Homemade baby food

This post is for my sister-in-law Julie and any other moms out there that are interested in making there own Homemade baby food. The major pros of making your own baby food is for Health (knowing exactly what is going into your baby) and cost (it is much cheaper to make your own food). I have used the book Super Baby Food as a guide on knowing what foods to make at what age and learning about the ice cube tray freezing technique, but I felt like it was missing a way to prepare the food after it was frozen that wasn't using a microwave. I have come up with a way that I feel is a great way to make food and get it prepared to eat after it is frozen.

The supplies that you will more than likely need to go out and purchase that you may not already have is about 6 ice cube trays, small serving strainers, and ramekins (used normally for creme brulee). I have found that ramekins is the best thing to use because it distributes heat evenly while warming up food and when they are refrigerated and immediately put into boiling water, they don't crack like glass.
These strainers were purchased in this 3 set at Walmart for about $8-$9 and I love that you have an individual size.

After preparing which ever food of your choice, pour them into the ice cube trays, cover, and freeze.

After food is frozen, run hot water over the back side of the ice cube tray for about 10 seconds to loosen the cubes, then pop out or use a spoon to get it out. Store in labeled freezer bag until ready to serve.

My baby right now is almost 8 months and she is eating: Spinach, Pears, Peas, Carrots, Prunes, Mangoes, Rice Cereal (I do make my own homemade rice cereal), Sweet Potatoes, and Avocados.

My doctor told me to feed her Spinach and Prunes because she has struggled with constipation and it has worked GREAT at keeping her regular!

If anyone has any questions about how to make certain foods or about the process I use (shown further down), please feel free to ask!

Preparing food for baby after being frozen

First thing every morning when I get up, I decide what Brooklyn is going to eat for all 3 of her meals that day. I take out 3 ramekins and place 1 cube in each.
The 2 that are for lunch and dinner, I place in a plastic bag and store it in the refrigerator until that meal.

I boil water (I do not use a microwave to thaw or warm up the food, for more info on it, check out this website http://www.mercola.com/article/microwave/hazards.htm) and pour into a bowl. For anyone who has never seen one of these water boilers, this is a must have for every household! This is an electric boiler that you plug in and the water is boiled in a few short minutes. This makes warming up food much quicker that a teapot on the stove but you can most definitely use that instead. Breakfast always takes longer to thaw because the cube is still completely frozen, but lunch and dinner have thawed in the refrigerator that they basically just need to warm up.

Place the ramekin in the boiling water in the bowl and add anything else you would like to add to it (breast milk, formula, water). At this time I add banana to her rice cereal to sweeten it, so I use the little strainer to push a small amount through and make it very fine to mix with the cereal.

Stir everything in until you have the consistency that you would like and let sit for a few minutes to warm up. When is all warmed up, take the ramekin out of the bowl, wipe off the ramekin, grab a baby spoon, and it is ready to serve.

Here are some prunes pictured when they are ready to serve!