Homemade Baby Food

I thought I should do a post on home made baby food outlining the pros, cons, costs and effort. Along with some handy-dandy pictures to illustrate of course. 🙂

• I bought a bunch of fresh spinach (it might have been organic – can’t remember now) for $1.01. I got bag of frozen peas and  a bag of green beans for $1.00 each. I cooked the spinach down a little and throughly heated the frozen peas and green beans. Pureed in the blender and froze in ice cube trays. Yielded 9 – 4oz. servings (equal to 9 stage 2 jars). Total cost: $3.01. Where I shop, jars of Beechnut stage 2 are $.53 each. My jars cost just $.33 each! It was super easy to make!

Superfood! Green bean/pea/ spinach combo, carrots, and sweet potoatoes.

• I bought a Butternut squash for $2.85. I washed it, cut it in half, baked it, scraped out the inside and pureed it with some added water. Yielded 11 – 4oz. jars. Total cost: $.25. Savings of $2.98 compared to if I had bought 11 jars of squash.

The scraped out remains of the butternut squash

Into the blender we go! I just have a regular Hamilton Beach and it usually works dandy.

All smooth. Just like store bought.

The squash is now ready to freeze

• Peaches are not cheaper right now. At $1.99 a pound 7 jars cost $1.09 each!! No savings there but it’s kind of trial and error. At least I know now.

• Organic carrots cost me $1.78 for 2 and a half pounds. I should get all of 25 jars at least. So homemade, organic carrot baby food is down to $.07 a jar!!

Carrots cooking. Unpeeled. Just lop off the ends and slice.

 

• Apples cost me about $.95 a jar. Ouch!!! I think I might just try buying a big regular jar of applesauce and mixing pureed berries into that next time. I think that would be cheaper than making it or buying it in the stage 2 jars…..

.

I usually freeze everything in these icecube trays

I have tried freezing stuff in my leftover breast milk storage bags but it doesn’t work out as well.

The cool thing is that the water you boil your fruits in (pears, apples ect) becomes baby fruit juice. So it’s a 2 for one. I guess I could figure that into my final cost…..

• Pears mixed with blueberries ran me $.78 a jar. I could have done it cheaper if I had used more pears to blueberry ratio. Blueberries are kind of pricey but so high in antioxidants that I think I will continue to feed them to Tru just mixing in more pears. Also he didn’t care too much for the tanginess of the blueberries so they need to be more of a background flavor and not so much the main ingredient. I have also found raspberries really cheap and pureed them into his applesauce.

• Mangos are about the same price to make homemade as buying the jars. One mango usually makes 2 jars costing $.50 each so only saving $.03 a jar.

• I haven’t figured up the cost of sweet potatoes yet but I am certain that they are much cheaper.

• Frozen vegetables such as corn, peas, green beans etc cost $1.00 a bag at our store and make 4 jars each so $.25 a jar. Less than half price! And it only takes a few minutes to heat, puree and pour into the trays.

Peas

Mixed vegetable blend. Carrots, green beans, peas and corn.

Pros:

• It does save me money at least on some things. Then I can still buy the other things pre made that cost more or the same to make.
• It really doesn’t take me that long.
• I like that I can feed Truett a wide variety of fruits and vegetables at every meal. I know that Beechnut does sell some mixed fruits and vegetable blends but they don’t have as many combinations as I can make.
• I can control the quality of the food I am feeding him. While there are organic baby foods on the market, they tend to cost even a bit more than regular Beechnut. I can buy organic fruits and vegis for just a few cents more and make mass quantities so the extra cost of organic isn’t really an issue.
• I make sure that only good fruits and vegetables with no significant bad spots are going into his food. I know that they probably watch out for that at the factories but I don’t have that guarantee.
• I have fun creating new combinations.
• Truett loves it!

Cons:

• It takes longer than just opening a jar.
• I have to plan ahead to have his foods defrosting in plastic containers in the fridge or else I end up with a fussy hungry baby and messing with the microwave to get his food thawed out.
• I have to pack a cooler with ice packs if I want to take this food on the go so that it will stay fresh. I prefer to just pack jars to take on the go so that I don’t have to worry about that but really it isn’t too much more trouble if I am just heading to a friend’s house.

 

Ultimately it really doesn’t make any difference I am sure. I believe that store bought baby food is probably quite comparable to homemade. But I actually enjoy making his foods and I do save a little money in the process. Truett eats at least 3 cups worth of fruit and vegetables a day along with one jar of meat and usually one cup of breastmilk mixed with oatmeal or rice cereal so he’s a big eater! So I think that making most of his food homemade would be a substantial savings. I still plan to continue feeding him store bought foods when we are on the go and it is a matter of convenience but when we are at home, the pros out weigh the cons for me. What do you think? Do you have any tips or suggestions?