Babyfood Adventures ~ An Update

When I last wrote on 09.26 in THIS POST, I had fallen in love with making homemade baby food for Bryn.  Well, here's our update...I still LOVE it!  I get such pleasure out of providing not just my breast milk for baby B, but now healthy, fresh food made with love.  I can't believe how easy it is, how much money we've already saved and I wonder daily why I didn't make the jump with T.  What was I thinking?????   

Now don't get me wrong, I am not preaching that my way is better...Gerber, Beechnut, Earths Best...I have love for them all.  As a working mommy who likes to be on-the-go, I understand the need for premade baby food.  I think there are really great alternatives out there, my personal fav is definitely Earths Best.  Gerber and Beechnut have made great strides in making their foods more organic.  I appreciate that, and I will probably use their products at some point.  I understand a need for convenience, sanity, and time-saving (I mean, I'm not exactly a cloth-diapering mommy...::blushes::) but for us...this is working...right now. 

Why do I love baby food making, let me count the ways (10 of 'em):
1. It's cheap - for example, I got 15 servings of peaches out of just 2 medium-sized peaches from my local grocery store!  genius!
2. Super easy - especially if you use steamfresh veggies or food you can mash with a fork.  I didn't buy an expensive food processor...just use my blender and push the "puree" button...viola!  Baby food magic!
3.  Bryn LOVES everything I have given her.  Now this may be a fluke, or just her laid-back personality, but she hasn't made one "yucky" face thus far. 
4. It's easy to "mix" first foods for variety
5. More use out of our deep freezer - bonus!
6. Easy to "share" food with my MIL or hubby when I'm not doing the feeding
7. I truly enjoy the "cooking" process and get super excited when I get to put the cubes in the baggies and label them.  I love to label!
8.  It's fun to be creative and try new things that might not be available at Kroger. 
9.  Hubby is very supportive and really gives me "props" for making the food (which makes me feel good).
10.  Ty loves helping mommy make his baby sister's food, so bonus quality time is fun!

So far here are our success stories;  bananas, avocado, apples, peaches, pumpkin, mango and peas.  I am pumped to make green beans, chick peas and pears this weekend.  I also finally pulled a few carrots from our garden...and they're GORGEOUS!  I am so excited to put fresh carrots from our own garden to good baby food use!  I know carrots are notoriously the "dirtiest" fresh food (pesticides)...so how awesome that we have our own "stash".  Can't get more organic than that!  I'm also gonna try a recipe I found for teething biscuits and try to make my own rice cereal too!  So fun!!! 

Apple try #1

 Not sure about peas...but turns out she LOVES them!

 Give me those peaches!

And just an fyi...you CAN freeze avocado, banana and mangoes...with a little extra water and some lemon juice...and you're set!  Plus, these 3 foods don't require a food processor or steaming...BONUS!