I’m a huge fan of food pouches. My daughter loves feeding herself from them, they’re easy to give on the go and they offer a healthy mix of nutrients and food groups.
Unfortunately, all has not been well lately in the baby and toddler food pouch market. Earlier this month, Plum Organics voluntarily recalled a ton of its pouches due to “potential spoilage associated with a manufacturing defect.” Meanwhile, around the same time, one mom claimed to have found maggots in an Earth’s Best pouch (though whether she actually did or not is still up for debate).
Before the Plum Organics recall, my daughter had been eating the recalled pouches for weeks – I had bought at least three dozen of the recalled pouches a couple months ago. In other words, I think it’s finally time I check a big to-do off my to-do list and buy some reusable food pouches that I can fill with homemade food for my daughter. Why hadn’t I already made this more frugal mealtime switch before the latest recall news? One huge hurdle: A lack of knowledge about good pouch food recipes.
So to prepare myself for my upcoming refillable pouch purchase, I did some research to find good resources for nutritious (and delicious-sounding) pouch food recipes. Today’s hint is four helpful resources I found:
1.) The Wholesome Baby Food Guide. The same Mom who introduced me to the extremely helpful Baby Bargains book also introduced me to the sites Wholesome Baby Food and Wholesome Toddler Food, where you can find a huge variety of healthy recipes for your little ones. I asked the mom behind the sites, Maggie Meade, the author of The Wholesome Baby Food Guide who now solely blogs here, about which of her recipes she’d recommend for pouches. She suggested this delicious-sounding peachy keen sweet potato recipe from her book, and she also shared two other reusable pouch-friendly recipes from her book with me. “These recipes are great as ‘smoothies'” for the whole family too, she said. Her two other recipes:
The Green Veggie Monster
Tools
blender or food processor
Ingredients:
1/2 cup pureed green beans
1/2 mashed avocado
2 tablespoons of applesauce
Directions:
1. Mix and puree or mash all ingredients together in a bowl or a blender or food processor. Serve slightly warmed.
Another great way to prepare this is to cook the green beans fresh, drain then return to the saucepan. Add the applesauce and warm through. Remove from stove and allow the mixture to cool for 10 minutes then puree. Mash in the avocado and serve.
Avocado Fruit Salad
Tools:
knife, fork, bowl
Ingredients:
1 ripe avocado
1/2 of a banana
1/4 cup cubed mango
1/4 cup diced peaches
Directions:
1. Peel and pit the avocado then dice it up.
2. Add the banana, mango and peaches to a mixing bowl then add the avocado.
3. Gently mix to combine and add 1 or 2 drips of lemon juice, mix again to spread the lemon juice throughout.
4. Mash the fruits gently, just enough to squish them up a bit and serve.
Source: The Wholesome Baby Food Guide book
2.) MOMables. During my recipe search, I also turned to Laura Fuentes, the mom behind MOMables, a site helping parents make fresh lunches for their kids. In response to my question about recipes for reusable pouches, she wrote that she usually makes green smoothies for the pouches, sneaking in the veggies. She suggested that I check out a recipe on her site for “sneaky strawberry-banana smoothies,” a healthy and yummy sounding mix of the fruit plus Greek yogurt and kale or spinach (with other ingredients to reduce the “green” taste and add sweetness).
3.) The reusable food pouch company sites. The refillable food pouch companies are also good resources for pouch recipes. In fact, they have a recipe idea sections on their Web sites. Here are links to recipes from Yummi Pouch, Squooshi, Little Green Pouch, EZ Squeezes and GoFreshBaby.
4.) Pinterest. During my research, I came across two helpful Pinterest boards filled with recipes for reusable pouches. One is called Food – Reusable Pouch Recipes and the other is called food pouch recipes. In addition, the reusable food pouch companies also have active Pinterest boards filled with tons of recipes.
One you decide what you’re going to make to fill the pouches, you generally can store extra food right in the pouches in the freezer. Ms. Fuentes, for instance, told me that the pouches should said stay good in the freezer for about three months.
What are your favorite reusable pouch recipes and recipe resources? What are your reusable pouch tips and tricks? Share them below.
Hi Jennifer! Thank you for including MOMables.com as a resource to your readers! Great informative post too!
Those recipes sound delectable. I will most certainly be trying them both out in my blender. Thank you.
Great recipes thank you Hint Mama! LOVE Pinterest as a source of fab recipes for pouches. There are soooooo many these days 🙂
Love the sound of the Avocado Fruit Salad! Cant wait to try that this weekend.
Thanks, for all of the tips. I love The Wholesome Baby Food Guide Book. It has lots of great recipes. I have been searching for recipes to use in the pouches.