Homemade Baby Food

As I was preparing lunch for my daughter today I was considering the fact that since I have gone to making baby food at home, I have saved a considerable amount of money. At first I was hesitant about making baby food at home, I figured it would take a lot of time up, create a big mess (I am a good cook, or so my husband claims, but I have a tendency to leave the kitchen in quite a state of chaos).

But since I was curious and I had a gift certificate, I purchased the So Easy Baby Food Kit from Babies 'R Us for $37.99, it comes with a cookbook, two freezer trays with lids, DVD and nutritional information card. The kit claims you can make baby food easily in 30 minutes per week. I have not sat through the whole DVD so I cannot say much for it, I am sure it is helpful but unfortunately when I do sit down and pop in a DVD I would prefer it be a movie that I can enjoy with my husband.

Pros:

• The cookbook goes over everything from picking the produce, how to store them properly or even encourage them to ripen if they are not. It also includes various ways to cook the produce that you pick including microwave, baking, steaming, etc. The cookbook nicely divides foods into the month ranges that they should be first introduced and provides advice on combining foods, possible allergies, even spices. On the page of each item it includes a line to write the date introduced to your baby and notes.
  
• The trays are handy with their lids, instead of wrapping ice cube trays in cellophane.
• The nutrition cards are great, especially helpful to leave out for babysitters because they cover everything from sources of certain nutrients, age that food should be introduced, and first aid for choking. Big bonus is they are waterproof!

Cons:

• I was not aware when I purchased the kit that the 30 minutes a day was mainly dependent on microwaving all of the produce to cook it, as opposed to baking, steaming and other options. I am not a huge fan of microwaves and much prefer the control I have when I am baking or steaming so that the produce is not overcooked and could lose its valuable nutrients. While the cookbook gives the estimated time to prep each individual produce it is based on microwave times.
  
• The cookbook does not include meat recipes in it, but does include tofu which is a great source of protein.
• The ice trays included are the same pretty much as the conventional ice trays you can buy at a grocery or drug store, it would have been nice if they were slightly larger for serving size purposes. If at least one tray had larger cubes it would be wonderful for when your baby gets older and starts eating larger portions. Right now I end up feeding my daughter about 4-5 ice cubes per meal.

Overall I think it is a bit pricey for something that can be easily researched on the internet. I would like to include in this post a website that I think has some awesome recipes especially for toddlers. The website is Wholesomebabyfood.com, and I would highly recommend it, it also has some great articles on food allergies, sweeteners, and even recipe contests sometimes.