Baby food recipes and snacks

astep70uk

I'm currently on maternity leave with a beautiful 5 month old baby girl - but my budget has gone out of the window and I really need help.

She is very large and was weaned early because of her size, but now eats 3/4 jars of Hipp Organic babyfood a day at 59p a jar so this is approx £16 a week. She's also drinking 2 cartons of formula a week at £5.60 each so in total thats about £27 a week just for food.

Obviously theres nothing I can do about the milk, but do you think I'd be better off buying organic meat and veg and making my own?
Trouble is, I live 17 miles from the nearest supermarket selling organic stuff, and i haven't really got a lot of freezer space.
Also, I won't compromise on the quality of her food.
What do other old stylers do????

Bexstars

Hiya

I made all my own food and found it to be a lot cheaper plus you know whats gone into it. I have found a book my Annabel Karmel called the comlete baby and toddler meal planner fantastic for meal ideas and recipies, my daughter is 17 months now and I still use it. If getting to the supermarket is a bit tricky, do you have one that would deliver to you?

pingua

Are there any places that do the organic deliveries??

If you have a local shop, do they sell any or know of any suppliers??

It is good to make and freeze. But if space is limited...
What do you eat?? Can she not eat more or less the same as you??

That seems alot of jars a day. Does she have one for breakfast as well?? She will soon be able to eat 'normal cereal' so this can be bought in bulk etc.

I would seriously look at what you eat, do a meal planner and you will probably find she can eat most of it too.

If if you do a big shop, have a couple of evenings cooking then freeze it. Should not take up too much room in the freezer.

overlykeensaver

why not try making your own? if it really has to be organic then have an internet search to see if their are any box deliveries in your area.
To be honest, your baby will do well on an ordinary carrot too - remember to peel and wash it and it will be fine.

what sort of things does she eat at the moment? At six months my baby liked puree carrot, purree pumpkin or sweet potato and for some reason pureed broccoli and cauliflower. Just steam the veg til very soft and then mash or puree til smooth enough for her to eat.

patchwork_cat

I second the annabel karmel book. Do you eat organic food? Is your nearest supermarket that far away? If you really do decide organic is the only way to go then yes I think freezing is the option. Freeze in icecube trays and then just defrost as many cubes as you need. Bulk buy the trays from Instore or wilko.

TBH I would just give her a small amount whizzed of whatever we were having , bearing in mind the various ages for introducing dairy, wheat etc. so say tonight we are having mince and mash with veg. I would give her a small amount of mash, with formula and carrot - I can't remember off the top of my head whether at 5 mths babies can eat meat - if so a little mince added in - before gravy , so no salt. Whizz it all up with a hand blender, mouli or the like.

My daughter was very fond of butternut squash and salmon and broccoli bake - that was a bit older though.

newbiemum05

I'm with pingua - when ds got to 6 months (and once all the freebie hipp baby cereal ran out) he got organic porridge/readybrek typed cereal with milk, milk and fruit puree (HM and frozen), or with Yogurt.
Most of the food he had I bulk cooked. It is amazing how far a pack of organic pork will go for baby food (mixed with peaches and pineapple chunks - his favourite). It is loads cheaper than buying the jars.
His food didn't take up much room just a couple of freezer bags. I would freeze it into ice cube trays then empty them into freezer bags and just pop however many cubes I needed out.

newbiemum05

oh and don't bother buying baby food books just get them from the library for free !

pingua

Or e-bay if the library is too far. We are lucky we have a mobile library the comes once a week where we live and it stays around most of the day.

liney

When i had DS who is now 3, there was a limit of 32oz ( i think ) of milk that should be drank in any 24 hour. He used to be at the max and only use 1 and a half tubs per week, so do check that out as you might be over doing it on the formula side. Of course guidelines might have changed now, but worth a mention.

I used to puree all our veg, without salt, and freeze or store in small tupperwear without problems.

astep70uk

Thanks everyone - some good advice here.

None of the supermarkets will deliver to me as I live in quite a rural part of County Durham. I think the best plan is probably to go food shopping and then do a bulk cook just for her, and freeze in ice cube trays.

I don't think she'd eat much of what we have as we have a lot of curries, spicy food and pasta dishes, and from what I can remember, she shouldn't have wheat before 6 months.

Oh, and yes, she really does eat that much!! She's just turned 5 months and already weighs 21 lbs!!!

Nova5

There's loads of online recipes - this for example: http://www.organix.com/Content/Food-for-Babies/Recipes/Stage-One-Recipes

I made a lamb and apricot concoction when weaning my daughter from Organix and it was lovely - ended up eating most of it myself!