Have you looked at the price of baby food lately? You might be surprised at how expensive it has gotten along with everything else on the grocer’s shelf.  In addition, if you want your food to be organic and not full of preservatives and salt, you have to pay even more for those tiny jars. But with a little time and effort, you can save money by making your own baby foods.  It’s easy and simple to make delicious, nutritious meals for your baby.

What you’ll need:

• A steamer. Don’t boil baby food; it takes away nutrients from your baby’s food.  You can get an inexpensive steamer that cooks quickly and leaves all the vitamins and minerals your baby needs. However, you may easily bake some foods like sweet potatoes or white potatoes.

• A food processor. While most people would think to use a blender to puree food for your baby, you’ll probably be sadly disappointed with the results.  Blenders not only make a mess, they also make lumpy food your child may not be fond of.

• Ice cube trays, freezer bags, and lots of space. Unless you want to cook up food for your child everyday, freezing is the way to go.  Instead of having to make new, you can just pop it in the microwave and be ready to go in no time.   Ice cube trays are a great way to store food and make convenient portion sizes.

The first step is to wash and skin fruits and vegetables then cut them up into small pieces.  This will make them easier to use later.  If skinning and peeling gets tedious, you can always use some prepared food from the grocery store, like baby carrots.  This way you just have to wash them and skip to the next step.

The next step is to cook your food.  For vegetables, use the steamer.  Once you’re done steaming, keep the water.  You can add it later to thin out your food to the right consistency.  If you’re preparing meat, rice, or pasta, just cook it on the stove as normal, but don’t add any oil or spices.

After your food is done cooking, you’re ready to start processing.  Put the foods separately into the food processor.  For pureed foods, you don’t need to stand over the machine because it may take a while for the food to liquify.  Later on when the food needs less processing, you will need to monitor it.  This is also the point where you would start fruits like banana that don’t require cooking.  You could also try throwing in some of last night’s leftovers.

After your food is prepared, pour it into the ice cube trays.  If you don’t have enough room in your freezer, simply put sealed food into the refrigerator until you do have room.  Once the cubes are frozen, put 4 of them into a Ziploc back and put them back into the freezer.  At first, you should keep the same kinds of foods in the same bag, but eventually you can start mixing and matching.  For example, put in two meat cubes and two pasta cubes for a mixed meal.

I would not recommend microwaving the food in the baggies because you don’t want chemicals transferred from the plastic during the heating process, but you could transfer the frozen food to a glass bowl or just heat on top of the stove in a small pot.

With just a little work, you can make great tasting, inexpensive meals for your baby to supplement bottle or breastfeeding.