Making Baby Food- Yummy!

So I made babyfood for the first time the other night!  It was soooo easy I don't know why I didn't do it with my first child!  I guess I am a little more consious of where my food comes from these days and I'm a little more frugal with my money as well.  So I made a goal this year to start my little one on real, organic fruits and vegetables.  I went to Trader Joe's the other night and got whatever I could in the frozen section...organic peas, mangos, green beans, and spinach and then bought fresh...carrots, sweet potatoes, and avacados.  I have a steamer for the microwave (microwave is probably not the best way, but fast), so I steamed peas and then carrots and used my hand stick blender to puree them, adding water to make them thinner.  It was so easy and made so many servings! I placed them into small containers, labeled them and put them into the freezer.  I have read that ice cube containers work really well becase each cube is a 1 oz serving, perfect for baby.  I just didn't  have any extra trays, so this works for now.  She had carrots as her first veggie last night and loved them!  I'm so excited about it!  I can't wait to try the other fruits and veggies!

I also did a little cost comparison....
A two pack of Gerber Baby Food is about $1.99 (so $1 per little pack, I think 2oz each). Its even more if you want Organic.
At Trader Joe's I bought:
16oz jar of organic crushed applesauce $1.99
2 lbs. Sweet Potatoes $1.79
1.5 lbs. fresh baby carrots $1.69
16oz bag frozen organic peas $1.99
16oz bag frozen organic spinach $1.99
16oz bag of frozen mango chuncks $2.49
16oz bag of frozen green beans $1.99
5 avacados $2.99
Total I spent: about $17.00 and think about how many servings I will get out of all of this food! There are at least 8 servings in each 1lb bag of food.  Its a great deal!

Nutrition wise, I read that some babyfood companies add tapioca and water to keep there foods longer and commercial babyfood has a shelf life of 2 years! Can you imagine eating two year old green beans? Uhh!

You can read more about making babyfood at this webiste:
http://www.wholesomebabyfood.com/pureebabyfoodandstore.htm