A 6 – 8 month old meal plan that you can prep ahead of time to save time and money! This meal prep will focus on iron-rich foods which is very important in this stage.

If you don’t already know, I love food, and meal-prepping for my baby is a lot of fun! Not to mention, meal prepping makes everything so much more convenient, home-cooked is better for your baby and helps save money! (so it’s a win-win)

Today, I’m sharing with you how you can prep a month’s worth (at least) of baby food in about 1-2 hours! Prepping everything will take about a half hour, and then cooking will take about an hour. If you’re ready to start meal-prepping for your 6-8-month-old, grab my meal-prepping shopping list (located below). If you’re looking for more meal prepping for 6-8 months old, make sure to check out my Introducing Your Baby To Solids: The Ultimate Guide (with additional free downloads and different baby food meal prep options.)

Prepping and Storing Baby Food

When you start introducing solids to your baby, it’s a great idea to experiment with a variety of proteins, fruits, vegetables, and carbs that you can mix and match. If you’re curious about how we approached this with Oakley you can check out my detailed blog post: How To Introduce Your Baby To Solids.

Prepping an assortment of different food types allows you to create diverse and flavourful meals for your baby. When planning meals for your 6-8 month-old, remember that you don’t need to stick to traditional foods for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. For instance, we often pair Oakley’s morning oatmeal with vegetables like carrots or sweet potato to ensure he gets extra nutrients. And guess what? He loves it!

Here’s a handy tip: I freeze all our baby food using silicone molds. These molds are fantastic because they make it easy to pop out the exact amount of food you need, unlike hard containers, which can be quite difficult to manage. If you need your molds for another batch, you can simply transfer the frozen portions into silicone storage bags. You can find a complete list of baby food essentials and resources that we used for Oakley’s food journey here.

The advantage of freezing everything ahead of time is convenience. Just place the food you want to use in the fridge the night before to thaw. The next day, it’s ready to be reheated although you can also just reheat from frozen in a pinch (I do it all the time). This method is also super handy for your partner or anyone else helping with baby, making it easy for them to feed your little one with minimal hassle.

Let’s Get Started With Meal Prepping

Let’s get started prepping some food! I’d recommend starting with the bits that need to be roasted since that’s what’s going to take the longest. I’d also recommend when you’re first starting out to only include one food item per frozen mold. Then as they get used to certain food and you know they don’t have any allergies or intolerances you can start mixing them.

Salt-Free Bone Broth

• 3 pounds beef bones (I used grass-fed bone marrow) 
• 1-2 carrots, chopped
• 1-2 stalks celery, chopped
• Handful mushrooms, chopped 
• 1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar
• Water to fill pot you’re using (if using an instant pot fill to about 1 inch below the max line)

I chose to prepare everything myself because it’s simple and salt-free, which is important for babies. Start by peeling all the vegetables and chopping them roughly—they don’t need to be perfect. The vegetables are added mainly for flavour. Instant Pot: Cook on high pressure for 120 min (2 hours), natural release. Drain bones and veggies, and you have bone broth! If you’re using a slow cooker or stovetop method, you can use this tutorial here.

Sweet Potato Mash

Preheat your oven to 400F. Next, prepare the sweet potatoes on a lined baking sheet. . Pierce each potato a few times with a fork. Transfer to the oven and roast the sweet potatoes for 60 minutes until they become tender and a knife easily pierces through. Once cooked, simply slice them down the middle to open, allow them to cool slightly, and scoop out the meat. If you want you can either mash with a fork or give a quick blend with an immersion blend to make sure there are no stringy bits.

Roasted Beets Puree

To prepare the beets, wash well and trim off the tops and bottoms. Then, wrap them in parchment paper or foil and place them in the oven with the sweet potatoes to roast. Beets are excellent for your baby, as they are rich in iron and antioxidants, plus they have a naturally sweet flavour! If your baby isn’t a fan of red beets, consider trying golden beets, which offer a milder, sweeter taste.

Beets will take about 40 minutes to roast. Once cooked through and a knife pierces easily you can allow them to cool slightly and then easily remove the skin using a kitchen towel or paper towel to rub/peel it off. Give them a rough chop and place in a small food processor or blender and blend until smooth. 

Vegetable Soup

• 1 kabocha Squash
• 2 leaves of Collard greens
• 1 Celery, chopped
• 1 Carrot, peeled and chopped

½ cup dried red lentils, rinsed and drained first, cut the Kombucha into pieces and rub it with coconut oil, then place it on a cooking pan to roast. Roasting the Kombucha with the skin on saves time and enhances the soup’s flavor. Once roasted, add the squash to the pan along with sweet potatoes and beets (one pan means less mess!).

Next, wash the carrots and celery, then peel and chop them. Wash your collard greens, remove the stems, and cut them into chunks as well.

Now, combine the collard greens, lentils, carrots, and celery in a pot and add 4 cups of water or bone broth. Bring everything to a simmer and let the vegetables cook in the water for 30 minutes until lentils are fully cooked. Once the squash is done roasting you can remove the meat from the skin and add it to the soup pot. Remove from heat and blend until smooth using a hand immersion blender.

Broccoli and Spinach Puree

• 1 head broccoli, steams removed and chopped into florets
• 2 cups baby spinach

Broccoli is an excellent choice for baby food, providing essential greens rich in calcium and fibre. Spinach is a great dark leafy green vegetable that is also a good source of iron. I recommend steaming the broccoli for optimal nutrition. Simply steam the broccoli for 15-20 minutes, covered until fork tender, adding spinach in for the last 5 minutes to wilt.  Remove from heat and using a hand immersion blender, blend until smooth.

Baby Chia Pudding

• ½ ripe banana
• 1 cup canned coconut milk
• 1 tablespoon chia seeds
• Pinch of Ceylon cinnamon (optional)

In a mini food processor, blend the banana until smooth. Next, add coconut milk, cinnamon, and chia seeds and blend everything together until smooth, roughly 15 seconds. Divide into little jars to portion it out and transfer to the refrigerator to set.You can freeze the mini portions in an airtight container and store for up to 3 months or in the fridge for 3 days.

Happy Poops

Baby Cereal / Baby Oatmeal Recipe

• 1 cup rolled Oats (I buy organic and gluten-free)
• 1 cup barley flakes 
• ½ cup buckwheat groats

In a high-speed blender, blend up each grain separately as some will need longer time than others, and add to a large airtight container. The idea is to make a big batch of baby cereal aka baby oatmeal that’s ready to go in the morning that also has a natural source of iron! You can add this to your liquid of choice such as coconut milk, breastmilk, or water. You can also add in a fruit such as frozen mango, mashed banana, applesauce and a veggie such as cooked carrot, sweet potato, etc. Add a sprinkle of ground flaxseed and cinnamon and you have a tasty meal for breakfast.