Every mom knows that having a baby can put a huge dent in the family coffers. Fortunately with a little time and effort you can lessen that dent by making your own baby food instead of buying prepackaged food.
Let me first break down the difference. I do have to note that I live in Hawaii so my savings margin is less because produce tends to be more expensive here unless it’s local.
I compared two of the foods my son eats the most of: butternut squash and sweet potato. For both the squash and the sweet potato the prepackaged food came out to 14.3 cents per ounce.
The fresh food is harder to measure but I freeze it in ice cube trays and one ice cube is roughly one ounce so that’s how I measured it. The sweet potato came out to 8 cents an ounce and the squash came out to 12.9 cents an ounce. The squash is a little higher because it came from California.
Making your own baby food is really easy. First you cook the food. For both the squash and the sweet potato I bake it. The sweet potato gets wrapped in tin foil and the squash gets cut in half, cut side down on a cookie sheet. I bake both for 40 minutes at 400 degrees, sometimes longer if it’s a particularly large one.
Once the vegetable is cooked, you just scoop out the insides and put it into a food processor or a blender. Process until nice and creamy. You don’t want there to be any chunks left.
After pureeing, spoon the puree into ice cube trays. You want to make sure you have ice cube trays with a lid. I got mine at the PX, they’re the oxo brand that has a lid that slides off.
Leave in the ice cube trays until completely frozen. Once the puree is completely frozen I run a little water over the back, pop the cubes out, and place them in a freezer bag labeled with the food and the date. Make sure you mark what type of food it is because a lot of foods look similar once pureed.
See? Making your own baby food is super easy and it saves you money. Let me know some of your tips for saving money when you have kids!
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I love this! I have always been into making my own baby food, most nights they ate whatever we had. I would even purée the chicken! Sometimes the convience of prepackaged food is convenient but your idea to freeze it is great! Thanks for the tips