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My loverly sister’s mother-in-law got me a Baby Bullet for my baby shower gift. She got the word from Jessica that I was planning to make my own baby food and wanted the magical Baby Bullet. Good job, Lela! I love it!

We planned to wait until Quorra was six months old to start her on solids. I did my research on starting babies on solids and the best thing for their little baby guts is to wait until they are six months or 15 pounds. Since Quorra is a little bean and not yet 15 pounds we went with the six month milestone. About a week before her half birthday we started her on “real food.”

I took out my handy-dandy Baby Bullet and got to work. The cook book that comes with the Baby Bullet was very helpful. Not necessarily because of the recipes, but because it gives you information on what to give babies when and how often. I’ll go through the best way to transition to solids a little later. First I’ll tell you how I made my baby food.

I took ½ cup of brown rice and milled it to a powder. Then I mixed the rice powder with 4 cups of water and brought it to a boil. Once it boiled I turned it to low, cover, and cooked it for 20 minutes. Once it was done I let it cool and put it into my little baby food containers and freezer tray. The recipe actually made more then would fit into the containers and tray so some of it went into a Pyrex container in the freezer.

Cooking the rice cereal

On to the bananas! I took a banana, peeled it, put it in the blender cup with some water, and blended it. TA-DA! Banana baby food. The second time I made it I didn’t add the water. The blended bananas alone are liquid-y enough.

Banana puree in the freezer tray

Quorra did pretty good with the food, considering all she had tasted to that point was boob milk. Honestly, after a couple rounds of making baby food I don’t know why people buy the stuff. It’s super easy and sooo much cheaper. A half cup of brown rice makes 16 or so servings. One banana makes about 4 servings, depending on the size (that’s what she said). And by “serving” I mean a full container of food. Quorra is only eating ¼ - ½ of a container per meal right now. So I made her a lot of food for PENNIES. Seriously, go buy a Baby Bullet and make your own baby food. Right now.

Happy little containers of delicious homemade baby food

My next step is to buy an electric steamer. This way when I start giving her food that I need to steam first I can do it in the electric steamer and just let it do its own thing instead of watching it on the stove.

Okay, so now I will tell you the process to moving from boob to food. Of course, all babies and mommies are different so don’t take this as me saying this is the “right” way. This is just the way I’m doing it as a result of suggestions from my pediatrician, my research results, and how it works for me and Quorra. I waited until my little bean was six months old and then started given her one meal of food a day. We give it to her between 7am and noon and she gets ¼ - ½ of a container of food and then some boob.

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We started her on rice cereal and bananas since they were both more bland tastes. We are giving her about a week before we try new foods. This helps her tummy and taste buds get used to the food before we move her on to a new food. It also is a way to look for allergies. Our pediatrician recommended one food per week but we did two. (She knows, it’s cool.) After a couple weeks of her having one meal a day we are going to move to two meals a day. Our next food will probably be either apples or pears.

Then we are going to gradually (over months) add more meals of baby food. She will still get plenty of breast milk and will end baby food meals with more boob. As she gets older she’ll also get to try thicker consistencies of food and more mixtures. My plan is to supplement with breast milk until she is a year old. This is my goal for now. We are going to play it by ear as we go through moving to food. I can’t see myself breast feeding until she is two but who knows. Never say never. And if she decides before she is a year old that she is good with only food then we will stop nursing. She seems to love nursing as much as I do so I have a feeling that that won’t happen. As she gets teeth we will move to finger foods.

I want to make her as much of her food as I can. I’m sure there will be a time when I get lazy and buy food but I know it is healthier for her to have homemade food. This way I know what is in her food. Plus, it won’t have any weird chemical or preservatives in it. Her bananas were brown within a couple hours. What do they do to the jarred bananas to keep them from browning? My ingredients for banana baby food: bananas. Rice cereal ingredients: brown rice and water.

I will give you all updates as we go along with the move to solids. Who knows what Quorra or I will decide works best but at least I have a plan laid out. I’m a planner, remember? I need one. I am comfortable knowing that we might vary from the plan. That’s just how it goes with a baby.