Blender Baby Food: Over 125 Recipes for Healthy, Homemade Meals [Paperback]

I didn't get this book till my baby was over 10 months old, so I'm not sure what I'm about to say will apply to younger babies just starting on solids.

I love this book! My baby had been eating table food for a while, but she was stuck in a bit of a rut with pretty much the same foods over and over, in about a 5-day cycle: chicken stew, mac-n-cheese, rice and gravy, spaghetti with meat sauce, etc., with whatever boring steamed veggies on the side.

I live in South Louisiana, where we have delicious, flavorful, spicy cuisine. However, 1) it often contains ingredients she shouldn't have yet, such as shrimp, and 2) I'm afraid it might be too spicy for her! I didn't know how to provide the blandness of what baby can tolerate, while not deadening her taste buds to new flavors as she grows up (or making her into a picky eater).

This book really kicked up both the main and side dishes for her. The dishes are bland enough for young-uns to tolerate, but flavorful enough to excite their taste buds and explore new flavors. Also, they are probably more nutritious than what we'd been feeding her.

The book has several sections: a 6-month-and-up, a 7-month-and-up, an 8-month-and-up, a 9-and-up, and a 12-and-up chapter. There are brief blurbs about what to introduce at each stage, and each section has a grid showing a sample meal plan. It's not extremely thorough, but it is helpful and provides a simple guideline.

Here are some sample recipes:

6 months and up:

--mostly plain fruits and veggies, with good tips on how to prepare them

7 months and up:

--green rice (rice with fresh greens--very nice!)

--squash and pepper risotto

--vegetable paella

8 months and up:

--avocado chicken

--chicken with pumpkin

--chicken divine

9 months and up:

--fruity breakfast rice (yum!)

--broccoli and cauliflower gratin

12 months and up:

--fruity frosty shake

--nutty choco monkey

--nutty waffles

All the recipes are quite easy to make, believe me. And so delicious! The recipes recommend good ingredients, too, such as brown rice, lots of fruit and veggies, and low-sodium stock. Most of the ingredients are relatively easy to find at the grocery store, and easily substituted if you're on a budget.

The baby really likes the broccoli/cauliflower gratin, the spinach and tomatoes with ricotta, and the chicken tropical (chicken with mangoes). This book really gets baby interested in fruits and veggies, with its interesting, flavorful preparations.

Obviously, I cannot speak for parents of babies with severe food allergies. I also cannot speak for the younger babies, since I waited so long to get this book. All I can tell you is, a) delicious, b) easy to prepare, c) my baby loves the recipes.

Four words: "I love this book!" If you are looking for something simple and easily laid out, this is the book for you.

My sister-in-law told me she was making baby food for her son (11 months older than ours). I thought she was nuts since I was sure it would take too long. She showed me the baby food cookbook she was using and it looked like the overwhelming cookbook or cooking shows you see on t.v. that have ingredients you've never heard of but a pretty display. I told my husband we'd stick with the jars since I would be a "working mom".

Then my daughter became 6 months and I KNEW I wanted to make her baby food to help her become more open to eating healthier and giving her more options/tastes. I researched a bit online and found that recipes aren't as complicated as what my sister-in-law was doing. Then my mom and I found this book and now I am hooked and actually enjoy making my daughter her baby food and trying it out. She actually enjoys trying the new foods while I am pouring them into the ice cube trays for storage.

I usually make more than the quantities listed in the book and freeze them in ice cube trays so that that particular food lasts longer. I also cook multiple meals at one time in order to cook less often (i.e., once or twice a month).

Storage: I've read other reviews that says it doesn't go much into storage, but I found it quite helpful. You simply pour the pureed food into ice cube trays, cover them and freeze them for 24 hours, and then transfer the cubes to freezer bags labeled with the food name and date made. They are good for up to 3 months unless she noted it in the recipe otherwise. This was all found on page 14 in the "To Store" section. It also recommends rotating stock like grocery stores do, putting the newest in the back, etc. It also talks about refrigeration, etc.

This is THE easiest book by far I have found. Oh, and it gives the nutritional facts of all of the recipes which is helpful for meal planning. If you're not sure whether to do baby food homemade or store-bought. Make sweet potatoes fresh and buy one container of sweet potatoes store-bought. You'll see/smell/taste the difference.

This is a great book for those who want to control the content and quality of the food their baby eats and save money in the process. Although some of the "recipes" seem awfully self-evident (Cook peas. Put in blender with water. Blend.), what this book does well is give you an idea what foods to offer when. I also liked that this book gave sample menus, so I'd know how much food to offer. The absolute best thing about this book, however, is the confidence it gave me to move beyond the standard peas, squash, and sweet potatoes. My 7 month old loves avocado, cauliflower, lima beans, and other foods that he'd never get from Gerber. Cost wise, we did the math. Two Gerber cups of food cost 80 cents at our local Kroger. That works out to $1.83/pound. So, any food that costs less than that whole is cheaper when you make your own food, especially since you add water most of the time. I also love that I control the texture. My son is an adventurous eater, and likes things much thicker and chunkier than you'd get in a container of Gerber. Lastly, I especially liked this book because we don't eat organic, we aren't into soy products, we just want to feed our son the best possible diet on our limited budget. This book doesn't give you the guilt trip about how if you feed your kid a non-organic broccoli floret they're going to grow up stupid, if they grow up at all. I read some of the other baby food books out there, and many of the others assume that you are making your own baby food because you are one of those organic, whole foods evangelists. This book just gives you the recipes without the rhetoric.

On the negative side, and the reason that I gave this book 4 stars instead of 5, is that there is no discussion of nitrates. For example, there are recipes for carrots, spinach, kohlrabi, and other very high nitrate foods in the book. Buying organic will NOT result in fewer nitrates because it depends on the region of the US and the soil in the specific plot where the food is grown. You are safer feeding Gerber carrots and spinach, because at the very least Gerber screens for nitrate levels and you cannot. We are simply holding off feeding these foods until our son is old enough to handle the nitrates, around 12 months old. (My husband does public health research for the State, and did research on nitrates in foods for work).

Lastly, if you are even thinking about making your own baby food, give it a try. My mother raised three daughters and bought very little baby food, and I thought I'd give it a try, but didn't expect to keep it up since I work 50 hours a week. It's been surprisingly easy. We just keep the cubes in the freezer, and thaw as needed. I make extra veggies at supper to blend, so it's not extra work. I think that almost anyone could do this. Also, get a little food mill. Then, when the baby is old enough, you can just grind up a little of whatever the family is eating for supper. My mom even used to take her little food mill out to eat.