Leftover Baby Food – The Secret Ingredient
Today I hope to put an end to the leftover baby food waste conundrum.
As any hygiene and safety conscious Mother knows (or rather, what the parenting ‘experts’ tell us), we should never keep leftover baby food once it has been heated, little fingers probing it, throwing it on the floor and sharing it with the dog.
But while your little darling’s taste buds an appetite fluctuate more than the scale number of a yo yo dieter, it can be very frustrating having to throw away half a batch of lovingly homemade puree, or even overpriced bought jars,
If Freddie decides he doesn’t like sweet potato & courgette after all, into the bin it goes, to keep the carrot & swede company.
Here are 7 savvy ways to use up leftover baby food.
(and here’s a fab blog I found with some top healthy baby food ideas to begin with)
1. Add pureed vegetables to meatball, burger, or meatloaf mixes.
This adds moisture, vitamins, fibre and even means you can vary the ‘flavour’ too. Turkey burgers become turkey & broccoli burgers. Beef meatballs become beef, sweet pepper & tomato. Throw in some dried herbs too.
2. Top plain Greek yoghurt or cottage cheese with no added sugar fruit puree.
Fruit yoghurts have added sugar and sweeteners as well as artificial preservatives and thickeners. Using fruit puree means you’ll get way more actual fruit than ‘fruit flavoured’ yoghurt. And if you’re a cheesecake fan then you simply must start using high protein, low fat cottage cheese to get your fix! Tip: cinnamon is a nice final touch.
3. Make Traffic Light Hummus.
Turn a beige spread into a colourful array instantly. Divide a pot of hummus into 3; mix 1/3 with a red puree (tomato/pepper), one with green (courgette/broccoli) and an orange one (sweet potato/carrot/squash). Traffic light hummus!
4. Use some baby fruit in place of some of the butter and sugar in baking.
Sweetness & moisture with the added benefit of vitamins & fibre. You might even have seen recipes that use American style applesauce or pumpkin puree. Just use the same quantity of baby food instead!
5. Add it to smoothies.
It’ll cut down your blending time. Works really well with frozen cubes of pureed fruit & vegetables too, which keep your smoothie cool and give it a slushy texture.
6. Use purees in pancake mixes to add moisture and fibre.
You’ve probably seen pancakes being made with mashed banana and apple puree. Baby food is essentially the same thing. Works with both sweet and savoury pancakes – try adding a pinch of curry powder to pancakes made with carrot puree.
7. Throw it in soups & pasta sauces, you’ll barely notice it.
Honestly you wont. Just throw it all in.
Most adults dislike the boring bland mush that is baby food itself, but with a little creativity you don’t have to have so much go to waste.
After all babies are expensive enough as it is!