Make your own baby food: Pear and apple purée

Buying baby food puree's for every meal can end up costing a small fortune! Buying is super convenient, but spending  30-60 minutes once a week to prepare food is all you really need, to do it yourself. Making baby food yourself is really easy too! I make this apple and pear fruit purée for Bump which he loves!

Ingredients:

3 medium sized washed red apples

3 medium sized washed ripe pears

1 cinnamon stick or a generous pinch of ground cinnamon (optional)

Boiled, cooled water

Method:

1. Peel and core the apples and pears. Cut into thin slices (You can roughly chop or cut the slices thicker, it just cooks quicker, the thinner the slices). 
2. Place the sliced fruit in a colander and rinse with the boiled, cooled water. Place the fruit and the cinnamon (if you are using it) into a pan. Cover the bottom of the pan with water so the fruit is slightly submerged (it is better to use a smaller pan as you use less water).
3. Simmer, covered for approximately 10 minutes until the apple and pear are soft. Drain the fruit, reserving the liquid. Purée the fruit with a blender. I use a stick blender. Use the reserved liquid to thin out the consistency of the puree if neccessary. Any remaining liquid can be diluted 1:1 with boiled, cooled water and given to your little one to drink provided they are over 7 months old.
4. This freezes well. I freeze in cleaned, sterilised glass jars (used Purity bottles) or in ice cube trays.

FYI: Please note that it is often recommended that purees be passed through a mesh sieve to make the puree very smooth. I have never done this for Bump, as I do not own a sieve! He has been absolutely fine without sieving! In addition, his paediatrician recommended that he started rice cereal 4 months (very watery consistency) and then progressed to vegetable purées at 5 months. I was told to only introduce fruits and fruit juices (diluted 1:1 with water) at 7 months and meat and eggs also only from 7 months. I was also told to start off with very smooth purées and slowly increase the texture of the purées as this helps with speech development later. It is a good idea to feed the same food for four days in a row when first introducing it, to  ensure your little one has no allergies to the food. 

Well I hope you feel inspired to make your own baby food and that your little one enjoys this apple and pear purée! 

Keep smiling,

Jax

P.S. My apologies, I forgot to mention how much this recipe makes! I ended up with 4 servings of 125 ml and approximately another 60 ml or so.