Do you want to avoid the toxins found in store bought baby food and give your baby the healthiest food possible? Making your own sweet potato baby food is not only healthier and cheaper, but incredibly easy to do!
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Sweet Potato Baby Food
When it comes to our children, we as moms want to give them the best! We want them to be healthy and we want them to have the best start at life possible!
A great way to give your baby the best optimal start is to make your own baby food! Unfortunately store bought baby food can be laden with chemicals and other nasty ingredients.
Making your own baby food fresh is a great way to not only avoid these nasty ingredients, but to give your baby the freshest, most nutritious food possible!
And sweet potatoes are an excellent first food for babies!
When all four of my children were babies I made my own baby food for them. If you have never done it before, then don’t worry, it’s very easy! I’ll walk you step by step through the entire process:)
And I know it sounds time consuming, but it’s really not. You can make up a whole months worth of baby food in just a few hours!
How to Make Sweet Potato Baby Food
So let’s get started and go make some sweet potato baby food!
The only ingredients that you will need for this recipe are sweet potatoes, and a little filtered or reverse osmosis water.
The first step is to bake the sweet potatoes.
How to Bake Sweet Potatoes
Baking sweet potatoes is easy. You want to start by washing the sweet potatoes using water.
Then place them on a baking sheet and prick them with a fork. You basically just want to pierce the potatoes multiple times across the top and the upper sides with the fork. This allows steam to escape the potato and prevents the potato from exploding as it cooks. (definitely something you want to avoid;)
Bake uncovered in a 400 degree oven for about 45 minutes or until the potatoes are soft.
Homemade Sweet Potato Baby Food
Allow the potatoes to cool enough to handle them once they are done. You can speed up cooling by cutting the potatoes in half.
Once cooled enough to handle you want to scoop out the sweet potato flesh from the skin. Most of the time the skin will just peel right off once they are cooked.
Making Sweet Potato Baby Food
Now you need to puree the sweet potatoes. I highly recommend purchasing a Vitamix Blender to make your baby food with. It is one of the best blenders and will blend baby food to a super smooth consistency to insure that you do not end up with sweet potato strings in the baby food that baby can gag on.
This is the only blender that I will use when pureeing not only baby food, but other recipes such as Sweet Potato Pie or Apple Butter as well! It is the best! And it lasts FOREVER! I have had my Vitamix for over a decade and it’s still going strong and purees foods just as good as the day I got it! Definitely worth investing in!
So add the sweet potato to the blender. I usually fill mine about 1/3 to 1/2 full at a time and blend in batches to help speed the process up. You need to also add a little water at this time. Start with a few tablespoons as you can always add more. If the sweet potatoes get too thick they will not blend well. So keep stopping and scraping down the sides of the blender as needed and adding water until all the sweet potato is smooth and blends well.
You want it to be somewhat thick and not runny, so don’t add too much water. You basically only want to add as much water as is needed to help the blender out. Otherwise the sweet potato will just stick to the sides and won’t fall down to the blades.
Once all the sweet potato is blended to a super smooth consistency you have baby food! Yep, it’s that easy!
How to Store Homemade Baby Food
But wait, we’re not done yet!
What are you supposed to do with this large batch of sweet potato baby food? I mean, after all the baby can’t eat it’s weight in sweet potatoes;)
Like I mentioned above you can make a LOT of baby food in a short amount of time. The key is to freeze the sweet potatoes that you won’t be using in the next couple of days for later.
However, you don’t want to freeze it all together. You want to be able to freeze it in serving sizes so that you can easily thaw out and use a small amount at a time. This way you can have baby food for a month or more!
Also, if you would like to make something yummy for yourself with some of the extra sweet potato puree then you can always turn it into sweet potato pie😉 This is seriously my favorite pie recipe and a great way to use extra sweet potato!
How to Freeze Baby Food
To freeze baby food efficiently you really need to get these baby food cube trays. They’re kind of like ice cube trays that have lids.
Simply scoop the pureed sweet potato into the trays, place the lid on, and put it in the freezer. Once they are completely frozen you can pop them out and store them in freezer bags that are labeled with the date made.
Now you have a large supply of ready made, single serving, sweet potato baby food cubes! How easy is that?!
How to Thaw Frozen Baby Food
When it comes time to use your frozen sweet potato cubes you need to be sure that they are thawed in advance.
There are a couple of different ways to thaw out sweet potato baby food.
The easiest is to put it in a bowl with a lid the night before and let it thaw in the fridge. That way the next day it will be soft and ready to use.
However, I know from experience, that this isn’t always an option! There were many times that I forgot to lay my baby food out and had to do it just before serving it.
I really don’t recommend thawing baby food in the microwave. Not only does it leave hot spots in the baby food that can burn your baby, but it also is bad for the baby food! You can read here about the dangers of microwaves and why I don’t have one.
So, the best way to thaw frozen baby food cubes quickly is the fill a bowl that is a little larger than the bowl holding the baby food with hot water. Sit the bowl with the cubes in the hot water. The heat will be enough to cause the cubes to melt.
You might have to change the water a few times and add fresh hot water as it gets cold. Also occasionally turn the cube and break it up as it gets softer to help speed up thawing.
I know this might seem like a pain, but it’s the best way to thaw the cubes so that they don’t get too hot for baby and the best way to preserve the nutrients in the food that you worked hard to make!
Be sure to test the thawed sweet potato to be sure that it is not too hot before feeding it to your baby.
Sweet Potato Puree Baby Food
And that’s how you make homemade sweet potato baby food!
Now the only thing left to do is to serve it to your little one:) I hope they enjoy it as much as you enjoy giving your baby the healthiest food possible!
Sweet Potato Baby Food
Make your own healthy and delicious baby food to help give your baby the best start possible!
Ingredients
- Whole Sweet Potatoes
- Filtered or Reverse Osmosis Water
Instructions
So add the sweet potato to the blender. I usually fill mine about 1/3 to 1/2 full at a time and blend in batches to help speed the process up.
You need to also add a little water at this time. Start with a few tablespoons as you can always add more. If the sweet potatoes get too thick they will not blend well. So keep stopping and scraping down the sides of the blender as needed and adding water until all the sweet potato is smooth and blends well.
You want it to be somewhat thick and not runny, so don't add to much water. You basically only want to add as much water as is needed to help the blender out. Otherwise the sweet potato will just stick to the sides and won't fall down to the blades.
Once all the sweet potato is blended to a super smooth consistency you have baby food! Yep, it's that easy!
