After doing a lot of research, I decided that I wanted to make our twins their baby food.  It gave me peace of mind knowing exactly what was entering their tiny little stomachs.  The process went great, so I decided to share it with you all.  This took my husband and I about 3 hours but it made 222 total servings: bananas, sweet potatoes, apples, avocado, pears, butternut squash, carrots, blueberries, and peas.

Items Needed:

• Blender
• Steamer
• Pan
• 10-14 ice cube trays
• Gallon size freezer bags
• Knife
• Cutting board

Grocery List: (Note: I have 2 babies so you might want to buy ½ of my grocery list)

• 3 sweet potatoes
• 1 butternut squash
• Bag of carrots (mini carrots are a LOT easier)
• Bag of frozen peas
• 4 avocados
• 6 apples
• 6 pears
• Pint of blueberries
• 6 bananas

Instructions: You will find directions below on how to cook each fruit or vegetable. I’ve grouped these by three categories: food that doesn’t need to be cooked, items to bake, and items to steam.

Items Not Needing Cooking

Bananas: Peel, mash/blend, pour into ice cube trays!  Easy peasy!

Avocados: Wash, peel, take pit out, and mash/blend, pour into ice cube trays.

Blueberries: Wash and blend (might need to add a tiny bit of water). Pour into ice cube trays.

Items to Bake

Sweet Potatoes: Clean, poke holes with fork (do not peel), bake at 400 degrees for 45-60 minutes until soft.  Remove skins by slitting the sweet potato lengthwise and scoop “meat” out once cooled.  Blend (might need to add a tiny bit of water). Pour into ice cube trays.

Butternut Squash: Clean, cut in half lengthwise.  Scoop out the seeds.  Lay down on a pan with meat side down.  Bake at 400 degrees for 40 minutes. Blend and pour into ice cube trays.

 Items to Steam

Peas: Steam for 3-5 minutes. Blend and pour into ice cube trays.

Carrots: Steam for 15 minutes until soft.  Blend and pour into ice cube trays.

Pears: Wash, peel, cut into chunks, steam for 5 minutes or until soft.  Blend and pour into ice cube trays.

Apples: Wash, peel, cut core out, cut into chunks, steam for 7-8 minutes or until soft. Blend and pour into ice cube trays.

Once you pour the food in the ice cube trays, leave in the freezer until they are hard.  Then pop out and put into gallon size bags organized by the type of fruit or vegetable.  I labeled each bag with the type of fruit or vegetable and the date.

Every night, I take out the amount of food from the freezer that I need for the next day (right now at 6 months it’s 4 vegetable cubes and 2 fruit cubes).  I place these in a bowl and put it in the fridge to thaw. We introduce a new food every 4-5 days in case of allergies.  I will update this post in the future with how long this food lasts because right now I have no clue!