Homemade baby food vs store bought cost

Bought vs Homemade Baby Food – Pros and Cons – Aster & Oak

Baby food is almost as varied and flavorful as adult food now — anything that can be pureed can be put in a jar and called baby food. Once our little one has reached the food stage at around six months, it’s time to make a decision. Should you buy your baby food or make it at home? We’ve assembled the pros and cons of each option to help make the choice between Bought vs Homemade Baby Food a bit easier for you.

Store Bought Baby Food — Pros and Cons

Store-bought baby food may be the food of choice for most parents because of its convenience and variety — there’s an enormous wall of it in nearly every grocery store, and it comes in every flavor imaginable.

Pros

Convenience — You don’t have to worry about refrigeration (before you open the jar) or Tupperware with loose lids making a mess in your bag.
Portability — It’s easy to store and carry jars of baby food in your diaper bag or purse. All you need is a spoon, and it’s dinner time for baby.

Cons

Cost — In the long run, jarred baby food ends up costing more than the homemade alternatives.
Waste — Disposable packaging can be wasteful, and if it’s not cleaned out well, it’s often not recyclable either.
Preservatives — The only ‘preservative’ you should see in baby food is Vitamin C, but jarred food can contain a variety of listed or unlisted preservatives to make the food shelf stable.
Contaminants — Contaminants can make their way into store-bought baby foods and can even show up in the water used to make it. In 2014, the Environmental Defense Fund found lead in some packaged baby foods.

Jarred baby food can be a great tool if you’re traveling or away from home, but is it really the best option for every meal?

Homemade Baby Food — Pros and Cons

You can make almost anything that you’re eating into baby food as long as you don’t mind skipping the salt and other seasonings.

Pros

You Know What’s in the Food — Nothing goes into your homemade baby food that you’re not aware of.
Cost — Overall, making your baby food ends up being less expensive, even if you have to buy a blender or food processor to get started.
Variety — You can make up food combinations to cater to your infant’s tastes and nutritional needs without having to open multiple jars.

Cons

Safety — Jarred baby food is pasteurized, killing off any bacteria that might appear in the finished product. Homemade baby food is not.
Storage — Homemade baby food has no preservatives, so it doesn’t keep as well. It can be frozen, but should only be made and stored in small batches.

If you’ve got the time and the inclination, making your baby food can be an excellent option for providing your infant with healthy and organic food.

Making Your Own — Tips and Tricks

If you’ve never tried making your own baby food, here are a few tips and tricks to get you started:

Steam or microwave fruits and veggies to soften them while still retaining most of their nutrients. Boiling works too, but many of the nutrients can leach out into the cooking water.
Don’t add anything — you don’t need any extra flavors or additives. Your baby’s tastes are very bland at the moment, plus most of these flavor additives also add salt or sugar which are unhealthy for your baby.
Mash. Add small amounts of water or breast milk and mash the fruits or vegetables until they’re smooth. You can also spin these foods up in a blender or food processor to get a smooth, even texture.

That’s all there is too it. Baby food is pretty simple. If you’re making up large batches of food at once for convenience, pour the extra food into an ice cube tray to make individual sized freezer portions. Once frozen, they can be transferred into a zip lock bag for storage for up to a month.

Homemade Baby Food Recipes

If you’re just getting started with baby food, here are a few homemade recipes to get you going.

Stage 1 — These infant foods should include only one ingredient, not including the water or breast milk used to dilute the mash. Not only does it make it easier to introduce new foods to the baby, but it also makes it easier to determine if your child has any food allergies that you need to be concerned about.

Avocado Mush — All you need to do is halve your avocado, scoop out the meat of the fruit and mash it until smooth. Avocados are very soft anyway, so there’s no need to do anything extra to it.
Banana Mush — Same as the avocado. Peel, mash, serve.
Applesauce — Peel your apples and cut them into chunks. Boil or steam until tender, then mash or blend until smooth.

Stage 2 — This is when you can start getting a little more adventurous with the food combinations, but you still don’t want to add any salt or additional flavors. Start combining fruits and vegetables like:

Apples and bananas
Apples and plums
Bananas and blueberries
Apples and carrots
Peaches and sweet potatoes
Avocado and peaches

The list is endless. Just make sure you’re using foods that you’ve already introduced the baby to in case of food allergies.

Stage 3 — Now that your baby is used to a variety of different foods, it’s time to start looking into chunkier foods. You can start introducing finger foods here as well.

The food you feed your baby, much like the rest of your parenting decisions, is a personal choice. If you have the time, making homemade food can be a healthier alternative to store-bought baby food, but the jarred stuff isn’t all bad.

Cost Comparison: Baby Food | Feeding Our Flamingos

One of the most exciting steps you will take as your baby grows is introducing solids to him. It’s kind of fun to see the expression on baby’s face and to find out what he will do with a spoon. But the options for giving baby solids is somewhat overwhelming. You have to decide what age he will start eating, what he will eat, and whether you give him fresh or jarred. I want to help you make that choice easier by sharing my own experience with homemade baby food, and that’s why today I’m delving into the costs of baby food.

Pssst! You can see all my homemade baby food posts right here.

I haven’t done a cost comparison since Thanksgiving when I compared the cost of canned and fresh pumpkin puree. So I’ve really been itching to do another one, and I am so excited to share what I found about the cost of homemade baby food vs the cost of jarred baby food.

© tycoon101 / Dollar Photo Club

To make this comparison a lot smoother and easy to follow, I will only be comparing the cost of Gerber baby food from 3 different stores:

Walmart
Amazon.com
Target

For the homemade baby food costs, I am using all the data I gathered while feeding my daughter from 6 months through 11 months. All of this data can be found in the homemade baby food series starting HERE. I wish I had time to find out the costs of those purees more accurately, but I really think the data I gathered offers wonderful insight into how much you can expect to pay for homemade baby food.

Cost of Jarred Baby Food

In January I went to Walmart to write down the prices of jarred baby food. It took a lot longer than I expected, so instead of going to Target to gather prices I just went online. I got prices from Amazon in February and prices from Target just this week. I doubt the prices for baby food fluctuate too much, which is why I didn’t get all the prices at once. Plus, it really does take a lot of time to check all the prices.

Let’s do this!

Gerber 1st foods came out to an average price per ounce of $0.31 for the three stores. Amazon had the most expensive at $0.43 and Walmart and Target tied at $0.20 per ounce each.

Gerber 2nd foods was $0.32 per ounce on average with Walmart being the cheapest ($0.15 per ounce) and Amazon the most expensive ($0.30 per ounce). The meat baby food for 2nd foods was most expensive on Amazon for $0.77 per ounce, while Walmart’s costs just $0.39 per ounce.

Gerber 3rd foods was the cheapest category for some reason costing only $0. 18 per ounce on average at the three stores. Both Walmart and Target have them for as little as $0.12 per ounce, but Target also offers a more expensive kind for $0.30 per ounce.

Finally, Gerber rice cereal and oatmeal came out to an average of $0.39 per ounce at Walmart, Target, and Amazon. Amazon and Target actually came out the cheapest at $0.22 per ounce, but Amazon also had the most expensive at $0.95 per ounce for whole wheat rice cereal.

Overall, the average for jarred baby food at the three stores was $0.27 per ounce and the average for rice cereal and oatmeal was $0.27 per ounce as well (I threw out the two most expensive because I don’t know why you would pay so much when you can get it cheaper at both Target and Walmart).

I’m just making a wild guess here, but I did some calculations and figured that by purchasing the cheapest priced baby food you could spend over $300 for the six months you are feeding your baby. And lots of people actually start feeding their babies at 4 months, so it could be more like $400+!

Cost of Homemade Baby Food

As I was making my daughter’s baby food, from July 2014 to January 2015, I kept track of how much I spent on all of it. It was a tedious process and I spent plenty of hours doing calculations, but now I get to share all that data with you to come out with my conclusion.

From apples down to quinoa, I listed the total cost, the # of ounces produced, and the cost per ounce in the chart on this PDF file. The average price for all of these foods came out to just 14.7 cents per ounce. That’s 12.3 cents per ounce cheaper than buying it. Keep in mind it is an average, so half of the foods cost less per ounce and half cost more per ounce.

The least expensive food I made for Bella was oatmeal at just 2.4 cents per ounce. The salmon was the priciest at 37.4 cents per ounce.

I want to remind you that I don’t shop with coupons and I rarely shop around. If there is a sale, I’ll take advantage of it if I need the food, otherwise, I don’t shop sales either. In other words, you can definitely make baby food for cheaper if you are smart about grocery shopping.

Here is the amount of money I spent making baby food from the first month down through the sixth month:

$4. 82 for 25 days
$7.94 for 33 days
$16.11 for 33 days
$20.95 for 33 days
$20.07 for 33 days
$39.42 for 30 days

I spent $109.31 for 6 months worth of baby food! That’s less than $20 per month. Now doesn’t that look way more appealing than spending upwards of $300?

It’s obvious that if you have a baby who needs more food that you could spend twice as much as I did. Or you could spend less, especially if you are a savvy grocery shopper.

Pros and Cons of Both Sides

I’d like to bring up some things you should consider for both sides:

Jarred Baby Food

There are other ingredients listed on the label.
Your baby may not enjoy the taste and/or the food may taste really different from the fresh version.
Commercial baby food is processed at very high temperatures in order to kill bacteria. That said, many nutrients can be lost with your baby losing out.
You have to remember to buy the food while you are shopping.
Baby doesn’t have to eat the whole jar. Follow your baby’s hunger cues for giving him the correct amount.
It’s highly convenient and doesn’t require you to do anything more than pop the top.
You get a collection of jars to keep and do what you would like with.

Homemade Baby Food

You know exactly what is in it because you made it.
You can make it with organic produce and meat and add your own spices, too.
Your baby will be able to taste fresh food.
You decide the method of preparation for the food. Fortunately, you don’t have to overcook it in order to be safe.
Your shopping list will become much longer (and you’ll definitely have to add your baby’s meals to the meal plan so you remember what she is eating each day).
It’s really easy to give baby the correct amount of food because you can start out with a small amount and add more as needed.
You will spend a good amount of time making baby food. I spent less than 3 hours per month making Bella’s baby food.
You can freeze a lot of the baby food if you can’t use it in time.

It is highly satisfying, in my opinion, to give your baby food that you spent time and effort preparing. All in all, I can say that, for me, homemade baby food is worth it.

If you’d like details on my homemade baby food adventures, check out all the posts here.

Author
Recent Posts

Charlee Flaminio

I'm a mom of 3 on a journey to feed my family nourishing foods. Personally, I believe you can cook healthy food and still have time for your loved ones.

Latest posts by Charlee Flaminio (see all)

5 reasons to choose homemade baby food

Viktoria Levchuk©

As adults, we think a lot about what we eat. Most of us generally prefer homemade baby food over store-bought, not only because it tastes better, but as consumers, we understand that we expose ourselves to fewer additives, high fat, salt, and sugar by preparing meals at home with zero. All too often, however, we forget to exercise the same caution when it comes to store-bought baby food choices.

Contents:

Babies consume an average of 600 cans of baby food by the time they are one year old. Four out of five babies consume canned food. However, most commercial baby food is considered uncommendable, and home cooking should always be encouraged rather than canned food.

The impact of added preservatives and nutrient deficiencies found in canned baby food cannot be overlooked.

Moreover, the potential benefits that can be found in food prepared from scratch at home are much higher.

Healthy eating should not be limited to adults and older children. The early stages of development are critical to the health and well-being of babies, and the transition to solid foods provides a great opportunity to introduce babies to nutrient-dense foods that can help make this happen.

Simplify the process with good tools

Freezer Pan

There are many great tools on the market to simplify the process of making baby food at home, from baby food freezers to blenders, food thermometers, small individual glass containers and other useful devices that make cooking faster and easier.

Why, then, do mothers around the world continue to buy baby food from supermarkets? Are trademarks really that bad, and can organic brands be better?

Read on to find out why homemade is always better (and why even organic baby food may not be what the manufacturers claim).

Homemade baby food versus canned baby food

green pea puree

about 2 years . To keep food "fresh" on the shelves longer, it must be canned and sterilized; organic as well as non-organic brands. This means that even without the addition of additional preservatives, food must be heated to its maximum temperature to avoid contamination after several months on the shelf. Along with this heating process, all vitamins and nutrients are killed.

Non-organic products contain some additives and preservatives added to increase shelf life , and when the natural flavor of the food has been killed off during the heating process, so artificial flavors are added to enhance the flavor. Instead of natural oils, unhealthy fats are added to further extend shelf life, and exposure to plastic containers increases the risk of ingestion of toxins such as BPA.

How to make baby puree thick in consistency

To cut costs, food is also often replaced with water or thickeners/starches such as hulled rice, hulled corn and hulled wheat. These substances are stripped of the grain's outer layers, with preservatives and bleach typically added during processing, and the refining of any grain reduces its vitamin, protein, and roughage content.

What is the end result? Baby food that is as far from natural as possible... even labeled "organic".

However, when it comes to homemade baby food, all of the above can be avoided. Food is steamed, baked, cooked or mixed raw and then frozen for several hours. All natural nutrients found in fruits, vegetables, and meats are preserved intact, as are flavor, color, texture, and aroma. Because many fruits and some vegetables can be cooked without cooking, infants will also benefit from 100% raw food without wasting any nutrients.

Here are some more good reasons to consider switching from store-bought to homemade baby food...

1. Homemade baby food is more nutritious

Fruits and vegetables are amazingly nutritious. From the antioxidant-rich health benefits of brightly colored vegetables to a good source of fiber in root vegetables and fruits, vitamins, proteins and minerals found in every type of fruit, vegetable, seed, legume and nut, these nutrients are essential for a child's development. Children who have all the nutrients they need learn faster, become stronger and have a much lower risk of developing diseases. Preparing simple yet healthy meals ahead of time ensures that your child gets healthy without all the extra ingredients so often found in canned food.

2. Parent knows exactly what's in baby food

If a parent is worried about giving baby supplements that are hard to pronounce, it's probably best to have full control of what's in baby's food. Aside from the healthy spices and herbs (which add variety to dishes as well as add healthiness), there's no need to worry about added sugars, salt, flavorings, thickeners, colors, and other scary ingredients that have no place in baby food. Instead, the parent will always be 100% sure which ingredients are included in the baby food.

3. Save money

Think about the cost of a single jar of baby food bought in a store. Then multiply this by the number of meals per day and the number of meals per month. What happens? Buying baby food from the bank in addition to food for the rest of the family often ends up being expensive. If you cook food from scratch, then you can only buy the food that the rest of the family will eat. It is possible to purchase some useful tools that will make cooking easier, but even a one-time purchase of a few necessary tools will not cost as much as endless jars of baby food.

Pumpkin puree 7 months +

4. Save time

Believe it or not, making homemade baby food can also save time. Shopping trips will be reduced without the need to read labels, choose flavors and compare products. Feeding time will become much easier because the baby will enjoy food more if it is prepared fresh with delicious and various bright and healthy ingredients. You can cook a whole week's worth of food in one day, store it in the freezer, and just pull out the perfect sized portion to heat up quickly. And reducing the stress of parents will help the child to be less nervous too, and feeding time will become much more fun.

5. Baby gets more flavors

Last but not least, another important benefit of making baby food at home is that it allows you to add natural and delicious flavors. Most canned baby food is bland and unappetizing, with a limited variety of combinations and flavors. Herbs and spices are also rarely used in such foods, resulting in the food being less palatable to the child. Keeping in mind the “4-day wait rule” and learning some gentle herbs and spices, you can add flavors that will expand your baby's taste buds. From sweet spices to fragrant herbs, natural sweetness and delicious combinations of fruits, vegetables and more, kids will discover a world of taste sensations as they try new foods and flavors.

The introduction of solid foods should not be traumatic or difficult for both the child and the parents. Experimenting with nature's delightful gifts will turn feeding time into something everyone will enjoy.

Baby food at home: recipes, video

Growing up a little person is a delightful process that cannot but please the parents of the crumbs. However, the first feeling that mom and dad face when it comes time to introduce complementary foods into a child's diet is confusion.

Which food is the most healthy, hypoallergenic and delicious? Most often, the first "real" meal of the crumbs after mother's milk and formula is vegetable or fruit puree. The choice of baby food on store shelves is very wide - each manufacturer tries to convince the buyer that jars with beautiful labels contain only natural products, there are no dyes, sweeteners and other harmful additives. A variety of "meals" for babies in factory packaging marked "3+ months." does not guarantee the true usefulness of the product that is inside. Every mother understands that complementary foods prepared on her own, from natural products, are much better for her child.

Another advantage of making your own baby food is that you can choose the best ingredients, wash fruits, berries or vegetables thoroughly, peel them well and remove damaged parts. In addition, the parents of the crumbs themselves can choose the way - how best to cook baby food: food can not only be boiled, but also baked in the oven or cooked in a double boiler.

It is also important that home-made baby puree is much tastier, it will undoubtedly be useful for a growing organism and will not cause allergies! Even the simplest children's dish, prepared by mom, keeps the warmth of caring hands and cannot be compared with expensive dishes from the store.

What should be the correct complementary foods for children? Of course, you should start with one ingredient (such purees are called one-component purees), then move on to more complex options. Experts emphasize that the most suitable product for the first "dish" is zucchini. Cauliflower can also be considered neutral. Gradually it will be possible to introduce carrots, pumpkins, potatoes, broccoli and green peas. At the first stage of the introduction of complementary foods, it is better to give preference to vegetable purees and switch to fruit purees when the child already treats “serious” food well.

The basic rules and principles of preparing high-quality baby food yourself:

it is best to take fresh products for preparations: fruits from the tree, berries from the bush and vegetables from the garden are much healthier than those that have already been in the refrigerator for a week. If there are no seasonal vegetables at the time of preparation, the use of frozen foods is acceptable, but in this case, try to give preference to whole fruits - they retain the greatest amount of nutrients;
only filtered water should be used for cooking vegetables;
Preparing baby food requires, if not separate dishes, then thoroughly washed ones. Do not, for example, cut vegetables on a meat board. If there is a dog or cat in the house, then you need to restrict her access to the kitchen when food is being prepared;
It is not recommended to use vegetables and fruits in the diet of infants, in which the content of chemical additives is consistently high. These often include watermelons and melons, beets, spinach and lettuce;
It is better to soak vegetables purchased on the market with water before cooking: put carrots, potatoes, zucchini and cauliflower in filtered water for a couple of hours - this will remove nitrates;
do not leave excess mashed potatoes for the next meal: the child should be given only freshly prepared food, and "yesterday's" mashed potatoes are best eaten by adults or given to pets;
you can choose cream, boiled egg yolk, grated cheese or finely chopped dill as an additive to puree - this will diversify dishes for children from 8 months;
try it! Children's food can and should be liked by an adult.

There is another question that often worries parents: is it permissible to preserve baby puree and how to do it correctly? After all, such complementary foods for the developing organism of a small child must be prepared daily for one or even two or three years: until the baby is ready to eat adult food from the common table. Not every mother has the time and opportunity to make baby puree daily, but you don’t want to buy food for the baby in the store. In addition, it is obvious that in the winter-spring period it is almost impossible to find fruits and vegetables grown without the addition of chemicals. The answer to the question is quite simple: the requirements for the conditions for preparing baby food are very strict (maintenance of temperature, sterilization of jars, etc.), but the use of an autoclave solves all problems: all that is required is to load jars with blanks into the autoclave for 20 minutes and set temperature 120 degrees. After cooling, it is better to store baby food in a dark, cool place for about 12 months, daily delighting the child with homemade homemade food.

Pumpkin puree: tender and aromatic

Pumpkin is a tasty vegetable that is good for babies. This fruit has a beneficial effect on digestion, is well absorbed by the child's body and is rich in various vitamins: A, C, B, B2, E, PP, T. In addition, the carotene content in pumpkin is 5 times higher than in carrots!

Baby pumpkin puree has a sweet taste, so the kids eat this dish with great pleasure. For preparations, it is better to buy small whole pumpkins, as they usually taste better than large ones and are easier to peel.

Rinse pumpkin well under running water, peel, cut in half, remove seeds.
Then you need to cut the fruit into small cubes, put in a saucepan and cover with water. Cooking time after boiling - 20 minutes. You can also steam pumpkin: it will retain more nutrients with the same cooking time.
The next step is to beat the cooked pumpkin with a blender to a smooth puree. If the dish turned out to be thick, add water or milk (milk mixture).
Vegetable oil and salt are added to pumpkin puree to taste, but these additives should be used with caution: only if they are acceptable for the age of the child.

For babies older than 8 months, pumpkin puree is supplemented with other fruits and vegetables, and also added to porridge.

Broccoli puree: simplicity and elegance

Broccoli is not just cabbage, but a storehouse of vitamins and microelements! Beautiful on the outside and fantastic on the inside - the high content of protein and vitamin C (there is more in broccoli than in citrus!) deserves special attention. There are many articles on the Internet about the benefits of broccoli, and preparing this product is not at all difficult.

To prepare this type of cabbage for baby food, you need to choose the highest quality product: the inflorescences must be unopened, green, moderately elastic.

Broccoli should be washed, cut into pieces and boiled. Steaming will take 20 minutes, in water - faster: fresh cabbage should be boiled for a little more than 5 minutes, and frozen - at least 10. When cooking, do not pour a lot of water, it should only cover the vegetables a little.
When the cabbage is cooked, it must be taken out, put into a blender bowl and chopped to a puree state, add a little warm boiled water.
Add salt and butter to taste.

Pear puree: a fragrant dessert

It's no secret that babies love fruit puree - almost all children like sweet dishes. The pear is a suitable option for the first one-component fruit food - a sweet fragrant fruit that has a high concentration of vitamins, stimulates digestion and almost never causes allergies.

If you want to cook a safe puree for your child at home, then it is best to choose green pears, these are the fruits that are considered to be the least allergenic.

Fruit must be peeled, core removed with seeds, cut into cubes.
Transfer the pear to a heavy-bottomed enamel saucepan, add a little water and simmer over low heat for 15-20 minutes.
Then transfer to a blender bowl and puree until smooth. If the puree is too thick, add a little warm boiled water.
You can dilute the dish with milk or formula - it depends on the taste preferences of the baby.

A similar recipe is used for applesauce. In the future, try to combine these two fruits in one dish.

Classic apple-zucchini puree

A good appetite of a baby pleases every mother, but little gourmets are often capricious, and it is not easy to please them. Zucchini and apple puree is a classic combination of products that will diversify the baby's menu already in the fifth or sixth month of life.

This complementary food contains only hypoallergenic products, has a positive effect on the functioning of the heart, and stimulates the strengthening of the immune system.

Selected products should be thoroughly washed, peeled, core removed from apples.
Cut zucchini and apples into cubes, put fruits in a cooking pot first - they should cook for 5 minutes longer, and then vegetables. The total cooking time is 20 minutes.
When the food is soft, puree it with a blender.
To taste - dilute with water, add salt, oil.

This puree can be considered an independent dish for the little ones or become a delicious side dish for older kids.

Colorful carrot-potato puree

For many parents, carrots and potatoes are the easiest and most understandable type of complementary foods for the baby. However, if you cook and serve standard products a little differently than usual, you can improve the traditional taste of a classic dish.

Young potatoes should not be chosen for baby puree - they contain a lot of starch. Carrots, on the contrary, it is better to buy young ones.

Wash the vegetables thoroughly, remove the skin and cut into cubes.
It is better to steam the carrot-potato puree, the vegetables should be boiled separately. Cook until tender, 20 minutes on average.
Separately puree the vegetables in a blender, thinning with warm water if necessary.

Both types of puree are beautifully placed on a plate without mixing: the child can decide for himself whether to mix food or eat separately.

Exotic variety: mango puree

Tropical fruits should not be offered to a small child before 7-8 months and only if there was no allergy to other products.

Mango is an aromatic fruit with an original pleasant taste. This fruit helps to overcome colds, reduce inflammation in the body, improve sleep and normalize the functioning of the stomach.

To feed the baby, ripened fruits should be selected - quite soft, yellow-red in color.

Fruit should be peeled and pitted, cut into cubes.
Put the raw mango in a blender, puree, transfer to a heavy-bottomed pot and boil for a few minutes.

Older children may be offered uncooked mango puree. This fruit is completely independent - no need to add sugar or water!

Sweet pumpkin puree with apple

This puree is called sweet, since both pumpkin and apples are foods with sufficient sugar content. Such a dish is well suited as a dessert for children who already eat “serious” food well - vegetable purees and cereals.

In addition, such complementary foods are an excellent option for the autumn-winter period: seasonal products contain enough choline, a lot of fiber, natural proteins and vitamins (groups A, B, C, E, etc.), zinc, sodium, calcium and only!

Peel the pumpkin and apples, remove the skin and seeds, cut into cubes and send to the steamer.
Cook for about 20 minutes until the food is soft. Then place them in a blender bowl, add raisins and chop. If the child chews well, mash everything with a fork, and leave the raisins whole.

Hearty puree with celery and turkey

For older kids, meat is added to vegetable dishes - turkey fillet is an excellent option for developing a child's taste preferences. Appetizing and fragrant meat puree includes only three ingredients: celery root, turkey fillet, butter.

The proportion of meat and celery should be approximately 10:1, the amount of butter to your taste.

The turkey fillet must be boiled in the "second stock" for about 20 minutes after boiling.
Wash, peel and cut the celery root into cubes and put into the boiling broth 10 minutes before it is done.
After cooking, puree the turkey and celery with a blender, adding stock if necessary.
Salt to taste and add butter. For one children's serving, 3-5 grams of butter is enough.

A child from early childhood will begin to get used to full-fledged homemade food without the addition of preservatives and harmful components, and will grow up healthy and strong. In summer and autumn, parents can make preparations: prepare potatoes, carrots, beets, pumpkins and apples for storage (these products are stored for a long time - they do not need to be frozen), freeze berries and seasonal fruits, or roll ready-made mashed potatoes into jars! Homemade baby food without unnecessary flavor enhancers and salt is the best complementary food, warmed by mom's love.