Making Baby Food

I already told you that I love my babycook.

It makes making baby food so quick and easy.

I enjoy making Olivia's food, and I'm pretty proud of the fact that she is getting the best, most natural food possible.

So I thought for any of you moms out there that may be interested, I'd share how it works.

First, it comes with a little booklet that tells you exactly how much water to use to steam each food and vegetable.  You then just fill to the line.  We use bottled water because sometimes the water is reused (I'll explain that in a minute).

For line one foods it takes about 5 minutes to steam.  For line 2 it takes about 10 minutes and for line 3 it takes about 15 minutes.

You then pour the water into the steamer side.

There is a little steamer basket that sets inside the main compartment.

On this day I was making pears.

I cut the pears up and put them in the basket.

I leave the skin on for apples and pears.  

That is another reason why I buy organic. (Obviously I still wash them well before steaming.)

Leaving the skin on helps keep in more of the nutrients.  You can blend them with our without the skin.  I have blended the skin on with apples for more fiber.  I have also made both apples and pears by peeling the skin off after they are steamed.

Then you just put the compartment on the cooker.  It locks in place.

Then click to the steam side.

It knows how long to steam the food by how much water your poured in.

It's done steaming when the light goes off.

It comes with this little spoon type tool to lift the basket out.

Since I wanted to take the peels off of the pears, I let them sit for a little bit.

Taking the peels off added maybe an extra 5 minutes to the process.

Keeping the basket out, you put the food into the main processor.

Here is where that extra steamed water comes into play.  Pears (and apples) are already pretty liquid-y.  They don't need extra water to thin them out.  Other foods such as sweet potatoes need the water.  So you would take the water that was used to steam the food and use it here to help thin your food out to the right consistency.

Blend to preferred consistency

I used 2 1/2 pears and it made 10 ounces of baby food.

So at most it took me 30 minutes to make a weeks worth of breakfasts. 

(She won't eat pears every day for breakfast.  We'd be having a problem then! :)  I'm just giving an example.)

Besides homemade food being healthier, it is way cheaper!

I bought a bag of frozen green beans for $1. (Remember to look under ingredients if you do this.  It should just say green bean or peas.  You don't want any added ingredients!)  That dollar bag of green beans made 14 ounces of puree.  That is 7 of my little "jars".  If I was buying baby food, $1 would get me ONE jar. Maybe two.

We buy organic for some fruits and vegetables.  Especially ones on the dirty dozen.  We buy frozen for ones that are out of season (i.e. peaches) or would be more work than it's worth (i.e. peas).

About an hour a week and this is what we have

Ahh, this picture makes me so happy! :)