This August, culinary expert and best-selling author Annabel Karmel is helping parents get creative in the kitchen. By teaming up with Infantino, she has recently launched the Make It Easy line of baby food prep items that make all this creativity easy and fun. We got a sneak peek at the line, which includes a baby food mill, a food masher and bowl, puree pop maker, and microwave steamer as well as storage options for saving your baby food masterpieces. Colorful, fun, and incredibly easy to use, we were really impressed with the quality of the Make It Easy line and have used it daily since it arrived.
When my daughter was little, we made nearly all of her baby food. We did it for a number of reasons, but the main motivation for making her food ourselves was because it was actually quite a bit of fun. Of course, there were added benefits such as knowing exactly what she was eating and how much, as well as homemade food being so much cheaper than buying bottled or canned baby foods. But, one benefit I hadn’t really anticipated was that my daughter would be far more willing to try varied foods at a young age since we had introduced them in baby food form.
At two years of age, she will currently eat just about anything you put in front of her – provided you let her “do it myself”. I’m not sure if it’s because we’re really good cooks or maybe it’s because we always included her in the cooking and feeding process, but she ended up eating baby food well into her second year happily. In fact, she was completely willing to help on this review and get us back in the baby food making practice by trying out the more gourmet recipes included in the recipe books.
I was really happy to see that not only does Annabel Karmel’s book, Starting Solids, include information on the weaning process and when to introduce foods, it also goes over what foods are recommended for the different age groups from purees all the way to finger foods. Naturally, we plan on feeding baby #2 homemade baby food as well, so the Make It Easy food prep set couldn’t have come at a better time to make the process of making, mixing, and storing food easier this time around.
But, that’s not to say the Make It Easy line is just for small babies – the line is designed to expand all the way through the infant and toddler years and many portions of the line will be in heavy rotation even after all of our children are fully ready for table foods. In fact, I currently use all of the Make It Easy storage containers daily when packing lunches for both my husband and toddler because they are such a convenient size and shape for all sorts of foods from sandwiches to cut up fruits and veggies. The fact that they stack and store so easily and are so versatile means that I won’t be stuck with a cupboard full of infant food items that are unable to be used after the first year of life.
Annabel Karmel’s Make It Easy line by Infantino:
• Stackable Food Pots – perfect for infant purees on the go or for finger foods and snacks for toddlers as well as being convenient for yogurt, dips and more as the kiddos grow
• Mash & Serve Bowl – for mashing up larger veggies and fruits for infants and for grinding herbs and more after baby can handle solids
• Double Decker Mealbox – convenient size and shape for holding a full toddler meal, as well as a daily staple in my husband’s lunchbox because of its versatile design that packs away nicely - with an included spoon and fork that nests right in the lid!
• Freeze Tray – silicone mold for storing large batches of baby food to freeze for later with a great design that makes for easy retrieval of single or multiple food cubes• Fresh Food Mill – makes grinding up tougher and more fibrous foods easy with just a simple twist
• Steam Release Micro Dish – allows me to make individual portions of steamed veggies for my toddler on demand and serve them in the same bowl
• Fill & Freeze Purée Pops – infant and toddler sized popsicle molds for pureed fruit pops
• Starting Solids book - includes tips, tricks and more, with over 50 recipes from infant to toddler and ranging from single food purees all the way to gourmet fare
The Make It Easy line is all BPA free and will be available exclusively at Babies ‘R’ Us retail stores this August.
To Enter: Simply visit Infantino's website and tell me another one of their products you would love to own or share how you would use the Make It Easy product line or recipes to cook with your family. And, as always, there are extra entries available! 1) Subscribe to Rave and Review, top of right sidebar (2 extra entries, must be verified to count) 2) Tweet about this Giveaway using @raveandreview and @Infantino with the link http://bit.ly/8ZBx7Q after following us both (daily Tweet, just post link here) 3) Blog about this Giveaway with links back to this post as well as Infantino and the www.raveandreview.com homepage (2 extra entries, just post the URL where I can find your writeup) 4) Place my button or logo in your sidebar on your blog or website (must have an active link) 5) Comment love. Enter any of my other Giveaways or comment on any non-giveaway post! 6) Email love. Share this Giveaway with friends and family via email and cc Leanne (at)raveandreview (dot) com (I will never, ever contact your email recipients) 7) Vote for Rave and Review on Top Baby Blogs, logo in right sidebar (daily entry) On September 9th at 11:59pm PST a winner will be drawn, announced here and notified via email. Winner will have 48 hours to contact me or a new winner will be chosen. Giveaway open to US addresses only. Winner, Winner! This giveaway is now closed. Thank you to all who entered and congratulations to Stephanie!
One Rave and Review reader will win the Annabel Karmel Make It Easy products reviewed above!
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A huge thank you to Infantino for sending a sampling of their new line for us to review and for offering a giveaway to our fabulous readers. All opinions are 100% ours and no type of monetary compensation was received in exchange for this Rave Review.
