Homemade Baby Food

The kids and I met a friend and her adorable 11 month old daughter for a play date today. We all had a nice time. She reminded me of when my kids were under a year old and the things that I used to obsess about then. One of them was definitely baby food!
I had decided from the the time I started Keyan on solids to make my own baby food for many reasons. However, my first attempt at pureed peas wasn’t very successful. I became much better at it the more I tried. I was always looking for new recipes to try and I’m sure lots of other mom’s are as well. So here are three of my favorite baby food recipes:

1. Avocado and Banana
This recipe is as simple as the title suggests. Take half a banana and mush it with a fork. Take half an avocado, scoop it out and mush it as well. Mix them both together and voila, lunch is ready! Healthy, tasty and very easy, no blender or cooking needed! It’s sweet and creamy and usually a hit with babies. This is also good as a portable lunch. I used to take it to the mall with me.

2. Spinach Squash Puree
Cut a butternut squash in half and remove the seeds from the middle. Put them face down in a baking dish in about one inch of water. Then put the dish in the oven at 400 degrees for 45 minutes to one hour. You can tell it’s done when the skin is puckering and a little brown. Scoop out the cooked squash and put it in the blender with a little water to puree. You can serve it just like that and it’s yummy. I would actually saute a bunch of baby spinach in a little olive oil and then add it to the blender and puree it with the squash. This gives baby more iron. And if you want to add protein, sprinkle with some grated cheese and it’ll melt right in.

3. Stew puree
Saute a little onion and your choice of cut up chicken or beef in some olive oil. Then add in cut up veggies that you have on hand like carrots, broccoli and sweet potato. Add enough water so that it’s just covered and let it simmer until everything is soft. It’ll smell delicious. Then put everything into the blender including some of the cooking water. Puree and dinner is served. You can make this a vegetarian dish, you can mix it up with whatever vegetables you have on hand, and you can even add a little no sodium broth to add more flavour. Whatever combination you use, it’ll be a really tasty meal for baby.

So these were three of my staple dishes with my two little ones. And remember that with these puree’s, you can always make more and then freeze the rest in ice cube trays to use in the future.

Here are some of my favorite website’s for baby food ideas and instructions:
Wholesome Baby Food
Homemade Baby Food Recipes
Weelicious

What were your go to baby food recipes?

5 thoughts on “Homemade Baby Food

  1. We made our own baby food too! We got a great baby food maker that can either steam and puree or just puree. Our favourites were plain butternut squash and parsnips and turnip!

  2. My boys loved the avocado-banana mash-up, too. Sometimes I added a bit of coconut milk (I’d freeze the contents of a can in ice cube trays, then thaw as needed).

    One of the best things about homemade baby food is the ability to incorporate the flavours of your kitchen. I believe there’s no need to hold back with onion, garlic, herbs, and even spices. For that reason, I found making soup for the family (i.e. roasted butternut squash, pea soup, cream of broccoli soup, etc.) an easy way to make baby food at the same time. Dairy and other “finishings” of the recipe could be left out for the baby food, which would get pureed with the desired amount of stock or water, but these could be added to the family soup.

    Also, both my kids preferred veggie purees when I oven-roasted vegetables (broccoli, cauliflower, carrots, squash), especially if I roasted some garlic at the same time and added it into the mix!

    1. Hi Farrah,
      Coconut milk is a good idea, I never thought of that!
      And that’s so great that you found a way to make baby food from the family meals. It’s always a lot of work if you’re making two different meals everyday.
      Thanks for the great ideas!

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