Baby Food (Part II)

In case you're wondering: Yes, I make my own baby food.

I doubt that surprises you, given my interest in trying new recipes and gardening and tackling challenges like making mozzarella and canning and the like.

Some of my wonderful friends (who know me too well) got me started at my first baby shower with some fabulous baby food-making books and supplies. Then at another shower I received an entire Baby Bullet set, complete with the food processor and storage containers galore. It wasn't something I had registered for, but I was certainly excited to receive it.

You don't need all that fancy stuff to make baby food. A basic food processor or even blender would work just fine. And honestly, you don't even need recipes. (Although I love cookbooks so am excited to add some baby food ones to my collection!)

Even if it isn't absolutely necessary for making baby food, I have to say the Baby Bullet is handy, handy, handy. I really can whip up a big batch of baby food in no time.

Conservative Hubby, of course, questions whether it's worth all the trouble to make my own food. My answer? Yes. It is. For many reasons.

For starters, when you make your own baby food you can use great, local, fresh ingredients. If you want organic produce, you can use organic. You find the brightest, freshest, bestest (yes, I know it's a made up word) fruits and veggies you like. You can use just-picked buys from the farmer's market or your CSA.

And you know every little thing that goes into that baby food. In other words, you don't have to wonder what preservative or additives have gone in there with the bananas. You don't have to question what some of the strangely worded ingredients on the label really are and why they're necessary.

You also don't have to spend tons of money on all those little ready-made jars, then have all those empty jars to deal with. Aren't these little reusable containers much more fun?

(By the way, lots of storage containers are a must. You don't need to have all these fancy made-for-baby ones. Any sort of small jars or ice cube trays or such would work. Although I would definitely recommend making sure they're BPA free.)

Here's the other thing. When you open a jar of baby food, are you interested in taking a big bite yourself? Are you salivating and thinking, "Man, that looks delicious ... I want some"? Probably not. A lot of that baby food looks rather nasty, actually. But when I open a little container of freshly made apples, it looks just like pureed apple and smells like it (because it is). And, I'll admit, sometimes I'll steal a bite. It's darn good.

One thing I have not yet really sat down to calculate is the price of making your own baby food versus buying it. I'm sure someone out there has done it before. I plan to do it for myself, and when I do I'll let you know.

Is my goal to never, ever have Collin eat any purchased baby food? Nah. I'm sure he will at some point, particularly when we're traveling.

(Although I will tell you it's possible to travel with the homemade stuff—we took some when flying to and from Florida and then I made more food with Not-So Conservative Grandmom's food processor while we were there. Easy.)

Rather, my goal is just to have him eat healthy, fresh food and to eat like we do as much as possible, so that once he moves on to "big people" food he can eat right along with us rather than insisting only on "little kid" foods. I figure exposing him to a wonderful variety of flavors right now is the first step in that process.

Guess we'll see, right?

Now if you'll excuse me, I have some pears to puree.

(And yes, we are going to need more freezer space.)