Sweet Potato Baby Food

Alexis has started eating solids! She still has bottles throughout the day, but we’ve incorporated pureed fruits and vegetables into her meals each day. So far, we’ve tried peaches, bananas, and sweet potatoes! She’s loved all of them – in fact, she just might be a foodie.

Honestly, baby food is pretty expensive for the amount of food that’s in each container. I had seen some things floating around online about making your own baby food, and I wanted to try my hand at it. Besides the price point difference, homemade baby food has much more flavor than store bought, plus has no preservatives or additives.

I used two sweet potatoes to make my batch of baby food. I preheated my oven to 450 degrees Fahrenheit and wrapped each potato in aluminum foil. Once the oven was preheated, I baked the sweet potatoes for an hour and 45 minutes. Once out, I let them cool before scooping the insides into a blender. I added water a few tablespoons at a time until it blended to the consistency I wanted, which ended up being eight tablespoons.

The potatoes take a while to bake, but actually making the food took about five minutes!

You can store your baby food in specific containers to keep in the freezer, but I just used an ice cube tray to freeze my sweet potatoes. I placed them all in a Ziploc bag once they were fully frozen.To reheat to feed your baby, put a cube or two in a microwave-safe bowl and microwave for thirty seconds.

I ended up with 20 cubes of frozen sweet potatoes, which comes out to about $0.20-$0.60 per serving, depending how much your baby eats – versus $3.80 per container if purchased at the store.

Alexis seemed confused on the taste at first, but ultimately liked the homemade version much better than the store bought. She can’t get enough of them and starts getting mad when we don’t spoon it into her mouth fast enough!

I plan on making much more homemade baby food, and will share our experiences! I would love to hear what foods others have made, and what your babies have liked!