Making Baby Food (the real story)

I am admittedly frugal and possibly cheap, but it was important to me to give my son organic foods. Unfortunately, if you have shopped organic foods recently, you know that frugal and organic are not found on the same aisle....and certainly not in the same jar of baby food (Jack's Harvest: $9.07 for six cubes and that is buying bulk online!). I thus decided to make my own baby food, as some people estimate that it can save hundreds of dollars that you would be paying for your child to eat jarred baby food.


Black & Decker 1.5c Chopper:
It may not be sweet pea green but at
10% of the cost and just as effective,
does it matter?

As with everything else in life, my first step in baby food making was research, which led me to Beaba, as I dream in expensive kitchen gadgets that I will never own. Knowing that various methods of cooking keep more nutrients intact than others, I liked that the food was steamed in its own juice, but it also blends and defrosts, eliminating the need for additional messes.

As it costs, $149, I smartly decided to give making baby food a trial

period before making any investments; a lesson that I learned the hard way with cloth diapers! Thus, I pulled out our one-cup chopper by Black and Decker. It took up no space on the counter and I could feed my son directly from the mixing bowl, which was also easy to clean and dishwasher-safe. I also discovered that I could use this new contraption called the microwave to defrost items with very little mess. I never bought the Beaba.
Some reviewers complain about bloggers who, much like I am now, advise against this costly item, or others like it, as I am a brand-specific-basher, because we must be advanced chefs with huge kitchens, tons of gadgets and a wealth of time that the average mom simply would not possess. To debunk this notion, I will walk you through making baby food step by step:

1. Prep your food. For example, making baby applesauce would entail peeling the apples and slicing them.
2. Preheat oven to 400. Line casserole dish with foil for easy clean-up. Place apple slices in dish, sprinkle with cinnamon, and add some water.
3. Bake. Set timer. Walk away. (Breaking a sweat yet?)
4. Remove from oven and spoon in to large food processor. Blend to desired consistency.
5. Pour into ice cube tray and stick it into the freezer.
6. Once frozen, remove from tray and dump into bag labeled with the date and food name.
Depending upon how many apples you used, you should have enough for 2-3 weeks of meals. So far, the most time consuming element has been peeling and cutting, which with an apple corer, is further reduced, but the same prep would go into cooking with a baby food maker. As for clean-up, because you lined your dish, it should have involved nothing more than throwing out foil and sticking your food processor in the dishwasher. Most importantly, you were still able to cook the food in its own juices, but because it was baked, it has a more savory taste.
To finish with the demo, let's advance to meal prep:
Tonight, you are serving chicken, pumpkin, and applesauce. You grab your three cubes (or more), put them on a salad plate (BPA free) and pop them in the microwave until softened. Mix and serve from the same plate.
If your chicken is a part of your dinner and thus needs to be pureed, simply melt the cubes or pumpkin and apple, add it to the chicken in the handy chopper and puree. Serve from the handy chopper's bowl, which you could not comfortably do from the Beaba.

As you can see from above, there was no mystery, special knowledge or professional kitchen. In the end, the most I considered was a new mini-processor/chopper, but found conflicting reviews, as consumers had issues with how finely pieces and thoroughly a batch were chopped; both of which are important with baby food and should be considered when choosing a chopper. I was also scared off by even occasional users having issues with the motor, as I use my mini two to three times per day and chop some pesky items that require the motor to run for a bit (my husband tried to get me to "pulse" but he finally gave up).
Ultimately, I have not bought anything, though I sleep well since finding that Black and Decker still makes a 1.5 cup chopper, which I can get from Amazon with no tax or shipping for $14.99, which, ironically, is 10% of the cost of a Beaba. Math also tells me that by investing an additional $5.92 over the six cubes of Jack's Harvest, I can feed my son through all of his pureed meals, instead of just two!
The underlying lesson is that marketers and manufacturers prey on our parental guilt. Want proof? Beaba Babycook and baby food freezer tray (x2 for larger batches....sorry! with only a 2.5 cup capacity on the Beaba vs your 8+ cup food processor, you cannot make large batches, so you will be prepping food more often) together come to $197.85, while the handy chopper and a set of polypropylene ice cube trays with lids come to $28.41. Even if you have to buy a food processor, an investment that will stay with you for years, spend $131.04 on a Cuisinart brushed steel 9-cup processor that has an average rating of 4.5 stars after 114 reviews on Amazon, vs the average 3.5 stars of the Beaba Babycook, and you are still $38.40 ahead for not buying into parent guilt.

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