Infantino Fresh Squeeze Review

Every first time mom buys excess junk that they have every intention of using or are completely convinced they need. 90% of the time they are incorrect and need to chill out. How do I know? Been there, done that, got the t-shirt. When I get excessive I take it to the max and get wildly excessive so I had gadgets and gizmos aplenty (did you see what I did there? Solid “Little Mermaid” reference. Win.) Anyway as one of the mothers who indulged in every doodad conceivable I can attest to what worked and what was absolutely useless.

Infantino Fresh Squeeze Station

Today I want to tell you about one of the things that I love, love, love and still use with both my baby and my toddler. The Infantino Fresh Squeeze Station is absolutely fabulous and incredibly convenient. When I first bought it they offered not only the entire “Squeeze Station” but also individual tubes which I would recommend over the entire station because you can only fill one at a time anyway so I feel you save no time by lining up three pouches only to have to stop to pull them off, cap, refill and set up the assembly again. Boo. I have the entire station but I don’t even bother to pull it out, I just use one of the tubes and leave the rest of the station buried in the cabinet.

For this project you’ll need:

1.    Infantino Squeeze Station

2.    Fillable pouches/lids

3.    Whatever foods you want in the pouches

4.    Food processor

5.    Ok, I'm bored of this. There is basic kitchening required in this so basic kitchen utensils such as pots and bowls are requisite.

Click on over to the handy-dandy Pinterest, type in “baby food recipes” and go crazy pinning ALL THE THINGS! When you finally surface from the black hole that is Pinterest and you’ve finished repining giraffes telling you about how selfish you are, 32 different DIY projects that you’ll forget about by morning and reading 7 different blogs on how to be super-mom while simultaneously acting as a tigress in the bedroom for your worked to the bone husband, come back to me. Bring your list of random recipes and/or choose to wing it like I do. I read over several recipes only to conclude “I’ve got this” and hit the produce aisle.

Buy whatever combinations of fruit you want but make sure to stock up on kale, spinach, yellow squash and zucchini because those 4 things seem to blend in and allow whatever fruits mixed with them to take the lead while providing all the nutrients that make mom’s happy. Apples and bananas were on sale this trip so those are the fruits I landed on. I also had plenty of chicken in the deep freeze from the last time it was on sale.

First wash your fruits/veggies because you know… pesticides and stuff. Chop them up and boil to soften the skins up and prevent it being too fibrous. I like to leave the skins on because I’m pretty sure they’re chock full of vitamins and nutrients, I read that somewhere. It may or may not be true, who can be sure? (Don’t Google it, there’s no time)

I use an apple slicer to cut the apples up, if you have kids it's a worthy investment. I cannot be coring and slicing apples all day like a peasant. Mine broke on the first apple, luckily I had a back up. Now cook your chicken however you see fit, use minimal spices, babies don’t need all of that and chop it up in chunks.

Toss it all in a food processor and blend it all up. (Sing that like “Put the lime in the coconut and shake it all up”). As I processed it I threw it in a giant bowl to mix once I was finished. I suggest packing the leafy vegetables in the bottom of the processor and then the fruits/veggies/meat on top, it seems to make it easier to blend. It’s very important to make sure it is ground up very fine, no chunks so that it doesn’t clog the Squeeze tube.

Mix your foods accordingly, taste as you go, it generally tastes pretty good! I stick to agave or honey for added sweetness and a dash of cinnamon can really kick off a recipe! Obviously be careful with the cinnamon, it’s cinnamon…If I need to say more, just leave the kitchen now before you hurt yourself. Also a good way to gauge the potency of your cinnamon is to get a teaspoon, fill it full, level it off and eat it. (Please post video)

This time I just made one recipe so when I finished mixing it all up I poured it into a gallon pitcher because I thought it would make it easier to pour into the Squeeze tubes but in fact it did not. I ended up using a ladle to ladle it into the tube so don’t waste your time with that idea, it’s just one more dish to wash. (I really think drinking a beer while doing this brings down the "crunchy mom" vibe to even things out)

Screw a bag onto the Squeeze tube, ladle it full of your mix. I recommend going only slightly over the highest hash mark making it about 4.5 oz. If you fill it much fuller it will just come up over the plunger as you push down.

blow back

Put the plunger on top and push down evenly. If you feel a lot of resistance it’s because you didn’t blend the ingredients fine enough. If you try to push though this resistance because you are hard headed you may encounter a little blow back and that gets messy.

Pinch right below the nozzle of the pouch to minimize any of the food blobbing back out, unscrew the Squeeze tube and screw the cap onto the pouch. Done and done! Now lather, rinse, repeat about 20 times until all of your delicious baby food is pouched!

 

Two Blue Moon's later, I had 30ish pouches of clean, healthy food for my kiddos!

I feel like it goes without saying but just in case, you MUST keep these refrigerated. They only last in the fridge for a couple of days but can be frozen. I keep my stash in the freezer and 2 or 3 on hand in the fridge. For more safety tips and suggestions click on Infantino Squeeze Station.

You can buy the Infantino Fresh Squeeze Station on Amazon or at most big box stores. You can also buy the replacement bags/lids at the same places. One attachment that was pretty cool but I ended up not using that much is the attaching spoon. It ended up being easier to just squeeze it in the baby's mouth or letting him suck on it.