When Kenzie was a baby I made all of her food once she started eating solids. I did this for a few reasons. My main ones were that I knew exactly what she was eating, how it was prepared, and that it was fresh. Also, it is substantially less expensive if you plan it right. I would make a lot of foods while they were in season and freeze them in ice cube trays. Each ice cube size piece is roughly 1 oz. Then I would bag them all up together and just wait until she was ready to eat that specific food. This of course is for the foods that you have to cook, like sweet potatoes, and not for foods you serve after just mashing, like avocado. You can keep the food for a while in the freezer. I knew that I would also make Will's food when the time arrived. Well, we are still about 3 months from him even starting solids. We did baby oatmeal with Kenzie at 5 months but I have decided that we will wait until 6 months with Will and just start with veggies and fruits. Both kiddos were (and Will still is) breastfed so "food before 1 is just for fun." I find that making the food is fun for me too so we all get something out of it. Haha!
When we found out that we were having Baby #2 I knew that I HAD to get the Infantino Squeeze Station. Trust me... this isn't product placement. I am just so excited with this contraption that I wanted to blog about it. I'm sure there are others out there that do similar things, but this is the one I have. Like I mentioned, I used to freeze in ice cube trays. The downfall to this was that when we would go out, I would have to store the cubes in tupperware which gets a bit cumbersome. It took up a ton of room and then I had to bring the tupperware home and wash it all. This time I will have pouches of everything that can be tossed after the food is eaten. There are even these little spoon attachments that you put at the end of the pouch and you push the food through and onto the spoon for infants that can't use the pouch alone yet (like Kenzie can.) I haven't invested in those yet, but will once Will is ready to eat solids. These pouches, like my tupperware, still need to be kept cold when we go out but I am used to that because the tupperware was like that too.
I decided that I wanted to try it out after my in-laws got it for me for Christmas. I just couldn't wait. =) So I made the decision to practice by making applesauce. Honestly, it is slightly cheaper to buy applesauce pouches pre-made and those serve a very good purpose. You don't have to refrigerate them which makes them perfect for us because I keep one in the baby bag or my purse at almost all times for Kenzie in case we go out to eat. It is important to us that she eats fruit with almost every meal and many restaurants make this a bit difficult. I figured I could make a few applesauce pouches on my own though for Kenzie to eat just to try it out.
My first step was prepping the apples. I have this neat contraption that allows me to core and slice an apple all at one time. In the past I have peeled the apples, but I elected not to this time. I have done it this way before too. When Will starts to eat applesauce, I will peel them again. Not peeling them makes them slightly more course and the peel sometimes leaves a slight bitter taste. It isn't overpowering though. The plus is that when I make it with red delicious, it ends up a really cool red color. After prepping the apples I throw them in my steamer for about 20 minutes. Easy peasy.
After the apples steam I throw them in my food processor. I didn't buy one of those "made for baby food" ones. They cost way more and do the same thing. See the cool red color?
After all that came the fun part. Actually trying out the squeeze station. It was super simple to set up and even easier to use. (Ignore my iron and ironing board in the background... the work of a mom never ends and I was doing all that at 7am this morning when Will woke up for the day. Haha!) We ended up making 7 1/2 pouches from 3 lbs of apples. Again, the ones you buy in the store are actually slightly less expensive but I wanted to try it out. Once Will eats normal food like sweet potatoes, squash, etc., it will be cheaper to do it this way than buy pouches of food.
I ended up freezing all but 1 (and the 1/2 one) of these. You can keep them in the fridge for about 48 hours and for up to 2 months in the freezer. On the other side (that you can't see) there are places to label the bags with what it is, which will be super convenient when I start mixing some foods) and the date it was made so you can watch how long it is kept in the freezer. I filled these to their max capacity since they were for Kenzie, but you can fill them less if you wish.
I seriously love this thing. I can't wait until Will is at the age that he will start eating real food.
When we found out that we were having Baby #2 I knew that I HAD to get the Infantino Squeeze Station. Trust me... this isn't product placement. I am just so excited with this contraption that I wanted to blog about it. I'm sure there are others out there that do similar things, but this is the one I have. Like I mentioned, I used to freeze in ice cube trays. The downfall to this was that when we would go out, I would have to store the cubes in tupperware which gets a bit cumbersome. It took up a ton of room and then I had to bring the tupperware home and wash it all. This time I will have pouches of everything that can be tossed after the food is eaten. There are even these little spoon attachments that you put at the end of the pouch and you push the food through and onto the spoon for infants that can't use the pouch alone yet (like Kenzie can.) I haven't invested in those yet, but will once Will is ready to eat solids. These pouches, like my tupperware, still need to be kept cold when we go out but I am used to that because the tupperware was like that too.
I decided that I wanted to try it out after my in-laws got it for me for Christmas. I just couldn't wait. =) So I made the decision to practice by making applesauce. Honestly, it is slightly cheaper to buy applesauce pouches pre-made and those serve a very good purpose. You don't have to refrigerate them which makes them perfect for us because I keep one in the baby bag or my purse at almost all times for Kenzie in case we go out to eat. It is important to us that she eats fruit with almost every meal and many restaurants make this a bit difficult. I figured I could make a few applesauce pouches on my own though for Kenzie to eat just to try it out.
My first step was prepping the apples. I have this neat contraption that allows me to core and slice an apple all at one time. In the past I have peeled the apples, but I elected not to this time. I have done it this way before too. When Will starts to eat applesauce, I will peel them again. Not peeling them makes them slightly more course and the peel sometimes leaves a slight bitter taste. It isn't overpowering though. The plus is that when I make it with red delicious, it ends up a really cool red color. After prepping the apples I throw them in my steamer for about 20 minutes. Easy peasy.
After the apples steam I throw them in my food processor. I didn't buy one of those "made for baby food" ones. They cost way more and do the same thing. See the cool red color?
After all that came the fun part. Actually trying out the squeeze station. It was super simple to set up and even easier to use. (Ignore my iron and ironing board in the background... the work of a mom never ends and I was doing all that at 7am this morning when Will woke up for the day. Haha!) We ended up making 7 1/2 pouches from 3 lbs of apples. Again, the ones you buy in the store are actually slightly less expensive but I wanted to try it out. Once Will eats normal food like sweet potatoes, squash, etc., it will be cheaper to do it this way than buy pouches of food.
I ended up freezing all but 1 (and the 1/2 one) of these. You can keep them in the fridge for about 48 hours and for up to 2 months in the freezer. On the other side (that you can't see) there are places to label the bags with what it is, which will be super convenient when I start mixing some foods) and the date it was made so you can watch how long it is kept in the freezer. I filled these to their max capacity since they were for Kenzie, but you can fill them less if you wish.
I seriously love this thing. I can't wait until Will is at the age that he will start eating real food.
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