The Amazing Make-Ahead Baby Food Book: Make 3 Months of Homemade Purees in 3 Hours [A Cookbook]

This is my third baby food book, and by far the best. For your reference, the two others were Fast & Fresh Baby Food Cookbook: 120 Ridiculously Simple and Naturally Wholesome Baby Food Recipes and The Best Homemade Baby Food on the Planet: Know What Goes Into Every Bite with More Than 200 of the Most Deliciously Nutritious Homemade Baby Food Recipes . I was hesitant purchasing this at first, because I did not need to make ahead 3 months of baby food, but this book is amazing even if you don't need it. I used the 'The Best Homemade Baby Food' book for my first child 5 years ago, and was pretty happy with it. However, when I got this one, I was shocked that baby foods can be so diverse. Cooking method is mostly the same for all baby food books. Cut, steam and blend. What makes this book so unique, is that it introduces so many variety of vegetables, fruits, grains and legumes. Some of them I didn't even notice they existed. I love the fact that I can introduce all kinds of food out there to my 6 month old, and hopefully he'll develop a habit of trying a variety of healthy foods later in life too. My 5 year old daughter is still a very picky eater and she has a hard time trying new food. Sometimes I wonder if that could have been changed at least a little if I had this book when she was a baby. Probably not, but still... On top of variety, this book also has 'Food Compatibility Chart'. You can pair and mix your cubes of babyfood to give them thousands of variety for their palate. This will be especially good when the baby rejects one flavor but you still want to give it to him. Mix it with something he likes in the chart, and he'll like it better than one flavor alone (such as kale or broccoli). (I haven't tried this myself though, as I only had this book for 4-5 weeks. My son liked everything I made so far, except sweet peas. I am planning to mix it with something else and try again soon.) The only downside is, when to introduce which is not specified by month. If you are starting solids at 6 months, I think you can just follow sample schedule in the book (which is also amazing by the way). But because I started solids at 5 months, I referenced 'The Best Homemade Baby Food' book for introducing which food when. (I actually lost my copy but found that it was only $2.99 in kindle, so I bought it again.) I do recommend supplementing with another book if you are confused with the timing of introduction. Or maybe you can google when to introduce what. This book is made beautifully, and I really recommend it. I read it everyday just because the book is so pretty, and it has very good information in picking and purchasing the right food. Although I didn't follow the make ahead schedule, I'm sure it would come in very handy for those who need it too. Recommended cooking tools is also helpful, as I love the silicone trays described here, opposed to expensive baby food freezing trays.

This is one of my top three things I recommend to all new moms. This book is truly AMAZING. I am not a cook as my husband does most of our meals. When I do help in the kitchen I have to follow a recipe to the letter. This book was beyond perfect. It lays out your shopping list, it says while this is cooking on the stove, defrost this in the microwave, and work on chopping this. I followed every step as it is laid out except instead of one 3hr session I did two hours on a Saturday and two hours on a Sunday. Instead of molds, I used breast milk bags to store all of my prepared baby food and let them lay flat to freeze. Then the book also has the meal plan laid out so I didn't have to do any thinking there either. It shows which food to introduce which day and all I had to do was check that schedule and then have what I needed for the next day in the fridge to defrost so that I could just grab a baggie, pour it into a bowl, and heat it up! Traveling was also a non-issue as I didn't have to rely on storebought baby food. I could just put my baggies in a travel cooler and have what we needed at the ready. If I wasn't going to be able to heat it through I just swapped out for things that were okay to eat cold or at room temperatures like apple puree or pear puree. I'm telling you, this book could be titled how to introduce foods and prepare all of your baby food for dummies. I'm so grateful to the author. Everyone who wants to make baby food NEEDS this book!

I’m on my second baby using this book now. It makes it very easy to plan, prep, and make a few months worth of baby food.

I thought the book was very well laid out, however it was not complete in that it did not provide a measure of how many trays you would need to make each food item to freeze this made the process way longer for me it took days to complete. I found the savings in food adequate but it took a long time to do the sections even the first 3 months worth of food. All the prepping and blending and pouring does not fit into a 3 hour block as the book states. However it is filled with nutritionl content and valuable information on the foods you prepare for your baby. The graphs and grocery lists were fabulous and I appreciated the simplicity of the layout.

I love this book! Do you need a baby food cookbook? Not really... its steam, mush, serve. But it is soooo daunting trying to figure out what to make first, and when, and how to incorporate the different foods. This spells it out in such a lovely manner. It walks you through a shopping list, 3 nights of making it, then a 3 month introduction schedule that gives a food every 3-4 days but adds lots of combinations and really builds on itself. I did deviate from the 1 hour per night plan due to what needed to be used first, but even then it took longer than the 1 hour. Still, right now I have 3 months of food in my freezer. It is an amazing feeling! You don't even need to follow the make it all to start plan, you can make a couple of items every week and still follow the whole plan. And there is room to deviate and choose your own. I am really happy with this book, it takes the uncertainty out of the process, makes it easier, and really has made me excited to start solid foods. Some thoughts of making it- if you do want to do the 3 1 hour cook sessions, have a helper, and if you can, borrow another blender/vitamix so you can streamline the cooking. Since I have a baby starting foods in winter I actually used a lot of frozen items (it recommends which fruits/veg are best for this) and that made it SO EASY. Obviously if there were nice fresh berries and peaches I would use those, but the frozen work great and are tasty to me (I ate the extras).

I love this book. I saw it growing around. I love how the book lays out the three month plan, shopping lists, tool lists, three day cooking plan, and how to pick out the food. It talks about almost every fruit and veggie. It also makes recommendations of what to buy organic (dirty dozen) and what not to. We did have the vitamin blender before hand and the helps because she used that to make the purees but anything is worth buying. My mom and i did this in three nights and lately i have been feeding my daughter the purees and I have been side tracking from her plan that easy to do because the food cubes are in the freezer readyt o thaw out. It makes it easier to try more appropriate foods because my daughter got constipated from bananas and i was able to switch out to prunes to help her system. It was already in the freezer and there was no excuses to not make the prune for her... The bags do take up some space after while. For me is was no issue because i and a small breast milk freezer and also store the food in there. I plan to go back to work soon and having these foods helps out a lot when time is short. Yes i recommend this book to anyone...

I can't say enough good things about this book! I have 8 month old twins and I work full time and I have been making their baby food from whole foods since they started solids at 6 months. One of the things I love most about this book is that the author describes each fruit and vegetable and what you should look for when picking them from the produce section at the store. Also, I love that she highlights ways to save time with certain foods. With twins I am all about that! If I'm short on time, but need to make some food quick, I have a go-to list of foods that require little to no prep (frozen peas, avocados, etc.). I love having an inventory of baby food in the freezer to use every day. When I take my box full of baby food out of the freezer and people see the Ziplock bags full of colorful baby food, they always say "You're so organized!" which is funny because I'm really not. The strategies in the books are flexible too...I don't normally make months worth of food at one time. I usually go shopping and then make 2-3 fruits/veggies per day and get it done in smaller chunks instead of one longer session. I've definitely gotten more efficient as time has gone on too, so don't get overwhelmed if your first cooking session doesn't go as smoothly as you want it to. One last great thing about the book is it recommends fruits/veggies that can be paired together. For example, one of my twins did NOT like black beans the first time I tried it with her. So I waited a few days and the book said that black beans could be paired with apples. So I mixed a cube of black beans with a cube of apples and tried feeding that to her the second time. She took it the second time! Who would have thought those two things could go together. I definitely recommend this book to anyone who wants to learn how to make their own baby food! ~Jen

Is actually a well written, to the point, easy to understand, and perfectly designed. This book actually gives you the why behind everything it says. It also gives you an easy to follow meal planning guide, recipes, how to prepare the different purees, hope to mix flavors, and how to make sure your baby is actually getting complete nutrition. It has substitutes and suggestions depending on the dietary needs of your baby. Honestly one of the few baby books that didn't make me want to back hand the author, I'm a worker and this is actually made to be useful to the working mom. Let's face it not a lot of baby books and how-to guides are realistic for anyone other than stay at home moms, but this one actually is. Also what I love about it is that the author doesn't mince words or waste them to get to her point, she covers everything you need or would want to know quickly, efficiently, and in a manner that is easily understood

Revise varias referencias antes de comprarlo y no me equivoque. El libro trae cosas muy interesantes como menú para 3 meses y varias recetas para combinar sabores, tips de compra y guía para preparación de alimentos. Me parece muy sencillo y práctico. De seguro lo recomendaría.

This book is excellent! The author is very well versed in baby food preparation and offers step-by-step instructions on how to prepare homemade baby food that is free of unmessasary preservatives and chemical additives. There is a bit of page-flippimg required as some instructions require you to gather information from various pages but overall very much worth the extra bit of effort.

Well illustrated and informative.

Money well spent. Great book, easy recipes and very easily described. Recommended. you wont regret. I would suggest always have two books from different author to maximize your knowledge in everyway. Two author’s ideas, knowledge and recipes can fill in the gaps in your knowledge.

Love this book! It also gives a 3 or 4 month menu of foods and when to introduce them. I bought the silicone baby food freezer tray at the same time and have a pretty decent stockpile of food ready to go in the freezer for my little guy.