All things Funk: Baby Food

I am sure you have all been anxiously awaiting this post! I think this may be beneficial for those of you who have babies, are pregnant or are going to have babies at some point.

So back at the end of December I had a baby food freezer cooking day.

I made the following foods:

Potato, Leak, Carrot & Pea

See-in-the-Dark Puree (more info on this later)

Then I made double batches of:

Apple & Pear

Sweet Potato & Broccoli

Sweet Potato with Spinach & Peas

Here is a shot of all the food I got made that day! WOWZERS!

By making baby food you can save SO MUCH money! The average cost of 1 jar of baby food is $.50 that is not including the ones that have more than one ingredient. Let me first say I make my baby food to save money & I think it is taste AMAZING. I am not out to prove that I can do a million things - because I can't or because I think you are a bad mom if you buy your food instead - just a little disclaimer!

So today I made another batch of See-in-the-Dark Puree & yesterday I made Apple Sauce so I did the breakdown for cost.
See-in-the-Dark Puree - Probably Gia's favorite
1 Sm. Onion - $.40
2 T. Unsalted Butter - $.16
1 lb. Carrots - $.79
1 1/2 C. Chicken broth/stock - $.70
1/4 C. Orange Juice - $.04
Total Cost: $2.09
Servings: 9
This means that for $2 I got 9 servings of very yummy carrot baby food instead of only getting 4 servings for in my personal opinion (yes I taste baby food) not so yummy baby food.

Apple Sauce
4 lb. Apples (different kinds) - $4
Water/Apple Juice - $0
A couple pinches of Cinnamon - I have no idea :0)
Total Cost: $4
Servings: 18
Purchased baby food: this would give me 8 jars of apple sauce vs. my 18 jars
That means I got over 2x as much for same cost :0)

Here is how I go about it. I look at recipes & do it in one day or several close together. Leaks are sold in bunches of 3 & so I try to use everything up so that I don't waste anything. I think cook it in my pot that I use for EVERYTHING. When it is done cooking I put it in the blender & hit mix. Then I pour it into ice cube trays. If you are going to do this it would be good to invest in 5 or more trays. After it is frozen well I pop them out (they pop right out!) and put them in a ziploc bag clearly labeled. After everything is done I take some of everything and put it into a lg. bag and keep it in my freezer in the kitchen so I don't have to go down to the basement for every meal or take up lots of space in my upstairs freezer. I also created a little meal plan for Gia so that she doesn't get the same food twice in a day or the same food everyday (although I did make a mistake & she does get the same thing 2 days in a row...)