Bulk cooking for Baby and a review of ways in which to freeze purée

BabyLD has been eating a variety of puréed food for a few weeks now and I have been making up the puréed food myself and freezing it using the following different storage methods: 

• Fill n Squeeze pouches  
• Weening pots with trays (I got these second hand and they may not be the most updated version) 
• Using an ice cube tray then transferring to food bags. 
• I have also used old breast milk storage bags. These are not reusable and you have to defrost and put food into a bowl before you heat it but if you have them laying around then why not use them hey? 

I have found each way useful for different things so will review each.

Fill n squeeze

I picked this amazing device up at the baby show when I was pregnant And waited almost a year to try it out! The concept is basic, when you have made and puréed food, you put it in the pot and plunge it down and it goes into the pouches, which can be washed out and reused! It does come with a masher too which I’ve not yet used as all BabyLDs food is blended at the moment but I’m sure it will be useful. You can write on these pouches with a white board pen (they sell one on their site) but I find this does rub off easy and I often use a permi pen and just scrub it off with baby wipes (must be ones that contain alcahol – BabyLD’s water wipes don’t work) when needed.

 The first time I used this was with home made carrot and parsnip Purée and after easily half filling one pouch (he only needs small portions at the moment, I moved onto a second pouch to continue and suddenly it wouldn’t work! I got quite frustrated that I had somehow broken it in just one use until I realised it was a tiny bit of parsnip stuck in the tube! New to making purée I had not blended it enough. I added more boiled water and blended some more till the parsnip was more smooth and continued with no more problems. 

I have successfully used this to make pouches up of a variety of vegetable and fruit purées, as well as roast dinners (including his Christmas and New Year’s Day dinners!) as well as a variety of flavours of Soya and coconut yoghurts (meaning that I can buy the big pots of these and make my own flavours for him, since BabyLD is the only dairy free one in the family and could never eat a whole pot!)

Any issues?

• The pouches are not the easiest thing to wash, but once I purchased the pouch scrubber they sell I was much more confident that I was getting them clean enough.
• NO lumps will fit through 
• The pot stained orange after I used it with carrot. Whilst this is not a problem it made me sad as it was the first time i used it! It could be because the purée was still warm when I used it? or because I didn’t rinse straight away? Unsure as to why this happened but it has been hand washed and dishwasher washed many times since and is still a pale shade of orange! 

Best used for: 

• Yoghurts (especially if baby is dairy free!)  
• fruit purée
• Traveling 

Weening pots with trays

These little plastic pots are really useful for first portion sizes as you begin weening! They are a simple as it comes, little plastic pots which you spoon food into and trays in which they sit in in the freezer. I have used them for my vegetable purées, fruit purées, and for sauces.they come with stickers to write what is inside. These are great for first use but not washable. I tend to use either a white board pen or a permi pen (which can be rubbed off with a baby wipe after washing – must be ones that contain alcahol though as BabyLD’s water wipes don’t work) to write on them instead. 

 As I have experiemented with cooking I find these little plastic pots for storing seperate components such as sauces, and vegetable purées which I then defrost and mix with freshly cooked pasta to make a meal for BabyLD. Whilst the trays seem like a good idea whilst you first get these pots, in all fairness I rarely use them and find the pots stack nicely on top of each other in my freezer which takes up much less space! 

One point to add is make sure the outside of the pot has no spilled purée on before you freeze! I made this mistake with a tiny droplet of carrot which froze onto the pot.. not a problem until I microwaved from frozen and it melted a hole into the pot! I have no idea how this happened because surely if the food did this it should melt from inside out but oh well! 

Any issues?

• One pot with a hole in after food spilt on the outside melted through the pot when defrosting (see above for more info)
• The lids often don’t stay shut. I solve this problem with either sellotape or stickers.

Best used for: 

• Portions of sauce – especially if Baby is only dairy free member of family and needs own sauce or you are making reduced salt sauce for them.
• Making purées of a good (small) portion size for first weening.
• Seperate components of a meal to mix and match. 

Ice cube trays and freezer bags

This is the third main method I use for freezing BabyLDs food. I brought this ice cube tray due to the fact it has a lid and I wanted to ensure less spillage whilst transferring to the freezer but any ice cube tray would work. 

All you have to do is transfer the food into the sections of the tray and put it in the freezer. Once the food is frozen you can then A) leave it in the tray until you want to use it, or B) transfer the cubes into food bags and store in the freezer in these. I use option B as it means I can then reuse the ice cube tray! 

The first time I attempted this was with Apple and pear and I filled half the tray with each. Filling the tray was fairly easy using one of BabyLD’s spoons and it froze fairly quickly. As I came to remove the cubes I found it wasn’t as easy as I expected it to be and I thought for a moment they were stuck in there for good and it was a waste of good food, but with a little effort and wiggling of the tray I managed to remove the cubes and can now mix and match different amounts of the two fruits as I desire. This is really useful for adding a cube of apple to BabyLD’s porridge or to make different flavoured purées quick and easy.

Any issues?

• More fiddly than the other methods
• Not suitable if freezing meals for an older baby due to small size

Best used for: 

• Portions of sauce – especially if Baby is only dairy free member of family and needs own sauce or you are making reduced salt sauce for them.
• Seperate fruit purées which can be mixed and matched to create a range of tastes with minimal effort
• Making purées of a good (small) portion size for first weening.

Conclusion:

Well there we have it! As mentioned above I use all three of these methods for a range of different purposes but I have to say my favourite, especially for yoghurts/ fruit purées is the Fill n squeeze, and I find the weening pots very useful as a mum to a baby with Cows Milk Protien allergy for freezing bulk made dairy free sauces which I can just add to his pasta whilst adding dairy containing sauce to mine! 

Well I hope you enjoyed this review blog and found it useful! 

MummyD