23 Weeks Old & Baby Food Making 101

By Cyndi
May 24, 2011

Most of Saturday, I was in and out of the kitchen doing Baby Food Making 101 with two friends who were kind enough to come over and lend a hand.  The boys have been eating fairly well (with a little extra work from Matt and I) and were mostly quiet while we pureed.  I am interested in making as much as I can on my own because then I know exactly what is in it and how much money it can save us.

Here's what I started with:

As much as I can, I will buy organic.  It is a little more expensive, but healthier for the boys and if I'm spending the time to do it myself, I might as well buy the best.  2 bags of green beans, 2 bags of peas, 3 lbs of sweet potatoes, some carrots & a butternut squash.

I baked the sweet potatoes & squash for 75+ min & steamed the other veges (saving some of the water from below to help with pureeing later.

Then, with the help of Kelly, Stacie & an immersion blender, this is what we ended up with.  They were a huge help since I had no clue what the consistency needed to be.  Plus, Peyton (Kelly's daughter) & Lincoln (Stacie's son) had fun playing. Then they went to the freezer:

I bagged each by food and have over 100 servings of baby food purees!!!  To my best estimates, it costs around $0.14/oz to make it on your own, purchasing organic vegetables.  To buy Earth's Best organic stage 1, it is around $0.22/oz through Amazon subscribe & save (and more expensive than that at Babies R Us at $0.28/oz).  It wasn't that hard, but the one mistake I did make was I mixed the sweet potatoes & carrots together so now I need to make more of those two.  You can only do one food at a time for a few days to ensure no allergic reactions.  In a few weeks, I hope to do the same thing with fruits.

I had a good time and in a few months when they are eating two cubes at each meal, two or three times per day, the saving will add up!  Hopefully I will still have the time, but I think if I do one food per night, especially the nights Matt is home, we should be able to continue!  And hopefully no more mixing the foods together.

Other than that, Matt and I went to temple on Friday  night.  They had a family night with appetizers and then a family service.  The boys did great and enjoyed watching all the people walk by them.  We "missed" the service because we had to feed them, but listened to it while in the lobby.  We met some more families & had a successful night out.

On the sleep front, the boys have been waking up around once per night.  We rub their back and they fall back asleep.  Not sure what has changed, since their eating has been better than before, but at least only one of us is up for a few minutes.

Last "event" of the week, was ....... we tried rice cereal!!  I think the pictures explain it all!!  We are not sure how much actually stayed in, but we will keep trying.  Hopefully in a week or two, they will get the idea!

Really??!!  This was supposed to be good.  Get me out of this chair!