Homemade Baby Food
A fantastic way to save money when you’ve got a little one crawling under foot is to prepare your own baby food. The average price at my grocery store for a 1 serving jar of baby food, stage 1, is $.51. From my rough calculations, you can save an average of 75% by spending a few minutes in the kitchen to make your own food, especially if you buy in season and get the best prices on that fresh produce.
While I prefer cooking in the kitchen each night for our “big people” meals, preparing homemade baby food once a month is what works best for me. Once baby is big enough, I’ll grind or puree some of the foods that we are having until he is ready for “table foods.”
Favorite Homemade Baby Food Books
- Super Baby Food by Ruth Yaron
- Top 100 Baby Purees by Annabel Karmel
- Annabel Karmel’s New Complete Baby and Toddler Meal Planner
Homemade Baby Food Online Resources
Feel free to share your own experiences with making your own baby food. Were you successful? If so, share what worked. Did you find it difficult or frustrating? We’d love to answer questions.
I know many of you have blogged about your homemade baby food experiences, favorite recipes and tips and tricks. Please leave a link below so we can learn from each other!
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Now that my youngest is 19 months old, I don’t make homemade baby food any longer but I still posted a link to the stuff I used to make Cara all of the time. Stuff she loved.
I know the link is old, but it’s still useful.
I linked up! WholesomeBabyFood.com is also a great source. I primarily use their “recipes” when I make food for my baby.
@Katie, Okay now I just finished reading your links and you listed that one, too. So you already know how great that site is.
I’m so excited to link up on $5 Dinners and it couldn’t come at a more perfect time! I’m doing a whole series on making baby food on my blog right now so there are several recipes posted along with photos! I’m actually working on writing a new one as we speak! I hope you’ll be able to stop by. Thanks!
Thanks for sharing the resources at Once A Month Mom, I’ll have to link up some of my baby’s favorites.
I loved making my baby’s food!
Now that she’s 2.5, we’re definitely past that stage of life, but I did write a post last fall about pumpkin puree. You can use it straight up as baby food (my girl’s fav combination for a while was pumpkin and blueberries… weird, I know!), make pumpkin spice muffins, add it to oatmeal, yogurt, spread in a tortilla for a pumpkin “quesadilla”… whatever! 
You might want to check out a book called “Baby Greens” A live approach for Children of All Ages, the authors are Michaela Lynn and Michael Chrisemer. If you want to get your kiddos started on the greens early this is a great book. I started my 4th them. I would have preferred more recipes, but if its available at your library I would definitely check it out first before buying (just in case you decide its not your style).
I posted about this a couple weeks ago even though it’s been a few years since I’ve made baby food.
I didn’t really do baby food. I breastfed my babies and when they began to look with envy upon the food on my fork (LOL), I would offer them a bit of mashed banana/avocado/sweet potato etc. At this age they could pick things up with their fingers using the pincer grasp. I never pureed or froze anything. Worked for us
Super Baby Food by Ruth Yaron is a completly useless book for people making baby foods. 90% of the “baby foods” in it include things that you need to be at least 1-2 to eat (honey, berries, nuts, etc). By the time your baby is old enought to eat them they can eat most of whatever you are eating.
I’ve blogged once about making my own baby food, and it has been a HUGE money-saver for us! I used little containers which held about 1/2 cup, and they were the perfect size. Since I didn’t have an unlimited supply of containers (or freezer space!), I cooked once a week, and it worked great for us Here’s the direct link to my post about making applesauce for my son: http://www.everydayhomecook.com/2010/02/homemade-applesauce/
For how $1 can yield 17 jars of baby food, go here:
http://mealplanningmommies.blogspot.com/2010/04/math-on-how-1-yields-17-jars-of-baby.html
I absolutely loved making baby food for both of my kids. I had such a sense of pride in preparing the food in my own kitchen and knowing exactly what they were eating. Not to mention how much better it tastes! I highly recommend making your own baby food!
Buying baby food is way too expensive and it’s so easy to make your own. There are some tools that make it easier, check out the post.
I made my own baby food for all 3 of my kids… BF them all as well & cloth diapered all 3… Talk about some HUGE savings $$$ wise… I found the Super Baby Food book to be a great resource…. not so much for the “recipes” but for the whole process of making, freezing, etc. This is where I learned of the ice cube trays, etc. I LOVED IT… My oldest is almost 8 years now… I would batch cook something here and there every few weeks and store in freezer bags. I would then mix the items… by adding a cube of this and a cube of that. My kids would hardly touch “jar” food… and have always been great eaters… They transitioned to self fed babies and loved many different veggies and meats, textures etc, b/c they were given them
Great ideas everyone
I love using my pressure cooker to save LOTS of time!
I used to make all kinds of baby food when my kids were little. I would “bake” sweet potatoes in the microwave. Pureed at first, then just cubed for finger foods. http://marloelaine.com/make-your-own-healthy-baby-food
How much baby food are you making at a time? For an example my 7 month old can only currently eat sweet potatoes (due to severe food allergies) so he needs it for 3 meals a day but I just can’t quite figure out how much to make at one time.
sarajane7951@hotmail.com
thank you
Hi Erin
I am The Gourmet Mom ; http://www.thegourmetmom.com and you would think with such a title I could make baby food for my new grandbaby. I have great recipes, but none for the little ones. So glad I came across your site. My daughter and I will be making all your recipes. They look delicious. Continued success, Lisa
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