Adventures in Baby Food

FYI: I was not paid to write this review. This is my honest-to-golly opinion. Oh, and you should also know that at the end of this review is an opportunity for you to win a free Beaba Babycook, so you can form your own opinion and see if it matches mine. (And if it doesn't you can be all like, "Um, that Claire Bidwell Smith is soo crazy," and I won't mind at all.)

Lately I've been giving a lot of thought to the kind of mom I am. I've quickly realized that, with each choice I make about how to parent, another set of choices blooms. Being a modern, urban mom, the kind of mom with a faded Obama bumper sticker and tattoos (also faded), who leans towards baby-wearing and insisted on a natural birth, pretty much means that I HAVE to make my own baby food, right?

Seeing as friends began sending me baby food cookbooks before Veronica was even born probably answers that question. But the thing is that even if I weren't the kind of mom I described above I'd still probably attempt to cook most of my baby's meals, if only because I love cooking and baby food presents a whole new culinary adventure.

But the truth is that, like most things that had to do with having a baby, I hadn't given it much thought. Not until I was visiting my friend Tracy and laid eyes on her Beaba Babycook. I know that sounds like it's straight out of a review for the Babycook, and it is, but seriously, the second I saw that thing I wanted it. 

Not only is it really cute, but it's a gadget specifically designed to make baby food and I'm a total sucker for cute, specialized gadgets that make food.

Anyway, when it came time to start feeding Veronica I began reading the baby cookbooks and looking at my cooking options. The Beaba was pricey (It runs around $150 on the Beaba site, Amazon and at Williams Sonoma) so I wanted to be sure it was worth it before I took the plunge. 

Did I just hear you price-gasp? Before you do it again, let me explain. The Beaba Babycook steams, purees and reheats and defrosts baby food all in one cute little counter-top machine. I think that's pretty awesome.

Let me further explain: Pretty much every baby food recipe I've read involves steaming and pureeing food. Prior to the Babycook, I made V's first batch of food (pureed sweet potatoes) just using what I had on hand at home. I steamed the sweet potatoes in my big stove-top steamer and then pureed them in my Cuisinart. By the time I was done I had a large dirty pot, a dirty steaming basket and multiple dirty Cuisinart parts. Not the end of the world by any means, but a big difference from my experience with the Babycook.

I got the Babycook shortly after that and have nothing but fun with it. It's easy to use, it's compact so it doesn't take up too much room, and the food combinations you can make with it are pretty endless.

Things I've made so far with the Babycook:

• sweet potatoes
• peas
• pears
• zucchini
• blueberries
• apples
• pears and mangos
• apples and blueberries

Here's a photo outline of some pears I made for Veronica the other day:

After filling the steamer on the left with water, I dumped some chopped pears in the steaming basket.

I let it all steam for around 15 minutes, while I cleaned the house. Kidding, I'm sure I wasn't doing any cleaning. I was likely entertaining Veronica or responding to emails.

15 minutes after starting the steamer, steamed pears! 

Next, I took two seconds to dump the steamed pears into the blender base and puree them. 

Voila, baby food!

And yes, she liked it.

The only other concern I had about investing in the Beaba Babycook was how long I would actually use it for. Seeing as babies only really eat this kind of pureed food for a matter of months before moving on to heartier fare, would the Babycook really be worth it? I checked in with my friend Liz who has a 20 month old daughter, and who convinced me that this product was well worth it.

Liz had this to say:

I used it regularly for about 9 months, making puree of any food I could think of for my baby to try. I cooked and pureed every fruit and  vegetable I could think of, both fresh and frozen.  My baby's favorite foods were sweet potatoes, pears, blueberries and apricots.

Now that she is older and I'm not creating purees as much, I still use it to steam veggies--for example, cauliflower--which I then mash up or puree to add to other foods, like a mac and cheese sauce.  I also like to steam a variety of veggies, puree them together to make a mix, freeze the puree as ice cubes, and later defrost in the steamer and add to tomato sauce to toss with some pasta and extra virgin olive oil.  This is her favorite meal and having the Beaba around makes it easy for me to provide tasty veggies that she typically won't eat by hand.

A few last things I love about Beaba Babycook:

• The Babycook actually saves a lot of money. Premade baby food, especially quality, organic food is more expensive than you might think.
• There are some really cute feeding accessories to go with it, if you so choose.
• The Babycook has an automatic shut-off feature, which is unbelievably helpful to new moms who can't think straight on a regular basis.
• I don't know why (probably because I'm not good at science and math) but the Babycook steams really quickly, as in like 15 minutes for some sweet potatoes or pears or what-have-you.
• If you don't have a microwave (or don't believe in them in a paranoid way like me) the Babycook doubles as a defroster and reheater, which is another big time and cookware saver. 
• Each batch of food I've made has come out to about 6-8 servings, two of which I keep fresh and the rest of which I freeze in handy little cubes. Turns out babies don't eat a whole lot, and if you're like me your freezer is full of mystery items anyway, so this is perfect.
• The instructions booklet comes with some great recipe ideas.

Giveaway Details: Scandinavian Child would like to offer one of my lucky readers a Beaba Babycook of your own.

To win simply leave a comment below telling me what your favorite comfort food is.

Here are some rules:

• No duplicate comments.
• You may receive an additional entry by linking on Twitter and leaving a link in the comments.
• You may receive an additional entry by blogging about this contest and leaving a link in the comments.
• This giveaway is open to US Residents.
• Winners will be selected via random draw, and will notified by e-mail.
• You have 48 hours to get back to me, otherwise a new winner will be selected.
• Contest ends January 20, 2010 at 8AM, CST.

Good luck!

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Are you new to Life in Chicago? Find out more!

Also, check out the main page on Life in Chicago Reviews for more give-aways.

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Congrats to Amanda from Madison, WI for winning the Beaba BabyCook!

Comments

[Wendy]

My favorite comfort food is a toss up between homemade mac and cheese or a big bowl of my chicken tortilla soup.

[cassandra aubut]

My fav comfort food is Mac and Cheese!

[Karen B]

My favorite comfort food is Mashed Potatos!

[Vanessa]

Having lived in New Mexico, my favorite comfort food is enchiladas! My husband and I are expecting and I'm looking forward to making my own baby food :)

[Molly]

I like noodles with cream sauce makes me feel happy! It is a special treat!

[Aura]

My hubby laughs at me and says I'm addicted to paper plastic and string- well candy that is, fruit roll up, long licorice and button candy.

[Aaron Lee Fineman]

I have too many favorite comfort foods, I guess it all depends on what mood I am in and how much time I have to make or find the comfort food type that I want and what time of day it is. Lately I would have to say that my comfort food is a tuna sandwich on thick challah bread. But winter is upon us and that's when my I start wanting Japanese curry with noodles.
mmm noodles...
ps. call me slow, but how does one make a link to a twitter comment here?

[Lorina]

Neat! I make all my babies food that is until my food processor got over worked! haha.

My favorite comfort food is mashed potatoes! Love them.

[Lorina]

Tweeted! http://twitter.com/lorinalately/status/7506018702

[Robyn]

My favorite comfort food is popcorn-especially the way it smells.

[Zora]

Mmmm...my favorite comfort food is chicken noodle soup over mashed potatos. Just the way my mom makes it. It always signifies that I'm home.

[Annalise Thomas]

homemade spicy baked mac and cheese!! for sure! :o)

[Katherine Barnett]

apple pie.. with some ice cream on top, of course!

[jennifer barr]

mashed potatoes & gravy :)

[Shana]

By far, my comfort food involves anything creamy, savory, cheesy with some butter and garlic...well i'll be that is mac n' cheese. I would be even more into it if there were some morsels of lobster and shrimp nestled in there too, maybe some spinach for good measure.

[Kelley Wood]

My favorite comfort food is actually a drink...Nestle Quick!! Nothing like chocolate milk to comfort! :)

[Megan]

My dad's spaghetti and meatballs. He cooks the sauce for days and it is oh so yummy. It makes me warm inside thinking about it!

[Elsie]

Soup is my comfort food, here in the Snowbelt of Ohio!

[Tonia]

My little one's favorite foods that I made were califlower and butternut squash. He loved that his mommy made he baby foods- he always ate them so much better than the jarred stuff.

[julie @ duet letterpress]

oh gosh! i would love, love, love to win this. my favorite comfort food is my grandfather's homemade soup. so yummy!

[julie @ duet letterpress]

just tweeted about the contest too! http://twitter.com/duetletterpress/statuses/7520330266

[Glamour This! by Kelly]

Ooooo baby-to-come would love this. I was planning of making all my baby food. And this would be so perfect. (Fingers crossed)

My comfort food... would be Cadbury Eggs (but available during easter only) and Haagen Dazz Coffee Ice cream. Both not very good for my body ;)

[rachel klempel]

i would love this, i used to always buy friends having babies an old inferior version. my favorite comfort food is shepherd pie that i make with lots of veggies from my garden and local ground lamb or beef.

[Jenny Atmani]

my favorite comfort food is pizza!But only GOOD pizza, not some discounted sale priced frozen one.(Although I wouldn't kick that out of bed, either!) I also like that you can get really creative, topping it with whatever you like. And its an easy semi-portable way to include a wide variety of foods into one meal!

[Lauren]

Hands down, my favorite comfort food is my mom's cheesy meat loaf with mashed potatoes. Great, now I want that for dinner.