Homemade baby food

I was asked recently about homemade baby food. My response was that I love making it and it is so simple. I know that their are a number of resources on the internet on how to make baby food, this is my take. I use wholesomebabyfood.com as a starting point, it has great lists of what to feed and when and recipes.

I have found that Lily is a lover of all things squash.  This is how I do acorn squash.

Most acorn squash are greenish but this one happens to be orange.  It looks very much like an odd shaped pumpkin.

acorn squash

I scrub it clean and then cut it in half lengthwise. I swear to you cutting this thing open was the hardest part of the whole thing. I had no idea how tough it was.

acorn squash

I then scraped out the seeds. Since making this one I have bought a set of grapefruit spoons at Target. (I couldn’t find them on the Target website. Those things are a life saver.

acorn squash

Then they went into a pan, flesh side down with an inch or two of water.

acorn squash

I cooked them at 400° for about 1 hour.

The flesh was nice and soft and the skin was a little browned.

acorn squash

I scraped all the meat into my little food processor and gave it a whirl. You might need to add some water to get it to puree nicely. I try not to add too much water at this point though. From here on out it is very much like making sweet potatoes.

acorn squash

Once its cooled I spooned it into an ice cube tray, wrapped with plastic wrap and froze it overnight.

acorn squash

I make butternut squash just like this too.

I have a different method of heating these up then most people that I’ve read. We have a microwave but we never use it.

In the morning I take out a couple of food cubes and put them in the fridge in the cup I use to feed Lily. They are usually mostly defrosted by the time I feed her dinner, although this method still works if I forget to take them out, it just takes longer.  Lily only eats solids at dinner, the rest of the day she nurses.

warming Lily's dinner

When I’m ready to feed her I turn the water kettle on and put the food cup in a bowl. Once the water has boiled I fill the bowl with water and if the food needs to be thinned I add some of the hot water to it. I stir the food every so often and it heats it up in about 3-5 minutes.

warming Lily's dinner

I try to always keep some frozen green beans and peas around for the days I forget to take cubes out. That way I just cook the beans and peas according to the package directions, throw them in the food processor and then feed Lily.

As you can see this takes a few more minuted then opening a jar but I love the whole process of making my daughter’s food. And she loves eating it.

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6 thoughts on “Homemade baby food

  1. I read about a trick to make cutting the squash a lot easier – just pop it in the microwave on high for 1 to 2 minutes. I just did that with an acorn squash and it was SO easy to cut in half – I did make sure to poke a few holes in it beforehand so that it wouldn’t explode. I think I read about it on wholesomebabyfood.com – love that site!

  2. That’s how I do Little One’s squash too. We had LOTS of squash on our farm this year, so good thing for me Little One loves squash!!!

    Our freezer now looks more like “Little One’s freezer”! I’ve got all her pureed ice cubes of green beans, squash, carrots, peas, chicken, apple sauce, etc…

    I started a thread on my FB re: introducing certain foods to babies. I was interested in your input…

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