Friday, January 22, 2010

Friday Favorites: Orka Ice Cube Trays


I make my own baby food.

Don't be impressed.

It's super easy and is a *significant* cost savings.

Here is a post from when I did it with Henry if you want to see the cost breakdown and more details.

After a few batches of food, I came across these ice cube trays with silicone bottoms.

Before you have a heart attack...yes they are $10...EACH.

I know, it's ridiculous...and I'm a total cheapy...BUT hang in there...

I own five of them (I found them a few bucks cheaper at TJMaxx randomly)...and I'm telling you...having these trays can seriously make or break your baby food making experience.

I found that using regular ice cube trays was a disaster...first, they don't have lids, so you have to cover with foil...then, when you stack them, they sort of sit down into one another and the foil squishes down the food and makes a mess...and then when I tried to pop out the frozen food my trays cracked.

Maybe it was just me, but it was frustrating and I needed something better or I was going to abandon ship altogether.

As for the cost, this is how I look at it: you save so much money making your own food that you make up the $ pretty quickly...

...and if you buy them with your first kid and use them again with subsequent babies, it pays itself off even more...

...and when you are all done?...I would imagine you could sell them on ebay or craigslist easily (ebay has a set of 3 for $20!)...or even hand them down to another friend who could use them.

After frozen, run hot water along the bottoms real quick...seriously, like 3 seconds.

Poke each of the silicone bottoms and the food will pop right out. Enlist the help of your 2 year old. They think it's a fun game.

Store in a labeled freezer bag.

Each of these cubes is roughly 0.5 an ounce of food.

Depending on how organized you are, either pull out a few cubes to defrost in a bowl on your counter in advance...or if you are like me, defrost in the microwave at feeding time.

I know lots of moms just kinda mash up whatever they are eating and feed it to their baby...but between the food allergies my kids have/had, and the fact that I'm not exactly the healthiest/most consistent eater, doing that isn't really practical for me. (And when I worked full time, we really had no choice but to go the traditional baby food route.)

Now go out there and puree yourself some carrots!

Have fun!

5 comments:

Sugar Plum Invitations said...

Wow.. you're still making baby food with 3 kids.. you're a way better mom than I!!!

joy said...

those trays look really cool. i tried making baby food. once. the ice cube trays were stupid and i didn't try again. you are cool.

michelle said...

Thanks for all the product info. Really helpful knowing what works and what is a waste of time.

Now I gotta find me some of those trays..!

Katie&Greg said...

I am making my daughter's food, but I use the Fresh Baby So Easy baby food/breast milk trays. I like them, however, silicon would be awesome! I am not so sure that DH would be fond of me going out and looking for NEW trays when the ones we have work just fine. But those look so EASY! :)

Chelle Belle said...

I made my own with my last babe, I used babycubes and loved them. I too hated the regular ice cube trays, ugh awful! When she got older and refused to eat the junior baby food I made small pasta and meat and other casseroles and froze them in the cubes too. Its always nice to have some on hand for when your dinners aren't fit for the babies heehee.