Review: Ella's Kitchen Carrots, Apples and Parsnips [Stage 1]

This is actually the second Ella's Kitchen food we have tried, but the first stage one. I'll review the other products later on as so far we have found their products to be very tasty and enjoyable.

As we stock pile home cooked baby food in our freezer we really only keep jarred stuff in the cupboard for when he's staying at his grandparents' house or if we have a problem. Today we hit a problem as Baby Al would not eat his broccoli & cheese that I made for him earlier in the week. I tried my best to get him to eat more but he was not having it so out went mommy's failed attempt to get greens in his diet and in came Ella's Kitchen! He was already having a good old nibble on one of Ella's Baby Cookies so I knew he was hungry! So since my food was a flop and Ella's cookies were doing I picked up Carrots, Apples and Parsnips food as I knew he was a fan of these but never tried apple mixed in with vegetables before, specially root vegetables. The easy to squeeze packets make it simple for you to just place it straight onto a spoon or you can just put it all into a little bowl, I chose to just squeeze it onto the spoon. Baby Al was enjoy the sweet taste of apple. Naturally I had a little taste test myself and I could really taste the apple as well as a gentle hint of parsnip behind it. I could just about taste the carrots but the apple most certainly took control and made this meal sweeter, perhaps more enjoyable for babies who may find root vegetables a bit yucky. Baby Al was not doing his usual super squeaky noises but he was more then happy to eat every single spoonful and was almost disappointed that he had eaten it all up.

Ella's Kitchen baby food comes in very handy little pouches, so if you are out and about you need not worry about a bowl! And because they have re-screwable  tops they can be put in the fridge for 48 hours after being opened. These tops are far better then the jarred food tops, which I find tricky to get back on properly without worrying that it's not on right. I spend a stupid amount of time trying to get lids back onto jarred baby food, it's frustrating! Ella's Kitchen have come up with a better way of keeping food, healthy food at that, safely stored and easy to carry around. And when they are able to they can simple suck on the straw and have a fun meal at home or in the pushchair!

Pricing
Sadly my local Morrisons doesn't sell that many in the way of baby foods so I don't have their pricing from their stores. However I do have several other supermarket prices for you to check out in your local stores.
Tesco: 94p
Sainsbury's: 99p
Asda: 95p
Boots: 99p

Pros
- Easy to use.
- Healthy and organic.
- Handy to keep in your bag when out and about.

Cons
- Apple was overpowering the taste of the other vegetables.
- The lemon juice was also rather strong too compared to the vegetables.

And our judges have discussed their opinions together and have come back with their scores!

Baby Al's Rating: 7/10
Petit Mom's Rating: 6/10

Why not check out Ella's Kitchen and become a friend! You can also find them on Facebook and Twitter.

Recipe: Sweet Potato & Carrot

Alex just loves his food. He's a huge fan of sweet potato and carrot blended nicely together. Some of you may be budget parents like us and may find sometimes you pay a fair bit for such a small amount of veg and fruit. Best bet is to go and check out your local farmer's market or any market stalls that you may nice near that sells fresh produce. I was raised in a farmer's town where markets were always open with fresh fruit and veg as well as locally made sweets. Since then I have moved around the country to Leicester with its huge market area and my first meeting of the "Any Bowl for a Pound" style of selling which I loved when I was a university student to moving further south to West Midlands where I got to know the urban farmer's markets and other wonderful stalls. I'm lucky to live so close to the town centre where the stalls are open every day except Sunday. I couldn't get the sweet potatoes from the market but I got myself a huge plate of bananas and a nice big bag of carrots for a total of £2. Morrisons has some sweet potatoes for £1 too so in total spent £3 and the amount of food I got for my boy would last him a good long time!

Sweet Potato & Carrot Meal

Ingredients:
1 Carrot
1 Sweet Potato
Water (suggest using the cooking water)

1.  Peel the carrot and the sweet potato so there's no skin. Cut the carrot up as normal. Cut the sweet potato into nice small pieces. I cut it in the same way as the carrot and then cut the slices in half to help them cook quickly as well as make it easy to blend.
2. Places them into the pot or sauce pan and then fill it up with hot water. Make sure it's enough to cover over all the veg.
3. Put the top over the pot or sauce pan and leave on a medium heat for 15 minutes. Check back on it to make sure it doesn't boil over.
4. Turn it off or put it onto a very low heat setting and leave it to simmer for another 15 minutes.
5. Add the carrot and sweet potato either into a bowl if you have a hand blender or put into your blender. Put a small amount of the water used in the pot/saucer in also.
6. Blend until nice and smooth! Done!

This made me enough for 2 feeds. I worked out from the bag of carrots and the bag of sweet potatoes that I bought for £1 each I could make at least 12 servings! Normally pots of ready made baby food for the same amount are 57p each (most supermarkets have a 10 for £5 offer) so this has saved me money!

You can freeze pots of this away and defrost them during the daytime.

Happy Cooking!