The Best Baby Food Recipe Books

Making my own baby food from the start is one of the most fulfilling choices I've made as a parent. I love saving money, knowing exactly what is in their food, and cooking creative recipes for them to try! I scoured the internet and our library until I found the best baby food recipe books!

This post contains Amazon affiliate links. If you click through to Amazon from this page and purchase anything, we will get a small profit for referring you without any additional cost to you!

After extensive research, here are my favorite books that include tips about how to start making your own baby food as well as tried and true recipes:

Cooking for Baby: Wholesome, Homemade, Delicious Lisa Barnes

This is my most favorite baby food book! I love the philosophy behind this one including delaying solids until you see cues that your baby is ready for them.

Cooking for Baby outlines the benefits of creating homemade baby food. They reassure that you need very little equipment and they even caution new parents from using plastic in the microwave!

They don't suggest cereal as a first food (Our babies began on avocado and skipped grains until much later) but when later introducing cereal they recommend millet and barley.

The recipes are divided by ages up to 12 - 18 months. I'm still using this book for ideas to include more vegetables in my kids' meals in a variety of ways!

Baby Love: Healthy, Easy, Delicious Meals for Your Baby and Toddler Norah O'Donnell and Chef Geoff Tracy

This book begins with several personal stories including the introduction of the author's children as well as how the chef got into culinary arts.

I love the economical break down of how making your own baby food saves money!

Unlike the other two books, this resource is organized by food type: fruits, veggies, proteins, legumes, and grains.

Baby Love includes a lot more purees and less finger foods than the other two books. The purees are often creative blends that I never would have thought of combining myself. You won't find these foods together in baby food on grocery store shelves!

First Meals Annabel Karmel

This was the first book we read so we have the first edition while the link I've included is a revised version.

First Meals begins with an introduction to making your own baby food but a new parent who isn't an experienced cook may be a bit overwhelmed with the suggestion of a mouli! (Don't let that deter you. I never used anything other than our regular food processor and blender to make our babies' food!)

Each recipe includes nutritional information as well as tips on how to store the food. The book will tell you if the foods are suitable for freezing and how long you can keep them.

Organized by age, First Meals includes tons of recipes for brand new solid eaters up to ages 3 to 5 years. My preschooler still loves choosing interesting finger foods from this book for us to cook together!