How do you make your bub's food ?

We do a lentil soup that goes down well with the entire family, baby or adult. Saute red lentils in one onion (olive oil). You can add a carrot to get more variety, add some vegetable stock for flavour, rolled oats to thicken and cumin to spice it up. This is a very forgiving soup with regards to relative qauntities but I go with one onion, one cup soup, one carrot, one cup vegetable or chicken broth, a handful of rolled oats and one heaped teaspoonful of cumin. Blitz to make a smooth soup/puree. I love this poured over white bread with lemon juice and tobasco sauce on top

I've got a stick blender that I used to use, but my two got bored of purées quite quickly. I also got a stash of couscous and those teensy pasta bits that you put in soups... both are perfect for the transition to lumpier stuff and bulking the food out a bit. I never did huge batches, but would put them in ice-cube trays and then decant into marked sandwich bags. Then I could easily concoct a delicious spinach+potato+broccoli meal in a blink! Hmmmmm... deeeeelicious! I would also cook a little bit more for DH and I and then portion the left-overs up into baby/todder sizes meals. Cook without salt, of course!

LOL, I probably do spend too much time on EW, but I'm quite good at typing while breastfeeding. :) and my house is a p*gsty and LO is perpetually grubby, but that is another post :) I tend to have a big cook-up in the weekend, and freeze batches. I bought silicone ice cube trays which are really easy when your baby is just having tiny amounts because you can defrost one or 2 cubes at a time and now I use my silicone muffin tins to freeze individual portions. My wee guy has a sandpit table just outside the back door so I can keep an eye on him while I'm making food during the week but I really don't spend that much time on it, I just cook nice things. :),if I don't like it, he doesn't have to eat it. :) Spices are fine and so long as you take the salt out you can more or less just cook for yourself and baby at the same time to save on cooking twice. I could not be without my slow cooker, just chop everything up and throw it in before you go to bed at night or during his morning nap, you don't have to stand over it stirring etc which is great. Are you vegan or just vegetarian, and do you have eggs, you can add egg or egg yolk to the rice pudding and use quinoa or millet instead? Always rinse and soak, rinse again the quinoa or it can be a bit bitter, you can freeze the pudding/porridge in cubes too. I do tend to give a lot of meat as it is such an efficient source of so many good things but you can use the slow cooker for yummy vegie curries, use things like coconut milk/olive oil to add good fat. Chickpeas and other pulses should be ok too you could make a chana masala without chilli. Will have a think about other good vegie options or some other vegie mums might have ideas. A yummy soup I make (for all of us) and freeze is 2 large onions, celery and garlic, cooked gently in a huge wad of unsalted butter until clear then add 2 large sweet potato (or you could use pumpkin/squash) carrot, fresh coriander, butter, garam masala, fennel powder, whatever else takes your fancy add coconut milk and enough water to cover. If you have a stick blender then once everything has become soft and mushy you can just puree in the pot otherwise transfer to blender/food processor. You can add salt to your own when you serve but never add salt to babies food. I stay away from chilli because even if I eat something too spicy it gives LO reflux through my BM but he copes ok with a little bit in biryani etc. some good sites, although I tend just to adapt things we already like eating. http://wholesomebabyfood.momtastic.com/ http://www.homemade-baby-food-recipes.com/

Agree. its better to buy things that are generically useful, I couldn't be without my stick blender for soups and sauces even though I never really used it for baby food, I love my big food processor for making curry sauces, chopping nuts and chocolate or grating with grating attachment and my blender for smoothies (with spice grinding attachment) but if I only had one it would be the stick blender (which has mini food processor and cream whipper attachments). Make sure everythng is dishwasher friendly! I also LOVE my slow cooker, lamb shanks are probably less work than mac & cheese because you literally chop an onion, throw in some herbs and water with the shanks close the lid and walk away and I def don't feel like cooking at 6pm :), oh and my rice cooker/steamer, guess I'm a bit of a gadget junkie ;)

I also used a handheld stick/immersion blender for purees and really recommend it. And once you're done with purees (I only did purees for a couple of weeks) it is still handy around the kitchen for soups etc. Also had a special baby food chopper which I received as a gift and would rather go for the stick blender. Wow Kiwispears, I think my baby (and his father) want to move to your house - slow cooked lamb shanks with minted pea puree!! My little guy is lucky to get macaroni cheese :)

Cheapest way for purees - a mesh cullender, the back of a fork and if req a little of the water you cooked with.(oh yeah and have a bowl under to catch it :) ) I did this to make all my little 'uns purees.

I have a handheld blender (with small processing section too) and it's great for baby food, although not specifically for that. I've used it for pureeing for both my DDs and it's fab: Small, quick and easy to use and clean. I don't have a big food processor but the hand blending bit is great for making soups or blending anything in a pan or bowl and the small closed blending bit is enough for smoothies, grinding coffee etc so you would probably find yourself using it after bubs has moved on to lumpier fayre! HTH <em>edited by Muzza1 on 10/07/2011</em>

A tip I learned was if you want to make a very fine pea puree, cook the peas and then while still hot, immediately drain and pour into ice cold water then puree in a blender, not a food processor or stick blender, works well for corn too. Meat purees smoother if mixed with vegies, I usually use the food processor for this. To easily remove the skin from peaches etc, cut an x in the bottom and drop into a pot of boiling water for around 30 sec then drop into ice cold water, the skins will just rub off. Rather than making everything fresh every day, it is far easier to make a bigger batch and freeze into flexible ice cube trays then store in freezer bags so you can pop out small portions and offer some variety. Don't be afraid to use herbs and spices for flavour (but not salt), I use mint, basil, coriander, garlic and ginger on most of LO's dishes, baby food need not be bland!. At 8 months you will hopefully not be pureeing much longer and its probably best to consistently offer a range of textures including finger foods, I'm not sure the baby food make wuld be that useful at this stage. Salmon baked with lemon and basil, you can puree with peas or serve flaked. Chicken Thighs, slow cooked again with tarragon and garlic Lamb shanks slow cooked overnight with onion, removed from bone and pureed with some of the juice and potato, serve with minted pea puree, once she is handing chunks you can give her small pieces of the meat as it is so tender. You can make a rice pudding, in a rice cooker or slow cooker by adding 5 tbsp risotto rice to 3 cups milk or formula (or breastmilk if you are an awesome pumper :) ) add cinniamon or cardamom for flavour, you can puree this in the food processer if your baby likes it smoother. Banana, papaya, avocado, just mash with a fork.