Save money and ensure your child's health...
Mothers find commercial baby foods convenient in weaning their babies onto solids, but they pay a price for this convenience.
With a blender, organic produce and a few hours a week, you can produce even healthier baby purees that contain no sugar or salt, unlike bought purees. Instead you use fruit such as pears to sweeten vegetables.
You have complete peace of mind knowing what is going into your baby, and you get to experiment with different flavours.
Pureed meals are easy to prepare and, stored in the freezer, are as convenient as the bought ones.
All it takes is a little bit of planning and you can have your freezer stocked with nutritious meals for your baby.
Getting started:
- Set aside one morning a week to prepare meals.
- Shop for fresh fruit and vegetables. If possible, buy organic fruit and vegetables and hormone-free meat.
- A good food processor or blender will help with the preparation of purees.
- Do not add any sugar or salt to purees as babies prefer the taste of bland food.
- Never add spices or strong ingredients such as onion or garlic.
- Mild-tasting herbs such as parsley can be cooked with meat or vegetables.
- Keep the water in which you have cooked the food to achieve the right consistency for the puree. If you need to add extra liquid, use that water.
- Water from vegetables high in nitrates such as carrots, spinach, beetroot, broccoli and cabbage should not be used. It is also not advisable to feed these vegetables to babies younger than six months.
- Food can be steamed, boiled or cooked in the microwave.
- Puree food to the desired consistency. The younger the baby, the smoother it should be. As the baby adjusts to solids, the food is pureed less.
- Once food has been pureed, place in freezer containers, cover with cling-film and freeze until solid. Remove, transfer into plastic bags, label and return to freezer.
- Freshly prepared meals will keep for up to 48 hours in the fridge. If they are not going to be used before that, rather freeze immediately.
- Don't feed your baby from a container and re-store, as saliva from a feeding spoon can contaminate food.
Cooking instructions
Peel vegetables or fruit.
Place in a saucepan with 60ml of water for every 250ml vegetables or fruit.
Bring to the boil and simmer until tender. This could take 15-30 minutes depending on the fruit or vegetable.
Carrots and butternut will take longer to cook than broccoli and spinach.
To cook meat or fish, poach in water to cover and cook until tender.
Drain liquid and reserve.
Puree in a food processor or blender, adding cooking liquid to achieve the right consistency. To enrich the vegetables, about 25g of cream cheese can be added while blending.
Use the natural sweetness in fruit such as apples and pears to blend with vegetables such as broccoli or butternut to make them more palatable.