Organic Homemade Baby Food Recipes & Big Worm Update: 6 months Old

It's Official.

Carlin (aka Big Worm) is eating homemade baby food now! 

As earth conscious, GMO loathing, generally hippie minded parents, it is only natural (pun intended!) for us to only offer our infant organic varieties when it comes to the food we make for him or even the juice he drinks. 

Finding food items that are organic is not a difficult feat, as most believe, and it is not necessarily too expensive, especially when it comes to feeding a 6 month old. 

For example, we went out and bought Big Worm a grocery bag full of all organic produce. 

The single Avocado alone was $2.00.  This is pricey for one avocado, but it goes a long way! 

Hear me out...  

We completely removed all veins from the Organic Collard Greens and then steamed them  { note of worth: steaming, rather than boiling, retains the most nutrients }. We diced the Organic Avocado and blended them together until they became a puree, creating a perfect melody of flavor.  

This took a few minutes of prep work, 10 minutes of steaming in our rice cooker and less than a minute of blending in our Baby Bullet, all to create.... Are you ready for this?  

  18 MEALS!!!  

Seriously. 

Why BUY Baby Food?!

He only eats a couple tablespoons at a time for now, so this will change eventually, but we will relish in the bounty of our glory by knowing the entirety of what's in his food, while also saving ourselves some dolla's! 


Think about it.... 


The total cost of the meal was around $5.00.    Let's break that down, shall we? 

$5.00 divided by 18 meals =   $0.28 cents per meal

Here are a few Organic Homemade Baby Food Recipes that we've come up with from one Hippie Momma to another:

***Plum& Kiwi: {breakfast time; snack time}

Thoughts:  Sour and sweet! Big Worm says "num num num num!". I'm thinking his sour taste buds are not yet fully developed. :) Yeilds about 12 baby meals at 2 tablespoons per meal.

• 1 Organic Plum (ours was a bit small)
• 1 Organic Kiwi
• Blender or Baby Food Making Bullet/Blender

Plums are not easy to peel but the peel will just fall right off of a nice ripe one! Cut the plum in half, remove the pit and gently peel away the peel from the fruit while holding the plum over the blender to be sure not to lose any valuable goodness! The think peel should come right off.  Peel the kiwi, dice and add to the blender. Blend until completely pureed. Pour mixture into ice trays in appropriate portions, place in freezer to freeze. Once frozen, pop out the baby meals you made into freezer bags, label them with the ingredients, time and date and stick back in the freezer in a designated area for baby food to be sure it doesn't get crushed.  

***Collards & Avocado: {lunch time; dinner time}

Thoughts: Slightly sweet and "green" tasting, but still pleasant. Big Worm approves. 

Yeilds a little over 18 baby meals at 2 tablespoons per meal.

• 1 bundle of Organic Collard Greens
• 1 Organic Avocado
• Blender or Baby Food Making Bullet/Blender
• Rice Cooker or Steamer (you can make a steamer with a pot and colander too)

Completely de-vein the collards. The veins won't do well when pureeing. Steam collards for 10 minutes and then add to blender. Cut avocado, remove pit, cut into slices while still in shell and then spoon into blender. Compost the shell! Blend until smooth. This is a thick mixture, so stopping the blender to stir a few times will be needed. Pour mixture into ice trays or other storage device in appropriate portions (about only 2 tablespoons for Big Worm right now), place in freezer to freeze. Once frozen, pop out the baby meals you made into freezer bags (I reuse my breast pump storage bags!), label them with the ingredients, time and date and stick back in the freezer in a 'designated baby food area' to be sure it doesn't get crushed. 

***Watermelon, Strawberry & Boobie-milk Smoothies!  {Anytime!}

Thoughts:  The smell is delish. The taste is soft. The texture is airy. Mommy loves it and Big Worm can't get enough of it! 

• 1 Seedless personal watermelon (we used MOST of it, but our teenager swiped the last few bites available)
• 2 Organic Strawberries
• Blender or Baby Food Making Bullet/Blender

Cut watermelon in half and spoon out the juicy fruit into blender. Cut leaves off of strawberries, cut them in half and add them to the blender.  Finally, add 1 oz of breast milk to blender and blend until smooth.  Pour some into a sealable container and refrigerate for 10 minutes. Feed fresh to baby with a spoon! Pour remaining mixture into ice trays in appropriate portions, place in freezer to freeze. Once frozen, pop out the baby meals you made into freezer bags, label them with the ingredients, time and date and stick back in the freezer in a designated area for baby food to be sure it doesn't get crushed. 

This is just the beginning of my baby food adventures! I can't wait to make more!! But all of this made so much, we have a month's worth of food almost! 

How to Feed Your Baby: 

THAT'S something you thought you'd never ask I bet! But this is something that comes up after you've managed to MAKE the food. NOW WHAT DO I DO?! I can answer that for you too. :) 

You can do this any way you feel most comfortable, but this is what we do. 

We grab one portion of the desired meal, place in a shot glass ( LOL they gotta get used for something these days!) and then place the shot glass  in a shallow coffee cup full of hot water, being sure the water does not go over the glass and into the baby food. 

I place the coffee cup in the sink and let steady, hot water trickle just over the side of the cup to defrost the food, stirring every now and then to help speed it along. You can just set the coffee cup full of hot water on the counter, but it may take longer to heat the baby food. 

The goal is not to heat the food up until it is hot, but to bring it to more of a luke-warm temp. From my own mothering experiences, I've found that the food is easier on the baby's tummy in the beginning years of eating food when it is not ice cold going down. 

Another way to defrost/heat up the food is to put it in a smaller freezer bag by itself and run hot water over it until it melts and is not cold anymore. The only reason I do not do this is because I would feel wasteful of using too many of those damned plastic bags!  

You don't have to be a tree hugging Hippie Momma like me to enjoy the simpler, more economical ways of eating, buying or simply living! 

My hope is that, even if you do not consider yourself a "hippie" per se, that you will at least be inspired { and not afraid } to venture into making your baby's food right at home. It is best for baby, great for the bank and makes you feel all warm & fuzzy inside because you know what went in it!