Baby Food Making Party!

Since I am a stay at home mom (with the exception of the 4 hours a week I work), I don't bring in a whole lot of money!  While this is true, I feel like one of my responsibilities is to be wise with the money David makes and find ways to save money.  It almost becomes a game at times because, believe it or not, it can be fun to go way under budget on groceries knowing it was because I figured out a way to make that happen.

Most months we don't go way under budget.  Normally, its over :)  Add in baby items and that doesn't help anything!  One solution is cloth diapers which is a whole other topic!  The other is making my own baby food.  Let's be honest though, I am lazy.  I don't want to make baby food from scratch multiple times a day.

When a friend of mine suggested getting together and having a baby food making party, I thought it was brilliant.  It would accomplish so many things.  I would make all the baby food I would need in one night, hang out with friends, drink wine, and be "off" baby duty.

Here is how we did it.

Erin a.k.a Baby Food Making Pro, sent out an email with all the types of foods we would need:

-carrots
-butternut squash
-pears
-asparagus
-sweet potatoes
-zucchini
-blueberries (or blackberries)
-apples
-green beans
-plums
-apricots
-peas
-mangoes
-tofu

We divided the list among the three of us and bought our food.  Our guideline was the equivalent of 10 sweet potatoes, 2 big bag of carrots, etc.  We each just used our best judgement.

We picked a cooking night, met up, and got to work.

Some items, like green beans and peas, simply could be put in a steamer basket and go right on the stove.

Others needed to be pealed and chopped up like apples, pears, and plums.

To know exactly how to cook each item we used the book, Super Baby Food.

 Once they were super soft, in the blender and food processor they went!

We all brought as many containers as possible to transfer the food from Erin's to our own houses.  I brought every jar, glass container, and Tupperware I could find!  As the food was ready, it was divided between the three of us.

We kept working until all the food was done!  I think we stopped around 11:30 pm.  I was wore out.  Who knew making baby food was so hard?

If you are curious what you do with the tofu, you mix it with the blueberries or blackberries.  It turns out very pretty and purple in the end :)

Here is our final baby food loot:

I got home around 1:00 am, put my food in the refrigerator, and crashed.

The next few days, I slowly transferred the baby food into ice cube trays to freeze.  Once frozen, I popped 'em out and put them in Ziploc bags.  Make sure to label them :)  Carrots, butternut squash, and sweet potatoes all look very similar!

Yay!  That's the whole process. Oh, and then thaw them out as needed and feed your baby!  I love saving money and knowing exactly what Gwen is eating.  It is great.