Making your own baby food is a great way to save money and reduce waste (just like using Encore Baby Registry!) when your baby starts eating solid foods.

Even better, it is easily done, all with gear you already have in your kitchen, so you can also SKIP spending $60-$200 on one of these:

And even BYPASS the smaller accessories like these:

Now that we’ve established what you don’t need, lets take a look at the things you already have in your kitchen, just waiting to help you make your first batch of homemade baby food.  Many foods need to be cooked to make them soft enough for baby, so you’ll be using a steamer basket and a pot or a freestanding food steamer:

+

Or one of these

Some foods, like potatoes and beets, can be baked in/on one of these kitchen gadget staples:

Next comes pureeing, grinding or mashing the steamed foods into baby food puree.  You likely have a variety of options in your kitchen for this step:

After your baby food is pureed, storage is the next step.  Standard ice-cube trays are the perfect size for baby food portioning and freezing.  As baby’s appetite gets a bit bigger, you can mix and match with combinations like 1 cube pureed beets + 1 cube pureed watermelon, 1 cube broccoli + 1 cube sweet potatoes, and so on:

The second half of storing frees up your ice-cube trays by transferring your frozen baby food cubes into jars.  Wash and save glass jars from foods like spaghetti sauce, apple sauce, peanut butter, pickles, and so on for great, free freezer storage.  Label each jar with the baby food puree cube flavor that is in it and the date created (masking tape makes for incredibly cheap and easy labels)*:

Whenever it’s time to feed your baby, just grab a jar or two from the freezer, select some of your homemade puree cubes and defrost in the microwave.  If you keep a few different flavors on hand, you can mix and match for a wide variety of flavor combinations.

*Tip: When transferring your frozen baby food puree cubes into the glass jars, make sure the jars are room temperature or lower.  Placing hot glass in a cold freezer can crack it and placing frozen baby food puree cubes in a warm jar can soften the cubes just enough to make them all stick together, making it hard to get them out later.

Have you made your own baby food?  What were your baby’s favorite flavors or flavor combinations?

Encore Baby Registry is an affiliate of Amazon and this blog post includes affiliate links.