FOOD!

Having fun in our high chair eating our Sophie!

Emily is now eating food! Yay!

And while most of her food does not look very appetizing it smells and tastes good (I tried it). It is also a really fun mess :)

At our 4 month doctor appointment the Pediatrician said it was alright to start her on solids because we were not breastfeeding (if you are breastfeeding you want to wait till 6 mo). Emily was also showing major signs of interest. We eat dinner as a family and she has been joining us for the past few months. She started staring at our food and following our forks.

We went on a trip at the beginning of February (post to come) and we were in the process of switching her off hypoallergenic formula so we did not want to change her diet right away. So we started after we got back from Houston.

I decided to make my own baby food. I know you probably just read my post about cloth diapers so you are thinking I am a total hippy. And that is fine but again this decision was mainly based on economics.

I found the price breakdown in this article at mint.com.
A 4 oz jar of organic baby food is $1.39. A serving size is 2 oz so that is $0.69 per serving.
A 4oz jar of baby food is $1.05. $0.53 per serving
Homemade food is a little harder to break down as produce cost vary. Here is one example based on what I have paid. I do not buy organic specific produce. But because I made the food I know there are no preservatives added which is my main concern with baby food, I am less worried about pesticides.
I started with sweet potatoes. I paid $0.80 for one large sweet potato. I was able to make 10 servings (i spilled some so it would probably have made more like 12). That come out to $0.08 per serving! That is like nothing.

Making baby food really does not take that much time and if planned correctly you could make enough for one month in about 15 minutes.

I have a baby bullet but you could easily do this with a regular food processor and ice cube trays.

The process is easy:
1. Peal and cut the foods that need it.
2. Boil the foods that need to be cooked.
3. Put in food processor with a little bit of water (use the water food was cooked in)
4. turn on for 3-5 minutes
5. put in containers or ice trays
Your done. Food in the refrigerator is good for 2 days. Food in the freezer is good for 30 days. Using the water the food is cooked in puts the vitamins and nutrients back in the food. More water makes the food more liquid.

So far we have made:
1 sweet potato- 10 servings
2 avocados- 7 servings
3 bananas- 12 servings

Bananas and avocados do not need to be cooked so those are super easy. I still have some bananas in the freezer but I think I am going to make a bunch of food in one big cooking batch later in the week.