Beaba: Fun with Baby Food
/One of my favorite milestones in babyhood is starting solids. There’s nothing more gratifying (for me) than making food and filling my babies tummy. Full disclosure, both my children are very excited eaters.
With Cam I used the stovetop steamer and an immersion blender. This works just fine. However, receiving and trying the Beaba Babycook Original Plus has hands down changed my cooking experience. While I could steam, boil and roast all my veggies & fruits, use the immersion blender or food processor and make the same food – this does it all for me! I didn’t quick appreciate the ease of it until I cubed raw chicken, sweet potatoe and broccoli – threw it in the steamer basket all together, forgot about it, pulled it out when the bell sounded, removed the basket & used the same container to blend it. Voila! Lunch was served.
I do still use the food processor for larger batches or blends, but I steam and puree everything in the Babycook. I might roast veggies for dinner versus steaming them, for flavor and texture, but then I blend in the Babycook.
I have a lot of fun improvising with recipes. This past weekend we used a veggie/fruit recipe and amended based on what we had in the house (almond flour vs regular flour). We cooked the muffins in the Beaba Silicone Trays and the whole experience was super fun.
There’s a few foods I won’t make from scratch because it simply doesn’t seem worth the time, when I can purchase at the store for a few dollars in organic form. Applesauce is one of them. The beaba is SO easy, that I even make my own Applesauce these days.
Some suggestions for improvising:
- add yogurt to everything. I add yogurt to just about anything. Sweet potatoes, yogurt & pumpkin pie spice. Meat and grain dishes that I want to make creamier. Cold dishes that I want to take the chill out of. I use Pavel or Straus whole milk plain yogurt. Trader Joe’s has a yummy version as well now.
- Cheat. For example: This week I made a delicious stew. In it was a bag of frozen, organic pre-cooked rice from Trader Joe’s (cheat number one), black beans that I had made in the slow cooker (delicious thanks to the bay leaves, garlic and onions they cooked alongside), an organic lentil/veggie/red pepper soup boxed soup for some liquid (cheat number two), and pureed broccoli left over from lunches this week. The result: fiber-rich, nutritional, filling stew for on the go anything.
- If you have an early riser, cook then. What else are you doing at 6am? Between 6-7:30am this morning, I steamed and pureed sweet potato & apple, roasted broccoli & threw in some chicken drumsticks. Really, why not?
- Add coconut oil to everything. steamed veggies. pureed veggies. scrambled eggs.
Don’t forget:
It’s back to school time with BEABA – receive 20% off their site from now until Labor Day! Use code MAINSTREETMAMAS at checkout
Silicone Trays:
I absolutely adore these. They are a generous serving size, incredibly easy to clean, and very versatile. We currently use one for fruit puree and one for veggies. We also have enjoyed putting different foods in each compartment and eating breakfast with our toddler “Lazy Susan Style”
