Homemade Baby Food
Given the recent trends in DIY projects and healthy, homemade concoctions, it’s no surprise that baby food is also on board. Making your own homemade delicacies for your child is not nearly as complicated as it sounds. Homemade baby food projects can be just as fun as they are economical. Listed below are some of the best recipes I’ve encountered in my days as a DIY baby food maker.
To begin, any baby food recipe is going to require the use of some type of blender. Getting the food pureed to a perfect consistency may be essential to pleasing the palate of your young one.
Sweet Potato Based Puree
No baby food recipe arsenal is complete without a good sweet potato based purée. Infants almost always take sweet potatoes without complaints and the many health benefits associated with them don’t hurt either. To get this recipe started you will need to
- Preheat your oven to 375 degrees
- Take one large sweet potato, and making sure it is properly cleaned, poke a few holes in it with a fork
- Place it in the oven for about 40-50 minutes, or until it is soft to the touch
- Once baked, cut the potato in half and scrape the contents into your purée device
- Depending on your appliance, you may want to wait until it has cooled to blend, but either way, go ahead and give it a whirl to ensure no large chunks or hard pieces will make it to your baby’s tray
- After it has been blended, make sure it is cool enough for your toddler’s mouth and voila! You have yourself a great supply of baby food!
Apple Based Puree
Appealing to your baby’s sweet tooth can be a difficult challenge. You don’t want to overly emphasize sugar and sweetness but you still want to have your little one have a great treat once in a while. I found this following recipe to be the perfect marriage of both of these and my son (who’s sadly now a little too old for this) thought so too! To whip up some awesome apple inspired baby food you will need to:
- Get two apples, I generally favored the Red Delicious variety but I’ve also heard of Braeburns being used as well
- Peel the apples and carefully cut them into large pieces
- Set aside about an 8th of cinnamon
- Place the apples in a steamer above a pot of nicely boiling water
- Leave them in there for about 4 to 5 minutes or until tender
- Once they’re nice and soft put them, along with the cinnamon into your blender and blend till smooth
- After the mixture has cooled, you’ve got a wonderful apple based purée!
Bean Based Puree
Beans are a great staple for any growing youngster’s body. With their complete proteins and fiber, giving your baby a great homemade bean purée is a great choice that requires a little more elbow grease than the last recipes. However, this can really pay off with the happy grins and smiles of a satisfied and full youngster. To get the ball rolling you will need to make sure you have:
- 1 cup of some leafy greens, (Kale or Spinach are great healthy choices)
- A clove of garlic
- A tablespoon of chopped onion
- An 8th of a teaspoon of oregano
- A half cup of cooked brown rice
- A cup of cooked white beans
- And finally, a half cup of cooked tomatoes
You’ll want to make sure your kale is properly cooked or steamed before you add it to the blender. A great thing you can do here is steam the onions, oregano and the greens all at once. Place all the ingredients in the blender and purée until everything is smooth. Make sure this meal is cooled properly before serving and see how fast your baby will eat this treat up.
Cynthia Dorsch loves writing about health and wellness. In her free time she can often be found researching and catching up on trending techniques and new innovations in the medical field. She currently writes and blogs for My Egg Bank, a company specializing in third-party reproduction.
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