Beaba babycook - easy homemade babyfood.

Okay, y'all. I'm about to introduce you to one of THE COOLEST baby-related inventions ever. I spied this thing while perusing the Williams Sonoma website well before I became pregnant with Elyse. I decided then that I had to have this little contraption after I had our next baby. Then I saw the price and decided that maybe I didn't. Then I watched the little video again on the Williams Sonoma website about it and decided I did. I was able to buy one used on Ebay that I think was hardly used (or else they just hold up really, really well) along with the Williams Sonoma homemade baby food cookbook (and y'all know how I feel about a cookbook!) for significantly less than what I would have paid for them new. It was a splurge. I used a giftcard I found that my sister-in-law gave me at Christmas to buy curtains for my house. It got shoved into a deep, dark place in my wallet until I discovered it recently, about the time I was getting ready to buy this wonderful little babyfood maker. It was an omen, I just know it.

So what is so great about this? Why do I think everyone who wants to make homemade babyfood for their babies should have one? Why, I'm glad you asked. Here's my list of reasons:

1. It is small. And compact. And takes up very little counterspace. And everthing is done in one tiny pot. Which means I'm not having to pull out my pressure cooker or my big stockpot, my blender, my steamer inserts for said big pot and pressure cooker, and then wash all that stuff and put it away. I can steam, puree, and reheat, all in one tiny little pot, and only that tiny little pot and steamer basket has to be cleaned. The size of the pot is decieving though. One pot produces one ice cube tray full of food.

2. Somehow (and I think it is magic), you put your food in the steamer basket, pour the appropriate amount of water into the steamer chamber, then you turn the little knob to the left to let it know to start steaming. A light comes on the knob. When your food, whatever is in the basket, is perfectly steamed, the light goes off. How that light knows when to go off, I do not know, but it knows. So you don't have to guess if it's perfectly steamed or not, or stick a fork in it, or whatever. It just is, every time.

3. I love that you can defrost the frozen food in the pot, and not have to nuke it in the microwave.

4. I love that by making homemade baby food that the little machine will pay for itself very quickly (especially if you make organic baby food instead of buying jarred organic babyfood, and especially if you get it used on Ebay).

So far I have made carrots, sweet peas, butternut squash and sweet potatoes and put them into ice cube trays. Then I put them into freezer bags. .
They'll keep in the freezer for up to three months. I have enough food to last for dozens and dozens of meals for Elyse, and it cost me a little (and I do mean a little) time and less than $5. Some of the vegetables I bought frozen in bags (the peas and carrots) and that REALLY cuts down on the time invovled, and then other vegetables, I bought and peeled and cubed. Still worth it, even if you do it that way. I still have some more butternut squash to finish, and I also bought apples and pears to do as well. And this will grow with your baby. It comes with recipe ideas for combining meats and vegetables as the child grows.

Ethan was a jarred baby food kid. I was working for David's uncle when he started eating baby food, and didn't really have the time or want to take the time with trying to do homemade. Sara Katherine quite literally skipped the rice cereal/baby food stage altogether, and was eating mashed up table food by seven months. She wanted nothing to do with rice cereal or baby food. I hated that. She ate some things probably before her palate was ready for them, and of my two kids that eat food, she's the one that gravitates towards sweets the most. I try to blame myself that it's because she was eating that stuff long before she should have been. So Elyse will have the best of my three.

Also a great tip I got from a girl I go to church with: When she's on the go, she uses 1/4 pint canning jelly jars and bought the white plastic screw on lids. Perfect size for 2-3 cubes of babyfood, and it's glass, not plastic if you need to heat in the microwave. Not to mention it's economical storage. I paid less than $10 for this stuff and it is probably all I'll need.

I highly recommend this little machine. I really do have so much fun making her food, and feel good that I'll be giving her wholesome food without preservatives for her first taste of real food.