Baby Food - My Homemade Version

I never would have thought my first recipe post would have been on baby food, but that seems to consume my life right now!  That and I keep forgetting to take pictures when I'm making dinner for Brett and I and what fun is a blog post without pictures?!
Homemade baby food is really simple and easy and SO much better for baby.  I gathered some extra produce at the grocery store the other week and went to town roasting pureeing away!  First up, sweet potatoes and squash!

I started with two medium sized squash and three sweet potatoes.  After rinsing them off, I cut the squash in half and removed the guts and placed them cut size down on a foil lined baking sheet. I pierced the sweet potatoes a couple times and placed them on the same baking sheet.  Then I placed it all in a preheated 400 degree oven and roasted them for about an hour.  Time can vary on this, I think I pulled mine out at about the 45 minute point.

Once the meat inside the squash and potatoes were tender, I pulled them out and let them rest to cool.

I removed the skin on the outside and put tender squash in a food processor with a touch of water.  I did the same with the sweet potato.  

 Blend (or chop, whatever your food processor says, I only have two buttons on mine!) until you reach your desired consistency.  You can make it super smooth, but I wanted mine a bit chunky so Charlie would get used to "chewing" the food.

I then placed the pureed food into ice cube trays.  Then popped them in the freezer.  This way I'll have individual servings and can take them out of the freezer as I need them.

Once they were frozen solid, I popped them out of the ice cube trays and put them in labeled freezer baggies with the date on them.  Baby food will last in the freezer for about three months.  Whenever I need a serving, I just put it in a bowl and let it thaw out a bit until Charlie is ready to eat it.  It's usually not thawed enough by the time he's demanding more, so I put it in the microwave for about 20 seconds.  It's still a little cold, but easy to mix and mash and he doesn't seem to mind the cold food!

Next up, blueberry and banana puree!  This one was super easy!  You place a pint of blueberries and two ripe bananas on a foil lined (this helps with clean up!) baking sheet.  Make sure you rinse your banana off and rinse the blueberries good.  I had to pick a few stems out of the blueberries before I cooked them.  Preheat the oven to 425 degrees.

Place the banana and blueberry sheet into the oven and roast for 20 minutes.  This is what it will look like when it comes out of the oven.

Let it stand to cool for a bit, the banana peels get super hot!  Once they are cool to the touch, place the blue berries and unpeeled bananas in a food processor.

Puree away until you reach your desired consistency.  It will have a somewhat pudding like texture to it.  Then place in ice cube trays and pop in the freezer.

Again, I put these in a plastic freezer bag and labeled them.  

This texture was a new one for Charlie.  He wasn't sure about it at first.

But now it's definitely Charlie approved!  This kid loves to eat!

Making your own food definitely takes some time, but it's not hard.  I did all three of these purees in about an hour and a half.  This was also my first time doing it, so next time it will go much faster!  I've also made peaches and plums since then, but no pictures, as I was in a hurry to get them done before the fruit went bad!