Hello Parents,

You read the previous entry Everything about Homemade Baby Purées to learn about the base ingredients before making your purées. Now we’re ready to prepare healthy meals to serve to your baby.

In this entry:

• The necessary equipment to make baby purées
• How to make purées?
• Storing your baby purées
• The art of serving purées

First, you need to get all the necessary ingredients and equipment and feel up to making them, either as a couple, with a friend, with Grandma. You should do this as a pleasant activity in good company.

Based on the age when you start introducing solids to your baby (4-6 months), the purées should be smoother to allow them to make the transition between liquids and solids. The older your baby is, the texture will become thicker, you introduce pieces of food so that they eat like you, around nine months.

Even if your baby doesn’t have teeth, they can chew different textures of purées. Their gums, which harden over time, can handle small pieces.

Before planning to make your purées, check to see if you have the articles in your kitchen to make them.

Here I suggest a non-exhaustive list of kitchen devices and articles that are practical and will simplify your task when making homemade baby purées.

Equipment required to make baby purées

If you cook a bit, you often have what you need in the home, but some essentials make the work easier for the cook.

Here are my suggestions:

1. A good quality blender or food processor will help the process, even for meat, which is often harder to make. To start, a hand blender isn’t appropriate as it will typically leave purées chunky;
2. You can use a small kitchen scale to calculate the quantity of food for the recipe (for example 1 lb of meat);
3. A measuring cup;
4. A steam cooker;
5. A pot to cook foods before puréeing them;
6. An oven-ready container or crockpot to cook stews;
7. A microwave-ready container (Pyrex or other) to cook foods with a bit of water added to make the purée smoother;
8. A cookie sheet and parchment paper to grill vegetables in the oven – very tasty;
9. A strainer with tiny holes used to remove seeds when making fruit purée;
10. Ice cube trays to freeze the purée. Large ice cubes hold about 60 ml/2 ounces of food and smaller cubes half that, 30 ml/1 ounce which equals 2 tablespoons;
11. Small boxes with tops (baby cubes) designed for this;
12. Freezer bags for frozen purée cubes;
13. A small straw to remove the air in the freezer bags;
14. Labels to stick on the bags to indicate the date and purée type. Use a permanent marker;
15. And, of course, your ingredients, as fresh as possible.

To read the following entry, click on this link: How to Make Purées?