I’m just really into food prepping these days, guys. I just really love the planning and concentrated effort. I hate cooking and prepping and cleaning everyday. Stay at home mom of the year!!!!!!! I love that I can do this one day a week and then not have to worry about it. Reese gets very impatient being fed with a baby spoon, so we tried the pouches and she LOVED them. The jars are generally much less expensive though, and reusable pouches seemed to be a good option for us. So far we have loved it!

Ok and you all know that I’m not *truly* baby food prepping. That would mean actually making baby food and you know I will never do that. Well that’s not accurate. Reese is winding down on the baby food front so I’m not really willing to try something that will probably be out of our lives here in the next couple of months. Reese is now 15 months and she’s eating far more “real” food than baby food. Certainly we’ll be doing applesauce pouches for the next couple of years. But until I have another little baby to feed it’s premade baby food jars. Then at that point we might try to actually make our own baby food like a legit baby food prepper.

So this isn’t “real.” But I think it’s a good start. And let me tell you why I like this: It’s easy, fast, cheap, and most importantly – it works for me and Reese. In under 45 minutes I can prepare all of her food pouches and snacks for the week.

FYI: None of this is sponsored – this is legit. I bought this stuff myself and I’ve been using it for a couple of months now. I finally set up affiliate links for Amazon, so if you click on them and buy stuff I get paid. Hopefully you guys trust me enough to not feel weird about that. And if you do? Sorry? Don’t click the links? Whatever. Movin’ on. Here’s how I do this:

First you’ll need some reusable pouches. Of course my best friend Eliesa found these panda bear ones for me, because we have NO CHILL when it comes to panda stuff. I ended up liking them so much I went back and got the walrus because it was so cute. They come with dissolvable labels but I didn’t really care about that. I just wanted to keep the fruity stuff separate from the veggy/meaty stuff. So now that I have two I put the fruits in the walrus and the veggies & meats in the pandas. Easy peasy.

Make sure you have the caps on securely first, then spoon the baby food into the pouches. For the less viscous (BUZZWORD) foods like mangoes and peaches and applesauce you can just pour them in. I like to prop mine upright in a glass, just makes it easier.

Then make sure you wipe the seal totally clean of food so that it will seal completely. Reese has been eating these for over a month now and not once has the seal burst, nor has she been able to get it open.

Ta-da! I have 6 fruits and 5 veggie/meats DONE. (By the way, be careful. We have already had one panda dishwasher casualty. I usually slide them, open, over two or three of the prongs on the top rack but one of them came loose and got all melty at the bottom of my dishwasher. So now I’m just handwashing them and it takes 20 seconds. NBD.)

These are so awesome for when we’re on the go – which is a lot. I’ll grab a fruity pouch as we head out the door to the park and Reese eats it while I walk/jog around. I’ll throw a veggy pouch in my bag before we head to 3 hours of softball. It’s an easy way to make sure she’s eating more than just yogurt melts.

Now, caution, parents. These are SQUEEZABLE. Reese is really good about sucking on them like a straw. Except the one time I handed a carrot panda to her in the backseat when she was hungry and freaking. Imagine my horror and surprise when I found what my sister-in-law described as a “carrot massacre.” Two days later she saw this pouch protector in a mommy group and sent me the link. Two days later (PRIME) they arrived on my porch. We tested them out and they work perfectly – they allow her to hold and sip the food without squeezing it all over herself. We’re heading to Disneyland in a few weeks and now I’m gonna be able to hand Reese food pouches in the back seat on that very long drive. Yahtzee.

She likes it, I promise. Ok now snacks.

Reese has been a fan of the yogurt melts since day one. She slams them. She’s come around to the puffs, after initially hating them. Her favorite, though, are the Lil’ Crunchies –  “baby cheetos” as I call them. Here’s the problem – the bags of yogurt melts get smashed. The tins of cheetos and bottles of puffs are big. It’s taken me a year to realize how stupid it is that I’ve been carrying them around in my diaper bag. Finally this last month I’ve started breaking them down into single portion containers that stay sealed and don’t take as much room in my bag.

The next tip comes to you courtesy of grandma extraordinaire Patti Budge – disposable bibs. She found these at Walmart and I finally bought some of my own. I don’t want to lose the nice terrycloth ones I use at home, and I don’t want to have to put a dirty one back in my bag. (Again, these are gonna be great for Disneyland!) Sometimes nothing gets on the bib so I just throw it back in my bag, but if they do get a bunch of food on them I can just toss them and not feel bad.

After spilling and losing stuff in the dark corner of my pantry I finally pulled everything out into a “station” on my counter. I’m often running out the door with Reese to leave for our activities of the day, and I don’t want to be digging around in my pantry.
I found this cute wire basket at Target for $3 in the One Spot and had no use for it. But it was cute and $3 so it came home with me. After getting frustrated with the pile of snack containers I put two and two together and voila! Baby snack station. (Obviously the food pouches stay in the fridge until we need them.)

Now as I run out the door for a day of errands, playdates, workouts, and random activities I can grab snacks, food pouches, and quickly fill up a sippy cup in under a minute and be on our way. Hungry babies are grumpy babies, and now it’s really easy for me to prevent that. Now I just need to start packing snacks for my hangry husband.

If you have baby/toddler food hacks I am all ears. I’m aware that I’m entering a world where meals can become battlefields and I want to be prepared!