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| A tray of carrots and apples |
As mentioned previously (see part one), his first solid food was sweet potatoes (Gerber bought). He loved them. I then had him try avocado. He like them but not as much and spat up a lot after. I decided to give him a break for a couple of days.
Next we tried apple. I only had Granny Smith on hand, as that is my husbands favorite. He liked the apple but shuttered after every bite due to its sourness. We then waited a couple more days and tried oatmeal.
Making his food was just as easy and as fun as I thought it would be. I bought Macintosh apples, organic carrots, sweet potatoes, pears and butternut squash. I also purchased 3 BPA free ice cube trays from Walmart for less than $2. Each "cube" is about 1 heaping tablespoon or 1 ounce of food.
I got out my steamer, peeled/cut my apples and plopped them in. Once they were practically mush, I took them out and put them in the blender with some filtered water. I kept adding water until it was the consistency that I remembered from the Gerber sweet potatoes. Into the tray they went, covered with saran wrap and into the freezer. DONE. That was it!
Next I steamed carrots for a very long time. I was informed by a friend that you want to make sure the carrots are also practically mush. Lastly, I baked sweet potatoes in our toaster oven at 450 for about an hour. I then scooped out the flesh, and blended that with some filtered water.
With all the food I made, I filled up all three Walmart trays as well as one Rubbermaid tray I had at home. At 16oz a tray, I made 64 ounces of food. I ran out of trays and decided to do the butternut squash and pears another day.The little cubes, once completely frozen, will be put into freezer storage bags and should last about 1-3 months in the freezer.
All in all, besides a little cleanup, it was simple and fun. Did I save any money? Well, I bought the apples at 1.99 a lb- paying $2.65. Carrots were $.99 and I used half the bag so $.50. Sweet potatoes were on sale for $1.99 for a 3lb bag of which I used 2 potatoes. Lets assume I used about $.50 worth of sweet potatoes. So for $3.65, I made 64 ounces of food. Gerber sells 2 ounce containers in packs of two for $1 at Walmart. If I purchased 64 ounces of premade baby food it would normally cost $16. So the difference in cost would be approximately $12. That's a savings of roughly 75%! If you have the freezer space, and the time during your little ones nap, I would definitely recommend making your own baby food.
