Making your own homemade baby food gets a little bit of a bad rap because of all of the time that is supposed to be involved in preparing your baby's meals.
You don't always have to prepare baby food for each meal separately though, which can save you a lot of time.
Instead, you can make enough servings for a few days or weeks at a time. Homemade baby food can safely be stored in the refrigerator for 24 to 48 hours and in the freezer for two to four weeks.
Storing Homemade Baby Food
The typical methods for storing homemade baby food include:
- simply storing a few extra servings in the refrigerator and then using them within a day or two
- place extra servings of homemade baby food in ice cube trays, cover, and place in the freezer. Once they are frozen, you can put the baby food cubes in labeled freezer bags for up to a month.
- an alternative to ice cube trays is to place several rows, each made up of two tablespoons of your homemade baby food on a wax paper covered baking sheet and then freeze and move to labeled freezer bags.
Of course, if you have a little bit of extra time, and your baby is ready, you can prepare some of the same foods for your baby that the rest of the family is eating at meal time. For example, if it is time for a new vegetable and your family is having peas at dinner, you could put a few ounces of cooked peas (steamed, boiled, etc) in your food processor, blender, strainer, or baby food grinder, and make some homemade peas for your baby. You will also have to add some water to get them to a smooth consistency for your baby.
You can find many other homemade baby food recipes, including combination meat dinners, that are great once your baby has already eaten a lot of the vegetables and fruits, and he is about 8 or 9 months old.
Sources: National Ag Safety Database. Food Storage for Safety and Quality.
