So I decided to make my own because I did it once, and I was sold. I was using the Dr. Denmark model of a protein, fruit, veggies and such everyday. Also she recommends putting bananas in everything because it is the perfect baby food. Soren would not even eat processed baby food veggies, so her banana recommendation was both welcomed by me and him :). This also gave me the opportunity to use fresh veggies from my garden, since everything gets purred and stewed anyways, a spot of blemish, or a 4 day old okra pod was no big deal.
I will give yall the Dr. Denmark detailed link, but basically you make sure you start with a banana base, then you get a protein (I use beans cause its cheap) a fruit, and a veggie at least once a day. I use an of brand magic bullet, then mix the contents together in a big blender. At first I mixed it all together, but since I make 30 servings at a time (that 3 blender fulls!) I separate it out into fruits, protiens, and veggies. http://friendsofdenmark.wordpress.com/2008/09/03/making-baby-food-part-2/
Examples
Blender 1
- 6 bananas, blueberries, fresh peached, (I got 5 fresh peaches donated to me by a grower who could not sell them) and some cantaloupe, with some yogurt of cottage cheese. This makes 12 servings of an 8 oz. breakfast for about (5.00) -equivalent to 24 baby food jars that would have cost $12.00.
Blender 2
- 6 Bananas, 6 peeled fresh sweet potatoes, a can of pumpkin and some beans (cook beans ahead of time- so cheap and so nutritious, go ahead and have Mexican for dinner too:) Makes 14 8 oz servings for 5.00 = to 28 baby food jars which is $14.00.
Blender 3
-6 bananas (1.20), 1 bag of frozen peas (.79 cents at ALDI), and whatever veggies I have, but are not using- zucchini, okra, squash etc. Makes 12 8 oz. Serving for 2.00 = 24 baby food jars at $12.00
Storage-
I see a lot of people storing and freeze in ice cubes, I think this is INSANE! Why would I do this when Soren eats like a whole cube tray a meal? Anyways, I simply store them in Tupperware, you can use take and toss (at baby section), or regular old plastic containers from the dollar store (.25 a piece). Then put everything in the freezer, I can either transfer a few at a time to the fridge, of just defrost them in the microwave as I go. When me and Jesse Go hiking or for a long day trip, I just take a frozen container with us, if defrost in 4 or 5 hours so is perfect by his next meal time!
I do this twice a month = I pay $24.00 rather than 6 jars a day at .50 sale price = 90.00/month. My record time is 40 minuets for cooking storing and cleaning up after myself. So I save 66 dollars for an hour and a half of work a month. Not bad, and it is super fun!
IMPORTANT TIPS
If your mixture is runny when you defrost it. Just use some rice or oatmeal cereal to thicken it up.
whenever you use canned stuff make sure you get low sodium, and light syrup,then drained and rinse the contents
Why not Gerber?
I am not an alarmist, and I believe on doing things because you love them, not because you are afraid of doing something else. With store bought baby food, there are a few things to consider. First, corporate America does not care about your child's health, I am not saying the food is not safe and FDA approved, but we have created a culture that wants the most for the least amount of money, we did this, and now we live enslaved to groady products and we wonder why. It's the down side of capitalism. We get cheap, convenient, preservative filled container called “garden vegetables' so we thinks it's wonderful. I'd rather know exactly whats in my baby food:). Thats just me, I love knowing where my food comes from. Secondly, in my journey to become self-sufficient, I cannot pay $1 a cup for mushed up food. It's just backwards!
http://freshbaby.com/healthy_eating/benefits.cfm
My Monster
No comments:
Post a Comment