Baby Foods

Making your own baby food with the Crock pot

A co-worker of mine just had a baby last week and I was inspired to do some research on another use for my favorite kitchen gadget, the crock-pot.

Since she went on maternity leave a few weeks ago I've been looking around the internets for some recipes of home made baby food I can make her. Money is tight all around, and she has mentioned serveral times she wanted to try to raise her child more healthfully than she we raised but that she couldn't afford to buy organic baby for for the kid's every meal.

At first I didn't believe all the recipes. All of them were so simple. Fresh or frozen vegetables and a little water and thats it. When sealed in a jar (preferably using canning methods) your homemade (and organic if you so wish) baby food can have a comparable shelf life to the gerber-type baby foods without the price or preservatives. (Almost 90 cents for one little jar) Instead you can buy fresh or frozen veggies in bulk and whip up a whole batch of your (or baby's) favorite.

I tried a few recipes and here are my favorites.
I eyeballed all the water additions- just what seemed enough to splash in there- The veggies will let a lot of water out, and when you blend you can just add more to make the baby food thinner. Its better to err on the side of less water (Just make sure you don't burn them!)

Yellow squash rocked for texture. I used about 1/3 cup of water to a big bag of frozen squash and left it in the crock pot for a few hours. I can't really remember how long because my brain is a little friend from doing 7 batches of baby food in a 30 hour period. Next time I plan to write down my start and finish times (duh). I figure about 4 or 5 hours on high did the trick. I just checked on them about every hour until they were nice and tender. Then I dumped the cooked veggies into my blender and buzzed away. This batch would have filled about 30 jars, but I served a lot of it as a side dish to my clients at work.

Runners up:
Carrots- Just as nice- I recommend adding some sugar and maybe some pineapple juice for a nice sweet twist.

Sweet Potatoes Fresh - Again, I ended up having this for dinner instead of canning- but it works both ways. I made the baby food and it was so good that I threw some brown sugar in it and a layer of marshmallows on top, popped it in the oven for 20 minutes and viola... heaven. :-)

Green beans (I tried frozen, not fresh) I found they had more of a texture, but not completely unpleasant. The color was fantastic. Could double as a nice, yummy (and healthy?) fake Halloween vomit. Yum.

I also tried it with fresh fruits and discovered not only a new baby food recipe- but the most amazing ice cream topping ever. And mind you- no preservatives, additives or extra sugar- oh and its incredibly cheap.

Use any of your favorite fruits or fruit combinations and a little water- follow the same method as vegetables. Just keep in mind, the softer the fruit, the quicker it will cook. So strawberries won't be taking anywhere near as long as apples.

The most amazing thing I've ever cooked.

1lb fresh strawberries diced relatively small.
A few stalks of fresh rhubarb diced small
A few teaspoons of real lemon juice
A cup or two of sugar (depending on how sweet you want it)
A cup or two of water (Add this last, when everything is soft and soupy for easier dissolution)

Cook it in the crock pot until tender and use a stick blender (immersion blender) if you have it and run it through a bit. I prefer this recipe not purred, but then again, I'm not an infant.