Homemade with Love: Freezing & Storing Baby Food

Hello,
A few weeks ago I shared a chart with you of what my daughter Makena was currently eating. Well, my baby girl is 4 days away from turning 8 months and is eating a whole lot of food! When I first introduced solids at 6 months she barely at anything. I literally was lucky if she ate a couple of spoonfuls. Also, I took the advice from my lactation consultant and fed her after I nursed her and I got worried that by doing so she was never going to like eating solid foods. I was wrong. It took her about a good solid month for her to get used to eating solid food on a regular basis and now she has grown to love food (and still loves nursing too! win! win!) Now my girl faithfully eats at least three solid meals a day!

Here's a list of all the foods she is currently eating:
1) avocado
2) acorn squash
3) bananas
4) oatmeal cereal
5) pears
6) apples (fuji, gala, and granny smith)
7) butternut squash
8) plums
9) sweet potatoes
10) sweet peas
11) nectarines
12) spinach
13) peaches
14) zucchini
15) green beans
16) beets
17) carrots
18) yukon potato
19) chard
20) eggplant
21) mango
22) broccoli
23) pumpkin

She is quite the eater and I am very pleased that out of all the fruits & veggies her only dislike thus far has been sweet peas. I've tried mixing them with other fruits and veggies and she'll eat them, but they're definitely not her favorite. Once Makena turns 8 months I will start feeding her berries and proteins and I'll also introduce herbs & spices.

I love making Makena's baby food. I admit I may be a little obsessed with baking/steaming, pureeing, and freezing. I just love the entire process from going to the grocery store and picking out new foods, bringing them home to cook, serve, and freeze, but also I know exactly what I'm putting into my daughters body. Oh, and not to mention its so much cheaper!

I like to make a bunch of different food all at one time and freeze it that way I don't have to continually pull out the food processor and make food at every meal -that would be crazy!

With that being said let's get to the freezing & storing of baby food...

Freezing
According to wholesomebabyfood.com baby food cubes are safe to keep frozen for about 3 to 6 months. However, it is recommended to use the frozen baby food within 1 month, due to the amount of water crystals that tend to build up causing the baby food to loose nutrients. If you choose to refrigerate fresh pureed baby food it is recommended to not store it for longer than 48 hours to minimize the bacterial growth.

Storing 

I ordered the Fresh Baby So Easy Baby Food Kit from Amazon around the time I began solid foods. The kit included a cookbook, a how-to DVD, a nutrition tips card, and two freezer trays with lids. Since I like to make a lot of food at once just having two freezer trays was not enough. I thought about ordering more online but Amazon sells them for $8.77 for a pack of two, which I thought was expensive. Around the same time I was searching for more reasonably priced freezer trays w/ lids, I came across the Daiso Japan store (I LOVE this store!) near where I live and found trays for $1.50! What a deal, right? So far they are working out great and the lids are secure like the more expensive ones. Remember that you don't have to have lids for your trays, plastic wrap will do the job just be careful that the purees don't spill out. 
Here's a picture of the dollar fifty trays from Daiso....

Remember that you don't have to store your baby food in ice cube trays you can use mini-muffin trays, individual plastic freezing containers or glass jars that are safe to freeze. I would not recommend Gerber baby food jars or jars that are similar as they are not safe to be frozen and have the ability to crack and leave behind tiny shards and fragments. I know the brand Ball manufactures 4oz jars that are made for freezing. 

I typically allow the baby food to freeze overnight and then I transfer the cubes into freezer ziplock bags and label them with the name & month. By transferring the cubes to freezer bags it frees up the trays for the next batch of food and frees up space in the freezer too!

The process...

I hope that you find this information helpful. Don't forget to check back tomorrow as I will discuss how to defrost/warm and pack baby food and also share some of my favorite feeding products!

Abrazos,

Nat