Making My Own Baby Food.... - Aubrey,TX

I used ice trays and no they were not covered. As soon as they were frozen I put them in large freezer bags. I thought about using different containers however not everything is meant to be frozen so be careful with that. I was not messy or inconvenient to pull a few cubes from the big bag and thaw for a few minuets. My rule was 3 days for fresh thawed and no more than 6 months in my deep freezer. I loved this site it was a real asset http://wholesomebabyfood.momtastic.com/
It offers great time guidelines and what food is good at what age, and vitamins and good stuff like that. Have fun with it.

I'm not sure how to snawer your specific question because I used ice cube trays. However, I never had a problem. Mostly when we went out and I would need to feed my son, I either brought a store bought jar (always had some on hand for this purpose) or just grab a couple of cubes of the frozen stuff into a tupperware.

I found the freezer trays to work great. Once frozen, I would empty them out into gallon freezer bags and label them. When it's time to eat, could just grab out, say, one apple cube and one peach cube and voila!....breakfast! Good for you making your own baby food. I found people thought I would get tired of this quick, but it really wasn't much work. One food making sessions stored enough for a logn time and they only eat true baby food for a few months really anyway. Totally worth it.

Use ice trays to freeze them then once they are frozen put them in baggies or freezer containers.

I used trays and then when they were frozen I transfered them to ziplock freezer bags. This way they kept longer and I only needed 3 ice cube trays. I would probably make food about once a month and it was always good for that long frozen. Sometimes they would get a little ice on them, but it was still fine, I tasted it! ;) Thawed they only last a day or two.

When I needed to take food to go I would just put the frozen cubes inside one of those Gerber bowls with the clear lids....I LOVE those! My kids are almost 4 and almost 2 and we still use those bowls on a daily basis. If I wasn't going to use the food for a few hours I just left it frozen. If I needed it sooner I would stick it in the microwave for a few seconds to start the thawing process and if I needed it pretty much right away, I just thawed it, put the lid on it and stuck it in the bag.

I think using the ice cube trays and plastic bags you are able to mix and match the foods in each meal easier. This way you can cater easier to your child's needs and how much they eat plus offer variety. Good luck! It's way easier than it seems!

I just mashed up whatever I had on my own plate and gave it to her, seasonings, spices, and all.

Making your own baby food is an awesome, affordable simple way to go. Don't feel like it's all or nothing though. I've found having a few sugar free single serving applesauces to throw in the diaper bag has always been handy. I did use ice trays. Once frozen, I put the cubes in a labeled plastic bag. This kept them tasting fresh and made the trays aavailable again. There are single serving covered freezing things out there, but I always liked being able to use 2 cubes if need be and minimize clean up. Reheating takes (a little) time. I got a tiny little pan defrost or warm up the food in. You also don't always have to freeze stuff. Just hand mashing some avocado and/or banana, potato or whatever is pretty simple. I used the Wholesome Baby Food website a ton for my daughter's first foods. Enjoy :)

Making your own baby food is the best. I loved doing it. I usually prepared several batches of different purees on Sundays. Lots of people use the ice cube trays. I used reusable Glad containers that were, I think, 1/4 cup or 1/2 cup size. I'd pull them out of the freezer and take them with me or put in the fridge, where they can keep for a few days. Frozen food usually keeps 2 months in the freezer.

I recommend these two websites:
http://wholesomebabyfood.momtastic.com/
http://weelicious.com/

Good luck and have fun!

If you are going to use ice cube trays or other plastic containers for the freezer, I recommend the BPA free ones. There are many of these products available at stores and online. Good luck!

When the baby is young and needs pureed food, put it in ice cube trays, cover them loosely with foil. When they are frozen, transfer the cubes to ziploc bags. I use 2 cubes per serving.

When baby can handle chunky food, I dice it and then put it in individual paper cupcake cups on a cookie sheet. Freeze like that, then transfer the cups to ziploc bags. When you want to use it, peel the cupcake paper off then thaw.

I thaw in micro at 40 seconds at 70%, then more if needed. I keep the food 2-3 months in the freezer. Once you thaw it, I would use it that day or the next.

One more tip: if you run low and don't have time for cooking more for baby, steam some of the frozen steamer bags of veggies. You can do the same with the frozen fruits so you dont have to peel them.

Good luck

I did exactly what other mamas did- ice cube trays and ziploc bags! And I made large batches every couple weeks...I'd just get all four burners going on the stove at once! Some combos to try when you start doing combos: sweet potato/apple (add purred chicken to this when you intro meat); potato/carrot/pea (add beef to this later); blueberry/apple; sweet potato/avocado (although I never froze avocado)...if you need ideas, just walk down the baby food aisle! :) I also varied between yellow and orange sweet potato. Sometimes babies take on a slightly orange "glow" because so many of their first foods are orange! Good for you! It's so much cheaper and healthier!

You would freeze them in freezer trays, and then pop them out like frozen ice cubes and put them in a ziplock or something like that. As for thawing, you'd pull out what you need and then put it into a container in your fridge to thaw. You wouldn't keep the food in the ice cube tray all the time, just until it's frozen.

After the cubes are frozen, I put them individually in the snack size ziploc bag. Then I put all of the same food bags inside a larger ziploc bag and label what it is and the date. This avoids freezer burn. I pull out one or two cubes at a time and drop the bag in hot water to thaw/warm.

Hey Friend!

I think everyone already said all that I could say, but I use the ice cube trays. Once they are frozen, I pop them out into Ziploc freezer bags. Then when you need them, you can grab 1, 2 or however many and heat them up. In a freezer bag, they will keep in the freezer for a really long time - easily a year if not more. In the refrigerator, you can leave your food for 4 to 5 days after fully thawed. Even then it probably will not be "bad," but it will have grown more bacteria by that point. The ice cube trays are cheap and easy, but there are definitely cute and fun containers for sale from people targeting the market of people making homemade baby food. Williams Sonoma has some, One Step Ahead, and Babies R Us. I am sure there are lots more too!

I used the book Super Baby Food for a schedule of when to introduce what foods as well as how to prepare them. I know some ladies have already listed great online resources too. One big recommendation I have: make sure you have a full size food processor for pureeing your food. With my 1st I had a mini sized one, and I would have to puree stuff in usually 4 batches, which just made the process longer and wasted more of my time. If you only have to puree one, big batch and then pour into several ice cube trays (or containers) it is MUCH faster!

I am about to have to re-tackle this again as sweet, little number 2 is about ready to start solids!

Love,

Lisa :)

Yep just wanted to chime in that the best thing to use in the freezer for purees is ice cube trays...because of their portion sizes at that age. Once they are frozen in the tray, you can transfer them into ziplocs. The night before, just choose which veg/fruit/frozen meal they are going to eat the next day and put the cubes you'll need in the fridge in little containers that you will use to feed them to thaw. They will be ready to go the next day.

Once my daughter got to the age where she was eating proteins, I would blend roasted chicken or roast beef into her roasted veggies in the blender and freeze that as a meal.

My kids are 2 and 4 now and I actually still roast and puree veggies and fruits. I freeze them in ziplocs now because I need more at a time. I throw things like yellow bean puree into mac & cheese, eggplant puree into meatball or hamburger mixture before cooking, butternut squash puree into cheese grits.

http://wholesomebabyfood.momtastic.com/pureebabyfoodandst...