Fresh Baby Contest!!

I am so incredibly ready for spring, and I think my little one will agree with that. He loves to go outside, but unfortunately in the Northeast it is the dead of winter and bitter cold, so going outside is limited right now. His new found freedom is fun and exciting for both of us! Sorry to start off so randomly, but he is just so darn fun!

I have been receiving numerous questions lately from readers and friends of mine about freezing baby food, and the best way to do it, and how long it is safe in the freezer, so I decided to take this opportunity to try and review a product to help just with that. So let me tell you a little bit about Fresh Baby. Fresh Baby is a company started by a mom with products for moms. They have many products that help parents make homemade baby food for their infants and have recently expanded into the toddler and whole family line. You can read all about their story here.

I took the opportunity to try their “So Easy Baby Food Kit”. Included in the kit is a How-To DVD, a Cookbook, two Freezer Trays, and a Tip Card. The claim is that you can make homemade baby food in as little as 30 minutes a week. This is a totally accurate claim and this kit shows how easy and quick it truly is to make homemade food for your little one.

Allow me to start with the Tip Card. I found this card to be great! I have been making baby food for a year now every week and found it to be incredibly useful. It is double sided and jam packed with great information including a quick 5 easy steps to making baby food, serving tips, foods by age.

However, the thing that I loved the most was the “Common Baby Ailments and Foods” and “Best Sources of Nutrition” sections of the card.

The Common Baby Ailments include remedies for problems such as sleeping, diaper rash, teething, runny nose, constipation, and diarrhea, and what to avoid and what to give your baby when he/she is experiencing these problems. This section can be especially helpful for first time parents, who experience “new baby brain”. My son had stomach problems when he was an infant and would you believe I called the doctor and asked what I could give him to relieve constipation and naturally, he said prune juice. Something everyone “knows”, but when they are a new parent or a parent of many and just have too many screaming kids, this quick reference will definitely come in handy. I also really loved the Nutrients section which is great if your child has any sort of vitamin deficiency, or you just want to make sure he/she is getting enough of what they need from food sources. 

I watched the How to DVD and read through the So Easy Baby Food Cookbook. 

I really liked the format of the cookbook, it made it personalized and interactive. There were note sections for moms and really great information about what you need to start making your own baby food, how much to feed, how to start feeding and signs your baby is ready, baby book like pages to remember your baby’s first foods. I also really liked that on the bottom of each recipe there was a note section, so if your baby didn’t like it one way, you could try another. Each recipe had different ways to make the recipe by using add ins and combinations. What I did not like about the cookbook was that almost every recipe insisted on using the microwave for cooking for your baby. The reasoning behind the microwave makes sense to me, most moms don’t have the time to make their own baby food, let alone start with putting it all in the oven or the stove top, but I think there is a flavor and texture difference. The book promotes choosing one cooking method and sticking with it. This may be the quickest and easiest as you master a cooking technique, but do you cook all of your food in the same way? No, sometimes you grill, sometimes you boil, you sauté, you roast, and sometimes you microwave. 

The book is broken into sections and one section was how to use homemade baby food when traveling. This is a very common question, and something I struggled with myself. I ended up freezing the cubes and putting them in cooler packs with me when traveling, by the time it was time for my little one to eat, the food was thawed. I also simply brought food with me to restaurants, no big deal. The book suggests bringing a mini food mill to restaurants, asking the chef to steam some veggies or fruit for the baby and then pureeing it yourself at the table. While this is the freshest solution as the food is made right there, I thought this was a little far fetched, and while enjoying a dinner out, the very last thing I want to start doing is making baby food at a restaurant table. I did like their other travel ideas, about how to plan ahead.

  

The last thing I did not like about this book was that it does not recommend making meat for your baby because it is time consuming. When it comes to making meat purees for your baby it is simply easiest to puree whatever it is you are making for yourself. If you are making a chicken breast, make one for baby as well. It is no more time consuming than making yourself dinner. If your baby wants to eat meat then by all means, puree away!! 

As a whole I thought the cookbook was great and informative and you should definitely pick up a copy. I found the DVD to be very informative, it shows every step of the way for making homemade baby food, all the way to serving. This was great because I cannot tell you how many YouTube videos I have watched because I need to see someone doing something, even if the instructions are clear as day. I even watched a YouTube video for how to change a Diaper Genie bag, so this was great! A must watch for any new baby food makers out there!!

The last part of the great kit was the set of “So Easy Storage Trays”. When I was making purees for my son and freezing them I went to the store and bought ice cube trays, and covered them with tin foil. While this worked for me it resulted in a lot of spillage and leakage and freezer burn. These trays include a cover and are perfect for making purees or storing breast milk. I even filled my trays up and with the cover on turned upside down and there was NO LEAKAGE! Each cube in these trays is one ounce, so it is easy for measuring and knowing how much your baby is eating. The lids were super easy to get on and off, even frozen. These are a definite must have for moms making their own baby food. When you make your puree simply pour into the freezer trays, cover and freeze. After 24 hours you should have nice frozen ice cubes of delicious homemade baby food, put into a resalable LABELED bag and then make another puree! I absolutely love my new trays and will definitely use them many many times for my son and future children.

Overall I really love this kit; it makes a great gift for a new mom, a great all in one kit for making your own food and gives really excellent instructions. So, naturally you want to know where you can purchase such a lovely product? Why, right here... Their website also has great printable tip sheets and recipe books, including this freezer tip sheet  (if you have questions about freezing your baby food, this is the place to look!)

Now for the other great news I have for you. Fresh Baby has graciously agreed to give ONE lucky reader their own So Easy Storage Tray set!!!! WOOO!!!!! So how am I going to pick my lucky reader? Easy, but first the rules, you must be 18 or older and living in the United States (sorry my international readers!!!)

To Enter, simply go to www.freshbaby.com and tell me in a comment which product you would buy for yourself or for someone else to use with your favorite Real Babies Eat Real Food recipe (so your entry must have a product and a recipe from Real Babies Eat Real Food), leave that in a comment with your EMAIL ADDRESS (no email address, no entry, and I promise not to spam you, this will only be used if you are a winner). That is all you have to do to enter. But wait, there is more, you can get more entries by doing any or all of the following as many times as you want for additional entries (more entries = more chances to win):

Like Fresh Baby on Facebook at their Facebook page 
(1 additional entry, you must leave a comment stating that you did this and with your name for verification purposes)

Like Real Babies Eat Real Food onFacebook 
(1 additional entry, you must leave a comment stating that you did this and with your name for verification purposes)

Follow Fresh Baby on Twitter
 (1 additional entry, you must leave a comment stating that you did this and with your twitter name for verification purposes)

Follow Real Babies Eat Real Foodon Twitter
 (1 additional entry, you must leave a comment stating that you did this and with your twitter name for verification purposes)

Follow Fresh Baby on Pinterest
(1 additional entry, you must leave a comment with your Pinterest name for verification purposes)

Become a Follower of Real BabiesEat Real Food
(leave a comment with your name for verification purposes)

Tweet about this giveaway on Twitter
(One tweet per day, must leave a comment with a link to the tweet for verification purposes. One tweet =1 entry, so you can do this everyday if you want)

Share this giveaway on Facebook
(One share per day, must leave a comment with a link to your share for verification purposes. One Share=1 entry, so you can do this everyday if you want)

Bottom line, in order to get credit for your additional entries you must comment so I know that you did so

Be sure that you leave your email address in each comment that you leave! This would be a great prize for non-moms to give to new moms at baby showers as well!! Wow that is a lot of ways to enter. But trust me, these trays are definitely worth all the entries!! I am going to be buying myself a second set as well. The winner will be selected via Random Number Generator (Thank you John Jay College of Criminal Justice for teaching me how to do this) and will be notified via email. The prize will be mailed directly from Fresh Baby. The contest ends at 11:59 PM EST on February 28, 2013. Please note that I received no compensation for this review or contest from Fresh Baby, but I did receive a So Easy Baby Food Kit for purposes of this review. 

Wishing you all the best of luck! Later in this week I have a really delicious puree to share with you. My son refused to eat macaroni and cheese at daycare yesterday because he wanted to eat this puree instead… so stay tuned!