A New Hobby

I decided that my new hobby has become food storage and cooking/baking and all things slightly related to that. So, I'll probably post once in a while about it. In this specific case: making my own baby food. Now, if any of you knew me oh say about 5 years ago and you told me I would be doing the whole food storage, make my own bread and baby food, etc. I would have laughed at you and said what I told my mom many years ago: "me, cook, hah, I don't need to learn how to cook, I'll just marry a chef."

Well, I didn't marry a chef, I married someone much better, but that's a separate post. Anyway, this time around with Damon starting solid foods I decided to have a go at making my own baby food. Baby food is super expensive!!!!! especially when you're trying to budget your grocery bill a little better. It sounds just as intimidating as food storage, but it's just as easy. I really love it. I went down to a farmer's market the other day and bought some items that would make some good baby food and it's been really fun. And there are so many more exciting things you can do when you make your own. For example, today Damon had an applesauce, sweet potato, banana mix and he LOVED it! I just hope he's really not allergic to bananas, I guess we'll find out. :)

All I do is prepare the food, steam, boil, cook, whatever, just basically make the food soft enough that I can toss it in the blender and make a smooth puree. Blend it up and put it in ice cube trays...my secret there...a funnel. I made a mess the first couple times I tried to fill the ice trays and then I saw my funnel in the cupboard and it worked great...and it helps me to get a good consistency on the puree when I know it pours well. After the ice cubes are frozen, I just pop them in labeled freezer baggies and whoala! Damon probably has at least a month's worth of frozen baby food now. And I'm not going to have a million jars laying around like last time. I did buy a few jars that I try out first to make sure he likes it before I make a giant batch of it, and they are great for when you make just a little too much and don't have enough ice trays. :)

Quick math on this: I bought a 2lb bag of carrots for $2.00 and for fun add in the cost of the ice trays, $1.00. I was able to make 48 cubes (which translates to 48 oz) of baby food. All for $3.00. Now, convert that into jars, each jar for Damon's stage is about 2.5 oz, so that would be roughly 20 jars at .40 each (if you buy the cheapest kind), which is $8.00. So, for less than half the price I have the same amount of food, and did I mention that homemade baby food tastes SO much better than the store-bought. Especially when you end up being the taste-tester. And if you buy the produce when it's in season and either freeze it or make it first you save even more money.....wow, this is really exciting and surprisingly fun! I do keep several jars of baby food on hand for "food storage" purposes though.

**Disclaimer: This post is really more for me than for you readers. I just know that someday I'd like to have proof that I actually did this and really I'm just so shocked at myself for being so excited about this. My mom's probably laughing at me right now. :)