Thinking Outside The (Baby Food) Jar

Think baby food is just for babies? Of course it’s a perfect food for baby–convenient, safe, and nutritious–but that’s just the beginning. It only takes a small bit of ingenuity and imagination to discover the multitude of ways older children can enjoy the nutritional benefits that baby food has to offer. One little jar of pureed food holds a plenitude of possibilities:

• Add tasty moisture to baked goods. Use Earth’s Best Apples or Pears to make low-fat muffins or sugar-free cookies.
• Baby food also makes a great topping for pancakes and waffles, or can be used instead of jam for a sugar-free toast topping.
• Mix baby food into plain yogurt to make a nutritious sweet treat.
• Freeze baby food in ice cube trays and then add to the blender with some skim milk and a banana to make delicious frozen fruit smoothies.
• Baby food is allowed through airport security and makes a delicious in-flight snack or breakfast.
• Use baby food to sneak vegetables into an unsuspecting, vegetable-hater’s diet. For example, add Earth’s Best Carrots to a meatball recipe or to macaroni and cheese sauce. Use pureed Sweet Potatoes to make sweet potato biscuits. You can even add spinach baby food to spaghetti sauce.
• Jarred foods can be made into a savory soup by mixing pureed baby vegetables with milk and a little seasoning.
• Make a delicious dip for crackers, carrot sticks or apples by mixing baby food with softened fat-free cream cheese.
• Make frozen yogurt more nutritious by stirring fruit baby food into softened vanilla frozen yogurt, then refreeze.

And once the food is enjoyed and gone, there are endless ways to put that little empty jar to use!