Making Baby Food Cubes After a Day of Parenting – A Beginner Mom’s Journey

Hello everyone~
Today I’d like to share my story of making baby food cubes after a long day of parenting.
After spending the whole day with my baby and finally putting them to sleep,
my real “off-duty” time begins. But instead of resting, I head back to the kitchen 😊

🧑‍🍳 Steamer Setup & Ingredients

The tool I’m using today is the THE ONLY 2-tier steamer.
It wasn’t originally bought for baby food,
but it’s turned out to be incredibly useful.

Here are the vegetables and meat I prepared today: >

• Bell pepper
• Korean radish
• Broccoli
• Napa cabbage
• Bok choy
• Tomato
• Beef (eye of round)

I’m trying to introduce a variety of ingredients to my 10-month-old baby.
Texture and potential allergies are still a concern,
so I carefully prep each item with extra attention.

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🌶️ Starting with Bell Pepper

First, I remove the core and seeds from the bell pepper and slice it.
The skin is tough, so I peel it off.
I’ve tried using a knife, but it wastes too much flesh—
so I prefer peeling it by hand.

Making baby food can feel easy if you think it’s easy,
but endlessly difficult if you overthink it.
The basic idea is to cook the ingredients and chop them into baby-friendly textures.
But figuring out how long to cook and how finely to chop
is a real challenge for beginner moms like me.

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🥦 Prepping Radish & Broccoli

For the radish, I chose the green-tinted sweet part.
Dr. Ha Jung-hoon recommends the middle section,
but I wanted a bit more sweetness.

I noticed some black spots inside the radish and got worried.
I asked ChatGPT, and it said I could just cut them out—
so I did exactly that.
It’s amazing how easy it is to get answers these days!

For broccoli, I only use the florets.
They’re softer and easier to cook than the stems.
Since I had a lot of veggies, I used both tiers of the steamer.

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🥬 Prepping Napa Cabbage & Bok Choy

For napa cabbage, I remove the stems and use only the leaves.
Cutting in a V-shape helps separate them cleanly.
I save the stems to make vegetable broth later—
a great way to avoid waste!

Bok choy is similar.
I use the leafy parts and cut the stems in half.
These stems also go into my broth stash.

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🍅 Cooking Tomato in the Microwave

Since the steamer was full, I cooked the tomato in the microwave for 5 minutes.
I made a cross-shaped cut on the top to help peel the skin easily.

My baby is 10 months old, so they can eat the pulp,
but it adds too much moisture—
so I removed the pulp this time.
I peeled the skin and chopped the tomato finely, then portioned it into 20g servings.

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🔪 Chopping & Cubing

I prefer chopping with a knife over using a chopper—
it gives me better control over texture.
Especially for leafy vegetables, knife chopping is easier from the mid-stage of baby food.

• Napa cabbage → chopped and portioned into 20g
• Broccoli → chopped and portioned into 20g
• Radish → chopped and portioned into 20g
• Bell pepper → peeled, chopped, and portioned into 20g
• Tomato → peeled, pulp removed, chopped, and portioned into 20g

Once done, I freeze the cubes.
The next day, I twist the tray diagonally and pop them out one by one.

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🧊 Cube Storage Tips

I use silicone cube containers for storage.
There are plenty of plastic options like sushi trays,
but with all the talk about microplastics and hormone disruptors,
I chose silicone despite the inconvenience.

To be honest… it’s not the most convenient.
The capacity is small, and the lid doesn’t close easily.
But if a little inconvenience helps keep my baby healthier,
I’m happy to deal with it.

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🥩 Preparing Beef Cubes

I realized I was running low on beef cubes,
so I quickly started prepping.

First, I boiled garlic, onion, and green onion to make broth.
I use Costco eye of round beef,
and I always remove visible tendons and fat—
otherwise, the meat turns out too tough for babies.

I boiled the beef for 45 minutes, skimming off impurities.
Then I used a chopper to grind the meat,
adding some of the broth to adjust the texture.

Since I ran out of cube trays, I stored the beef in a glass container.
I also filtered the leftover broth and portioned it into broth packs—
perfect for cooking rice or reheating baby food.

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💛 Wrapping Up

After a long day of parenting,
I returned to the kitchen to prepare baby food for my little one.
It’s tiring, but also deeply fulfilling.

As a beginner mom, I still make mistakes and learn every day.
But seeing my baby eat well and grow healthy
makes all the effort worthwhile.

That’s it for today.
Wishing you all a lovely day ☀️