Ella's Kitchen - Apples Apples Apples to keep the Doctor away

My little ones have not been at all well for the past couple of days and it has been difficult to get them interested in food. Then I remembered that I had been sent some smoothie fruit pouches from Ella's Kitchen to review, including the new Apples, Apples, Apples smooth puree - perfect for the season.

Not only are these 100% organic fruit snacks ideal weaning foods, they are also great for lunch boxes and on the move snacks. My kids love them, making a very easy contribution to their 'five a day' fruit and veg requirement.

As I found out today, they are also fantastic for those times when illness strikes and appetites are suppressed. Both children excitedly selected their preferred colour (the Purple One for Dylan and the Yellow One for Addy) and made very short work of them. It did perk them up and I was happy that they were getting a much needed vitamin boost.

As the saying goes An Apple a Day Keeps the Doctor Away. I am hopeful that the Apples Apples Apples variety will do just that. If nothing else, I know that it will bring smiles.

The Orange One

We are already fans of Ella's Kitchen at our house and were happy to try the new variety in their 100% Organic Smoothie Fruit Range - The Orange One.

The Orange One is a blend of tropical flavours - oranges, mangoes, guavas and bananas. This is our video to show what 3 year old Addy thought of it.

The Orange one is available exclusively from Sainsbury's for 69p per pouch.

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For more information on Ella's Kitchen visit their (slightly annoying!) website at http://www.ellaskitchen.co.uk/

World's Worst Mum

I think I must be the world's worst mum.

I went to the Baby Show today at the National Exhibition Centre in Birmingham. All the big names (and some I'd never heard of) in innovative products to make mums' lives easier, more stylish and eco friendly and babies' lives safer and happier, were there exhibiting their wares in a consumer's paradise. There was no shortage of freebies, prize draws and special offers and the main stage had an impressive line up of shows to entertain and inform on such matters as baby first aid and maternity fashions.

Why then did I find it all so mind numbingly boring?

I failed to get excited by the abundance of travel systems and 'essential' baby equipment. I found the talk by the UK's leading expert on Baby Sleep a tad obvious and as for the 'natural rubber bath toys'... in the interest of politeness I will just say they were not to my taste! I also think I might have screamed if one more representative from E-on had asked me who supplies my electricity and gas. Seriously, you couldn't walk anywhere near that particular stand without being accosted.

Perhaps after having six babies, I am a bit jaded with the whole 'new mum' thing. I get on perfectly well with the few baby bits and pieces I have without feeling the need to turn my house into something that looks like the inside of Mothercare. Does this mean my babies are disadvantaged and will grow up in some way different to the children that do have access to the all-singing all-dancing V Tech range and personalised blankets?

When I had my first baby 23 years ago, I was completely and utterly absorbed with her. She occupied every waking moment. A visiting friend once laughed at me when my husband took the baby away to change her nappy and I immediately picked up a pile of photographs of her and started leafing through them. It wasn't even a conscious act. It was an absent minded desire to fill the baby shaped hole that having her taken to another room had left.

It is not the same now. This could be because babies 5 and 6 are a 'second' family - I am more mature and have been through it all already. I am starting again as new mum but I definitely feel the need to maintain a greater sense of me separate from my little ones - if only so that I can stay properly connected to the older children from my first marriage. I adore my little ones with every fibre of my being and all things considered I probably enjoy them more than my 'first time round' babies but they do not dominate my life in quite the same way.

Whatever the psychology behind what I felt today at the Baby Show, the bottom line is I was bored by it.

There were one or two exceptions.

Ella's Kitchen had a lovely stand with a cute vegetable inspired play area that my three year old loved. In fact, she stayed there under the watchful eye of her dad for quite some time while I whizzed around the exhibition hall unencumbered to see all that was on offer. I also loved the Race for Life stand and feel particularly inspired to take part now that I have been given some freebie pink shoe laces! My kids were delighted to be given a little cuddly toy each at the Bobike stand as we were having a good look at some possible solutions for the problem of to how to take two babies safely out cycling. We picked up the catalogue to peruse at our leisure. (The soft toys were cuddled all the way home until sleep loosened their grips).

"Watering" the "vegetables"  with Ella's Kitchen

As well as the Baby Show, the NEC was also hosting something called "Body Power". The trail of people walking from the car parks could be neatly classified into two types. Pregnant ladies/buggy pushers and buff body building types with clothes designed to maximise the visual impact of their exquisitely defined muscles.

Since my Sunday morning trips to the gym have started to include exercises to target particular muscle groups in addition to the cardio-vascular stuff (Dave the personal trainer can be ruthless when it comes to reps) I have noticed a very definite change in the overall look of my body. I can really understand how the whole pumping iron thing can become addictive.  I couldn't help feeling a little envious of what treats the "Body Power" people might have in store for them (demonstrations of super strength, perfect specimens glistening with accentuating oil, exercise gear to be seen in...)

Beautiful as pregnant ladies and babies are, I did crave just a little bit to be surrounded by the hunks of man flesh and the somewhat rarer women body builders in their skimpy lycra.

Yes, this world's worst mum definitely felt like she was at the wrong show!

Ella's Kitchen baby cookies - Review

At 7 months, my baby boy is at an age where he can be kept amused with a tasty snack that he can feed himself. It makes such a difference to how much time I have for me if he can be self contained and happy. However, finding suitable snacks that fit in with a healthy lifestyle is not always easy.

Ella's Kitchen baby cookies are perfect. Made with 100% organic simple ingredients and no added sugar or salt, I can be confident that they are good for my little one.

The cookies are wrapped in twos which is perfect for popping in your handbag when out and about and keeps them fresh.

With only two bottom teeth and newly emerging top front teeth, my boy's ability to bite and chew is a little limited, but the soft texture of Ella's Kitchen baby cookies is just right to provide a challenging chomp without causing frustration.

In true Ella's Kitchen fashion the cookies come in two interesting flavours - apple 'n' ginger and milk 'n' vanilla. My boy made short work of both flavours. They look so appetising that I couldn't resist a little nibble myself. They didn't disappoint.

Ella's Kitchen (review)

It fills me with such pride that in six short months my Baby Boy has grown from this...

... to this...

... with nothing but the nourishment provided by my own body.

He has just cut his first two teeth and is well and truly ready for the adventure of weaning. Having worked so hard to give him the best possible start, I don't want to spoil it now by feeding him any old rubbish. I want to continue to give him the very best I can in terms of quality, variety and taste.

The Ella's Kitchen range of organic weaning foods ticks all my boxes. The company ethos of "an ethical outlook with a passionate core" sits well with my own values and the idea of a product that prioritises health and nutritional value but not at the expense of taste or convenience is exactly what I am looking for to introduce my baby to the exciting world of solid foods.

Ella's Kitchen have given me the following products to try:

stage 1 baby food

baby brekkie

baby cookies

smoothie fruits

As a vegetarian, I have struggled in the past to find much variety in convenience baby food. That is certainly no longer true with 10 varieties to choose from in the Ella's Kitchen stage 1 baby food range alone. Each of the 10 variations contains only organic pureed fruit and vegetables in some familiar and some most unusual combinations.  The purees are packaged in colourful, illustrated pouches that are easily identifiable and very appealing. The pouches are re-sealable and so easy to pop into a handbag or pocket for meals on the go.

I absolutely love this range of weaning food. I have had a little taste and they honestly do have a 'real food' feel, like you could have pureed it yourself. I am 100% satisfied with the quality and have complete faith in the nutritional content.  Convenience wise, I cannot fault it - but the most important question is, what does Baby Boy think of it? Here is the answer:

I have been using powdered baby cereal for the first meal of the day but most varieties give the instruction to 'mix with baby's usual milk'. For an exclusively breast fed baby, this sends me down a path I have no desire to tread, so, I mix with boiled water which immediately makes me feel that as breakfasts go, this one is nutritionally deficient. More often than not, my boiled water will still be a bit hot resulting in a rather unappetising, lumpy mess which then solidifies as it cools and sticks to the spoon like glue. I don't even want to think what it might do to the poor infant's digestive tract. 

The Ella's Kitchen baby brekkie in three fruity varieties mixed with rice and yoghurt have none of the disadvantages I have described. They do work out more expensive than the powdered cereals which must be a consideration when making a choice but I like to try and make superior products available to my children whenever possible. Once the baby is a little more adept with finger foods, I think a small portion of the brekkie served with toast would make a lovely start to the morning. Organic, smooth, convenient and appetising, but what was Baby Boy's verdict?

The baby cookies carry an age recommendation of 7 months so I shall be waiting a few more weeks before allowing the Boy to sample their delights (he might be slightly better equipped in the dental department to deal with them by then). 

The smoothie fruits are suitable for babies but Ella's kitchen urges caution in case of allergic reactions, in particular to kiwi fruit.

I gave a Smoothie Fruit pouch to my 2 year old daughter who was very interested in what her brother was eating. It can be a job to get her to eat fruit so I was delighted when she pronounced the Purple One to be "yummy". It did look so good that we ended up feeding some to the Baby Boy anyway, who enjoyed every spoonful. The 2 year old loved being able to suck it directly from the pouch. It is going to be a very easy, non wasteful way of ensuring that she is getting a good range of different fruits with all the nutritional advantages that offers.

In summary, I really wanted to be impressed by this range that seems to offer everything I want from a company and for my children. I was not disappointed. For this, and for the approval granted by two of  the most important people in my world, Ella's Kitchen have definitely earned a regular place in my weekly shopping trolley.