Muffins using jarred baby food
Leftover Baby Food Muffins - Eat Yourself Skinny
04.01.20
- Gluten-Free
- Vegetarian
- Dairy Free
- Clean Eating
- Kid Friendly
Jump to Recipe
These bite-sized muffins are healthy, nutritious and the perfect way to use up leftover jars of baby food! No added sugar and your little ones will love them!
So when my daughter started eating solid foods, I decided to go the puréed route because baby led weaning just made me so nervous! I know, I know, most mamas go the BLW route and I REALLY wanted to, but I found myself just much more comfortable easing her into solids through softer foods and purées. Totally a personal preference! Well now my daughter is 10 months old (ah where has the time gone?!) and she wants absolutely nothing to do with those purées anymore. So now I have tons of baby food jars leftover in my pantry and wanted to get creative with ways that I could use them. Enter these tasty little muffins!
These bite-sized muffins are so simple to throw together and are packed with nutritious ingredients like oats, banana, carrots, and puréed fruits and veggies so you can feel good about sharing these with your little ones! I bet they’ll have a blast making them with you too!
INGREDIENTS YOU’LL NEED
- Oat flour – You can use store-bought oat flour or easily make your own! You can also substitute with all-purpose flour, if needed.
- Puréed baby food – Here’s where you can have fun with this recipe! Feel free to use any combination of flavors whether fruit or veggie-based. If you don’t have jars of baby food, the puréed pouches will also work or even your own homemade purées, you’ll just need about 1/3 cup.
- Banana – Makes these muffins moist and delicious. Also acts as a natural sweetener so no added sugar needed!
- Carrot – I like to add grated carrot to add in some veggies as well as for the color, but you could also use grated zucchini or really any veggie you’d like!
- Egg – All you need is one egg and this will help bind everything together.
- Cinnamon – Not a necessity, but definitely makes these muffins even tastier!
DID YOU KNOW YOU CAN EASILY MAKE YOUR OWN OAT FLOUR?
To make your own oat flour you simply take rolled oats (or instant oats) and blend them in your food processor or blender for about 60 seconds until they resemble a fine, powdery flour – that’s it! You can of course just buy your own oat flour at the store, but this method saves you money and the flour will last up to three months in your pantry.
The ratio for oat flour is one cup of oats = one cup of oat flour so it’s pretty easy to measure out.
These baby food muffins freeze really well too! This recipe makes about 24 mini muffins (or 12 regular size muffins) and there is no way my 10 month old could go through all those in a week so freezing them makes it really convenient to have meals prepped for her. Simply place them in a sealed container or ziplock bag and they can be stored in your freezer for up to 3 months!
These muffins aren’t just for babies either, they’re perfect for toddlers and school age kids as well! Not only do these muffins fit perfectly inside a lunch box, but they also make great after school snacks!
OTHER USES FOR LEFTOVER BABY FOOD
If you have several jars or pouches of baby food leftover, you can easily get creative and use them in all sorts of ways. Here are a few ideas:
- Use them in pancakes, muffins or bread when baking
- Mix them in with oatmeal, yogurt or smoothies
- Freeze them into popsicles which is great for teething!
- Toss purées in with pasta as a sauce (my daughter loves the butternut squash with noodles!)
- Add them to soups or stews
Hope your little ones enjoy these leftover baby food muffins as much as mine did and please let me know if you’d like to see more kid-friendly recipes shared on the blog! If you do decide to make these or any other Eat Yourself Skinny recipe, please make sure to tag me on Instagram so I can see all the yummy things you’re eating!
RECIPE
Leftover Baby Food Muffins
These bite-sized muffins are healthy, nutritious and the perfect way to use up leftover jars of baby food! No added sugar and your little ones will love them!
Yield: 24 Servings 1x
★★★★★
4.
9 from 8 reviews
Scale
- Prep Time: 5 mins
- Cook Time: 15 mins
- Total Time: 20 mins
Ingredients
- 1 1/4 cups oat flour
- 1 1/2 tsp baking powder
- 1 tsp cinnamon
- 1 jar (or 1/3 cup) puréed baby food
- 1 ripe banana, mashed
- 1 egg
- 1/2 cup grated carrot
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
- Spray a mini muffin pan with nonstick spray (or use muffin liners) and set aside.
- In a large bowl, whisk together oat flour, baking powder and cinnamon, making a well in the center.
- In a separate bowl, whisk together baby food, mashed banana and egg. Add wet ingredients to the dry ingredients, mixing until just combined, then fold in the grated carrot.
- Divide oat mixture evenly among the 24 mini muffin cups (or 12 standard size muffins) and bake for 13 to 15 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean.
If making 12 standard size muffins, bake for about 25 to 30 minutes. Let cool and enjoy!
Nutrition Facts:
- Serving Size: 1 muffin
- Calories: 37
- Sugar: 1.5 g
- Sodium: 4.9 mg
- Fat: 0.7 g
- Saturated Fat: 0.2 g
- Carbohydrates: 6.7 g
- Fiber: 0.9 g
- Protein: 1.5 g
* Please note that all nutrition information are just estimates. Values will vary among brands, so we encourage you to calculate these on your own for most accurate results.
If you make this recipe, share a photo on Instagram and tag it #EatYourselfSkinny . I love seeing what you made!
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Baby food leftovers - Encyclopedia Baby food
Victoria Levchuk©Offering tons of ideas and recipes for using leftover baby food, as well as tips on how to safely store leftover baby food.
Store-bought puree can be stored in the refrigerator for up to 24 hours. At the first feeding, a jar of baby food is opened each time a new one, with the introduction of 2-3 new products, you can store baby puree in the refrigerator for 24 hours and give the baby during this period. The main thing is to let the child adapt to a new product without pathogenic organisms inside the baby puree for the first time, which appear during long-term storage in the refrigerator.
Usually, when a certain amount of complementary foods is introduced into the child's diet, mothers transfer the baby to homemade baby puree, which is prepared every day, after 8-9 months - every other day.
Good to know!
- How to make baby puree thick in consistency
- Clean Plate Syndrome - why it is harmful to force a child to finish eating.
- Tasty tales, if the child does not eat well - fairy tales that can be read to the baby.
- Fish food is all about introduction to fish food.
- Day 1: Child's breakfast - a step-by-step guide for parents on how to return healthy food to the family.
Leftover baby food, both industrial and homemade, can be easily frozen and used within 3 months of freezing. The main thing is to follow all the rules and regulations for freezing baby food, which can be read here.
And now let's get down to the fun part, how to use leftover baby food, we'll describe everything in more detail.
Table of contents:
Can leftover baby food be reused? Yes, if the product is not a first food and is not contaminated. If the baby was fed directly from the jar, and a spoon that was in the child’s mouth often fell into it, you need to throw away the baby food or finish eating it yourself. Microbes from a child's mouth can make baby food an ideal breeding ground for pathogens.
If the jar was warmed up with baby food, then it is also better to refuse long-term storage of baby puree. But if the right amount of baby food is laid out with a clean spoon on a plate, and then immediately closed with a lid and put in the refrigerator, then baby puree can be used within 24 hours from the moment the jar is opened.
Leftover baby food can be used within 24 hours or frozen for up to 3 months.
How do I store leftover baby food? Homemade baby food is best stored in small containers with tight lids. Store-bought baby food is best stored in the same glass jar it was sold in.
It is best to freeze baby food in special freezer jars or ice molds to make small cubes. Once they are frozen, transfer the cubes to a bag and leave in the freezer. Be sure to note the date of freezing baby food.
What can be made with leftover baby puree:
1. Leftover fruit baby food can be used as a regular breakfast jam, or simply spread on bread or toast with baby puree. Various spices can be added to these baby purees to enhance the taste, for example, cinnamon can be added to applesauce.
2. Mix baby food fruit puree with oatmeal, yogurt, cottage cheese or milkshake. Perfect for smoothies, the remains of baby porridge for thickening, will also add nutrition and nutrients.
3. Add leftover fruit puree to a cake or any other pastry. Baby food adds moisture and extra flavor to the flour product. You can make cookies, cake, pancakes or bread.
4. Use the fruit puree as a jam and dip crackers or other pieces of fruit into it.
5. Use leftover applesauce to make homemade ketchup.
6. Add leftover vegetable puree to the tomato sauce and mix with pasta or use on pizza. For example, zucchini or zucchini baby food pairs perfectly with spaghetti sauce.
7. Use leftovers to make mashed potatoes.
8. Use leftover mashed vegetables to make zucchini, carrot or other vegetable pancakes.
9. Mix mashed vegetables with rice to make rice balls or rice cakes.
10. Add leftover vegetable puree to the omelet.
11. Add vegetable, meat and fish purees to soup, stew.
12. Use leftover mashed meats to make baby meatballs or baby burgers.
13. Use baby food puree to make savory meat, vegetable and cheese muffins.
14. Marinate meat in leftover baby puree for a rather savory dish.
15. Fish complementary foods are ideally combined with cereals, for example, if you mix the leftover red salmon from a jar with boiled buckwheat, you get an amazingly tasty adult dish. Sometimes we just buy a couple of cans of salmon to eat with buckwheat, although we are already big.
Where else can you use leftover baby puree?
1. The leftover baby porridge can be used as a face mask, or put in the leftovers directly into the bath and take it. For example, oatmeal is good for soothing irritated skin, and is suitable as an excellent light peeling.
2. Mix any leftover baby food with essential oil (a couple of drops) and add a scrub ingredient, mix everything. Use within a week. Sugar, salt, coffee, coconut flakes, tangerine or orange peels, etc. can be used as a scrubbing ingredient.
3. Use leftover baby food as sensory material, the baby can get used to the textures and feel the food in a small basin.
4. Use instead of paints, give the child a sheet of paper and baby puree, let him draw with his hands. True, the works of the young artist are best thrown away after, and the baby himself is well washed.
Remains of baby food and the older child
Also, don't forget about the older child, if complementary foods are introduced for the younger one, then the first baby can safely eat up the baby purees, especially those he likes.
And leftover baby puree is a great way to add some vegetables to your older child's diet. After all, you can do it very discreetly and almost imperceptibly, cook pasta with a unique vegetable puree sauce. Fruit purees can be served to a child with pancakes, hash browns or cookies for breakfast.
You can serve the puree in a separate bowl for dipping the product, or pour the puree over pancakes or make funny faces, etc. Also, oatmeal porridge with a natural sweetener, in the form of fruit puree, is perfect for breakfast. Moreover, baby puree can be kept in the refrigerator for 2-3 days without loss of taste and quality, the main thing is to follow the rules for use, and the older child who has gone through kindergarten is not afraid of such pathogens.
What else to do with leftover baby puree?
Baby food is perfect for losing weight and sick people who, for one reason or another, need to eat pureed food. After childbirth, women are put on a mashed diet temporarily so that the body recovers.
Also, do not forget about pets who will like the leftovers of baby food, not only meat purees, but also vegetable and fruit, the main thing is to offer.
I also heard that fishermen use baby food as bait for fish, mixing it with cereals and other products.
And also if a bodybuilder lives in the house, then you can safely feed him with the remnants of baby food, especially milk mixtures and baby cereals, which for some reason did not go into the baby's complementary foods.
I hope I have fully answered the question of how to store and use leftover baby food, what to cook with leftover baby puree, whether leftover baby puree is thrown away, what to do with leftover baby food, etc. Everyone has their own way of using the leftovers of baby purees, someone finishes eating after the child, someone throws it away, someone, in order to save money, uses the leftovers of mashed potatoes in the preparation of new delicious dishes, it’s up to the parents themselves to decide what to do, we offered only a couple of practical ideas, that can be applied in life.
What can be prepared from baby puree
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09/30/2019 16:56 56 thousand
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Cooking
Baby puree is a favorite food for the little ones. Complementary foods begin with it when babies are transferred to regular food. First, mom gives one spoonful of vegetable, then meat puree.
So the child tries other foods, evaluates the taste of zucchini or carrots, and parents carefully observe the reaction of the body. Unfortunately, the remnants of delicious food remain in the jar. Even the next day, doctors do not recommend giving what has already been opened, because the children's stomach is very weak, it will not cope if pathogenic microorganisms get inside.
Many young mothers are concerned about what can be made from baby puree so that it does not disappear.
And there are a lot of options. True, these dishes will not be for those who could not eat a healthy snack, but for the rest of the family.
Cupcakes
You can use baby food to make delicious homemade cakes. If you are planning to bake small cupcakes or muffins, both vegetable and fruit puree will certainly fit there. You can prepare the dough according to the usual recipe. And you will have to adjust its density by adding flour.
You can add meat puree not only to the dough, but also as a filling in the middle of the product. You will get interesting snack cupcakes that men will like.
Pie
Delicious pies with fillings come not only with jam or marmalade, but also with baby puree. They are prepared according to any proven recipe.
The ideal option is grated pie. First, a layer of dough is laid out on a baking sheet, then mashed potatoes are spread, and the rest of the dough is rubbed on top.
It will turn out very tasty, however, one jar of puree, and even a non-whole one, may not be enough, you will have to take more. In this case, you can collect 2-3 jars by keeping them in the refrigerator. It is dangerous to give an open product to a baby on the second day, and it will be perfect in baking.
Fritters
All kids love fruit pancakes. Even if your family still has one small child, you can cook delicious pancakes for yourself and your spouse. Their feature will be that the remaining mashed potatoes are added to the dough. By the way, both vegetable preparations from zucchini, carrots, pumpkins, as well as meat or berry, fruit preparations are suitable here.
Not a single open jar of baby food will be wasted, because every day there will be a new treat for tea. The recipe can be shared with friends who will also drop by the tea party to discuss the secrets of raising young children.
Cookies
No time to run to the store for cookies for the older child? Do you want to treat your girlfriend to something tasty, but you didn’t know about the arrival before? It will take only 30 minutes to prepare the simplest fruit-flavored cookies based on baby puree. You can also take food made from berries.
You will need products that are found in every home:
- flour - about 2 cups;
- butter or margarine - 50 g;
- eggs - 1-2 pcs.;
- sugar - 50 g;
- baby puree - leftovers;
- soda - ½ tsp;
- vinegar - a little for quenching.
Cooking the liver is easy, using the following recommendations:
- First, you need to replace the dough in a bowl.
Butter is crushed with a knife, then rubbed with sugar. - Gradually, flour and salt are introduced into the dry mass. All ingredients are ground.
- A whole egg and the protein from the second are added, the yolk can be left to lubricate the top. Everything is mixed up again.
- It remains to put in a mass of mashed potatoes and add slaked soda. At the exit after mixing, you will get a dough that can be rolled out.
- On a table sprinkled with a little flour, the dough is rolled out. It can simply be cut into rhombuses, triangles, small squares, or cut out with a mold of asterisks, bunnies, flowers.
- The top of the blanks is smeared with whipped yolk, you can sprinkle a little sugar.
- These cookies are baked for about 14-20 minutes.
Spread for toast or sandwiches
And here you don't need to cook anything.
The main thing is to fry croutons or cut a fresh loaf, offer cookies or crackers. And mashed potatoes are spread on top, which will perfectly replace jam or preserves. You can serve breakfast with tea.
Pancake filling
Apple or pear puree will perfectly shade the cottage cheese. By combining the two masses, you get an amazing taste and usefulness curd-fruit filling for thin pancakes. Proportions are not important at all: you can take the product in the amount that is left.
If necessary, sugar or small pieces of fresh vegetables are added to such a filling. If applesauce is taken, it is good to add fresh apples. And lovers of experiments can safely cut bananas and oranges into such a filling, it will also be very original and tasty.
Pastila
Not every young mother, having a tiny child, will decide to cook fruit marshmallow, which takes a lot of time to prepare.
Having baby puree will simplify the process. No need to cut fruits, boil them. You can start cooking right away.
- A couple of jars of mashed potatoes, of which only a little has been eaten away, are combined in a saucepan.
- The mass is brought to a boil, you need to add a spoonful of sugar to it and wait for it to dissolve. Boil no more than 5 minutes if the puree is thick.
- Spread the resulting mass on parchment in a thin layer, send to the oven to dry (temperature 70-80º).
- After 3-4 hours, you can roll it into a tube if the layer does not stick to your hands.
If the puree is rare, experienced housewives advise adding a little gelatin dissolved in juice to the puree. However, you need to eat such marshmallow quickly, and from one meal it will be stored for several months.
Puree soup
On the day when the baby is given complementary foods, you can cook puree soup.
To add, the remaining food from zucchini, carrots, broccoli, turkey, beef is suitable. Enter into the bulk at the very end, because it is already ready for use. This way you can save vitamins.
Mashed potatoes
We are all used to the fact that mashed potatoes have a light yellowish tint. And you can make it tasty and attractive at the same time. When the potatoes are already grated with a blender or pusher, you can put baby food out of the jar. By adding a carrot product, it is easy to color the potato mass in orange, broccoli will make it greenish.
Atypical use of baby puree
You can cook not only delicious dishes from the remains of half-eaten baby puree, but also other useful things:
- face mask - apply a liquid mass of vegetables or fruits (meat is not suitable) on the skin and relax, rinse after 10-15 minutes;
- body scrub - add a handful of ground coffee to the puree, mix and apply to the steamed body.
