Inside: Do you have leftover baby food purees sitting around the house? Whether you used homemade or store-bought baby food, you’ll love these creative uses for leftover baby food purees!
Related: 5 Finger Foods for Baby
Is your baby all finished with baby food purees? Wait–don’t throw out that baby food!
Here are six ways to use leftover baby food purees once your baby has moved on to more solid food.
6 Creative Uses for Leftover Baby Food Purees
1. Offer leftover baby food to a friend.
This is probably the most obvious but often overlooked idea for using leftover baby food.I know of at least one of my readers who literally spends hours every week making baby food for her triplets. I bet almost any busy mom of babies would appreciate your donation of leftover baby food.
2. Donate to a pregnancy resource center or food pantry.
You cannot do this with homemade baby food, but if you have unopened store bought baby food, by all means, get it into the hands of someone who needs it. I don’t know of any pregnancy center or food pantry that would turn down unopened baby food purees.
Related: Homemade Baby Food: 5 Tips to Get Started
3. Use frozen leftover fruit (or even veggie!) cubes in smoothies!
This is one of my favorites! I make smoothies several times per week for breakfast–or just for a snack. I add frozen banana to almost every smoothie.
If you have leftover banana cubes, just toss two to four cubes into your smoothie instead of a half banana!
You can also toss frozen spinach, kale, or broccoli cubes into your blender make a green smoothie! (Green smoothies are my favorites!)
4. Use leftover baby food in any baked good recipe that calls for purees.
This takes a lot of work out of the recipe for you!
Of course, if you have frozen cubes, you will want to make sure they are thawed before using them, but if you’re using store bought baby food, it’s as easy as opening up a jar and pouring it into your bowl with the other ingredients!
I’ve used “baby food” purees when making allergen-free pumpkin spice donut holes.
(Tip: You can almost always use sweet potato puree instead of pumpkin puree in pumpkin recipes. It barely changes the taste in baked goods!)
Related: Starting Solid Foods with Babies
5. Use leftover baby food to make homemade smoothie “popsicles.”
Use frozen fruit cubes to make smoothies; then, pour the smoothies into popsicle molds for your kiddos!
6. Pop frozen fruit “ice” cubes from your leftover baby food into lemonade or orange juice.
Use the pureed cubes instead of regular ice cubes for a refreshing treat!
What are some of you ideas for using leftover baby food once your baby has moved on to solids?
Check out the other posts in the “Starting Solids” series:
Leave a Comment