Well I am expecting my first nephew and my SIL is very interested in making her own baby food. I was curious if anyone has experience with this. Any good sites to check out?? Any recommendations? Any "recipes"? Any help is appreciated...

Here is some of the info we have found out (if any of the stuff listed was a horrible idea that you tried.. please let me know)...

Freezing in ice cube trays is a great way to portion the servings
Frozen baby food can last around 3 months and still hold nutriontional value
Do not re-freeze breast milk
citrus fruits do not freeze well

I have found some sites with recipes and what not.. but was wanting a lil input from you guys on this one.

TinaT .. you are awesome...

thanks for the info.. I will definitely pass it on... She does a lot of reading so wanted something to read over and what not before she ACTUALLY needed it.

Thanks again!!!

I second the book Super Baby Food! Awesome information! I'm now referring back to mine for my 7 month old.

We inherited that book as well...though their dog thought it was dog food first, LOL. The first several pages are kind of missing. But it's a great resource!!! It helps with how to cook and for how long, etc. I've been making Abby's for a bit now and I actually get a lot of satisfaction out of it! Plus it's HELLA cheaper than buying!!!

I also don't use the big cube trays anymore. I got the little ones that have like 60 little rounded "cubes" so that I can mix and match and not waste a big cube or anything. It's worked out really well.

I highly recommend making it. Oh! I also have a little baby food mills. It works pretty well (plus is a bit of a work out!) and in the beginning I then ran it through a strainer to get the lumps out. I don't do that anymore b/c she can handle food with more texture.

ETA: melon doesn't work well with freezing. I did musk melon (cantelope) and had to add a lot of rice cereal b/c it was SO watery. And turns out it makes her bum break out horribly, so there goes all of that, LOL.

I use the book The Petit Appetite. It has lots of baby/toddler food recipes.

I just used my food processor to make everything. Worked great!

I recommend using the flexible silicone ice cube trays. I found that the food is much easier to get out of those than the plastic ones.

Banana doesn't freeze well, either.

I also read the book, my son had tons of food allergies as a baby. A gentle suggestion to your dsil, invest in a small but reasonably priced food processor, a hand crank food mill, extra ice trays and vaccuum food storage system. Ice cube trays help save additional portions, and the vacuum sealer will preserve the flavor. Pass on my good luck wishes!

Here's another vote for Super Baby Food. I would avoid the hand grinderr (unless you're out of course). I got a black and decker mini chopper and used that a lot! As he got older, I would just throw in there what we were having for dinner and grind it up!

I use the hand one b/c she's scared of the electric ones and the kitchen is under her room. I do NOT chance waking her up, LOL.

Oh, and lhart, I forgot to say congrats on expecting your first nephew!

I used to make all of my daughter's baby food but that was 14 years ago. I used a small (held about 1 cup) food processor and just added a little water to whatever I was processing. Basically she had whatever I ate for dinner.

Forgot to mention that I use the Magic Bullet to blend her food...I LOVE it and bought it exactly for this reason!


Bananas freeze EXCELLENT for me. If you don't want the dark brown color that happens when you freeze ripe bananas, add just a tad of lemon juice and it will preserve the color. Bananas is one of the easiest foods to make, and it makes a great "first" food. All I do is cut up the bananas, put them in a big mixing bowl, and mash them up to the consistency I want!

I used all of my frozen bananas to make banana bread. It was yummy! My girls hate fresh mashed bananas and defrosted mashed bananas but like the Gerber stuff.