I want what’s best for my children.  That’s why I have ruined my boobs by breast-feeding for more than a year and spend all that time pumping and washing pump parts.

When Ian started eating solid food I felt the brand Earth’s Best was, well, the best.  However, I found there was a lack of variety in the vegetables.  I couldn’t find a broccoli puree, there might have been one, but I couldn’t find it.  Gerber baby food had a lot of varieties but I preferred to buy organic.  Of course now there are more organic brands and a lot more variety.

I decided to start making my own.  Not only for the cost, but also to ensure my baby got a variety of foods and combinations.  I looked for some books to help me with ideas.  The first book I bought was Top 100 Baby Purees by Annabel Karmel.  She had some combinations that I wouldn’t have thought of like banana, avocado and yogurt.  I didn’t make things like green beans because it was easier to buy them.

I then found this book Super Baby Food by Ruth Yaron.  I like the book, but I don’t like her writing style.  She comes across as very condescending.  There are a lot of recipes for children over a year but not that many for baby purees.  I found it to be a good resource for the timing of different food introduction and storage.  One good thing is the Super Porridge she talks about.

This is a high protein porridge made with milled grains and legumes.  I started to make it and would mix in fruits and vegetables.  The combination that Ian liked best was banana and avocado with broccoli and sometimes green beans or peas.  After making the porridge I would run it through the blender again to make it more of a puree texture.

I know what you are thinking….YUCK! but he loved it, and still eats it.  I don’t always make it, just when I am concerned about his food intake.

Then the baby food companies came out with the food pouches (we call them smoothie pouches).  I think these things are the best thing ever!  Completely portable and they won’t break in the diaper bag.  Plus I can give one to Ian and he can feed himself.  I think they are great to keep on hand in the car for snack emergencies.

Over the last year there has been an influx of brands and food combinations available.  But they are pretty costly, usually about a buck and a half each.  So I had been trying to find a way to make reusable smoothie pouches for Ian’s porridge.

Of course I am too late.  I was at Babies R Us the other day to replace the car seats after the accident was wandering around the food prep area.  That is when I saw they had the Baby Bullet (which I had been thinking about getting) and what did I find on display with it?  Infantino has a new product line called Fresh Squeezed which has the Squeeze Station.

With the Squeeze Station you can fill your own smoothie pouches!  Now these ones are not reusable, but they do make a reusable one called the Keeper Squeeze Pouch, but they didn’t have that when I bought my Squeeze Station.  However, I will be purchasing a few of those too when I can find them.

So after purchasing the combination of Baby Bullet and Squeeze Station I went home and made Ian some porridge.

My one batch of porridge filled 7 pouches and it was really easy to use.  I am very excited about this!

This will be really fun when Baby Sid starts on solids.

Happy Squeezing

I was not asked to write this post, nor was I compensated in any way for it and the opinions expressed are all my own.