Fresh Baby So Easy Baby Food and Breast Milk Trays
by Fresh Baby
|
List Price: Our Price: $7.40 You Save: $6.55 (47%) Availability: Usually ships in 4-5 business days Buy Used: from $6.99 (click here) Category: Baby Product See more product details |
|---|
Baby Products Reviews of Fresh Baby So Easy Baby Food and Breast Milk Trays
Customer Review: Great Simple Solution
Summary: 4 Stars
I bought 2 of these trays when beginning to experiment with making my own baby food, and then bought 2 more sets once I got started. One small batch of baby food will take up about a tray and a half, so if you plan on having a few varieties available, I suggest getting 3 sets. But get one to try first.
I cook or steam my food until soft and then place it without skins or seeds into a mini food processor. Blend until no chunks are present, and then spoon into the tray. It takes about 2 cubes for Stage 1 servings, 3-4 cubes for Stage 2, and 4+ cubes for Stage 3 serving sizes. I fill my cubes as high as they go. After filling, snap on the lid (a bit hard to get on there) and stack in the freezer. They fit very nicely in a side by side freezer shelf. You can get 2 trays across. They freeze quickly and neatly and when it is time to reheat, they pop out easily. You may have to add water or drain excess water after reheating food.
As far as foods go, I was advised by my pediatrician that they no longer recommend withholding certain foods unless there is a family history of allergy. By 6 months she said the baby can eat whatever we eat, as long as there is no added salt, sugar, or fat. You can dice fruit (bananas-add a little lemon juice for color, kiwi, peaches) or cooked carrots and add a little water to the cube to freeze very nicely. Make your own smoothies and freeze cubes for the baby. Try yogurt, banana, peach, and mint -yummy! Another favorite recipe is baked sweet potato, ripe banana, and a bit of ripe advocado. Advocados offer great health benefits, but can be overwhelming in taste, so just use a little bit.
I also set aside leftovers of our meal to blend for baby. Make sure you so not do this with leftovers from your plate, as touching it with a used fork will contaminate it with bacteria. Separate baby's portion before serving. He is not as big of a fan of adult food yet though. You can steam and blend strawberries for awesome strawberry ice cubes! Cooking strawberries gets rid of some of the allergens, but only try this if you are sure you want to introduce a possibly allergenic food!! The strawberries collape when cooked, but once blended up they look and taste just like fresh ones. Experiment and have fun!
Customer Review: Great for preventing freezer burn for a few days, but not long term. I love these trays.
Summary: 4 Stars
These aren't "necessary" but are more of a nice extra. You can freeze fresh pureed baby food or breast milk in the cubes then pop them out so they're quicker to thaw out than if you froze it in a big ol chunk. Or, if you're on the go, pack your baby's lunch as cubes in the morning, and by lunch time they're thawed out but still cool.
You COULD use a regular ice cube tray with no lid if you pop them out of the tray a couple hours later when they're frozen. But I tend to forget about them for a couple days, so the lids are a life-saver for me to protect from freezer burn. The lids are easy to put on and take off, but they aren't a 100% perfect-beyond-your-wildest-dreams kind of seal. For that reason, I wouldn't recommend storing the baby food in the trays, but just use them to freeze it until you happen to remember to pop them out.
For what it's worth for the fresh-baby-food-makers reading this, my favorite thing to store baby food in is the Rubbermaid 12-Piece New Premier Food Storage Container Set products! They are AWESOME! They are freezer safe, but of course will be in a big chunk so this tray still has good use too. I would thaw the cubes in the fridge in the Rubbermaid Premier, and use out of that. I like the Premier b/c it seals EASY and GREAT and you can label the food right on the lid with a fine tip dry erase marker, and it washes off clean in the dish washer.
Oh, and if you want to know the BEST book on making your own baby food, it's Mommy Made and Daddy Too! (Revised): Home Cooking for a Healthy Baby & Toddler... love it!
Customer Review: Love these!
Summary: 5 Stars
I have 4 of these trays and have been using them for 3 months to freeze baby food. They are fantastic!
MEASURING- Each cube is 1T, which is great for measuring. For example, for lunch my baby gets 2 cubes of meat, 2 veggies, and 2 fruit. Some people complain that the cubes are too small, but if they were bigger they would take longer to defrost. I think the size is perfect.
QUALITY- Some complain about warping or poor fit. I haven't had that problem at all and I use these a lot. I wash them by hand in hot soapy water. I couldn't fit them on the top rack in the dishwasher if I wanted to...all those darn baby feeding bowls and bottles!
EASY- Put frozen cubes in labeled zipper freezer bags. If they don't want to come out of the tray, just turn the tray over and run some hot water over it for 10 seconds. I take what I need out of the freezer and put them in little bowls the night before and they're thawed for the next day. If I forget I just microwave for a minute.
GOOD FOR BABY- I love the variety my baby gets. Many parents give just 1 or 2 different foods to baby at a meal so they don't open too many jars. With all choices I have in my freezer, my baby gets 4 different foods at each meal and I know exactly what she's eating. I don't have anything against jarred food, but I feel better (and thriftier) giving her homemade.
Customer Review: Convenient BPA free cube making
Summary: 4 Stars
On my planet, 1oz = 2Tblspn. The compartments of these trays holds 1Tblspn each; not 1oz as they say. You might be able to squeeze 1.5 Tblspn in the compartment with a firmer food that doesn't spill everywhere like a liquid. Other than that, I think these are great trays for what they are intended to do. I would not store the food in these trays. Rather, use them to freeze your food overnight, then transfer them to a larger container or freezer bag. This solves the "lid isn't tight enough" problem. Which, in my case, the lids snap on just fine for the 8 hours the food is in the tray. I'm still able to stack them, and that's what's important to me as I'm not storing in these trays.
In regards to one reviewer who mentioned the tray isn't flexible enough to get the food out: I leave mine to sit on the counter for all of 3-4 minutes before I am able to twist the tray whilst all the cute, little food cubes tumble out. The tray does have a little flexibility.
Sure, this may be a glorified ice cube tray. But can you guarantee your $1 ice cube tray is phthalate and BPA free? And you're going to spend about the same $ to buy an ice cube tray with a lid.
I gave this 4 stars only because I have to buy twice as many to get the advertised 12 servings per tray as I'm only able to get (6) 1oz serving per tray.
Customer Review: Good for small batches.
Summary: 4 Stars
We bought these trays to make our own baby food for our daughter. Yes, they are basically glorified ice-cube trays with lids, but they serve their purpose.
Pros:
- Lids allow for stacking of trays in the freezer needing less space when making several trays of food.
- Before these, we used regular ice trays covered in plastic-wrap and found that condensation froze on the food (our book says to put the food in the freezer right away while it's still warm), now the condensation freezes to the lid and not on the food.
- Frozen food easily comes out of trays where we can then store the cubes in a Ziplock freezer bag.
- Cleans easily in the top rack of the dishwasher.
Cons:
- Somewhat pricey for what they are.
- The cubes are small and have less cubes per tray resulting in needing several of these trays for a single batch of food.
- One tray only lasts us three feedings- larger cubes or bigger trays would be nice.
Overall:
They are handy trays if you plan on making your own baby food and the ability to stack these trays is great if your freezer space is at a premium like ours.