How to Prep One Month of Healthy Baby Food for Less Than $25!

Since Evie’s pediatrician gave her the thumbs up to start testing out solids at her 4 month check up, I decided to have some fun! She had been showing interest in our foods for over a month and I am a firm believer that a baby will tell you when they are ready.

We picked up a few organic jars of baby food from Whole Foods and she gobbled those down. I gave her 1 jar per day in addition to breastmilk. However, at a whopping $1/small jar, I knew I could make MUCH more baby food for a LOT less money. Ain’t nobody got time for dat?!

I went and purchased some produce and groceries and ended up making a month’s worth of baby food for less than $25. It took around 1 hour total, but I had a blast getting to experiment with different combinations and tastes. I tried out each and every one of my creations to make sure it was tasty for Everly.

In this post, I will share with you my top tips to baby food making and each meal that I made, but most importantly, how you can make it too.

Here are my 5 steps to preparing healthy and yummy purees for your baby:

Step One: Select your recipes.

This is the very first step to even beginning the baby food making process. I know what you are thinking, “What the hell do I even make for my kid?” Simple. Start off with one ingredient basic foods first and only try out a new food once every 3 days or so to make sure that your baby does not have an allergy. When you know that your babe is good to go, have fun and experiment with different combos and flavors. The recipes weren’t that hard to come up with and you can just do two combination recipes if you wish. There are no rules to baby food making!

The recipes that I selected were:

Kiwi + Apple + Flax
Blackberry + Blueberry + Kale
Coconut Milk + Banana + Cinnamon
Mango + Prune + Quinoa
Pear + Apple + Kale
Banana + Avocado + Flax
Sweet Potato + Squash + Prune
Avocado + Apple + Apricot
Green Beans + Apple + Pear
Sweet Potato + Squash + Apricot

Step Two: Make a grocery list.

The second step is to create an easy to follow grocery list based off of the recipes you have chosen. You can make a list of all the items separately and then combine them into a bigger list if that is easier for you. Personally, I just round everything up in my head because whatever is leftover I can use for something surely. I used my iPhone notepad to make my list-simple as that.

Here’s my list:

Fruits

5 apples
2 pears
3 kiwis
2 avocados
1 small carton blueberries
1 small carton blackberries
2 bananas
1 small package of prunes
1 small package of apricots
1 mango

Veggies

1 bunch kale
1 butternut squash
2 sweet potatoes
1 small bunch of green beans

Misc:

Cinnamon
1 Can of Full Fat Coconut Milk
Quinoa
Flax seeds

Step Three: Go grocery shopping.

When you have created your game plan, it is time to put it into action! I went to Publix for grocery shopping which is a little more expensive than Walmart, but I like the fact it has less traffic and Walmart tends to bring out the asshole in me so I figured this would be best.

Here’s a snap of my purchase. My total ended up being less than $25-woohoo!

Step Four: Get your supplies & recipes ready & prep.

Once you have all of your groceries and supplies together, you can officially do the damn thing! Oh wait… supplies..

Here’s what you will need to make the baby food:

Once you have these, then you are 100% ready to move on to making all of your meals. I grabbed my recipes, put on my game face, and went to work.

Step Five: Cook!

Alright! Now it is time to get to work. The whole process of making the food takes approximately one hour-this does not include the packaging or prepping. You can save yourself a whole lot of time by prepping your food the night before.

For example, steaming what needs to be steamed, soaking what needs to be soaked, boiling what needs to be boiled, or baking what needs to be baked. You catch my drift?

Kiwi + Apple + Flax

Ingredients:

1 apple, peeled, cored and chopped
3 kiwis, peeled and chopped
1 tbsp flax seeds

Instructions

In large microwave container, steam the apples with about ¼ cup water for 8 – 10 minutes, or until soft.
Add the cooked kiwis and apples with any cooking liquid to a food processor bowl and puree.
Add in 1 tbsp. of flax seeds.

Blackberry + Blueberry + Kale

Ingredients:

1 small container blueberries
1 small container blackberries
1 cup kale, packed

Instructions

In a medium saucepan, bring 2 inches of water to a boil over medium heat. Place the kale into a steamer basket, in that order, and steam for 10 minutes. Reserve cooking water. Let cool slightly.
Plaec blackberries, blueberries, and kale into a blender or food processor and puree, adding 1/4 cup of liquid at a time, until you have reached your desired consistency.

Coconut Cream + Banana + Cinnamon

Ingredients

1 banana, peeled
1/2 full fat canned coconut milk
1 teaspoon cinnamon

Instructions

Place the banana in a small bowl and smash with a fork until almost smooth.
Microwave the banana for 10 seconds, stir and repeat until the puree is warm.
Stir in coconut milk and cinnamon and serve.

Quinoa + Mango + Prune

Ingredients

1/2 cup quinoa
1/2 mango
6 dried prunes

Instructions

Peel, seed and chop mango into chunks. Meanwhile, soak prunes in water for 20 minutes to soften.
Cook quinoa according to package instructions.
Puree mango and prunes in food processor.
Stir in cooked quinoa.

Pear + Apple + Kale

Ingredients

2 apples, peeled, cored and chopped
1 pear, peeled, cored and chopped
1 cup kale, packed

Instructions

In large microwave container, steam the pears and apples with about ¼ cup water for 8 – 10 minutes, or until soft.
Steam kale for ten minutes or until soft.
Drain and add to a food processor bowl. Add the kale and process until smooth.

Banana + Avocado + Flax

Ingredients:

1 banana, sliced
1 avocado, pitted and sliced
1 tbsp Flax seeds

Instructions:

Place banana and avocado into blender and puree until smooth.
Add in flax seeds.
Serve immediately for best flavor and color.
NOTE: **Because of the avocado and banana, this puree does not freeze well.**

Sweet Potato + Squash + Prune

Ingredients:

1 sweet potato
6 prunes
1 cup butternut squash

Directions:

Boil sweet potato and butternut squash until tender and soak the prunes for 20 minutes in water.
Place into a food processor and puree until smooth.

Avocado + Apple + Apricot

Ingredients:

1 apple, cubed and cored
1 avocado, cored and sliced
6 apricots

Directions:

Boil or steam apples until soft.
Soak apricots in water for 20 minutes.
Place apples, avocado, and apricots into food processor and puree until smooth.

Green Beans + Apple + Pear

Ingredients:

1 apple, cored and cubed
1 pear, cored and cubed
1.5 cups green beans

Directions:

Steam apples, green beans, and pears until soft.
Place in a food processor and puree until smooth.

Sweet Potato + Squash + Apricot

Ingredients:

1 sweet potato
6 apricots
1 cup butternut squash

Directions:

Bake sweet potato until tender while,
Soak apricots in water for 20 minutes.
Steam butternut squash until tender.
Place all ingredients inside food processor and blend until smooth.

After making each batch of baby food, I either froze or refridgerated each recipe that was made. For foods containing banana or avocado, I pretty much kept in the fridge for up to 5-7 days since freezing and thawing tends to be not so yummy with these two types of produce.

For all others, I froze using my silicone baby food trays and then stored them in ziplock bags or secured them in my mini tupperware containers. Then you label the bag or container with a date, place in the freezer, and use when needed. Most purees will last you about 3 months in the freezer, typically.

There are so many ways to make and store baby food that you really cannot go wrong here! It is also so easy, stressless, and very thrifty to make your own baby food. Plus, you can control what your baby eats!

To make everything, I spent around $25 total. It depends on where you shop! Obviously, you might have some things on hand which would be very helpful. To make it all cheaper, you can replace quinoa with oats and skip the flax seeds-these two ingredients do make it more expensive. But I love the nutrition that it adds to the foods!

Making your own baby puree is also super fun because you get to see which foods your baby likes. The feeling of approval is so rewarding! My little girl is seen here munching on my Banana + Avocado + Flax puree.