Recipe using baby food

Clever Ways How To Use Up Leftover Baby Food

Baby food can be so convenient when your baby will gobble it down. But what can you do with that leftover baby food they don't like or have outgrown? Well, don't throw it away! We've got some clever ideas to share.

Most people have a love/hate relationship with baby food. It's so dang easy when your baby loves the food and can't get enough of it! But by some miracle, it also seems to multiply in the pantry. What on earth do you do with that leftover baby food?

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Well, if you've been asking yourself this question, then consider it your lucky day! We're going to share some out-of-the-box ideas for storing and using up all that goodness. Have we piqued your interest? Keep on reading to find out more!

HOW TO STORE LEFTOVER BABY FOOD

What should you do if you have dozens of baby food jars cluttering up your pantry but you're not quite ready to use them? Well, you've got options! You could keep them in the jar for a while and call it a day (that stuff basically lasts forever), but we've got a few other ideas we think you'll love. These are perfect for those half-eaten jars, too!

Ice Trays – Did you know you can freeze baby food? Oh, yes, you can! Our favorite way is to scoop those purees into ice trays, then pop the cubes in a plastic bag. This way, you can use the cubes for cooking or drop them in a smoothie.
Cookie Sheet Blobs – Looking for another way to freeze that food? If you have a cookie sheet, you're golden. Just scoop blobs onto that baking sheet (think cookie dough), then freeze and place in plastic bags.
Cupcake Liners- One more freezer trick! Spoon that food into cupcake liners for freezing. Muffin trays work, too!
Plastic Pouches – If you're packing for a trip or just looking to save space, you can transfer baby food to plastic food pouches for safe-keeping. Serving the food to your toddlers or babies that way prevents messes, too! If you ever ended up with a spoonful of peas all over the wall, then you know what we're talking about.

If you open and refrigerate leftover baby food, be sure to use it within 48 hours. Ready to use the food you froze? Thaw it overnight in the refrigerator and use it within two days. Now that you're up to speed on baby food storage let's chat through some ways to use it!

THE BEST WAYS TO USE UP LEFTOVER BABY FOOD

These ideas are going to rock your world! We bet you'll be excited you have some leftover baby food hanging around by the time we're done. And mama, you can just sit back and smile as you watch your family gobble up that food with hidden fruit and veggies in it! 😉 Your secret's safe with us!

HIDE THOSE FRUITS AND VEGGIES IN THEIR BREAKFAST

We call these breakfast, but you may call them lunch, dinner, or snack. We won't judge! Just throw some leftover baby food in them and call it a day.

Pancakes – Have leftover baby oatmeal? Make pancakes with it! Bonus points if you add some fruit baby food to it, too!
Waffles – Add any fruit baby food you have to your homemade waffles to make them extra tasty! Whip that batter up, let the waffle maker do all of the work, and call breakfast good.
Muffins – Did you know you can add leftover fruit or veggie baby food to muffins? They turn out so moist and delicious! Perfect for toddlers or any member of the family, really. You can also sub out part of your flour with baby oatmeal!
Topping for Toast – Fruit baby food makes for the best toast topping! It's delicious for the whole family, including baby.
Oatmeal – You can mix fruit or sweet veggies, such as sweet potatoes or carrots, to plain oatmeal to give it some extra flavor.
Yogurt – If you have plain yogurt, add some leftover fruit baby food to give it some extra flavor. You can also do the same to plain, unsweetened applesauce!
Cottage Cheese – Love cottage cheese, but out of your favorite fruit to mix with it? Try adding fruit baby food to it! It's still just as delicious and you don't have to worry about running to the store to get any fruit.

Are you a baby food believer yet? If you liked those ideas, then you're going to love what we have in store for you next!

USE LEFTOVER BABY FOOD IN DINNER

Ramp up your dinner game by sneaking veggie and meat purees into your meals! Your family will be none-the-wiser. Try one of these:

Mac and Cheese – You can add sweet potato or carrot baby food to the next batch of macaroni and cheese you make! Yummm.
Casseroles – Throw any leftover veggie purees in your next casserole you make! It'll help to hide those not-so-appetizing veggies (we're talking to you, peas!) while also getting the great nutrients from them.
Soup – You can make your soup extra creamy and protein-packed by adding those unfortunate meat purees to your next batch of soup! You can also add veggie purees to your soup if you need to eat them.
Fruit Salad – You can also add any leftover fruit baby food to our favorite cool whip fruit salad! It'll just make it that much sweeter and delicious. We'll just call this a healthy side since it has dairy and fruit in it, mkay?

So simple and so tasty, right? Pat yourself on the back for getting your family to eat those meat purees.

Is your mind blown? Now you have some of the best ideas for using up leftover baby food without it going to waste!

What's your favorite way to sneak veggies into your kids' food? Let us know in the comments!

Wanting more great ideas for leftovers?

Learn our best tips to take you from hating your leftovers to loving them!
Do you always think that leftovers just heat up weird? Maybe that's because you've been doing it wrong! We've got the best ways to reheat those leftovers like a pro.
Tired of eating the same thing two nights in a row? Repurpose your leftovers into something new!

Now, go eat some baby food!

Ways to use leftover baby food

Published on July 24, 2017Last Modified: March 18, 2021 By Kathryn Doherty

This post may contain affiliate links. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. Please read my disclosure policy

Tons of ideas and recipes for ways to use leftover baby food, plus tips on how to store leftover baby food safely.

We are just back from a long weekend in Florida, a family reunion with my husband’s side of the family, and we had SO much fun! Lots of beach time, family time, play time, and tons of great food!

But whew, I’m worn out and feel like my house is half upside-down. We got home late yesterday afternoon, I immediately went to the grocery store to stock us up, made some overnight oatmeal jars to have on hand for the week, made dinner, caught up on some emails and then settled in for Game of Thrones.

I’m back at work today but feel like I need another day to get us back on track. Isn’t that always the case after being away? Ah well, we’ll just figure out as we go this week. The laundry isn’t going anywhere 😉

But I’m so excited to bring you today’s post about ways to use leftover baby food! It’s something I’ve been meaning to post about ever since I started my homemade baby food series a couple of years ago (lots of which I revamped earlier this year).

Let’s start with a quick Q&A with some common questions on how to use leftover baby food:

Can I reuse leftover baby food? Yes, if it’s not contaminated. If you’ve put a spoon in the jar or container that was in your baby’s mouth, you need to throw it out. (The germs from your baby’s mouth can turn the baby food bad.) But if it’s unopened or unused or untouched, it can be reused.

Can I store leftover baby food? Yes! If you have an open jar or container that wasn’t contaminated (see above), you can refrigerate it for 3-5 days or freeze it for up to 4-6 months.

How do I store leftover baby food? It’s best to store homemade baby food in small containers with a tight seal. This allows you to portion out just a bit at a time to avoid wasting food. If freezing, you can use ice cube trays to make small cubes. Once they are frozen, transfer the cubes to a labeled freezer-safe bag.

Can you freeze leftover baby food? Yes! You can freeze leftover baby food for up to 4-6 months. Transfer it to an ice cube tray or small freezer-safe containers. And be sure to label it!

Things to do with leftover baby food jars — I never had any because I did all homemade baby food but I found some cute ideas here and here if you want to check them out.

So now that we’ve covered the basics, what are you gonna actually do with those extras once your sweet baby has moved beyond purees?

Well, I’ve got tons of ideas for you! I got creative because I had kept a freezer stocked with baby food (I had two BIG eaters) and I hate wasting food! So all those little cubes got repurposed into new dishes that my budding toddlers could eat themselves. 👍

So here are lots of ideas for you on using up leftover baby food!

(I’ve also got a free printable if you want to save this for later!)

Ways to use leftover baby food:

Transform any favorite combinations into homemade baby food pouches for on-the-go eating (and see 5 more baby food pouches for more ideas)
Mix fruit baby food into oatmeal, yogurt, cottage cheese and smoothies
Mix fruit purees into unsweetened applesauce for a new flavor
Add fruit purees into muffins
Use fruit purees as a spread for toast or a dip for crackers or cut fruit pieces
Add veggie purees to tomato or marinara sauce and mix it with pasta or use it to make pizzas (I still do this for my kids, who are ages 4 and 6)
Use vegetable purees to make sweet potato or squash or zucchini pancakes
Mix vegetable purees with brown rice to make rice balls or rice patties (perfect for dipping!)
Use vegetable purees in muffins
Use veggie purees to bind together casseroles and add some extra nutrition
Add extra vegetable purees to eggs for omelets, egg muffins or frittatas
Mix corn, carrot or squash purees into mashed potatoes or mac and cheese.
Stir vegetable purees into soups, stews or chili (all kinds of veggies can go here)
Add meat purees into chili, soups or stews
Use meat purees to make baby meatballs or baby hamburgers
Use baby food meat purees to make savory muffins with meat, veggies and cheese

See, there’s tons of things you can do! And if you are looking for a little more guidance…

Here are a few specific recipes that use or could be adapted to use leftover baby food:

Berry beet smoothie with broccoli
Homemade applesauce: 5 fruit flavors
Spinach banana mini muffins
Almond butter zucchini muffins
Apple and butternut squash muffins
Butternut squash and kale mac and cheese
Veggie mac and cheese muffins
White turkey chili
Hobo stew

Be sure to check out this video, too, to see how easy it is to make some of these leftover baby food recipes! Press play 👇

I would love to hear if you have other ideas for using up leftover baby food! Please share them with me in the comments below!

XO,

Kathryn

P. S. Here’s that one-pager free printable again!

Baby food recipes - step by step recipes with photos on maggi.ru

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Baby food sweets recipe with photo

Baby food sweets

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Cooking time: 3 h 50 min PT3H50M

Too much infant formula left? The question arises: what to do with it? You can cook a delicious treat that will be many times more useful than store-bought sweets. Such a treat can be given to children, but adults will also like it. The cooking process is extremely simple and it is easy to verify this:

1. Put the butter in a small saucepan, pour sugar into it, pour in the specified amount of milk. We put the pan on a slow fire and begin to heat the mixture, stirring occasionally. Butter and sugar should be completely melted. We are waiting for the mixture to boil, and immediately remove the pan from the heat. Leave the contents of the pan alone for 10 minutes. It is not necessary to cover it with a lid - let the mass cool slowly.

2. At this time, wash the hazelnuts (you can use any nuts, pieces of dried fruit or do without the filling at all), dry it with a paper towel.

3. When 10 minutes have passed, start adding baby food in parts, kneading the dough well each time. The mass should become smooth, homogeneous, all the ingredients in it should be well combined.

4. The next stage is the formation of sweets. To do this, we pinch off small pieces from the dough, form balls from them, and put a nut (or other selected filling) inside.

Roll each resulting candy in coconut flakes, which we pour onto a flat plate. Lay the candies on a baking sheet lined with baking paper. We remove the baking sheet with sweets for 2-3 hours in the refrigerator. When this time has passed, the sweets will be ready to serve on the table for tea.

They turn out really tasty - relatives will appreciate it!

Have a warm and cozy tea party with your family!