Making Baby Food

Have you tried baby food lately?  Okay some of them are okay, like most of the fruits.  But what about the vegetables?  They are nasty.  Green beans, and peas are so gross.  Why would we feed this stuff to our kids.  No wonder so many kids hate vegetables, because their first experience is with soupy way overcooked sludge.  I know I don't like canned peas, but fresh and frozen peas are fantastic.
I started making my own baby food for my daughter because of the price of those little jars.  I actually made mine from a lot of frozen vegetables because they were available and affordable.  They taste 10 times better than the baby food in jars.  With a pot, a steamer basket, my blender, a couple ice trays, and ziploc bags I was in business.  It was so much cheaper and tastier for my kid.
 
I made:
carrots
peas
green beans
yams
squash
peaches
venison
chicken
beef
pork
(I know there were more but this is what I remember off the top of my head)

And don't forget mashing your own banana's and avocados. Or using a baby food mill like this one:


 Just be sure it has a steel blade and cutting plate(strainer).  Mine has a plastic strainer and I plan to replace it because it's wimpy.

You can also put your own foods through a mill (maybe for 8 mo. up)


As far as pureeing I used an Osterizer with all metal gears (One of my favorite gifts for college--thanks dad).  One day I want to get a Vita-Mix blender (as seen below).  We borrowed one from one of my husbands co-workers once and it was awesome.  I made a lot of DIY-son's baby food with it, and I almost wasn't willing to give it back. Mainly because of the "tamper" for shoving stuff down to the blades, and because they are so powerful (Plus I love making squash soups and smoothies so I would use this for much more than baby-food)


So, I would buy baby food in jars but mostly for emergencies and for just in case scenarios but I consider it like baby Fast food.  Not the best thing to feed them, but when you're on the go and your hungry it's better than starving.  At home they always get real, wholesome food.  I can't find the website I referenced when getting started making my daughter's food (because it was book-marked on our old lap-top).  I found this website for a friend and it is pretty awesome: http://wholesomebabyfood.momtastic.com
 THIS PAGE is a good one to start on to get an idea.

Don't waste your money on the baby bullet or those other systems.  Use things you can use for the whole family and when you don't have a baby who's still eating purees.  I hate appliances and stuff that is only used for one thing.  They take up valuable cabinet real-estate.  I try to find one machine that can be utilized for all kinds of things.

I hope you can make wholesome 'real' food for your family and give your baby a tasty introduction to good food.