Homemade Baby Food

I've always made the majority of the baby food my kids have eaten. It's so easy, and a great way to use over-ripe fruits and vegetables, so it just seems like a given to me. I especially love to make homemade baby food from fresh fruits and vegetables from our garden. For most homemade baby foods, I cook them the same as I would for the rest of the family (or better yet, I use the leftovers from our dinner to make the baby food- just make sure that the veggies aren't salted, and start with single ingredient foods). So if I want to make butternut squash baby food, I will roast the squash like I would normally. Then I put a chunk of the butternut squash into the food processor or blender and puree it until it's the consistency I want. I usually do a thick consistency for all of the homemade baby food, as liquid can be added in at the time of serving. For broccoli, carrots, zucchini and other like veggies, I steam them in a small amount of water before pureeing. I use the liquid from cooking them to puree them, adding as needed. Most fruits can be pureed without cooking them. In these cases, simply puree them. If you would like them cooked (like applesauce or pear sauce), boil them until soft, then puree. Once you have your purees, you can serve them as they are, within a couple of days. To store them, I recommend freezing the majority of your homemade baby food purees. This is the simplest way to store them, and they thaw quite quickly. I pour the purees into an ice cube tray to freeze. Once frozen, dump the purees into a freezer bag (make sure to label it, as many of the purees will look the same). When you want a serving of a fruit or vegetable, 2 "puree cubes" is approximately equal to a jar of baby food. Thaw in the fridge, or microwave for a couple of seconds (if you microwave, make sure to stir well after cooking, and allow several minutes to cool, just in case there are hot spots, as microwaves don't cook evenly). The biggest tip I have for making your own homemade baby food is that a little goes a long way. If you think about the jars of baby food at the grocery store, they are tiny. It doesn't take much applesauce or pureed carrot to fill one of them, so don't make up a huge batch of one kind of baby food. And if you'd like to make your own Infant Rice Cereal,