Make your own baby food pouches!

So I always said I wanted to make my own food for Charlotte, as a busy single working mom, it didn't always pan out, sure I would make sweet potatoes and mash them up but nothing to this level! 

When I saw on Pinterest (where else do I get my ideas haha) that you could make your own pouches I was in love! Charlotte can suck down a pouch in a matter of seconds, even though she's 15 months old now she still loves them! They save my life in target or the grocery store on a weekly basis and I love adding them to her lunch or breakfast I pack at daycare to add extra fruit or veggies other meals, they also make great toddler a snacks, no mess, no clean up, and much healthier than other options!

So I used some coupons and a gift card and ordered disposable pouches online, while researching I read people had trouble filling them on their own and used pastry bags and a piping thing. I am not Martha Stewart so I do not own these things, but infantino sells a filling station as well. Pouches cost me about $10 for 50 and the station was $15 and came with 10 pouches. Figured it was cheap enough to try without investing a fortune! 

I had a ton of peaches from peach picking so most of my "recipes" involve peaches hahaha! 

First step: gather ingredients, I had apples, bananas, whole milk yogurt, plums, peaches, strawberries, spinach and zucchini! (You'll see oats in the picture too but I didn't get around to making the oatmeal breakfast smoothies...next time friends, next time!)

Next step: add whatever you want to a blend and blend.

I made six different flavored tonight! Here were my combos: 

Just peaches!

Peach, spinach and yogurt

Strawberry, banana, yogurt and spinach

Apple, peach, zucchini and spinach 

Plum, peach and spinach 

Apple, strawberry, zucchini

As you can see I snuck a lot of veggies in, I meant to add carrots and squash as I have some in the fridge already chopped up, but got forgot! The combinations at endless! She loves mangos so I will be adding them to my next batch! *note I did have to thin the apple ones out a little bit with a tiny bit of water, but you could use fruit or better yet V8 to thin it out! If you boil your food first use the water you boiled it in to get the extra nutrients!

I didn't cook any of my fruits or veggies, just washed them, chopped and added! I have read for really young babies you will want to boil everything first, but Charlotte is old enough where she eats raw fruit and veggies all the time so that wasn't a concern for me and saved a lot of time!

Next step: add to the filling station and fill! Ok this is the exciting step!! The machine is sooooo easy to use and worth every penny! You basically just pour the mixture into these tubes and push down. You then just detach the pouch and screw on the lid! Voila! Done! 

I ended up making 43 pouches tonight, but could have done more if I wasn't exhausted haha my estimated cost, including the pouches (not the filling station) was fifty one cents a pouch! FIFTY ONE CENTS! I usually buy plum or Ella's kitchen pouches (which I love) but are much more costly, the target brand pouches are $1.09 each regularly! I'm amazed at the price difference of making my own in big batches! I also love that the bags are cute and clear so I can see all the flecks of goodness in there! The best part is that I picked the peaches myself with Charlotte and actually really enjoyed making my own pouches! I highly recommend buying this if you want to make your own pouches! If you aren't into disposable pouches there are a ton of reusable ones out there, I know it's terrible but I love being able to toss them and not having to worry a out washing them! But reusable ones would also save your more $$$ in the long run, costly at first if you make in large batches like me!

 Infantino says you can fridge them for 48 hours or freezer them for two months! Two months! I popped mine all in the freezer! Perfect for me, I usually pack her lunch the night before, so I can just grab one of these in the morning and add it in, and by afternoon snack or lunch it'll be thawed! You can also run them under water for a quick thaw! 

Each flavor:

In the freezer: 

All in a this was a really fun experience and saves me money (and time, less shopping ahhaha!) it was time consuming about two hours of work, but she went to sleep so I could finish!

Here she is helping...mostly just eating ingredients haha

I really did have fun making them and feel very accomplished! I also tasted all of them and they were yummy yummy! I recommend these products a million times over, if anyone wants to buy their own pouches and borrow my filling station you're more than welcome to it :)