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What to do with leftover baby food

Today’s recipe isn’t really a recipe. It’s a collection of recipe ideas for baby food purees. As you know, we taste tested baby foods this week. It was a fun experiment but our family is done with jars and pouches of commercial baby food. I still have a small stockpile in the cupboard, so I tried to come up with creative ideas for how to use it up.
Henry really does prefer finger food to puree but he would like to keep the spoon.

Here are a few options if you find yourself with extra baby food purees.
  • Stir fruit puree into plain yogurt.  
  • Layer purees in popsicle molds and freeze.
  • Spread veggie puree on a deli sandwich or grilled cheese sandwich.
  • Mix fruit or veggie puree into a morning muffin mix.
  • Freeze fruit puree in ice cube trays. Add one or two frozen cubes to a glass of drinking water for a dash of color and flavor.
  • Add veggie puree to soup or pasta sauce.
  • Blend fruit or veggie puree into a smoothie.

Henry and I taste tested an apple puree mixed in with yogurt. It was less sweet than the store-bought flavored yogurts and I think it worked well, but Henry was more interested in smearing the yogurt on his hands and bib. 
Dare you to take that spoon away!

We also tried to make popsicles but the puree combination I picked was a mistake. The green veggies solidified on the exterior of the popsicle while the orange fruits concentrated toward the center. I could not make it past the strong spinach smell and Daddy could not get over the drab green color.

Now that this little research project is over, I will be donating our remaining collection of baby food purees to the local food bank. There are lots of Mommies and Daddies who can’t afford to feed their little ones, and they could use this food more than us.
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Comments

  1. CharitySeptember 7, 2012 at 4:28 AM

    Love your ideas for extra baby puree. Thanks for sharing!

    ReplyDelete
  2. UnknownSeptember 7, 2012 at 10:11 AM

    You're welcome. It seems wasteful to just throw out extra food, especially if you have a stash of homemade purees in the freezer.

    ReplyDelete

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