DIY Organic Squeeze Pouches

Every week $11 of my grocery budget goes to fruit and veggie pouches for the Bean. We didn’t buy these until he was probably around 13 months or so. We needed a snack for him while we were out and the Peter Rabbit pouch at Starbucks seemed like an easy solution. He LOVED it. Seriously. Out of control loved it. When he’s teething he gets pretty particular about food and was reverting to purees every now and then. Maybe some people think these pouches are a terrible thing. Not teaching a child what real food looks like, etc. A fed baby is better than a cranky baby, right? I’d rather my child get a balanced meal and not realize it than go through the toddler years offering him a meal and having to settle for PB&J constantly. (Please note, I think PB&J is a perfectly fine meal and he eats it quite often, I just don’t want him to survive on that alone.)

We’ve been buying the Ella’s Kitchen pouches. I figure this is the closest he would get to home made. Just fruits and vegetables. That’s it. No additives, salt, sugar, preservatives, water. Finally, Infantino introduced the Squeeze Station for making your own pouches. Before even buying this I had a list of cons for it.

• I can keep store bought pouches in the pantry or diaper bag for pretty much as long as I need. They are great in a pinch. Because of this, I’ll probably still buy them occasionally. They require zero planning.
• There’s obviously no work involved in buying pouches, and no cleanup.
• The Squeeze Station is a Babies R Us exclusive. I despise BRU. And it took my stores a good two months to actually put the items out on the shelf, despite having them in stock. Because of this, BRU, I think you owe me at least $88 to reimburse me for the pouches I had to buy in the meantime.

Cons aside, I was still checking Babies R Us every time I was nearby and I bought the Squeeze Station and a pack of pouches as soon as I saw it. And so begins my baby food making adventure. Again. Our grocery trip this week was almost exclusively pouch ingredients. I think I might have more than enough food to fill my first 60 pouches.

Initial Investment:

Infantino Squeeze Station $24.99
50 pouch refill pack $16.99
1lb frozen organic peas $1.99
1lb frozen organic broccoli $2.19
5 organic Fuji apples (~3lbs) $5.79
3 organic sweet potatoes $3.40
3 organic Anjou pears $4.46
1 giant bunch of organic bananas $2.20
1lb organic parsnips $3.49
1lb organic carrots $1.29
4lb butternut squash $7.40

$74.19

With the bulk discount on the pouches, I spend $1.52 per pouch at Whole Foods. I’m almost certain I bought more than enough food to fill all 60 pouches, but if I only fill 50, everything has been paid for! Let the adventures begin!!