Baby Food Made Simple
Baby food can be super easy to make, more easy than you might think. I’m not a huge cook, but I absolutely love cooking soup. One of my favorite things to do is to throw a bunch of stuff in the crockpot and let it slow cook all day. When I was pregnant with my daughter, I would make a ton of soup and so it’s no surprise that my daughter loves my soups.
Baby food is very simple to make when you throw it all in the crockpot. Depending upon the size of your family. Since there’s just three in ours, we usually have enough for mommy and daddy and then enough to blend to make into baby food.
General ingredients that tend to work well together in the crockpot:
Veggies:
- Celery
- Carrots
- Kale
- Spinach
- Bok Choy
- Green Onion
- Onions
- Tomatoes
- Garlic
- Baby potatoes
- Sweet potatoes
- Green or Purple Cabbage
I don’t use all of the ingredients. I do tend to always use celery, onion, and carrots. Then I’ll add tomatoes, kale, or instead I’ll throw in cabbage. I don’t always use potatoes and Bok Choy I’ve only used a handful of times. I try to mix up the combination to make things interesting and not always the same. You don’t want to over do how many veggies you add. Otherwise by the time you get to your meat, you run out of space. The sweet potato is good to cut up and you usually only need one large one.
Don’t forget to buy enough sweet potato to bake on another day and then mash up for the baby. Most babies love sweet potato, I know mine does and what best way to serve it than organically rather than processed stuff from the store. Left over uncooked veggies can be steamed and blended and frozen in the freezer.
Meat:
- Tofu
- White fish
- Shrimp
- Beef
- Chicken breast
- Chicken legs
- Cornish hen
I usually pick one meat and I’ve tried all the above. Cutting up beef into small squares as well as chicken breasts, is rather simple. The one thing I like about chicken legs and Cornish hen is that when you slow cook them, the meat falls off the bone. Chicken bone tends to add flavor to soup. When putting in a Cornish hen, you don’t have much room. So you have to be selective with your veggies. I usually purchase broth: chicken, beef, veggie, or seafood depending upon the meat. You really don’t have to because the meat and veggies will offer flavor organically via slow cooking. But, I found using broth from the start helps to make the soup extra tasty.
Flavoring:
I like to use Accent and low sodium soy sauce for flavoring. I almost never use salt. I also like to use Bragg Liquid Aminos that is a healthy alternative to soy sauce. I try to keep in mind how much spices and salt I’m using because I plan on blending part of the soup to make into baby food. So, I don’t want to give my daughter too much salt.
Bragg Liquid Aminos has 16 amino acids in it. Braggs Liquid Aminos has a decent amount of sodium in it, so you want to be careful with how much you add.
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The great thing about making too much soup is that you can blend it and make homemade baby food. I’ve frozen up to 15 little mini Tupperware blended veggies and meat combinations. Homemade baby food is said to last up to 3-6 months in the freezer. My daughter has often turned away from store-bought stuff and for a period of time only wanted the homemade stuff. She’s now adapting to a variety of selections, but her favorite is eating from mommy and daddy’s plate.
Lately, as she’s gotten more mobile I’ve had less time and energy to make the homemade stuff and freeze it. But, I plan to start it up again.
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