Saturday, August 22, 2009

Homemade Baby Food with the Baby Cook

I am not very organic or granola in most cases. But, I was really excited at the thought of making baby food. It saves money, ensures you of the ingredients in the food, and allows for some fun in the kitchen. I typically make a big batch every other Sunday.
Start with fresh or frozen fruits or vegetables. I prefer frozen- it is just one step easier! Plus, look at the ingredients. Today I made carrots and blueberries.The Baby Cook has a pre-measured cup inside the main liquid compartment. The provided cookbook tells me to put water to measure #3 for carrots.
Next, pour said water into the base station. This water will provide the liquid needed to steam the frozen or fresh food.

Pour the unthawed carrots into the bowl with the basket inside.

Lock in place and turn base unit to steam. It will cook for 10-15 minutes and shut off when done. You now have soft carrots in water ready to be pureed. The orange spatula fits inside the basket handles to help you pour the food out of the basket and into the water which is now sitting in the main bowl.

Put the lid back on and instead of turning the base into to steam, you turn it to blend.

You end up with a large bowl of baby food quality carrots. Next, you simply spoon them into ice cube trays and freeze them overnight. These are the blueberries.

When frozen, pop them out and into baggies to heat up whenever it is time to eat. Each ice cube is about 1 ounce. Abby currently eats 5 ice cubes per day of veggies along with her meat and fruits.
Do the math with me-
1 bag frozen carrots= 99 cents
Water= free
Servings made= 24 ounces
Equivalent in baby food jars= 8
Price of 8 jars= about $8
total savings from just this one batch = $7!
The Baby cook is an initial investment of about $150. But, that can be made up in making just 22 batches of food. I guarantee you will make the money up in just a few months. If you want to save even more, you can use a steamer and food processor or the microwave bags to steam the food. I highly recommend it!