Baby Food Recipes
Disclaimer: I am not a pediatrician/medical professional. This post is for informational purposes only.
Baby food should be enjoyable for baby while also providing necessary nutrients crucial for supporting overall development. In this post, we will share baby food recipes that are quick and nutritious along with being easy to make. These recipes will be easy to incorporate into your meal prepping routine or simply into your usual dinner preparation routine. Also, all of the recipes mentioned are freezable and freeze well. My baby absolutely loves these recipes and I can rest assured knowing he is getting the nutrients he needs.
Why Homemade Baby Food?
There are so many important reasons to make your own baby food. I’ll touch on the top three reasons below:
Reason #1: No added preservatives and fillers
Making your own baby food purees ensures there are no unnecessary/harmful ingredients in the mix. Many commercial baby foods contain preservatives and fillers to extend the shelf-life of the product. While this makes sense for the company selling it, it probably isn’t a good idea to feed this stuff to your baby. This also leads into the next reason…
Reason #2: Control Over the Ingredients
Preparing homemade baby food in your own home guarantees you know exactly what is going into your baby’s food. In turn, you know exactly what is going into their body. For instance, while a minimal ingredient list store-bought chicken puree sounds great, do you really know where that chicken came from? The healthiest type of chicken we can consume is pasture-raised chickens who eat typical things like bugs, worms, berries, grass, etc. and possibly supplemented with non-GMO feed. Most of the time, the store-bought purees don’t check any of these boxes, much less all of them.
Reason #3: More Cost Effective
Now, I know what you’re thinking, how could making my own purees be more cost effective? If you are using ingredients that you are already cooking with for your other family meals, there’s minimal extra cost if any. Babies usually consume a fraction of what everyone else is eating, so if you can spare a few ounces of meat or veggies with each meal, you will have enough to make your baby food purees.
I’m going to share our top three recipes in this article so you can get started on making delicious, quick and nutritious baby food recipes for your precious baby.
Recipe 1 - Sweet Potato Puree
Ingredients
- 2 large sweet potatoes
- 5 tablespoons water or breastmilk
- 2 tablespoons coconut oil, melted*
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 400 F.
- Place sweet potatoes on parchment-lined baking sheet.
- Poke a few holes in each potato with a fork.
- Then, place potatoes in oven and bake for about 45-60 minutes or until a fork is easily inserted into the potatoes.
- Remove potatoes from oven and allow to cool for about 20 minutes.
- Next, scoop the potatoes out leaving behind the potato skin.
- Add the potato, water/breastmilk and coconut oil to a food processor or high speed blender.**
- Blend for 1-2 minutes or until completely smooth and free of lumps.
Notes
- *The coconut oil can be substituted for butter if baby is not sensitive to dairy.
- **It’s a good idea to add half of the liquid and blend to see what the puree texture looks like. Depending on the size of your potatoes, you may need more or less liquid than what the recipe calls for.
- I use organic potatoes and organic virgin coconut oil for this recipe.
Recipe 2 - Beef Puree
Ingredients
- 10 ounces cooked pot roast*
- 1 tsp avocado oil
- 1 ounce beef liver
- 3 tablespoons water
Instructions
- Cook pot roast as you normally would.
- Heat a small saucepan over medium heat and add avocado oil.
- Next, add beef liver to the pan and cook on each side for about 3 minutes or until the internal temperature is 160 F.
- Then, remove liver from pan and set aside to cool.
- Ensure liver and roast is fully cooled.
- Chop up the roast and liver into small chunks.
- Next, add all ingredients to a food processor or high speed blender.
- Finally, blend for 2-3 minutes or until completely smooth and free of lumps.
Notes
- *If your baby can eat 2 ounces of meat per serving, you can consider increasing the amount of pot roast to 14 ounces. As written, the recipe makes 7 servings at around 1.5 ounces of meat per serving.
- I use grass fed/finished chuck roast and beef liver for this recipe.
Recipe 3 - Blueberry Puree
Ingredients
- 1 cup frozen blueberries
- 2 tablespoons water
- 1 tablespoon coconut oil, melted
Instructions
- Heat a saucepan over medium heat.
- Next, add the blueberries and water to the pan.
- Then, reduce heat to low and cook for around 15 minutes or until the blueberries easily burst when pressed with a spoon.
- Remove the blueberries from heat and allow to cool for around 20 minutes.
- Next, add the blueberry/water mixture and coconut oil to a food processor or high speed blender.
- Finally, blend for 1-2 minutes or until completely smooth and free of lumps.
Notes
- Be sure to keep some liquid in the pan while cooking the blueberries. If all the liquid dries up, just add a little bit of water as the blueberries continue to cook.
- I use organic blueberries and organic virgin coconut oil for this recipe.
Don’t forget to check out our post comparing baby led weaning vs purees here.
Sweet Potato Puree
Keep your screen from going dark
10
minutes60
minutesIngredients
2 large sweet potatoes
5 tablespoons water or breastmilk
2 tablespoons coconut oil, melted*
- 4 Ingredient
Instructions
Preheat oven to 400 F.
Place sweet potatoes on parchment-lined baking sheet.
Poke a few holes in each potato with a fork.
Then, place potatoes in oven and bake for about 45-60 minutes or until a fork is easily inserted into the potatoes.
Remove potatoes from oven and allow to cool for about 20 minutes.
Next, scoop the potatoes out leaving behind the potato skin.
Add the potato, water/breastmilk and coconut oil to a food processor or high speed blender.**
Blend for 1-2 minutes or until completely smooth and free of lumps.
Notes
- *The coconut oil can be substituted for butter if baby is not sensitive to dairy.
- **It's a good idea to add half of the liquid and blend to see what the puree texture looks like. Depending on the size of your potatoes, you may need more or less liquid than what the recipe calls for.
- I use organic potatoes and organic virgin coconut oil for this recipe.
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