My daughter is 7 months and we started feeding her solids when she was 4 months- she loved eating solids from the start. She loves everything- we've gone through all the fruits and veggies and she still gets exited- she even LOVES peas. From what I've read now is a good time to introduce meats because she needs the iron and the iron in meat is absorbed better than the iron in the baby cereals. So I've started giving her some of the gerber dinners such as Chicken and Apples, Beef and Carrots and so on. Up until now I've felt just fine about the gerber foods but the meats small just awful! Even though she eats them with the same excitement as everything else- my husband and I feel like the meats can't be very good quality. While we're not "organic" type people or anthing we just don't know what "parts" of the chicken may be going into those jars. We both enjoy cooking and would like to take on making homemade baby foods for our daughter. I just wondered if anyone had tried this? If so I would greatly appreciate any tips and/or recipies.
Hi C.,
Try the book First Meals by Annabel Karmel (you can get it on Amazon). I make all my daughter's baby food and it is a great book with wonderful recipes for meat dishes.
C. :-)
Homemade baby food is easy, and I should know because I am no super mom and it was easy for me. All you need is a baby mill, which is an aparatus that looks like a windmill that gets pushed into a white tube. It grinds up anything for you. I fed my son whatever we had for dinner. Spaghetti, chicken breasts, casserole...whatever. And the best part is you don't have to buy or mess with disgusting baby food. There is also a book called "Super Baby Foods" that has some recipes, but I just fed him what the rest of the family was eating after I ground it up, and he did absolutely great. Good luck.
I used the Super Baby Foods book too and it also has great tips on how to store/freeze the foods.
I'd suggest getting the book "superfoods" by Annabell Karmel. Its a baby to toddler cookbook. I loved it and my girls love the recipes from it. They are healthy and they helped me to venture out of my comfort zone to try new foods with my family.
Our daughter loved the homemade meats that we made. I baked chicken thighs (lots of iron)and then pureed them up in the food processor. I went to Whole Foods and purchased a small piece (they sell the ends at a discounted rate) of filet mignon. Once home I ground it up in the food processor, browned in a skillet and then pureed it a little further. The consistency was not like the jarred foods more like tiny pebbles but she loved it. I would occasionally mix it in with vegetables to get her used to the texture.
Hi C.!
I absolutely LOVED making the baby food for my now 2 year old. I too never was the "organic' type, but was a little disturbed when I first started feeding him store bought baby food carrots and they looked more like tomato sauce than carrots and the taste was even worse. I then started wondering what kind of preservatives they put in this baby food to give it a shelf life of several months to a year or more? I knew that I couldn't make it myself and even freeze it for more than a couple of months and I just didn't think I wanted that in my baby's body. So, it is a great idea and alot of fun in you have the time. I can't wait to start making my four month olds food for him. But to your question about meat. I would take chicken, turkey and ground beef and boil it in water until it was done. As he got older and could handle spices, I would add garlic powder, onion powder, salt and pepper etc. to the chicken or turkey and add the same plus maybe some worchestershire sauce or A1 to the ground beef (I would season it the way I do my hamburger patties). At 7 months you could probably add some garlic powder or onion powder. I wanted to try to expand his tastebuds as much as I could because I am such a picky eater. Then I would take the meat and put it in the blender (reserving the stock it was boiled in) and puree it adding the stock to acheive the consistency that I wanted. Only make enough the she will eat in a week to week and a half (especially the chicken and turkey)because they get very dry in the freezer. The ground meat is usually okay. I would also cook a roast (in the crock pot with the vegetables) and puree the meat with the broth from the crock pot and mash up the vegetables. Mine also LOVED rice. So, even before he could eat it whole, I would put some brown rice in the coffee grinder (after it was cleaned of course) and pulverize it, boil it and use it for him as a cereal with fruit, mix ground meat, or chicken and veges - that always went well! So, let me recommend the book for you that I used 'Mommy Made and Daddy Too! Home Cooking for a Healthy Baby and Toddler' by Martha and David Kimmel. You can also find a ton of recipes online if you search for them. Let me know what else I can help you with on this - I would love to. Oh! something else I did was ( I started out feeding gerber applesauce and carrots) so I kept the plastic containers to store and freeze the food I made. Perfect serving size. I also made applesauce and later found Musslemans Natural Unsweetened Applesauce. I trust it almost as much as I would had I made it myself, so that is what I buy now. But like I said, please let me know if I can help you at all - I would be more than happy to. Good luck to you!
A.
Hi C.!
I pretty much always made my daughter's food -- it was easier and cheaper! I would also recommend "superfoods". We used those receipes for lunch things. As for dinner, I often just pureed whatever we were having that way she got used to my cooking. If you are concerned about the spices you can always add them after you "make" your daughter's food.
we started meats with our son at that age. usually eggs, and a little bird, beast and fish thrown in for variety. just be sure to cut any meat (or anything else) you give her into pea size bites and make sure it's cooked tender (no well done steak). we never bought baby food, pastas and rices are fine now, and mine even started eating asparagus around 7-8 months, (though squashes, carrots, and broccoli are a little easier and more affordable for every day). any way i wish you good luck. just start giving her what you're eating, she's ready. anyway i wish you good luck.
Hi C.! I make my daughters baby food because I'm a stay at home mom and there's no reason not to. You can look for ideas on homemadebabyfood.com. Most of the recipes tell you the same thing. Boil or steam the fruit or vegetable then use the cooking liquid if needed. The fruit never needs it but the vegetables and meats do. I don't always use organic but I will if it's available. I can usually find a Buddy's whole chicken. You just boil the chicken in plain water about an hour to an hour 1/2. After it cools, remove it from the bone and process it in a food processor. You keep adding the cooking liquid or water untill it's the right consistency. I make fruits, vegetables, and meat. After I did this a while I started mixing and adding rice and potato too to the vegetables. Making baby food is tedious but it makes you feel better so it's worth it. I hope this helps you.
My son also started out life very hungry and had to move up to foods and solid foods quickly to fill that hunger. He was 6 months old eating gumbo with us, with the meats chopped really fine for him. He loved the flavors of the grown up foods. We have one of those little bitty food processors, kind of a chopper really, and we would process his meats like chicken and beef to a finer consistency by adding broth or stock to it.
It was a blessing. He ate until he was full and turned away the rest and was more content that way.
I agree that the babyfood meats smell differently than we would think, but they really aren't bad. I had even added slight seasoning to the meats and they tasted better.
I know, I'm probably wierd, but I like them myself.
