Cooking With The Wheats: baby food basics

Before I EVEN get started let me state that my oldest child had her fare share of jarred baby food (it didnt matter what brand, I didn't care!) Also she had tons of regular food as well, at that time Dustin and I ate at my parents house a ton, my Mom is the Bomb Diggity when it comes to cooking and she lives about 5 miles from us- so of course I ate over there! The good thing is that I also stayed in the kitchen and watched her cook- so I learned something! My second child had so many "food issues" as a baby and I was scared to even attempt to make his food (now I think back and think of how silly I was for not making it but oh well) and he ate ALL organic.. Yep, that was me the Mom who only fed her child Organic (and nothing is wrong with that either) Now here is my third Child- Ian! HE LOVES TO EAT! And he WILL NOT eat jarred baby food.. From the very beginning I decided I would make his food- Not because I am Super Mom either ( I am far from that!) But for these reasons: 1- i throw way to much stuff away that could be frozen or turned into baby food- including leftover soups, veggies and fruits. 2- I decided it had to be cheaper (After much research I began to question this, and baby food making can be VERY expensive depending on how much you put into it, for me I try to be frugal)
At first I was consumed by all the baby food making tools and cook books- I asked my Mom to buy me an expensive baby food maker and all the storage things.. I kept looking at cook books (and they may be handy but so far I have done well with out them!) and the Price was crazy! So I decided to wing it- I did go look at baby food jars at the store to get my brain ticking on what to mix and here's what Ive decided-
I have my basics that I don't mix together (apples, squash, bananas, sweet potato's etc) and I have stuff like mixed berries that I puree together with bananas or tropical fruits mixed.. What really got me thinking was when I came across a blogger who said she wanted her baby to try and like everything including cauliflower and asked "have you ever seen cauliflower in the baby food isle?" answer NO, I have not and I want my baby to try it too!

So here is "my" method- I get what I want to use example (sweet potato's) I wash and peel them with the Pampered Chef Serrated Peeler (this is a MUST have for the kitchen and Dustin (my hubs) favorite tool when it comes to peeling! Then I chop up the potato in chunks and put it in the large MicroSteamer- I add about 1/2 a cup of water to this and pop it in the Microwave for about 6 minutes and check it to see if its soft-
Then you can either put it in a food processor or The Pampered Chefs Manual Food Processor. I use both depending on what I am doing- If I am just needing to puree a little bit of something real quick I use the manual food processor its quick and easy to clean- if I am doing a ton of food I use a large Food Processor (mine is borrowed from my mom and is black and decker nothing fancy but it works, my mom also uses a ninja at her house- so it is really your preference!
Then once I puree it I use my medium Stainless Steel Scoop (also by the pampered chef) to put it into Ice Cube Trays. each "cube" is about an ounce and pops out easily once frozen. So I can get a cube of whatever and mix it however. I use the Pampered Chef Prep Bowls they hold 4 frozen cubes easily and I put it in my microwave for about 45 seconds (all microwaves are different so test it) then I stir it up once thawed and add some cereal (because that's how Ian prefers it!) Below are some pictures of Fruit being prepared-

Using The Large MicroSteamer and A Food Processor