In our Why Food Storage Series, one of the main reasons to have a good Food Storage is for times of Economic Crisis. This could be in your own family or a more widespread situation. It’s wise to store food, know how to use it, and save money at the same time.

A few months ago when Julie’s baby started on baby food, she had a “WELL DUH!” moment in the grocery check out line as the cashier was ringing up jar after jar of expensive baby food. She realized it was ridiculous to pay so much for squash and bananas filled with tons of water. She asked some of our facebook readers how they made their own baby foods and got TONS of suggestions. Now that Jodi has a baby old enough for baby food she’s showing her some of the tricks she’s learned.

 

If the baby is old enough to eat the food, you can use that food. Some of our favorites are yams, squash, carrots, peas, green beans, apples, pears, and peaches. Some foods aren’t recommended for younger infants, so make sure you consult with your doctor. We use Deals to Meals to find the best price for produce and cook batches of what’s on sale.

Cook the vegetable or fruit either by pressure cooking, steaming, baking, or boiling. Pressure cooking or steaming maintains the most nutrients. Doing it this way, you can prepare large batches at once.

Remove the water and save it. Take the cooked vegetables or fruits and put them into a blender, food processor, or bowl in which you can use a hand held processor to puree the foods. Add back the liquid you saved to get to the right consistency. You may also thin the food with formula, breast milk, or plain water if you don’t have enough saved.

Once you have a nice liquid baby food puree you will then transfer the puree into containers. You can use freezer jam tupperwares, or any other container that can go in the freezer. This allows you to make weeks of food at a time at a fraction of the cost of store-bought food. Another way is to use ice cube trays for freezing/storage. Fill each tray with the puree then cover the tray with plastic wrap and put it in the freezer. Once the cubes are frozen, you can place them in ziploc bags for single servings (1 cube is about 1 oz).

When it is time to feed your baby, thaw and/or reheat the ice cubes, or foods from the containers. You can store food in the fridge for a couple of days, so each time you take some food out of the fridge, replace it from one from the freezer. This will ensure you always have some ready to go.

-Jodi Weiss Schroeder
http://foodstoragemadeeasy.net