Are you anxious to avoid the monotonous menu of chicken nuggets and mac n’ cheese in your toddler’s future? LA’s newest baby food delivery service, Little Foodie Club, just might be the miracle you’ve been looking for. Teach babies from 6 months on up to savor delicious, organic purees that will help turn your tot into the next Anthony Bourdain (without the swearing and smoking). All without you ever visiting the grocery store or cracking open the baby food mill.
Fresh, Tasty and Not Even a Little Bit Boring
LA mom and food writer Kerstin Kuhn is all about inspiring a future of young foodies. The purpose of her new delivery service, in addition to providing healthy baby food made with fresh, organic ingredients, is to help your little eaters train their palates to enjoy a wide variety of flavors.
Many parents don’t have the time to prepare elaborate baby food recipes from scratch, feel wary about getting creative with spices for babies or just aren’t interested in spending their free time hunched over a food grinder and ice cube tray and that’s where the Little Foodie Club comes in. Recipes, like Sweet Potato and Spinach Curry, or Lamb and Apricot Tagine, not only provide new eaters with a healthy, nutritious meal, but they also introduce them to unique flavors to help them learn to love foods that are not bland and boring. “My hope is to help raise a generation of better eaters,” says Kuhn.
Getting the Magic
Once you sign up, you’ll receive deliveries on every second Sunday of the month. All of Little Foodie’s delicious offerings come frozen, in adorable 8 ounce containers. Each container is labeled with ingredients, as well as a made on date and a best by date. They will last around three months in your freezer. Once you thaw them, they keep in the fridge for about three days, the perfect amount of time to polish off the serving. Although if there happens to be a little leftover you probably won’t mind gobbling it up yourself; this is not your grandma’s baby food.
The purees come in two levels, Discovering Flavors (thin and smooth for six to nine months) and Taste and Textures (a little bit thicker and textured for nine months and up). The great thing is you can continue to use these for palate-training as your baby grows into finger foods. Simply use the purees as a tasty sauce for soft cooked pasta or rice.
Getting Started
You have a few different options when you sign up. You can choose a subscription meal plan, which provides you with monthly deliveries of either 10 or 20 containers per month. Each container is two meals worth, though you’ll probably get more like three or four servings out of it, depending on your baby. For the 6-9 months meal plan the price is $120/ month for 10 and $200/ month for 20. The 9 months and up meal plan is $150/ month for 10 and $250/ month for 20. As an added bonus, for every subscription sign up, Little Foodie will donate a portion to its partner Isabelo, a charity in South Africa that helps feed children in underprivileged families.
You can also purchase a one-time meal delivery of seven containers, at $85 for the 6-9 month meals or $95 for the 9 months plus meals. This is a great option if you’re curious and don’t want to commit to regular deliveries. Kuhn realizes this service isn’t affordable for everyone, but she hopes to use it to inspire parents by purchasing a few as a jumping off point and then getting creative with their own flavorful baby food recipes.
For a small sample you can also purchase a taste tester trial pack of three containers for $25. All options include a $9.99 home delivery fee.
Bon appétit! And may your future meals be filled with curry and spice, and all things nice, as Little Foodie Club banishes the nugget, one tiny epicure at a time.
Online: littlefoodieclub.com
Have your got a picky eater or a babe with a wide palate? What’s your baby’s favorite unique recipe?
—written and photos in story by Shahrzad Warkentin; featured photo courtesy of flickr
