Well.. All Day Mamma's.. All Day in the kitchen.
My kids were with my in-laws today and my nanny was still scheduled -so she came by and kept me company and helped me a little bit. I made SO MUCH baby food.
Food I used:
Fresh Sweet Taters (one HUGE, one small) maybe 2.00
Fresh Bag of Baby Carrots .99
Fresh Zucchini (4) 1.99
Chick Peas .52
Frozen Spinach .89
Fresh Squash .99
Frozen Green Beans 1.00
Roasted Chicken maybe 3.00 worth
Barley -.99
Frozen Peaches 2.29
What I used:
Toaster oven (baked sweet taters)
Veggie Steamer
Kitchen Aid (with meat grinder attachment that I still had a wedding card on it and hadn't ever been used)
Crock Pot (used day before for chicken breasts)
4 Ice Cube Trays
2 Mini Muffin Tins
Muffin Tin
Deviled Egg Tray (held 12, worked really well for chicken because I wanted smaller portions for meat)
What I did:
I didnt sit down literally for 4 hours +. I never stopped in the middle. I started with the sweet potatoes and baked them (pealed after I baked them) As those baked I steamed each veggie one by one. I did use the microwave for the spinach. As one finished -Id rinse the steamer out, refill and add another veggie. While each steamed I would grind the previous and rinse the kitchen-aid. I kept each puree in a separate bowl. The day before I had done a bunch of freezer cooking for family meals so I already had chicken roasted and ready to go.
I had enough trays/muffin tins to do everything all at once except for the barley and peaches. Those we froze after the first batch of things set.
I decided to do everything in whole purees instead of any particular combination so if my little one doesnt like something - I wont waste anything. My nanny who is totally not AP or natural was amazed at how good the food tasted vs baby food. She was eating/sampling it as we were pouring it.
So for less than 15.00 I got about 108 cubes of food and 6 huge muffins of dinner combination's . It was a lot, a lot of work. It really helped to rinse everything as soon as you are done with it. The food is really dense and I imagine will need to be thinned with breast milk, water, juice, or stocks. I also have a pretty small kitchen, so having bowls everywhere, the huge mixer out, the extra appliance out etc was a pain but it all worked out.
Im really proud of myself though. I busted butt. Financially things are tough around here but my baby will eat well for awhile thanks to this and donor milk. It makes more sense to buy an .89 bag of spinach vs 1 jar of food and this actually tastes good
My kids were with my in-laws today and my nanny was still scheduled -so she came by and kept me company and helped me a little bit. I made SO MUCH baby food.
Food I used:
Fresh Sweet Taters (one HUGE, one small) maybe 2.00
Fresh Bag of Baby Carrots .99
Fresh Zucchini (4) 1.99
Chick Peas .52
Frozen Spinach .89
Fresh Squash .99
Frozen Green Beans 1.00
Roasted Chicken maybe 3.00 worth
Barley -.99
Frozen Peaches 2.29
What I used:
Toaster oven (baked sweet taters)
Veggie Steamer
Kitchen Aid (with meat grinder attachment that I still had a wedding card on it and hadn't ever been used)
Crock Pot (used day before for chicken breasts)
4 Ice Cube Trays
2 Mini Muffin Tins
Muffin Tin
Deviled Egg Tray (held 12, worked really well for chicken because I wanted smaller portions for meat)
What I did:
I didnt sit down literally for 4 hours +. I never stopped in the middle. I started with the sweet potatoes and baked them (pealed after I baked them) As those baked I steamed each veggie one by one. I did use the microwave for the spinach. As one finished -Id rinse the steamer out, refill and add another veggie. While each steamed I would grind the previous and rinse the kitchen-aid. I kept each puree in a separate bowl. The day before I had done a bunch of freezer cooking for family meals so I already had chicken roasted and ready to go.
I had enough trays/muffin tins to do everything all at once except for the barley and peaches. Those we froze after the first batch of things set.
I decided to do everything in whole purees instead of any particular combination so if my little one doesnt like something - I wont waste anything. My nanny who is totally not AP or natural was amazed at how good the food tasted vs baby food. She was eating/sampling it as we were pouring it.
So for less than 15.00 I got about 108 cubes of food and 6 huge muffins of dinner combination's . It was a lot, a lot of work. It really helped to rinse everything as soon as you are done with it. The food is really dense and I imagine will need to be thinned with breast milk, water, juice, or stocks. I also have a pretty small kitchen, so having bowls everywhere, the huge mixer out, the extra appliance out etc was a pain but it all worked out.
Im really proud of myself though. I busted butt. Financially things are tough around here but my baby will eat well for awhile thanks to this and donor milk. It makes more sense to buy an .89 bag of spinach vs 1 jar of food and this actually tastes good
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