Ella’s Kitchen- Extra Yummy For Your Baby’s Tummy

I would love to be able to prepare healthy, homemade meals for my children all the time. For that to be even remotely possible, it would require heaps of free time, children that actually eat and only preparing one meal at a time, or even, one meal per child per mealtime. Since none of those things actually exist in my life I rely, more often than I’d like much of the time, on packaged food items. We would not continue to exist without convenience food, sad but true, but that does not mean that I don’t want to find the best, healthiest, tastiest convenience foods possible. Recently Ella’s Kitchen sent me samples of their stage one baby foods and smoothie fruits to try out on my ridiculously picky children.

My baby is still a few months from solids, but when she starts I will have plenty of Ella’s on hand for when I’m not able to make her baby food myself or for when we’re out. They are simply terrific and only contain organic fruits and vegetables, no extras, nothing else, nothing at all. The combinations are exceptional too. Not only do they offer the basic apple and banana (my favorite yes, I tasted them all.), peach banana and strawberry and apple, they also make some delicious and more complex mixes that incorporate vegetables like parsnips, pumpkin & broccoli. Not just for babies, these offer a quick and easy way to get some veggies into your older child’s diet as well. (see the Ella’s website for recipe ideas).

The two smoothie combinations, the Red One(Bananas, Strawberries, Apples and Raspberries) and the Yellow One(Bananas, Apples, Mangoes, and Apricots), for the older kids, are available in multipacks of 5 to make it easy to include a healthy snack or lunch item in your child’s lunch throughout the school week. However, you might just want the multipacks so that you have more on hand. My two-year-old loved both the package and the taste and my four-year-old demanded more as soon as he tried both smoothies. We have since bought more of everything, which I happily just found at my grocery store today.

As I mentioned, my youngest isn’t ready for solids yet, so I tested each and every variety on myself and my three older boys, ages four, two and one. My four year old willingly tasted almost all of them along with me straight from the pouch and he loved every one he tried. The other two are, as also mentioned earlier and to put it very mildly, “picky,” which means they will allow very few foods into their mouths. They are so picky that it is nearly impossible to sneak anything into what they will eat because they notice the slightest variation no matter how well hidden. So combat this I often make them “milkshakes” which are actually smoothies as a way to sneak in some fruits and vegetables that aren’t on their very short “approved” list. Regardless of how good it tastes to me, my one-year-old will reject all but a few standard, very basic “milkshake” recipes. Amazingly, he and his two brothers gladly drank the Ella’s filled shakes, including the one with broccoli, pears and peas.

We love that each combination is as delicious as it is healthy and they are conveniently packaged, easy to store and to carry with you. They make us happy with their easy, convenient, healthy and organic combinations. What more could you ask for? – Kiersten, Staff Writer

WIN IT!! We are offered one Growing Your Baby Reader the opportunity to win and Ella’s Kitchen Sample Pack.

Congratulations to reader Liset on being chosen as our winner!

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