As much as I’d love to be one of those mums who bakes freshly prepared muffins and healthy treats for her kids, I’m not. I make most of our meals from scratch, but I simply don’t have the time to spend any more minutes in the kitchen whipping up a batch of delicious baby-friendly delicacies. So when it comes to snacking, Baby Girl tends to live on rice cakes, bananas, yoghurts and baby biscuits.
Recently though, I came across a fairly new kid on the baby food block, Babean. Run by husband and wife team Dan and Claire, this is a brand borne from the couple’s desire to give their son Stanley proper tasting, nutritious food from the get go. The range includes treats like Carrot & Date Muffins (the sweetness comes from the fact the dates are soaked in orange juice – delicious) and Blueberry & Chia Seed Muffins. These make ideal picnic fodder, but I also found them useful to offer as a quick snack on the go or as part of a bigger meal.
The muffins are small enough for little hands – although I still cut them in half for Baby Girl – and don’t contain any added salt, sugar, additives or preservatives. This really is the answer to BLW-friendly food without the hassle of baking.
Other offerings in the range include Cheesy Quinoa Bites, which became a firm favourite with both mum and baby alike (seriously had to sit on my hands before I scoffed the lot). These aren’t the tidiest of foods to eat, although any parent who regularly lets their baby feed themselves will attest to the fact that such a thing as “non messy BLW food” does not exist. Again, they’re great to offer as a snack or as part of a main meal. Baby Girl enjoyed hers with broccoli and chicken.
There’s also a whole load of different sauces and spreads to try. The Kale and Broccoli Cheesy Pesto went down well with both my girls as a pasta sauce, and the Sardine, Tomato and Cream Cheese Spread was delicious on hot toast for lunch one day. That’s the great thing about the range – there’s no need to cook something different for baby as the food is just as tasty for adults to enjoy too.
The only downside of Babean food is that you can’t (yet) buy it in the supermarket, which means you’d have to order it separately. This is an easy process though, as you can order online and have it delivered the next day. It all arrives frozen (to seal in the fresh flavour) using fully recyclable wool lining in the packaging. As you’d expect, it’s not cheap with prices like £2.39 for four mini muffins, but considering all the food is made from organic ingredients sourced from an organic wholesaler, I think those prices are actually very reasonable.
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Disclosure: We were sent a sample of products from the Babean range for the purpose of this review. All opinions, words and images remain my own.
I love the plate! This brand looks very different to the usual baby stuff. I’ll keep my eyes peeled.
Oh they do sound nice, and perfect for times when the rest of the family wants to eat something that they baby can’t, which in our case is usually curry!!
They’re a very handy freezer addition!