Kids Lunch Club

Little Mashies reusable pouches, reusable wraps and reusable bags

 

Little Mashies Healthy Cake Pops

Check out our recipe for this delicious treat, made healthier!

Little Mashies Healthy Cake Pops

Other Lunchbox Ideas!

Recently I put it out there to see if anyone needed help with healthy lunchbox ideas for their kids. The response was huge so I've written up my recipes for you and also provided links to some of my favourite foods for the lunchbox. If you struggle with getting vegetables and protein into your little ones I'm going to create a specific recipe section for you in the coming weeks. Please email us orders@littlemashies.com with the subject LUNCHBOX so I can send it to you when it's done. Eventually I'll turn it into a recipe book but you can have the first draft free if you email us as it will be good for me to get feedback. I am honestly the master of getting healthy food into my daughter so I'm happy to help. And I hate recipes that take up loads of my time because my days are already extremely busy. So here is what we made this week for Ariella's lunchbox treats:

 

1. Real Fruit Roll Up's

Little Mashies Fruit Roll Up's

These were super easy to make and are honestly as sweet as candy or lollies! All you need to do is buy whatever fruit is in season (cheap and plentiful), cook it on a low heat until it is a bit mushy, blend it, and then dehydrate it. To dehydrate food you can buy a dehydrator (we got ours for $30 from Aldi) or you can do it in the oven. Just spread the fruit puree out onto a piece of parchment/ baking paper making sure it is even width and then pop it in the oven (or dehydrator) at 150 degrees celsius. Our dodgy Aldi dehydrator took hours but in an oven its just 3-4 hours. You touch it and if it is dry it is done! You can do this with all purees so consider getting our free baby puree ebook if you want to try some more interesting combo's like blueberry apple and spinach, or carrot and apricot. 

 

2. Fruit Gummy Slice

 

Little Mashies Real Fruit Gummy Slice

Again, this was super duper simple! We used the left over puree after making the real fruit roll ups. We added 2 tablespoons of gelatine powder to half a cup of water first, and then after about 2 minutes it expanded and became gooey. We then added the gelatine mixture to the left over hot fruit puree, gave it a blend in the bender and put it in a cake tin (lined with baking paper). This then went in the fridge and the next day all I had to do was cut it up into squares. Again, don't be afraid to muck around with fruit and vege combo's from our puree ebook for this. If the fruit is ripe the gummy slice ends up so sweet that no one will notice if there is a little bit of blended spinach in there!

 

3. No Nut Muesli Bars

 

Little Mashies no not muesli bars

This idea was cool! And so easy and quick to make. If you already make your own chocolate you won't find this difficult. The first step is to grab a small bowl and a 1 cup measuring device. Fill your cup with a mix of seeds. We used everything we had in the cupboard which was sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds, hemp seeds, chia seeds and flax seeds. I don't think it's legal to eat hemp seeds in Australia yet but they are so great for omega's we do it in our home. Chia seeds are packed with protein and fibre and the same with flax seeds. All of these (hemp, chia and flax) are awesome for the digestive system! Ok so pop your cup of seeds into the bowl and then grab some coconut and oats (or any cereal you have) and fill the cup half way. Add that to your bowl so now you have 1 cup of seeds, 1/4 cup of coconut and 1/4 cup of oats. Then on the stove top (low heat) melt about 100g of cocao butter. If you haven't used this before you are going to love it! Cacao is the unrefined version of cocoa and this "butter" is the solid mass that they make chocolate out of! Melt this and then add 50g of coconut oil, 25g of brown rice syrup and a tablespoon of dutch cocoa powder. If you don't have enough cocao butter you can substitute for more coconut oil. If you don't have brown rice syrup you can use any sweetener (sugar, honey, maple syrup etc) and if you don't have dutch cocoa you can use normal cocoa, or cacao. If you use cacao it will be a teeny bit more bitter so add an extra teaspoon of sweetener. Melt all this together and then pour it over the dry mix in your bowl. Stir it through and then pop it into a cake tin that has been lined with baking paper. Then put this in the fridge over night. After it has set chop it up into squares!

 

4. Quirky Rocky Road

 

Quirky Cooking Rocky Road

OMG this is the best thing since sliced bread! I didn't use a recipe for this but I got the idea from my friend Jo Whitton from Quirky Cooking. I made her marshmallow recipe a few weeks ago and had some left over in the freezer. Because I was making the no nut muesli bars I just made double the amount of chocolate and used some for rocky road. I grabbed some nuts out of my cupboard, put them in a lined shallow container with the chopped up marshmallows and then poured the warm chocolate mix over the top. The brown rice syrup had all sinked to the bottom so I scrapped that out so it went on the rocky road mixture too. It then just went in the fridge for a few hours. Jo Whitton also has a great chocolate recipe if you want to try something different to my chocolate mixture above! She taught me her chocolate a few years ago and I have never looked back! My version is the "I only have 5 minutes for this" and it was developed out of a need to have Jo's chocolate but faster. Haha Jo has a lot more self control than I do when it comes to chocolate! Once I decide I want it, I pretty much want it straight away. I've even been known to tuck into mine just half an hour after putting it in the fridge to set! This is the kind of chocolate you can do that with. Oh and another tip... if you don't have time to make marshmallows well this recipe tastes really good using the real fruit gummy slice instead.. you just break it into pieces and then drizzle the chocolate and nuts (or seeds and coconut if it's for school).

 

5. Strawberry Chips

 

Little Mashies Lunchbox Strawberry Chips

We made this while we were making the real fruit roll up's. We just sliced our fruit (in this case strawberries) and then placed them onto parchment paper inside the dehydrator (at 150 degrees). They went in overnight and came out crispy and delicious. It is crazy how much sweeter dried strawberries are compared to fresh strawberries! You only need one or two and you get a massive sugar hit! Again though you could do this with anything! It doesn't even have to be fruit. Dried vege chips would also taste fantastic.. I'm thinking beetroot, carrot, sweet potato or pumpkin with a little bit of sea salt... mmmm mmmm!

xox

Talisha and Ariella

 

PS - Recently we put together a page of real life lunches from REAL mums! Some are pretty, some are not, but it gives you an idea what people are sending to preschool and the quantities of food.. Click here if you want to see what they look like...

 

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BABY feeding FAQS

Simply add it to the cart, pop in the coupon code, and it will remove 100% of the price.

At 6 mths of age you can introduce a range of puree's to your baby (see our baby food recipe book and use coupon code RECIPE to remove 100% of the price at the checkout).

For baby led weaning you skip the baby food puree altogether and start with large (2 finger sized) pieces of the food. We would of course do this on our Little Mashies sucky platter! So from 6-9mths of age in baby led weaning foods should be the size of about 2 fingers so that the baby can pick it up and self feed. They also need to be well cooked so they are soft, and with no loose pieces (for example tiny florets that can break off on broccoli, or a slice of apple that's so thin it can break when gnawed on).

From around 9mths with baby led weaning you chop the food very small (to avoid choking). I would suggest 2-4 grains of rice in size. It's a small piece so that if they swallow it whole they won't choke. In traditional baby food recipes this is the stage where we mash food so it has a little texture.

At around 12mths of age in baby led weaning the food goes up to bite sizes (and this is the same in non baby led weaning kids), about fingernail sized pieces. Of course some babies will be on a different timeline depending on whether they have heaps or a few teeth.

Every baby is different and you just have to watch carefully and get to know how your baby is with food. Never leave them alone whilst eating, and I also recommend sitting them at a table with you for all meals if you can. It helps set the expectation for later in life and you can be a role model for how to eat well. Around 18mths you can offer your little one larger serves again (so a whole apple for example) so that they can learn to take smaller bites themselves, to chew, and to swallow.

It is widely recognised that babies should start solids around 6 months of age. At this time reusable baby food pouches can be really convenient to take your homemade healthy puree with you when you are out and about. Spoon attachments are available so you can feed your baby directly from the pouch from 6 months old. Without a spoon attachment babies usually start feeding themselves pouched food around 8 months old. This is when they hit their independant phase and what to do everything themselves. A pouch is a lot cleaner than a bowl and spoon in these circumstances. We do however advise that you give your baby a variety of meals, not just ones that are in a refillable pouch.

Refilling your reusable yoghurt pouches is easy! Simply turn the reusable food pouch upside down and open the wide double ziplock at the bottom of the pouch. Once the zipper is open you can spoon yoghurt into the pouch or pour it in (out of a jug or bottle).

If you are concerned about making a mess you can use a kitchen funnel so that all of the yoghurt stays away from the yoghurt pouch zipper.

Another idea that we commonly do at home when filming videos (but it would also be useful when holding a baby in one arm), anyway.. the idea is that you put the pouch upside down in a glass (with the lid on), open the ziplock and the glass acts like a second hand, holding the pouch still whilst you spoon the yoghurt in. This is what I do when I only have one hand to use for the refill!I also tend to refill my reusable yoghurt pouches in bulk. I'll buy a good quality yoghurt from Coles or Woolworths and will fill a whole 10pk of pouches in one go so they are all ready for snacks on the go.

My kids always want to eat when they are out and refilling the reusable pouches one at a time just doesn't work for us. The only time i do that actually is when I've pureed a meal that my toddler refused, put it in a reusable pouch, and given it to her again. Oh and the other time I do singles.. there are two actually. When we go for ice-cream (it is so much cleaner when in a pouch), and when I have leftover smoothie (again, it stops me getting smoothie all through my car, pram, or playroom).

Little Mashies refillable yoghurt pouches are compatible with pouch filling machines that are on the market. Our spout is universal so even though we don't think you need a filling machine, our reusable pouches will fit. All of our yoghurt and baby food pouches come with anti-choke lids as standard.

Cleaning reusable baby food pouches is easy! We have designed Little Mashies refillable yoghurt pouches without corners so there are no places for food to get stuck (we would hate your little one to get sick from old food stuck in corners)!

When you open the ziplock you can see all the way through the pouch to ensure it is clean. If you have a dishwasher you can clean the pouch using that, otherwise you can wash your reusable baby food pouches by hand and this takes around 20 seconds. Little Mashies squeeze pouches are BPA Free and are safe to wash with warm water.

If you need some meal ideas for your refillable pouch you can find home made yoghurt here, baby food recipes here, and pouch smoothie recipes here.

Now, to clean your Little Mashies food pouches by hand simply open up the ziplock at the bottom and take off the cap. Run warm water through the open ziplock with the baby pouch facing downward so the water comes out of the spout and into the sink. The shape of Little Mashies reusable pouches acts like a funnel, pushing out food and making the pouch very easy to clean.

To start washing your reusable pouch, squirt some dishwashing liquid into the refillable pouch, then use a baby bottle brush to clean the inside walls (just like a baby bottle). To clean the spout use a straw brush (like the ones we have here), and clean it in the same manner that you would clean the teat from a baby’s bottle. Give the reusable pouch a rinse and place it over a kitchen utensil in the drying rack to dry. If you don’t have time to dry it fully place it in the freezer until you are ready to use it again. Do not put wet reusable food pouches in dark cupboards or draws. They are very easy to dry if you have removed the cap, and placed something inside the zipper to keep the pouch open (we use a whisk, tongs or a spatula).

Note that if you continuously wash your pouches in the dishwasher the high temperature will make the zipper wear out more quickly. At home we wash our pouches mostly by hand because it is so quick and easy and then just use the dishwasher when we have had loads of kids over and served reusable yoghurt pouches or smoothies to them all.

Oh and while I remember if you use the code RECIPE at the checkout it will remove 100% off the price of the baby food recipe ebook so you can get some inspiration for your refillable pouches.

Some parents start introducing a sippy cup or straw cup to their babies around 6 mths of age. This can make it easier to transition from breastmilk or bottle feeding around 12 mths of age. Most paediatricians recommend babies 18 mths or older use an open sippy cup rather than a bottle, so anytime before then is fine. This is why we have a 4 in 1 sippy cup, so that you don't have to purchase seperate products as your baby moves through the stages of learning how to swallow and drink. To shop the Little Mashies silicone sippy cup, check out our baby feeding range here.

All of our baby food recipes are contained within our ebook. You can get a free download by using the coupon code RECIPE at the checkout. Simply add it to the cart, pop in the coupon code, and it will remove 100% of the price.