This weekend I bought a Beaba Babycook, which I absolutely love.  For someone with a baby who loves to be held 24-7 (yes, if I held her all night, she’d be in heaven), the Beaba is the only way I think I’m ever going to be able to make baby food.  It’s super easy to use – skin and cut up your fruit or veggies and stick them in the steaming basket, measure out the right amount of water for steaming and pour it into the heating reservoir, put the steaming basket in the bowl and cover it with the lid, then attach the bowl and turn the dial to steam.  After the light on the dial goes out, remove the steaming basket, pour out the liquid from steaming into a cup, then add back the veggies or fruit to the bowl san steaming basket, add as much liquid as you want in order to thin the mixture, put on the pureeing cover, switch the dial to puree and puree.   My daughter is just now starting solids, so I have been using all the liquid but I’m sure that will change soon enough.  I also bought some of the freezer storage trays for the fruit and veggies that I made.  I measured out 2 tablespoons of each mixture since my baby won’t be eating a full serving of anything yet.  Once the baby food is frozen, it’s really easy to pop out the serving.  I read some reviews that said people had trouble removing them but I didn’t have any problems, even with the half servings.

Another nice thing about the Beaba is that you can also use it to re-heat your baby food.  I happened to have a small glass bowl that fit perfectly inside the steaming basket for re-heating.  To re-heat, all you do is add 1 measure of water to the heating reservoir, put your cold or frozen baby food into a glass bowl inside of the steaming basket, put the steaming basket inside the bowl with the lid on top, and turn the dial to steam.  The only downside is that you end up with extremely hot food, so be prepared to put the hot bowl of food in the freezer for a few minutes to let it cool.  After doing this a few times, I have to say that re-heating in a pan is easier.  It’s easy enough to put the frozen foodsicle in a pan on medium, add a tiny bit of water, and once it is half melted, turn off the heat and swirl the rest of the frozen part around until it melts.  This results in luke warm veggies or fruit, ready to be served.