Store-bought options for baby food. Organic still wins in my book.

Although Boogie more or less refuses to eat anything we have offered him from the Gerber Organic line, or from any kind of "jar" food, he has accepted some of the new pouch foods.  He is especially fond of the fruit pouches because he can suck the fruit out himself and literally sucks it all down in about a minute, with a couple of small breaks to catch his breath.  Plum Baby are our favourite for a quick "toss in the diaper bag" option.

A facebook friend recently noted that although she makes her own baby food, she tried Sprout foods with her daughter and she loved them!  So I thought I would give them a whirl.  Because let's face it - it isn't always easy to carry around a cooler bag full of cubes of baby food and babies need veggies, whole grains, and proteins in addition to fruit.  So when Sprout foods finally went on sale, I bought a few to try.  So far he has tried the Roasted Sweet Potato and White Bean, which he loved, and the Butternut Squash (also loved).  These products are made by Tyler Florence, of Food Network fame, and are organic.  And delicious.  I tried them and I can honestly say that I would eat them.  But at the regular price of $1.39 each, they are certainly not an every day option.  More something to toss in diaper bag when we are in a hurry.

We also tried the Pasta with lentil sauce flavor and Boogie regfused to eat it.  This may be because he is already eating small pasta shapes with real sauce and the pureed version could just be a turn off.  But, then again, I tasted it and found it kind of gross.

We are also fans of Happy Baby products.  Boogie loves their organic puffs and they have half as much sugar as the Gerber brand.  And here, they tend to be on sale fairly often for about $2.50.  By joining the Happy Baby mailing list, I get coupons for $1 off 2 products and that makes them $2.  Gerber puffs run about $2 on sale and the package is smaller.  Again, twice the sugar in Gerber so this is definitly a cheaper, healthier option.
 

Boogie loves the Happy Baby yogurt drops, but since he does eat yogurt every day, we don't indulge in these often.  I generally mix a couple in with the puffs for a "snack mix" kind of thing.  I add freeze dried fruit bits, as well.  I haven't found a budget friendly organic freeze dried fruit marketed for babies, but freeze dried fruit bits can be found in the dried fruit section of some grocery stores.  Larger pieces can be broken into smaller ones.  Boogie likes mango best!

Still, our favourite snacks are homemade.  We usually do carry a small bottle cooler which holds a yogurt and a small container of fruir or veggie cubes.   I have found that most restaurants are more than happy to bring a cup or bowl of hot water, which I can then sit the container in to thaw the food slowly.  Apparently, they do this all the time for parents who need to warm bottles.

And there's always the universal portable baby snack - the banana!

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