Reviewed: Ella’s Kitchen baby food
Fabulously filling fish pie, creamy chicken and sweetcorn mash, lamb roast – sometimes I think my daughter eats better than I do. Although I make a lot of her food myself, pureeing and freezing away like a woman with a new kitchen gadget to wear out, there’s definitely a place for ready-made baby food in my world.
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Firstly (a tip from a health visitor) to introduce her to new tastes without making a vast batch myself, secondly on those days where I’ve run out of inspiration or ingredients, and thirdly for travel. After all, I might have a freezer drawer that’s chock full of exciting food cubes but I’m hardly going to pack a week’s worth if I’m going away.
And the fact that the Ella’s Kitchen baby food range comes in soft pouches means it’s perfect for the latter. The company sent me several of their stage 2 baby food to review, but since then I’ve snapped up a whole string of products from the range and already have my eye on some of the Stage 3 options (Caribbean Chicken? Thai Curry? Yum).
Not only are there some lovely sounding meals, the contents (having tasted them at security) seem a lot nicer than some of the congealed orangey gloop that you find in certain jars, plus there’s some good options for breakfast, including the baby brekkie range with fruit, yogurt and ground brown rice, which is ideal for long-haul flights.
And as well as being nice and light, you don’t have to worry about glass breaking in a suitcase. Plus if your baby is a bit more hands-on than mine, they can potentially be persuaded to grab the pouch and squeeze it straight into their mouths themselves, or you can simply squirt it onto a spoon so you don’t end up going straight from jar to baby’s mouth.
They’re all organic and there’s a page on the website outlining which are dairy-free, gluten-free and vegetarian if you have special diets.
Now we’ve munched through a lot of the main meals, fruits and vegetables, Minnie has also taken to scoffing the fromage frais, devoured the apple and ginger biscuits – I love that they have spices and herbs in the range – and the puffits are a really clever little invention.
Available in tomato and cheese, or raspberry and vanilla, they come in little packs like little corn puffs (though they’re made with quinoa, rice and maize flour) and melt in the baby’s mouth, but don’t get their hands quite as stickily covered as other snacks.
Helpfully you can also buy the range in the USA, Australia, various countries in Europe, Hong Kong, Dubai and Bahrain – useful if you don’t want to transport a dozen meals but do want to know what your baby’s having.
Image courtesy of Ella’s Kitchen
