carrot and apricot puree

Call me a hippie, I don’t care. I make all my own baby food and I’m gosh darn proud of it. The baby “food” out of jars are disgusting, they smell bad, they taste bad, and are full of preservatives. Making your own baby food is easy, healthy, and CHEAP! Here is one of Olivia’s favorites – Carrot and apricot puree. I buy organic carrots from Costco, 10 lbs, I’m hardcore. The apricots are dried because they are not in season, a little bit of warm water will reconstitute them right back up. One of the reasons I bought apricot is because Olivia had some poopie issues – as most babies do when they first start solids. They are high in fiber and has the same effect as prunes, but much tastier.

For this recipe, I make the carrots and apricot separately. The carrots I will freeze into cubes (see below), and the apricot I will keep in a container in the fridge as “toppings”. Olivia will usually get a base food (carrots, green beans, butternut squash, parsnip) with a topping food (pear, apricot, blueberry).

I make baby food in batches and freeze as cubes. For her every day containers we bring to daycare, we use these OXO Baby Food Storage Tray in the 4oz size. We have a set in the 2oz size as well for yogurts and such. These containers are awesome, super durable, and doesn’t look baby-ish so you can repurpose them for salad dressing, snacks, whatever. These containers are also freezable so you might want to stock up and use them as freezer storage solution as well. They cost $10 per set, not a bad investment if you think about it. I also have a set of these Solids Cube Trays. They are a little bit more work, but you can store the individual 1-oz cubes in a ziplock bag for optimal storage. Another advantage of the 1-oz cubes is that you can mix and match flavors. Olivia likes 3 butternut squash cubes and 1 carrot cube, or 3 carrot cubes and 1 green bean cube… you get the idea.

You can also purchase some of the baby food makers out there – I have a Baby Brezza my bestie Jamie got for me – it’s great for tossing in vegetables as you are cooking, but the blender and freeze method is much better at making baby food in bulk.

It may seem like a lot of work, but if you do it in batches, it’s not that bad. For carrots you can buy “baby carrots” to make it even easier, but beware, some baby carrots contain food coloring and additives to make them more colorful. I always try to buy organic because root vegetables have the highest concentration of pesticides. I’m trying to keep the little one additive and pesticides free as long as possible.

You would too, right?