Home Made Baby food!

Lots of baby food for under $10

I was using store baby food for a while but then i went back to making my own  (for the most part) the applesauce isn't mine BUT i read the labels and MOTT'S has the very same ingredient list as Mott's baby applesauce.... so why not buy a big jar when its on sale and portion it up (the cheaper applesauce has high fructose corn syrup in them so read your labels)?

I had used the ice cube method to portion his food, BUT after a misfortune with an ice cube tray full of  applesauce, i tried to think out of the box a bit and decided that plastic baby food jars would be just fine. I washed them in very hot water first. i never ran them through my sterilizer, but the run through my dishwasher on the top rack just fine.

the pink basket is a basket i put into the big upright freezer. the small green tupperware is the extra i keep in the freezer (normally buried) and i keep the ones i will be suing right away in an ice cube box on the freezer door for the ease of its use.

OK what i have in them......
beef  (1lb makes 6 beef )
chicken (1 breast makes 6)
rice (i do extra when i make rice for the family)
peas and carrots (i cook a whole bag of frozen when i do ours and box up the leftovers)

I still buy some baby food for the ease of travel purposes.  frozen baby food cant sit in the diaper bag like jarred can.

What has brought me to this point is Matt's allergy to milk. Matt cannot eat any of the Gerber Graduates or a good share of the stage 3 foods.  I was very surprised to find Whey to be a VERY common ingredient. (its even in the meat sticks) Label reading seems to have become my newest hobby.  If Matt gets a hold of dairy, he becomes irritable and will not sleep. he whines and cries almost 24-7.  right now we are back to restricting his diet AGAIN due to allergy behavior.  im not certain what i have missed, but SOMETHING has dairy. I am thinking maybe i missed a treat label or something that i didnt even consider to have milk in it. (like those meat sticks that really blew my mind!)

that plate WAS full

I also make jars up of things i make for us. spaghetti for example.  as
So if i have something that i have made and i have 1 extra serving left over, it makes about 4 boxes. and i pop them in the freezer.

right now Matt will eat one box of those and a box of fruit for his lunch.

its the cost of making your own vs. store bought that blows my mind. even if you buy the 90/10 hamburger, its what $3 for a pound and i got 6 - 7oz jars where 1-4oz jar of beef w/ gravy is $1!

other foods i make for Matt? Sweet potatoes (1 potato normal size is a 3-4 box yeild) and those are only $.89 a pound!  if its in the fall, I saw them as low as .79 a lb. also butternut squash is super easy to make.

The way i was ORIGINALLY taught to make these items peeled and steamed in the microwave.  PSHHH that was a royal pain!

My 5 qrt crock pot can fit one squash (split and seeded) and two sweet potatoes whole.

i "bake" them in my crock pot for about 2 hours on high. then all you have to do is split them and scoop out the yummies.  if your baby is really young, i still recommend putting both in the food processor with a bit of sterile water to puree them and getting the constancy your baby needs.  Matt however is good with right out of the skins with a bit of fork mashing.

my old onion chopper

I still keep my handy chopper nearby so that if Matt is having "chew issues" due to teething, I can take his consistency back down to a near puree. the boy never did like mushy food. but at times i will pop the rice peas and carrots and a meat all in the chopper and blend it all for him.

Michelle says it looks like the Beneful dog food when i'm done, but it tastes fine and Matt loves it. by keeping a variety of things frozen he never gets tired of what we have.

So if you have felt the PINCH in your food budget due to a VERY HUNGRY little one and the increase in the food cost in general. Don't be afraid to try even replacing ONE baby food item. mine all started with applesauce and sweet potatoes.  Now i do almost all of his food myself.