Behind the Book

An Easy Guide to Making Homemade Baby Food: From One Mom to the Next

Guest post written by Adrianne Hunter
for A Cozy Reader's Corner Reviews.

When my son was at the age to start solid food, I started doing a lot of research on homemade baby food vs store bought food. I am, by no means, an “organic” person! I was really looking into it in hopes of saving our family some money. At that time, things were tight – real tight – with our finances. I just thought there had to be some way to provide my son good, nutritious food without breaking the bank.

I spent countless hours researching the ins and outs of making his baby food. Mind you, I was also working full time, so many of these hours either pulled me away from my family time or kept me awake far too late. I went into several bookstores looking for books – only to walk away empty handed, frustrated and overwhelmed by the 200 – 300+ page books on the topic. No way did I have enough time to read those books. I didn’t need to read 100 pages on how nutritious fresh vegetables are, nor did I need to read another 100 pages on how to get my kid to eat vegetables by making them into a smiley-face.

Wasn’t there just a short, simple book where I could find easy recipes and directions on how to do it? Because for some reason, I couldn’t even figure out how to cook carrots I was so overwhelmed by everything.

Writing a book was not on my “bucket list”. But I had so many of my friends and family ask me about it, literally one day I thought, “I should write a book to help other mothers out there like me – stressed and frazzled yet totally concerned for my son’s health and well-being.” My husband agreed, and off I went.

Writing the book came really easy – I knew what I wanted to say and felt passionate about sharing my ideas and tips with others. The hard part was finding a way to publish it. Since I was completely ignorant of the publishing world, I literally stumbled my way through the process: tons of internet research and reading books in order to find ways to write a proper book proposal, where to find possible publishers, etc. But I truly believed in my book, and I was thrilled when Diversion Press made the offer to publish it! I tell people my book was published with a lot of God’s help, a little bit of luck, and an editor who was also a mother!
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My Review--

For anyone who has children, the idea of homemade baby food is probably one that has passed through your mind at one point or another.  The process and implementation is entirely different!  Like Adrianne, I did not find books that were helpful for this topic.  It was much simpler to buy baby food out of a jar rather than make it and store it and worry about expiration dates, etc.  Adrianne's book,  An Easy Guide to Making Homemade Baby Food is a wonderful remedy to the problem areas of this mom debate.  What used to be the question "To make or not to make" is now a simple answer, "Make."

An Easy Guide to Making Homemade Baby Food is 48 pages full of simple recipes, helpful hints, guides and practical foods for your baby.  There is a convenient chart located at the back of the food that lays out the appropriate foods for your child's age group.  Best of all, many of these recipes could be used for the entire family if desired.  Baby's portion could easily be chopped smaller for appropriate swallowing capabilities. This wonderful book touches on all the need to know topics and leaves everything else behind.  It is simple, easy to understand and fun to read.  Best of all, the book is written by a mom who understands, was frustrated and wanted to help other moms!  It truly is a straight to the point and easy guide on preparing baby food without relying on a jar!