Month: September 2016

How to Make Organic Sweet Potato Baby Food

Posted on by Meredith Rines, MBA, CFP®

sweet potato baby food

I’m back with another baby food making adventure. This time… sweet potatoes. I had heard from so many friends that their little ones loved sweet potatoes. After carrots weren’t a big hit, I decided to try it.

So far our little guy has had green beans, carrots, apples, pears and rice cereal. The fruit is his favorite for sure! I usually have to mix the cereal with his apples or pears for him to eat it. I was surprised when he liked the green beans on their own.

I’ve been making his baby food for a few different reasons. First, I can control what goes in and second, the cost. At almost $0.50 per ounce at the store, it’s expensive. So far I’ve kept everything under $0.20 per ounce by making his food.

I do like to keep things simple though. So if it is a food that I don’t feel comfortably making then I do plan on buying it, such as meat. I did purchase Organic Sweet Potatoes that were already peeled, cubed and frozen from Wal-Mart. It was a breeze to make! From the time I started to the time I finished it was less than 10 minutes.

how to make baby food

You’ll notice that I only filled two 2-ounce containers with this bag of sweet potatoes. It would have filled a few more, but …. funny story…. A few weeks ago I had asked J to boil some carrots and broccoli for dinner. The broccoli was in the freezer and the carrots were in the fridge. He saw the orange on the sweet potato bag and just grabbed it. I looked at the pot and was totally thrown as to how my carrots ended up soooo mushy and cubed perfectly. It was pretty funny!

Here’s a quick tutorial on how to make baby food for your little one.

Here’s what you need
Sweet Potatoes: washed, peeled and cubed (I purchased frozen bag from Wal-Mart)
Pot of boiling water
Blender
Water for puree
Baby food containers

Bring the water to a boil then add the cubed potatoes. Once boiling again, stir then turn the heat to medium. Cover and cook for 5 minutes.
Strain and put into blender, add extra water for mixing.
Once blended smooth, put into baby food containers.
You can freeze for a few months. It can be thawed in the fridge and will last for 3-4 days.

I placed one container in the fridge for the next few days and the other in the freezer for later in the week.

Introducing Baby Food Schedule

Posted on by Meredith Rines, MBA, CFP®

baby food schedule, which first foods should i try

I wanted to share with you the baby food schedule we created for our little guy’s first foods. I thought having a schedule would have been so nice when we first started out. Here’s what we did.

Now there is no need to follow this schedule exactly. You can mix it up, add different foods, etc. Our doctor told us that any foods are good to try first. The old rule of giving cereal at the beginning or vegetables first is outdated. She told me we could start with just about anything. We just needed to make sure it was pureed and cooked, at least at the beginning. I shared in one of my baby food making adventure videos that the reason you want to cook most of the fruits and vegetables (not bananas or avocados or some others that are out there) is that by cooking them you are helping break down the sugars. It makes it a lot easier for their little bodies to digest the foods that way. Once your little one gets bigger then you may not need to cook some of the foods you are giving them.

I went to my local Wal-Mart to find all of these foods. I bought what was on sale, prepared them and then froze them for later use. I thought by making more ahead of time then I would be able to just pull and thaw and not have to worry about coming home from a long day to make more.

Here’s the baby food schedule we followed:

Introducing Baby Food Schedule

You can click the image above or click for a Introducing Baby Food Schedule

I actually took this baby food schedule and printed out a monthly calendar since we started in the middle of August.  Then I hung it on our fridge.  That way we could take a quick look to see which food our guy would be having that day.  It was also nice because we went out of town a few weekends, so I was able to just pull the frozen containers that we needed, place them in a cooler while we traveled.  

Wait 3 days before introducing foods.

Again you don’t have to follow this schedule or any schedule perfectly.  Just don’t introduce too many new foods at once.  You want to give your little one a chance to get used to it and make sure they won’t have a reaction.  That’s why you’ll notice at least 3 days before any new foods are added.  If he does have a reaction then we’ll know which food caused it.

Also, just because you see 6 different foods for one day doesn’t mean that’s the food we will use.  We will use a combination of those foods for that given day.  

Baby’s First Food

Posted on by Meredith Rines, MBA, CFP®

Not too long ago we got the clear from our peditrician to start feeding our little man solids.  I was so excited – I couldn’t wait for him to try food.  But then the fear of what foods, how much, should I make my own or not make my own started setting in.  So of course I turned to Pinterest and found some really helpful tips.  Then I decided to go with my gut along with other mom’s advice.

I wanted to make sure I knew what was going into his food.  I knew the only way to really know was to make my own.  I created a list of foods to try, a sample schedule, and headed out to the store.  I was able to buy so much for so little.  I came home and started cooking right away.  First up was carrots, then apples, followed by pears.  I wanted to not overwhelm myself so I went with foods that I knew would be easy to prepare.  I purchased rice cereal and I plan on purchasing meats along with any vegetables and fruits I don’t feel comfortable with.  

I did my research too on the foods I prepared.  I wanted to make sure I cooked them long enough to break down any sugars and to make them easier to puree.  I wanted to make sure my puree was thin enough for his mouth and digestive system.  I also waned to try foods that would help him expand his tastes at an early age.  

We tried carrots first – my favorite!  J and I recorded him trying carrots for the first time.  I don’t think he enjoyed them as much as I wanted him to though.  Don’t mind the no sound during the video.  J and I were not impressed with us – only our little one.  So I edited out the sound so you could focus on the baby. 

We waited three days before introducing apples to make sure he wouldn’t have a reaction.  The apples went a lot smoother and now if we mix carrots with apples then he seems to not mind carrots so much.  After a few days of that combination I brought in the rice cereal.  Again, as long as there are apples with it then he seems happy.  Next up is pears that I made last weekend.  I decided to make the food then freeze what I can so I’m not having to scramble during the weeknights.  

I’m going to put together the baby food schedule we followed and are following.  I couldn’t find one that fit what I wanted and I really think it would have been super helpful starting out.