Homemade Baby Food:

i feel the need to explain why i was buying sutton a can of pumpkin...i've been making sutton's baby food for the past few months. it's lots of fun and i'm sure saves lots of money (though i've only ever bought one jar of baby food, so i don't know how much we're saving). i like to use organic whenever i can, and i do use premade baby cereal, applesauce, and canned pureed pumpkin to make life easier sometimes.

i just puree a bunch of steamed veggies or soft fruit and freeze it in this ice cube tray then transfer it to ziplock bags. then you just thaw (in fridge or microwave) what you need for each meal. each cube is right at one ounce, which makes it easy. we are giving sutton mostly table foods now (unless chris and i aren't eating as healthy as i like my baby to!) and we didn't start him on baby food until 6 months, so i really only had to make his food for about 3 months.

i know it's not for everyone, but i had so much fun doing it i thought i would share the things i loved about making baby food:
1. we always had lots of extra fruits and veggies on hand, so chris and i were eating better
2. each cube is just 1 ounce, so it's easy to mix flavors (and vitamins and minerals) and give baby something he likes that's good for him! (green beans = yucky!, green beans + carrots = yummy!)
3. saves money because store bought baby foods are pretty runny, so you figure there is a lot of water in it
4. texture is more like real food
5. i knew where the food my baby was eating was coming from and that it was nice and fresh
6. learned a lot about nutrition during the process
7. learned some fun new recipes (sweet potato fries are chris' fave!)
8. fruit baby food cubes make good smoothies!
9. a big bag of carrots goes a LONG way!
10. i was always a little freaked out that the jar of banana baby food never turned brown

here are a couple good references if you're interested:

Wholesome Baby Food
Super Baby Foods
1 2 3 Cook for Me