up myself!

Here’s how you do it:

• Hit your local farmer’s market and pick out all the good stuff you want to prepare
• Peel and dice it up nice and small
• Cook what needs to be cooked
• Puree
• Separate it out into your ice cube trays
• Freeze
• Then place them in baggies and toss back into the freezer

Simply thaw out the amount you want in the microwave, and walah, you’re in business. I have found that some tend to be rather runny, so just add a little dry rice cereal and it helps thicken it up. That also gives it some texture so they are getting used to it early. Remember not to make strawberries, as they have found exposing children to them before age one can cause food allergies. Also, avoid cauliflower and broccoli as they cause gas!

Keep some of the store bought stuff on hand to take when you will be away from home. It has preservatives in it that makes it so it doesn’t have to be refrigerated. Enjoy making it yourself. You’ll find you feel more fulfilled about what you are providing and you’ll also save a ton of money on the food itself. I have found that I spend about half of what I used to and it’s so much healthier because it doesn’t have all of the extra chemicals in it.