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Articles > How to make your own baby food
 Have you ever opened a bottle or can of baby food and tasted it? It is often bland and tasteless. Granted babies haven't developed the taste buds that we have but it doesn't mean we should compromise on taste and nutritional value. Nutrition is so important for every day of your life, and more so for babies. The rapid rate of development that babies experience in their first 2 years of life demands that they receive good nutrition to enable and sustain that growth.
Babies eat with their eyes just like we do, so the food should look nice and smell nice. In the past, babies have started their food journey eating from jars with such delicacies as chocolate custard, pureed carrots, brains, and pureed corn, moving on to something brown with lumps in and something grey with lumps in and then more custard with the addition of pureed apple.
It's pretty limiting when you consider the enormous variety of foods available. So the best solution is to make your own.
What do you need to make your own baby food?
The tools required for home made baby food include a mouli or a baby mouli or a hand held blender. A mouli creates a finer texture and produces a recognizable product whereas a blender can alter the anticipated result to create a disappointing sloppy mess.
Prepare your babies food along with your own
Use fresh ingredients and don't add salt, sugar or oil to the food.
Steaming is the best way to cook vegetables and fish and whilst grilling for some cuts of meat removes most of the fat, be careful not to dry the meat out when cooking.
Soften food rather than create slop in a pot. The longer you cook something the greater the chance that the nutritional value will be reduced. Softened food pushed through a mouli enables nutrients to be retained so flavor isn't compromised.
Moderation is the other key to preparing baby's food
Would you like custard at every meal? Alternate a custard meal with blamange, yoghurt, rice pudding or even panacotta. If nothing else at least your baby will be getting some variety.
Creamed rice with just half milk and half cream cooked slowly so the goodness is retained and then pushed through the mouli is fresher and more wholesome than the pre packaged counterpart.
Boiled potato and steamed fish
If you don't have a steamer then simply grease a plate with butter and add finely chopped parsley then your choice of fish and place another greased plate on top. Steaming will incorporate the aromas and flavors of the parsley into the fish. Boil a potato and push through the mouli to achieve a soft fluffy potato and steamed fish dish with parsley flavor.
Almost anything you cook your family can be shared with your baby but just remember, don't add sugar or salt, so take out baby's portion and mouli before you add your seasonings.
Fruits and Vegetables
There is more calcium in broccoli than in milk so creamed broccoli is a great choice for fiber and flavor. Spinach is another important source of calcium. Use your steamed vegetable water for thinning your baby's meal if it is still a bit heavy as the nutrients captured in the water are valuable sources of vitamins and minerals
Give a variety of fruits. Apples and berries are packed full of vitamins and minerals. Soften the apple and wash the berries add some mashed banana to bind together. Bananas are almost a whole food and berries contain loads of Vitamin C, which assists in the absorption of calcium.
Pears, apricots, prunes, and plums can all be pushed through the mouli .When these are out of season, dried fruit can be reconstituted and warmed up and served with a milk dessert for that vital calcium babies need.
And finally...
Give baby the best start you can and make your own baby food. Experiment and have fun. Be positive about the meals you prepare and baby will always look forward to sitting down to eat with you.
Article provided courtesy of Only Cookware - a consumer guide to cookware, stainless steel cookware and
cast iron cookware sets.
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