Stage 1 Homemade DIY Baby Food Recipes + Cost Effectiveness

Here's a little report on what baby foods I've made for Calvin so far.

I thought it could be helpful to see how I prepared them, but keep in mind fruits and veggies vary in size and it takes trial and error to figure out the best method to cook them for yourself, this is just what I've managed.

I've kept the recipes super simple and not too wordy. I hope this is helpful!

And of course water/breast-milk/formula are all interchangeable in these recipes. Just avoid using previously frozen breast-milk if you're going to be re-freezing your baby food.

Butternut Squash!

Banana
1 banana + 1 oz breast milk = 3 oz food

Carrots
Peel
Bake on cookie sheet at 350 for 1 hour
5 carrots + 5 oz water = 9 oz food

Pumpkin
1 can pumpkin + 4 oz breast milk = 16 oz food

Apples
Peel, core, slice
Boil covered for 10 minutes
2 apples + 1 oz breast milk = 12 oz food

Peaches
Boil covered 5 minutes
then remove skins (they'll peel off really easily after boiling)
2 peaches = 12 oz food

Sweet Potato
Peel and cube
Boil covered for 12 minutes
3 sweet potatoes + 10 oz water = 31 oz food

Butternut Squash
Cut squash in half, place in baking dish face down with one inch of water
Bake at 400 for 45 minutes
1 large butternut squash + 8 oz breast milk = 62 oz food

More butternut squash!

Future stage 1 foods to make (so keep an eye out for a future post):
avocado
apricot
mango/papaya? (questionable for first foods)
pear
plum
green beans
peas

A little note on Cost Effectiveness

What I have learned is that for some foods, it's not really any cheaper to make your own, but for others the savings are significant. It just depends on the food. Baby food companies charge roughly the same no matter which food it is, when you make it yourself, you can see that some are cheaper per ounce than others.

For example, when I made the butternut squash it came out to about $.22 per ounce, and $.07 per ounce when I made sweet potatoes! I used a lot of water in the sweet potatoes, whereas the squash was already pretty watery and didn't require much additional liquid to get the consistency I needed.

Thanks for reading! I hope this helped.
I hope to continue keeping track and update you on other homemade baby foods I make for little Calvin!

Love,
Alaina