For the first two months of my young son’s “real” food eating, I purchased baby food in <gawp> plastic containers.  There’s no excuse I know, except that we are travelling a lot and homemade food is difficult to safely transport and heat on the go.  I did save the jars for the eventuality of making my own baby food, to freeze in single portions.

As summer drew to a close, I realized that both our budget and the environment did not need this added expense.  And as harried as my schedule already is, I simply had to find the time to make L’s food.  I grumbled and complained, whined and lamented and then I did it.  It was easy!  It took some time sure, but not that long really. In fact, I cooked his food while preparing our own dinners, and it was cooled down after we had eaten.  A great excuse to get out of doing dishes - while my husband cleaned up, I ground and froze L’s meals.

We get our vegetables from a farm co-op - fresh, organic vegetables.  It seemed like a perfect place to start (especially since i had more squash than I knew what to do with!).  Here’s how I did it:

1.  Cook vegetables in a pot of water until soft.  Use minimal water.  Similarly, boil chicken in a separate pot (I haven’t tried beef yet, but that’s next).  Canned fruit can be rinsed off and pureed - fresh fruit seems to be fine as long as it’s sufficiently ripe.

2.  Allow to cool slightly and put in food processor (I don’t have one - I used a blender with awesome results).

3.  Puree food, adding some of the water it was cooked in until the desired consistency.  This was some of the nutrients that were cooked out will be in the water.

4.  Don’t be afraid to add some spices - of course not too spicy.  I’ve read nutmeg is good for squash.  This is where your homemade food will be superior, since the jars are rather tasteless…

5.  Pour pureed food into an ice cube tray once cooled.  Level with a knife and freeze.  The food will come out from the tray easily and is now in easy to portion size.  My son eats 3-4 cubes of veggies a meal, which translates into about 3 ounces.