Weelicious

My current favorite website for yummy toddler (& everyone) food ideas is Weelicious. They have LOTS of healthy recipes that are baby, toddler, & kid friendly. She uses lots of healthy ingredients! They even have videos for some of the recipes which I love watching. I'm very much a visual/hands on person. So getting to watch exactly how she does it and then do it myself is way easier then just reading a recipe. My favorite part about the videos though is that she's almost always enlisting a little helper (her son Kenya) which reminds me how easy it is to get my little ones involved in the kitchen. So far we have tried the banana bites which O loved! I used the rest of the batter to whip up some pancakes and to toss in the freezer for later. Go check them out and let me know what your favorite recipe is.

Vegetable & Fruit Baby yogurt (like Yobaby Meals)

If you don't have time to mix up different flavors of yogurt for your little one, I would highly recommend any of the Stonyfield Yobaby yogurts. They are organic, made from whole milk, have several flavor options, and my son LOVES them. I would especially recommend the Yobaby Meals! They are the 6 oz. cups of whole milk yogurt that have vegetables & fruit mixed in.


I love feeding my toddler Yobaby Meals! He loves it and it's an easy way to get extra vegetables in his day. Only thing I don't like about it? The price. If you're like me, you get a little sick feeling in your stomach every time you pick up one of those yogurts and see the $1 price tag. As much as I hate paying so much for jarred baby food, the yogurt gets to me more. I don't even like having to pay $0.50 for yogurt for me! I have wanted to make it myself but couldn't find whole milk yogurt & I don't have a usable blender or food processor right now.

I did find out that Stonyfield makes a plain whole milk yogurt. It's called "cream top" and comes in the big 32 oz. tub. But I still didn't have a way of getting the fruits & vegetables pureed.

Well, the other day I was in the baby food isle at Wal-Mart and got an idea. Parent’s Choice brand baby food has three varieties of vegetable & fruit baby food. It comes in packages of two snack cups (like what applesauce comes in) with lids for about $1. I knew I could get at least one flavored yogurt out of each snack cup, so I decided to give it a try. I had already tried those as applesauce type snacks for my toddler in the past and they were a hit so I knew he'd at least like the flavors.

So I decided to make the yogurt the other morning and see how it turns out. I ended up getting two yogurts out of each snack cup so that lowered each servings baby food cost to $0.25. I figured that wasn't so bad and definitely was cheaper than the Yobaby Meals. I used 1/2 cup of yogurt, 1/4 cup baby food, & 1/2 tbs. of sugar to make 6 oz. of veggie/fruit yogurt. My son definitely enjoyed it! :) The baby food doesn't have any sugar added and neither does the plain yogurt. The sugar I included only added 6 g of sugar so I felt pretty comfortable with this recipe despite the fact that I try to feed him as little sugar possible.

Of course you could make many flavor combinations easily from any baby food. But, if you do have a blender or food processor, you can make unlimited combinations with your foods from home. That would cut down on the price and make it even more nutritious. Not to mention delicious! I will hopefully be getting a small food processor soon and start making my own baby food. I am very excited about this! I will let you know how it goes once I get it.

Another option to make this even healthier and cheaper would be to make your own yogurt. Although I have never done this myself, I have eaten some at a house I nannied for in the past. It was pretty much like what you get at the store, but not as thick. Just as yummy though! :) I suggest goggling homemade yogurt for more info. As for me, making different flavored yogurts from the big tub of organic whole milk yogurt is enough homemade for me right now! he he. One green baby step at a time.

Green note: The Parents Choice baby food comes in #5 plastic cups. Depending on where you live, those may or may not be recyclable. My solution to non-recyclable yogurt/snack cups is to wash them out and let my son play with them. He is quite happy to do so! :)

Make Yourself - Popsicles

Instead of buying Popsicles in the store, make your own! Obviously, it will save you money, but it also gives you the ability to control what and how much goes in them (Organic, sugar, etc.). Not to mention, it is a good way to keep from wasting food. In our house, wasting fruit is a big problem, since the fruit sits in drawers in the fridge, so it's "out of site, out of mind". This way, if I realize something is going to go bad before we can eat all of it, I can just make up some pops!

Go read this great post with some tips and also some interesting ideas to help you get started and think out of the box in terms of ingredients.

Green Factor:

• Can be made with organic produce.
• Making them yourself cuts out all the unnecessary fillers.
• You can control how much sugar (if any) goes in them resulting in a healthier treat.

Saving Green:

• Cheaper to make yourself then buy pre-made.

Organic Food

Want to know more about organic food and why it's better for you? Go check this out. It also tells you how you can cut back on the expense by knowing which fruits and vegitables you can buy conventional (not organic).