I’ve been currently creating meals that are versatile for dinner for adults and babies. It has been a challenge but I’ve discovered that it was easier to use the same ingredients and make a pot on the side. Until my kid is old enough to have the same meals as us, this was the easiest solution.

I’ve created some easy puree prep that is freezer friendly. These can easily be changed to whatever foods you have in the fridge and freezer.

Supplies

• Silicon ice cube trays

Ingredients

• Pears
• Blueberries (can be frozen)
• Strawberries (can be frozen)
• Sui choy
• Spinach
• Carrots
• Zucchini
• Brocolli
• Peas
• Bok choy
• Chicken

The best purchase I have made when beginning my baby food journey was these silicon trays. They come with lids so they are easy to store in the freezer without worrying if something will get into them. The other nice thing with freezing them in cubes was the portion size. I found that each cube was roughly 1 tablespoon of puree.

To make the baby food, I started off with preparing the fruit. My base for the fruit purees are pears but they can be apples as well. I chose pears because it helped my little one have regular bowel movements. He was a bit constipated when he first started solids.

Chop up the pears and add some water to just cover the pears. Boil the pears until they have softened. Once soft, remove a portion of the pears and puree it separately. With the remainder of the pears, divide them equally in two sauce pans and add some frozen blueberry and strawberry. Boil for another 2-3 minutes. Just as a note, you do not have to add all the water used for boiling. It makes the puree runny. Slowly the water if needed when pureeing.

Blend the mixtures with a food processor, blender or personal blender and portion it out in the ice cube trays. You now have created 3 different flavours of fruit purees.

For a meat puree, I usually lean towards chicken. Slowly over time, you can introduce pork, beef, fish and other meats. I used 2 chicken thighs with skin removed and added water to cover the meat. I added chopped up carrots and spinach as well. Spinach helps provide the additional iron needed for babies starting solids. Boil the chicken until it is cooked (approximately 20 minutes). Add the solids into the blender with just enough broth to make a smooth puree. Blend and portion out into the ice cube trays. Don’t throw out the chicken broth, also portion out into the trays and freeze. I use the broth for boiling vegetables so that they get some additional nutrients.

For the veggie purees, I like to do a combination of different vegetables. This helps with increasing the different vitamins and minerals in the babies diet. I also found a good combination of flavours that my little one enjoyed.

My favourite veggie combos are

1. Zucchini and carrots
2. Peas and carrots
3. Brocolli and bok choy
4. Sui choy and peas

For some vegetables, you might notice that they are very runny and watery when blended. I find that if you add peas, it helps create a thicker puree. Like the other purees, add the chopped veggies into the pot, add some water or broth and boil until soft. Blend and portion out into the ice cube tray.

The frozen ice cubes can be placed into freezer bags and stored in the freezer for about 1 month. I don’t like keeping anything longer even though it does last for a couple months. I just tend to prefer fresh foods for my little one.

Hope you try out some of these flavour combinations and let me know if your baby likes them as well. Enjoy!

Check out the other recipes on the blog.