Isn’t this season just an incredible time for food?! All of my Pinterest feeds are lighting up with gorgeous fall recipes, Facebook friends’ dinner pictures actually interest me, and there is at least a tweet a day about some fall-inspired ingredient making it’s way into a meal (or drink–hello Pumpkin Spice!).
My oldest two girls are all about the fall food, too. They’re consuming mass quantities of squash and sweet potatoes, pumpkin smoothies (seriously!) and roasted veggies.
Then there’s my sweet 10-month old looking on as her sisters enjoy their food. And guess what? She isn’t missing out! Little Charlie is eating exactly what the rest of the family is eating thanks to our newly essential baby tool–the Freshfoods™ Cook-n-Blend Baby Food Maker.
I’ll be the first to tell you that I never ever thought I’d need, let alone rely upon, a baby food maker. While I was firmly committed to making my own baby food for all of my kiddos, I did not need any help, thank you very much, with a gadget I’d only use for a season of time. Well, excuse me, Ms. I Can Do It Myself–newsflash! When you have multiple kids and a husband to cook for, making baby food is not a high priority on the list and you need the convenience and ease that an all-in-one baby food maker offers.
Truthfully, when NUK’s Freshfoods™ Cook-n-Blend Baby Food Maker arrived at my door, I didn’t know how life-altering it would be. I unpacked it and was immediately impressed by it’s compact size (hooray! it wouldn’t take up much-needed counter space). I also found a recipe booklet for fresh baby food ideas. Again, my little mind thought proudly, “I have made baby food for two other kids–what else could this tell me?” Well, little mind, apparently a lot. The Freshfoods team has come up with some ingenious combos and they’ve made the recipes available to all of you, too, free of charge–if you have a little one at home just starting out on solids, trust me–you’ll want to peruse this baby food recipe booklet for ideas.
Initial impressions aside, I had to test my new Cook-n-Blend Baby Food Maker so I chose to make the Butternut Squash and Peas recipe. I loved that I was using fresh, seasonal food and that it corresponded to what I was feeding the rest of the family. Following the recipe, I placed my ingredients into the steamer section and let the Freshfoods™ Cook-n-Blend Baby Food Maker do its work. Roughly 25-minutes later, I was ready to puree the veggies and serve it to Charlie.
I was impressed by several things:
- I barely had to do any “work” to make it–besides adding water the baby food maker intelligently knows when to stop steaming the food and even beeps to remind you. It was kind of like a fix-and-forget recipe!
- It is fast! The compact design allows your food to cook quickly and uniformly so you’re not devoting hours to preparing baby food.
- I could choose how pureed I wanted the baby food. Since Charlie is 10-months old, I chose to make it a bit thicker and chunkier for her to experience the texture of the food. But I could have easily pureed it for a smoother consistency.
- the real winner–I didn’t have to clean multiple pots, blenders, etc–everything was contained in the baby food maker which, in and of itself, is easy to clean!
Considering I’ve been making baby food off and on for the past 3.5 years, I was really blown away by how easy and how inspiring the NUK Freshfoods baby food maker is. One thing I’ve gotten into the habit of doing is taking a small portion of our dinner (for example, a bit of chicken and sweet potato), throwing it into the Freshfoods™ Cook-n-Blend Baby Food Maker, blending it to a smoother consistency, and serving it to the baby. It is just so convenient! Another thing the big girls like is making smoothies with me. We can easily exchange the food blade for the smoothie blade and whip up a delicious pumpkin smoothie for everyone–truly a family friendly machine when it saves mama time and makes all my kids happy! I have a feeling this handy machine will be staying on our counter long after the baby graduates to all table food. At less than $100, this baby food maker is a quality investment that will be making your family healthier and your life easier! Want to learn more? Connect with NUK on Facebook or Twitter and see what others are saying about the Freshfoods™ Cook-n-Blend Baby Food Maker today!
Megan S says
Great review! I’ve been making my 5 month old’s food for about a month now, I have gotta go to store and get this! It definitely looks like it makes the process of making baby food easier!