My toddler loves those baby food pouches that are all the rage now.
The food pouches started coming out when he was about a year and a half. I thought they were fantastic!
They were easy for him to eat himself and they wouldn’t break in my bag.
Since then they have come out with a slew of food combinations. Ones that are just fruits or veggies and fruit/veggie combinations. They also have ones with yogurt and ones with grains.
But have you ever bought any of them? They are about $1.50 each. I usually try to get them only on sale, but they are still over a dollar each.
I had thought about ways to make my own reusable bags. But alas, before I could make a design someone else did. Well, now really multiple companies have ones.
As I talk about in this post, I purchased a system to fill up pouches with my own cooking.
This time I decided to make a yogurt smoothie.
I had a bunch of berries and a big carton of yogurt.
Homemade Berry Yogurt Smoothie Pouch
I cooked about 2 pints of berries with some sugar to draw out and concentrate the flavor.
Then I blended whole milk yogurt, the drained berries, dry milk powder, & baby oatmeal cereal. I use the baby oatmeal cereal because it is designed to be used with a liquid, without additional cooking. Plus it is a fine powder, so it will add nutrients and thicken the smoothie without any grit.
The berries can water down the yogurt so I would also recommend adding some dried milk powder.
I made about seven 4oz pouches, filled a couple of jars then froze the rest.
Of course Ian was excited, because he still loves to eat food out of the pouches.
He said “mmm…dat was delicious”
If the pouches won’t be consumed before the yogurt’s expiration date, then it should be frozen.
You can freeze the yogurt as drops for snacks, in ice-cube trays or in baby food jars.
Homemade Berry Yogurt Smoothie Pouch
2 pints of berries
1 tbsp sugar
3 cups whole milk yogurt
1/2 cup baby oatmeal cereal (or other milled grain)
1/4-1/2 cup powdered milk (for thinking)
Heat berries over low heat with sugar for approximately 10 minutes or toss with sugar and let stand at room temperature for about an hour.
Drain the berries, reserving the juice.
Blend berries, yogurt and cereal or powdered grains. If too thick add juice from berries, if too thin add powdered milk, until desired consistency is reached.
Here are some reusable food pouch resources (I have only used the Infantino product, so I know nothing about the others)
The Squeeze Station (this is what I have)
Happy Squeezing
I Tri and Craft 