Hi Nellie,
I have mostly fed my son food from the tins/bottles and am only just finding success with different foods I make. He is nearly 8 months old.
Firstly, I invested in a small food mixer. There are heaps of different ones out there, but I got a Black and Decker mini mixer from Kmart for $20 (was $23). It's great because it only has a couple of parts and they can all go in the dishwasher, without taking up heaps of room.
I boil vegies like we normally do in the saucepan and have stopped putting in any cooking salt. I take out a small amount of each and put separately in the mixer with some cooled, boiled water (I keep a jug handy all day for his bottles and feeds, etc). I mix it up to the lumpiness/smoothness I want and then maybe add a bit more water. Pumpkin is easy as it is so runny, you don't always need to add anything, but potato you do. We'll be trying carrot and greens tonight as well. I then put them in little pots in the fridge and/or freeze in ice cube trays if more than enough for the next night as well. Roast chicken is easy (I don't roast it, I buy it already done- less fussing around). I use the breast and just put in shreds of it with water and mix until it becomes smooth and not real thick. Then we choose what he is going to eat that night. Put a bit of each in the bowl and mix and then nuke for a fews seconds. He loves it. I'll try beef next time I do a stew, as it is apparently better to give them slow cooked meat for now.
You can put in some formula and water to the mix if you would like to give her some extra milk or for taste, but I just use water.
See how that goes. Start off basic for now and one or two vegies and a meat and then add from there. She may not like it much or even throw up if too thick or flavoursome, but you can work back from there. but the best investment I made was the little mixer and it just sits on the counter top ready to go.
Let us know what success you have and if you have any more questions just ask us. I also bought a little book from Big W about what foods to introduce and when and how to prepare them. That's been helpful. It's also got recipes in there. But you'll find she'll be able to eat mostly what ou do most nights if you just give her a little bit of the basics.
Ange.