Feeding Baby Finger Foods for Less

Once my babies are around 8 months old, they start to make the transition from puree'd foods to finger foods. It's easy to find healthy finger foods, but it can get pricey when needing to buy baby foods for on the go. Diced baby foods can run around $1 per jar!

To save money on food for older babies, yet keep the convenience found with jarred baby foods, I shop in the regular canned fruit section. Many of the major canned fruit brands sell diced fruits in 100% juice. The diced fruits come in little sealed plastic cups that are perfect for tossing in the diaper bag. When buying the diced fruits for babies under 1 year old, I stick with name brands as I have found they are more tender than the off brands. It's easy to find coupons for the fruit cups in the Sunday coupons or on online coupon sites, which means you can buy a 4 pack of fruit cups for less than the price you'd spend on only 2 jarred baby foods!

We also buy 100% natural (no sugar added) applesauce cups. Like the diced fruits, these little cups are super convenient for just grabbing on the go and filling baby up with healthy fruit. I usually buy these in the store-brands as they are less expensive yet just as good as the name brands.

In addition to using convenience foods for Baby, I also will grab regular fruits that are soft (bananas, peaches, pears) for on the go when fruit is in season. Baby fruit "puffs" and O type cereals travel well too.

If your baby is ready for soft finger foods but you don't want to give up the convenience of jarred foods, give the fruit cups a try! You will save money by skipping the baby food aisle and going straight for 100% natural fruits in the regular canned goods aisle.

Making Baby Food in the Crock Pot

My little guy who is 9 months old and loves to eat!

With the price of baby food at over $1 per serving, (even more for the organic varieties) I try to make as much of my own as possible for my little guy. Recently I discovered how easy it is to make food for my baby in the crockpot. I wish someone would have told me how to do this years ago! Here's how I've made baby food in the crock pot:

My favorite veggie to make in the slow cooker is squash. Simply scrub off the squash in cold water, then use a knife to poke holes throughout the skin of the squash.Place in the bottom of a crock pot. Add enough water into the crock pot that it's up to about 1/3 or so of the squash. Put the lid on the slow cooker and then let cook on high heat for about 4 hours or low heat about 7 hours (or until squash is super tender). When the squash is tender, turn crock pot off and let it cool off. Once cool, cut open squash and scoop out the insides (minus the seeds) and place in a blender along with a littl

e of the water that was in the crock pot. Blend until squash is nice and smooth.

Purple Carrots my husband grew in the garden

Another veggie we've done is carrots. To cook carrots in a slow cooker, scrub carrots well in water. Peel carrots and place in crock pot (cut the carrots into slices if you want it to cook faster). Fill the crockpot with water, add lid. Cook until carrots are tender. It took about 3-4 hours on high if carrots were sliced first.

Purple carrots cooked in the crock pot with applesauce frozen into cubes

After you've pure'ed the baby food, scoop into a clean ice cube tray and set in a freezer. After baby food is frozen, pop the food cubes out and place in freezer bags (labeled with what food is and date). I find that one full ice cube tray fits into a 1 quart sized freezer bag.

To serve, thaw 3-4 baby food cubes in the fridge or in the microwave. My 9 month old usually eats 3 cubes worth per meal (which is about 3 ounces).

You can cook all kinds of foods for Baby in the crock pot. We've done apples picked at the orchard and made delicious apple sauce! You can do basically any fruit, veggie, and even add in chicken. The fruits and veggies come out so tender and soft after being in the slow cooker that often times I don't need to do any blending at all. I simply use a fork to mash it up a bit and it's ready for my baby to eat!

It's an easy way to save money and to ensure your baby is eating healthy, especially if you're able to grow some of the food in a garden!

***My husband bought the seeds for the purple carrots through amazon and planted them last spring. He pulled up a few of them in the fall, but they were only a few inches long. He went out into the garden the other day and was surprised to see that the carrots were still growing. He was even more surprised when he pulled them up and saw how huge they had grown! The purple color was really cool and cooked up into a red violet. Here's the link to the seeds he used in case you'd like to try them yourself: