Homemade Baby Food: Getting Started

I used to spend a lot of time each day stressing out and trying to make fresh, interesting, balanced meals for my under-1 baby.

Now, however, I’ve wised up. I still spend a decent amount of time thinking about new flavors and textures and recipes, but it’s not the daily meal-prepping panic anymore. These days I spend certain days of certain weeks prepping large batches of food that can be individually frozen so that I’m not scrambling at mealtime trying to get my screaming baby (who is clearly wasting away - at least she thinks so) something vaguely nutritious.

Before I jump into a few tips for making baby food, let me explain a couple of facts that have influenced how and what I cook for my baby.

Fact 1: My baby is a voracious eater. She eats anything and everything. Overall, this is very good - I’m not stressing about her nutritional needs - though I’m convinced in a year I’ll be revising this entry with a “my daughter now only eats plain pasta and granulated sugar and this is how I’m coping” post. Because, you know, babies turn into toddlers, and toddlers turn into the word “NO!” But the overly enthusiastic appetite has a downside too. She also eats lint, crumbs, leaves, sticks, hair (sometimes still attached to our heads), books, paper, plastic, and generally anything she can get her grubby little hands on. Sometimes, to stress me out, she pretends to eat things off the floor, then sends me an evil smile, challenging me to come over and fish around in her mouth in fear. —did I, during some phantasmagoric sleep-walking episode, break a glass and sprinkle it all over the floor? or perhaps some batteries? maybe my sewing needles? — And that’s just during playtime. During mealtimes with the high chair, I have to scatter small amounts of food all over the tray with lots of space otherwise she grabs fistfuls and shoves as much as she can in her mouth, as quickly as possible, like I’m going to take it away from her. Which triggers her gag reflex, which she thinks is funny. So even though I do believe that baby-led weaning is fantastic, I also know that my daughter refuses to learn by experience, and I adjust the sizing of her food accordingly (all dice - no sticks, no large pieces.)

Fact 2: I cook meals with my baby’s needs in mind, not my own. This is not a self congratulatory, I’m such a good mommy statement. It’s just necessary at this point. I eat like the college-age love child of Paula Deen and a potato. Is it deep fried? YES. Is it covered in butter? YES. Is it red meat? YES. Is it salty and does it come out a bag? YES YES YES. Does it have nitrates? PLEASE, YES. Obviously I’m trying to change this because I don’t want to die in like 4 years, and interestingly enough, having a baby has really helped me on this whole healthy eating journey. Most parents start feeding their babies the food that they make for themselves…it’s a natural and efficient progression. However, I’ve figured out that I eat much more healthfully when I do the opposite. I make food for my baby with her nutritional needs in mind, and enough for myself as well. Which leads me to…

Fact 3: I don’t make the Kiwi baby anything that I wouldn’t eat myself. Food that I think is gross, or boring, or texturally weird is not ok. Even when I was pureeing her foods, I had to be able to take a bite and be like, yeah, I’d eat that through a straw if my mouth was wired shut. The only caveat is that I love my salt, and I don’t season her food with any added salt yet (I add salt to my portions of food after the fact.) But I try to add plenty of spices and herbs and other interesting things to get her tastebuds activated. Let’s all say it together now, AAAAAAALLLLLLLLLIIIIIIUUUUUMMMMSSSS!

Moving on. I’m going to be sharing a lot of recipes on here, and there are a couple of tools that make life much much easier if you have them.

**Note: Pretty much all of the baby recipes will be for 9 months+ (ish) onward- all babies are obviously at different levels of eating and all parents have different comfort levels in terms of the horrifying fear that you will ever give your baby something that they can choke on. Pretty much all of the recipes can be pureed, though, and fed to a younger baby.

USEFUL EQUIPMENT:

Silicone molds - We have a couple different sizes and shapes which is convenient - I recommend having at least 3 each so that it is easier to portion large batches.

Food processor - I have a janky mini one that is actually a stick blender with a couple of attachments. It was like $30 from Kmart, and it has definitely held up. I don’t use it that often now that Kiwi is eating chunky foods, but it is still really good for a couple of things like pancake batter, date and prune puree, and a few other applications.

Freezer-safe storage containers - Once the food is batched in the silicone molds and frozen solid, I pop out the individual servings and keep them in glass containers in the freezer, labeled with the item and the date.

COOKING SANITY TIPS:

Make large batches, freeze into individual portions.
I like to do giant cooking extravaganzas over 2-3 days that will make enough quantity and variety of foods for the baby over about a 2 week period. That way I’m not constantly stressing/thinking about what I need to buy at the store for her/what to fix her for dinner.
Although I love the cook/freeze/reheat for staples (bean stews, dal, meatloafs, quiches, porridges etc.), I think it’s also SUPER IMPORTANT for babies to get fresh fruits and vegetables. I keep shelf stable fruits like apples, pears and bananas on hand. I also usually always have a fresh green (kale, chard, rocket) that I wash right away and keep in the salad spinner so that I can rough chop a handful and add it to the main meal.
I like to also freeze some kind of cooked meat held in stock to always have a protein/iron boost ready.
Try making homemade stock - it can be kind of a pain sometimes, but it’s so useful to have on hand and so healthy - added bonus, it is a great way to use up kitchen veg trim.

GET YOUR BABY TO EAT THIS TIPS:

Try subbing beans for carbs, especially if you have one of those babies who has embarked on an early love affair with pasta (who can blame them?) Beans are a great substitution - they count as a serving of vegetables and they are full of protein and fiber, B vitamin and potassium. White beans in particular are a baby fave - mild, creamy and soft. Cooking from dried is great - you can really ramp up the flavor that way, but canned is fine too, just be extra sure to rinse the beans under cold water multiple times to get some of the salt out. Note: Make sure that you test your baby’s tummy readiness for beans - Kiwi has never had a problem processing them, but some babies have a really hard time breaking them down. If you’re uncertain, start small and build.
Put vegetables and/or greens into everything. This simple trick has spawned countless baby/kid cookbooks with ways to “sneak” healthful vegetables into kid favorites like macaroni and cheese. I try to put a green into literally every “main dish” I make for the Kiwi, so she gets used to seeing it there and (hopefully) expects it. Or at least, doesn’t reject it. Pasta sauce gets chopped chard, meatloafs get sautéed kale, quiches get spinach. I’ve recently started putting fresh rocket over top her meals, for a little zing of peppery freshness. So far, she’s been really into it.
Get those allergens in! Those pesky doctors keep going back and forth with the whole “expose your child early” “definitely don’t expose your child early” to major allergens such as peanuts, tree nuts, egg and dairy. Kiwi is currently in the era of “expose your child early” - also, that philosophy aligns with our personal thoughts on food, so we are all about it. Actually, we try to regularly give her exposure to the big 8 - milk, egg, wheat, soy, tree nut, peanut, fish and shellfish. The only one she really doesn’t have too often is shellfish…still working on that.
Keep natural sweeteners (like prune and date purees) in the freezer. To stir some into oats, yogurt, etcetera, just scrape a layer from the top like granita and add it to the dish.
Try to have at least 1 “hands on” meal a day. More if you can handle it. I cannot. I always do it during dinner because we pretty much go straight to the bath afterwards.
Speaking of hands on…if you have a baby that is constantly trying to grab the spoon out of your hands, invest in many many baby spoons and give them one or two while you’re feeding them.

**Endnote - This is what works best for me and my family - some people do really well with prepping fresh meals for themselves and their kids daily, and kudos to that! I still do cook a fairly large portion of our meals each day, I’ve just come to a point where I feel a certain mental relief knowing that there are plenty of healthy homemade baby meal options in the freezer for those days that I know I’m going to end up eating a package of ramen.

**Endnote 2 - You may have noticed that I write about myself and my baby with nary a thought for my partner - no, I haven’t suddenly become a single mother, but Mark works most evenings (at least through dinner time) and he usually eats at the restaurant he works at - so as far as the typical weekday goes, it’s just me and the Kiwi-baby I need to worry about feeding.

**Endnote 3 - I am not a doctor, nutritionist, or healthcare provider or any kind. I am also not a child expert. This is strictly my experience that I think might be helpful to others. Please check with your doctor before making any dietary changes with your baby!

Meal prepping! Clockwise from the top left; carrot pieces to cook for baby snacks, carrot peels to be frozen for stock, vegetable snacks for mama, vegetable dice to be put into a bean stew for baby

baby stuffSara JacobsMay 4, 2019baby food, tips, tricks, 10 months, baby led weaning, solidsComment