Making Baby Food

One of the questions that arises when you are a parent and a vegetarian is what to feed your children. Currently, my almost 5 and 2 1/2 year olds eat meat. Of course, their dad feeds them 3 nights a week while I am at work, and he is a lover of all things meaty. Getting him to buy into a vegetarian diet for the kids is tricky.

But the eight month old is another story. I feel like I can start fresh with him and get him eating "right" from the start. One of the ways to do this is buy organic baby food. Amazon often has great deals on their organic baby food through the Subscribe & Save program. Free shipping, food delivered to your house, and a really good price! All good things. I just had a case of Earth's Best 2nd Food Vegetable Mix delivered for about $8. Not bad for 12 jars of organic baby food!

But what is even better than buying jarred food is making your own from organic vegetables and fruits.

I have made baby food for all of my three kids. The first got a lot of experimental attempts and more jarred food. The second got a lot of homemade until she was ready for finger food. I don't think I gave her jarred food at all until she was nine months old unless we were traveling. And sadly, with this third one, I have been so busy, I barely have time to make anything extra. This is something I need to work on!

Nevertheless, I found time and made some organic sweet potato and apple puree for the little guy a couple days ago.  You can freeze it in ice cube trays and pop them out and put into a freezer storage bag until ready to use. I used:
-1 large organic yam
-2 medium sized Gala apples, peeled and cored.
Throw them in a pot with some water and boil until soft. Strain the food but keep the cooking liquid!
Once it has cooled a little bit, dump the food into your processor or blender. Blend until smooth and no chunks are left. You will probably need to add some of the reserved cooking liquid to make it smooth. Maybe 1/4 cup or so. This is better than use regular water because some of the nutrients that cooked out of the veggies are retained in the water. Bonus!

Anyway, there are lots of easy baby food recipes you can make! Even when purchasing organic fruit and veggies, it is still cheaper than buying the food from the jar.

Now I just have to work on the other kiddos........