Baby stores will try to sell you mini appliances for steaming, pureeing, and storing homemade baby food.
If you have a blender or food processor you can steam on the stove or microwave and puree them without buying new appliances that will take up space and become useless after a few months.
And better yet, if you take the extra time to do several different kinds at a time you can be set for weeks or months at a time by freezing. Basically, meal planning for your baby!
Blenders and ice cubes will soon become your best friend.
I figured out this trick with a little Pinterest research a little late, just before starting solids with my first child. But I did it anyway and fell in love with it. And I did it for my second child too, it was a major time saver.
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Use Common Kitchen Tools
After steaming your foods, all you’ll need is a blender or food processor, some good ice trays, and freezer storage bags/containers.
How to Make Homemade Purees The Easy Way
To make your puree you first need to cook and soften the food, usually fruits and vegetables.
The next step is to place your produce, or mixed meal combinations, inside your blender or food processor and blend away, adding small amounts of water, milk, or formula if it’s too thick.
Once your purees are done blending you simply pour them into your ice trays and wait for them to freeze.
When they’re frozen, remove them from the trays and sort them into your freezer storage (disposable bags like zip-top freezer bags, or reusable silicone bags or glass storage containers and label the kinds and dates of freezer life.
Now you can quickly prepare your baby’s purees by removing a just a few of your ice cubes into a plate and defrosting in the microwave in a matter of seconds!
Side Notes & Tips
Most people make baby food using combined fruits and vegetables but I prefer to keep the ingredients separate and then combine multiple ice cubes to create these variations.
Sometimes I would use fresh fruits and vegetables but most times I used frozen produce. I recently read a Delish article stating frozen produce is just as healthy of nutrients, if not more, than fresh produce.
Frozen packages usually have instructions for cooking where you can microwave them straight in the bag.
Steaming, which could actually be done in the microwave, a rice cooker, a slow cooker, or a 3-tiered steam cooker, is preferable to boiling for containing the essential nutrients. They need to be well cooked and soft enough for pureeing.
First-time feeders need more liquid textures for the purees and once they get the hang of it, thicker purees are less messy. You can also prepare thicker purees and add water when preparing/reheating to serve.
You can defrost in the microwave for a few seconds, in the fridge, for several hours, or room temperature (on your counter) for a few hours.
The microwave defrosting process is the fastest but can be tricky because it will either still be partially frozen or too hot in the end. I find adding a bit of cold water helps to mix it up or cool down.
I recommend using spoons that measure temperature, such as Munchkin’s White Hot Infant Spoons.
Be sure to check out my Favorite Tools for Feeding Babies and Toddlers.
You can also try some of my family recipes for Banana Muffins and my Kid-Approved Veggie Mealoaf (which can be given as meatballs to LED weaning infants).
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My name is Paula and I’m a mom of two scrumptious cuties. Thanks Mommy Blog became a project for me to help guide other new moms and current moms through any of my own personal experiences and struggles. My hobbies include singing, doing jigsaw puzzles, baking, designing and trying to stay creative.
