Tuesday, June 23, 2009

Flash Freezing Baby Food

Flash freezing servings of pureed spinach, sweet potatoes, and steak for John.

18 comments:

Unknown said...

I did that with my little ones! It saves buying expensive baby food, and it's healthier to boot.

Mary Ellen said...

I had such fun making baby food for our little ones. You can also use the frozen veggie and fruit purees in smoothies.

Heather said...

I did this too. I sure enjoyed it. Boy she sure ate better when she was a babe..lol
Now the picky toddler years are here.

Roxie700 said...

It is a wonderful thing to feed your baby food made at home. I did the same thing with my sons. (now grown men) I froze the food in ice cube trays and then put the frozen food into plastic bags. I did not have a microwave to warm the food. (this was more than 30 years ago) I used a double boiler to warm their food. Worked like a charm and saved us a lot of money.

Jen said...

Love it!

Christian - Modobject@Home said...

I really enjoyed preparing homemade babyfood for my guys. It's so easy! Now I just steam and puree veggies to "hide" in our regular meals.

Workin' MAMA! said...

Wish I'd thought of that when mine were infants - or should I say, I wish I'd had enough time to do that --- After maternity leave, I went back to work in a flash - traveling again - Gerber and it's organic competitor saved this 'working mama's' life!!! Then with breast milk in freezer - worked for us!

I've always thought it was way healthier to puree your own baby food -

On my way to mama's in the south - Can't wait to get the 'real' sweet tea on my lips and the catfish fillets in my mouth -
I can hardly wait and the kids can't sleep - If only they could get a sample of the heat - Heard it's hotter than the dickens there - Aunt says listerine and water in a spray bottle keeps mosquitos to work - just spray it on yourself or any areas around...

It will certainly be a great family reuinion - My mom has 11 siblings - their children are coming and their children are coming... it shall be big!
Meanwhile, I'll be absent for a while from your blog b/c I've promised to leave the laptop and not log on to 'anything' ever while I"m gone... - but know that I
will need a tutorial in getting caught up when I get back - lol!

Take care and talk soon, Sister Meredith!
Latrice
working mama leaving the northwest for 'vaycay' (LOL!)

Laryssa Herbert said...

We do the same thing with fresh berries. Just wash, dry and freeze on sheet pans. Then dump them into freezer bags and enjoy during the cold, grey winter.

Brenda said...

That's a great way to preserve summer's bounty! I would think that John will soon be old for pureed foods. What is he now, about eight months? He'll soon be eating what his older siblings eat. Don't you love to watch them grow?

Michelle in HI said...

I was such a lazy (exhausted) mama that I could never get it together to make my own baby food even though I received so many great books with delicious sounding recipes.

My frugal solution was to delay solids and wait for finger foods. The occasional jar of Gerber got us through the gap (especially when dad was care taking), but I'm sure its not nearly as tasty as your homemade stuff!

Jennie Shutt said...

I made baby food for my kids when they were babies. I put it in ice cube trays to freeze then put them in freezer bags.

Life on 7th Avenue said...

I've never done this. Can you explain it just a little more?

Kimberly @ Raising Olives said...

Nine children and we never bought baby food. We started solids later (8-9 months) and made our own.

Blessings,
Kimberly

Heather said...

I'm a baby food making mommy too! And I have an almost 11 month old and still make some from time to time for him. He's getting much more into the finger food and no spoon thing, but certain times he wants to eat, abut would rather have us feed him.

I think you can't beat homemade baby food for price, control of ingredients and ease of use (no worrying about running out of something to feed the baby). I think it is great that you are doing spinach. I never thought of that, but just bought two bags on markdown today...think I'll be using my ice cube trays today!

Hope the visits are going well!

Heather

Tracy said...

I made my own baby food...didn't really enjoy it that much though. I did it because it was important to me that my children were fed proper food. As a result two of the three refused to eat canned food. There's no way I could've afforded to feed them with bought stuff either ~ they all ate lots even at a young age.

I froze mine in ice cube trays and stored them in the freezer plastic freezer boxes. And I looked forward to my babies eating whatever the rest of the family ate ~ it didn't take too long!

Meredith said...

Ice trays are definitely easiest, but I had already filled mine temporarily with steak and potatoes.

I thought I'd show that you can flash freeze portions of baby food even if you DON'T have ice cube trays on hand.

Just use individual dollops, freeze until solid, and then place them in a Ziploc bag or freezer container.

Meredith said...

Also, even if John is able to chew before we use up these basic purees, I will still be able to throw them in regular food like meatloaf, to add a little extra nutrition in.

Erin said...

I'm wondering how long you can freeze the food. My baby is 4 1/2 months. I have lots of garden produce I would love to freeze. But things like beets, I read you're supposed to wait until they are 8 months old. Is that too long to freeze? What else can I do with it? Bottle baby food? Isn't freezing more nutritious? Thanks!