Welcome back to another batch cooking round of homemade baby food! Today we’re making quinoa, peaches, avocado, pumpkin and cottage cheese. All wholesome and easy-to-make introduction foods for your baby. (Here’s my baby food introduction schedule for what solid foods to introduce when. And here’s my full list of favorite baby food combinations if you’re ready to start mixing foods together.) And just like round 1 with homemade baby food peas, green beans, applesauce, butternut squash and oatmeal, we’ll be making all 5 of today’s foods in just 20 minutes! Cause I know you’ve got too many other things demanding your time - like that sweet baby we’re trying to feed So I’m here to make this quick and efficient and show you how easy it can be to make homemade baby food. (I made ALL of mine myself for both my kids. Never bought a jar or a squeeze pouch. And I have a full-time job so I had to make it fast and had to work it in. Now I want to share that with you!) Ready to get started? Let’s do this!
Easy Instructions:
Step 1: Get your quinoa cooking. Follow your package directions but make sure it’s well-drained and generally use twice as much water as quinoa. For baby food, I like to do a full cup of quinoa and 2 cups of water. This makes a lot so I can have plenty to use and lots of extra to freeze or mix with other foods. Mine tends to call for combining the water and quinoa, bringing it to a boil, then reducing the heat, covering and let it simmer for 15 minutes. Then you turn off the heat and let it sit for a few minutes. You’ll know it’s done when the water is completely absorbed and the little germ string is showing. I puree homemade baby food quinoa for brand new eaters but once your baby is starting to take a little bit of texture in their food, you can just serve it up as is (or mixed with fruits or veggies). Step 2: While the quinoa is cooking, get the rest of the foods ready. For the peaches: You can buy fresh, ripe peaches to use if they’re in season. Just remove the skin and pit and use your immersion blender to get them smooth and delicious. Or, if peaches aren’t in season, you can buy frozen peaches, defrost them a bit and puree them with your blender. Or you can use canned or jarred peaches (packed in water or juice, not heavy syrup and not sugar-free because that means artificial sweeteners have been added), drain them and puree them. Step 3: For the avocado: Get a ripe one, open her up, scoop out the insides – minus that big pit — and mash ‘em up good. Such great healthy fats for your growing baby! Note: Avocado, like banana, doesn’t last that long once you mash it up. I usually do one-half mashed when ready to serve and keep the other half (still in the skin) wrapped in plastic wrap in the fridge and mash it up the next day when I’m ready to serve it again. Avocado also makes a great finger food for babies when they are ready. Just cut a soft, ripe avocado into small chunks and let your baby go to town. Step 4: For the pumpkin: We love all things pumpkin around our house. Pumpkin muffins, pumpkin pancakes, pumpkin yogurt cake, pumpkin cookies, pumpkin hidden in chocolate cake, pumpkin used in all sorts of baked goods, and on and on. I’m pretty sure it started with lots of pumpkin when they were babies. I serve it plain at first, then after they’ve cleared the first few days with it as a new food, I mix the baby food pumpkin puree with cinnamon. And then you can start baking with pumpkin and never look back! What to do: Open a can of pure pumpkin (NOT pumpkin pie filling). Scoop out some pumpkin. Serve. Ta-da! Step 5: For the cottage cheese: When they’re itty bitty, puree this up with your immersion blender so it’s smooth. When they’re a bit older, you can let them try this as a finger food or with a spoon. Either way, you pretty much just have to open the container. Oh, and go for the full-fat kind because babies need the healthy fats for all that growing they are doing! And looky there! You’ve just done another 5 foods in no time at all! Homemade baby food quinoa, peaches, avocado, pumpkin and cottage cheese is such a cinch! Lots of these foods go well together, too: Try mixing the cottage cheese with the peach puree, quinoa and peaches, quinoa and pumpkin, pumpkin and peaches, pumpkin with a little sprinkle of cinnamon. So many possibilities! Here’s my full list of favorite baby food combinations. And if you want to store them, these baby foods will keep in the refrigerator for 3-4 days and in the freezer for 3-4 months. Tip: I use mini ice cube trays to freeze small portions of each puree and then pop those cubes into labeled freezer bags for storing. I hope this is helpful! I’d love to hear what homemade baby foods you have made and what your little one seems to like best. XO, Kathryn Note: This post has been updated with new photographs and revised text. It was originally published in May 2015. I have always used and highly recommend a hand-held immersion blender for making homemade baby food. Homemade baby food can be stored in the refrigerator for 3-5 days or packed up in the freezer (I use ice cube trays and small containers like these and these) for 3-5 months. Avocado, like banana, doesn’t last that long once you mash it up. I usually do one-half mashed when ready to serve and keep the other half (still in the skin) wrapped in plastic wrap in the fridge and mash it up the next day when I’m ready to serve it again.
