Simple Eating for Toddlers on the Go

I am a huge fan of simple, portable snacks to keep in my diaper bag for my 2 year old. It never fails that when we are out and about, she suddenly says "Mommy, I'm hungwy!" For this reason, I love the pouch foods that are so popular right now. If you go down the baby food aisle, or even the canned fruit aisle, you can see a variety of pouch foods with twist lids available.

Needless to say, I was more than happy when I got the chance to try out the Go & Grow by Similac pouches (This post was developed in partnership with Similac. All opinions are my own.). When I went to buy them at my local Walmart, I found out that they don't carry them, so I ordered them on walmart.com and had it shipped to my local store for free. It took 5-6 days, then I got the text saying I could pick them up. 

DIY Baby Food: Peas

My baby girl is now one and no longer eats "mush", but when she was just learning to eat solid foods, I decided to try making some of it. I was shocked at how easy it was!

To make peas into baby food:

1. Purchase frozen peas. I bought frozen peas at our local Aldi...I was even more thrilled to find their organic peas super cheap. 
2. Use a steamer basket in one of your pots. Fill it with about an inch of water (make sure it doesn't come over the bottom of the basket). Cover with a lid.
3. Put that on the stove and when the water boils, pour the peas into the steamer basket. Cover.
4. Let it steam for 3-5 minutes and check to see if the peas are tender. I had to stir mine because the middle peas would still be frozen together.
5. After the peas are tender, remove from heat and rinse in cold water to stop them from cooking more.
6. Pour the peas into a blender or food processor. Puree until smooth, and add water as needed to get the consistency you want. I usually had to add 1/2 cup or more so they would blend.
7. Pour the puree into an ice cube tray and freeze. When they are frozen, you can remove them from the tray and put them in a freezer bag.
8. When it's time to eat, put a cube of peas in a bowl in the microwave. I heated ours on 50% power for 45 seconds and it was perfect. If it's too thin, add some rice cereal to thicken it up.

This might seem like a lot of steps, but it truly goes quickly. I bought my peas for $0.89 and would get at least 1 1/2 ice cube trays worth, with each cube making about an ounce of food (12-16 ounces total?). The store bought baby food was $1.19 for two containers of baby food.  All in all, it was worth the little bit of effort to save some money and to know baby girl was getting food with as few preservatives as possible.

Thank you Parents.com for your guidance :). I’ll be linking up to Making Your Home Sing Sunday, Mama Moments Monday,  Mom’s Library, Clever Chicks Blog Hop, The Mommy Club,