Del Monte baby food, yay or nay?

[votre_ami03]

I found Del Monte (& Hienz) @ my local Albertson's. Are these two the same thing? Is Del Monte any good?


Christy, mommy to Nolan 7/22/03

[McQ]

Del Monte bought the baby food division of Heinz last year so my guess (and I stress guess) is it's the same. Neither are offered in my area so I can not address anything specific since we've never tried them. I did read in the Bitching Post a while back about Del Monte raising the prices though.

Allison
~ mommy to Declan 3.24.03

[amp]

They are just now changing the labels from Heinz to Del Monte. I don't think they changed much, except in some areas they did change the price. We used it interchangeably w/ Gerber when DS was smaller. Now that he's eating more foods, he eats a lot of table food and diced Gerber graduates foods, so we've backed off on the pureed foods, and therefore off the Heize/delmonte. We never fed organic babyfood, so these brands worked fine for us and DS never minded them (unless it was peas or green beans, which he didn't like in any brand!)

[peanut4us]

Heinz was awesome and cheap. Del monte bought them and changed the labels and raised prices, significantly. I do wonder if they changed some of their recipes or maybe the distributors they buy their food from because some of the foods look different. For example, the sweet potatoes are a lot darker in color and thicker in consistency. Don't know what to tell you... we started buying gerber, and soon little miss won't be eating jar food at all!

[votre_ami03]

Joey, I noticed that about the sweet potatoes too. They seemed really dark, it almost looked brown in some parts.


Thanks for the tips. I didn't pay too close attention to the price on the Del Monte, I thought it was all Hienz until I got it home. Here (Phoenix), Gerber was .50 & Hienz .47/jar. I don't use a lot of the jarred baby food, but I do have good luck with Nolan eating the cereal that way. He never liked the dry stuff, although I may try again.


Christy, mommy to Nolan 7/22/03

[houseof3boys]

Just microwave a sweet potato and then just smush it up for her. It is so easy and then you can just plop some portions on wax paper or in an ice cube tray and freeze them (then put them in a ziploc when they are frozen).

Not trying to make you make babyfood but sweet potatoes are simple to do and taste yummy and you don't have to worry about the color and the consistency. :)

If it was any more work than this, I wouldn't have posted Joey. :)

I'm a lazy bones about making food lately but this was no real effort at all.

[votre_ami03]

Debbi, I tried that for Nolan & he made the "icky" face. I was wondering if there is a difference between baked & nuked? The reason I ask, at dinner one night we had baked sweet potato & I gave Nolan some fork mased potato & he loved it, ate about a 1/3 of it. I bought one & nuked it & he made the icky face. I did but a sweet potato & not a yam. Maybe it was a bad one?


Christy, mommy to Nolan 7/22/03

[amp]

Debbi (edited because i'm a dork & spelled your name w/ 1 'b') - When you nuke a sweet potato, how long did you do it for? If I dont' puree it, can I freeze it in chunks or whole? I assume you can freeze it since you can freeze baked potatoes.

And Christy - How long did you have to bake a sweet tater? I dont' ever eat them, but DH likes them and DS likes the babyfood kind, so he may be open to fresh baked. Do you do it like an hour like you would a baked tater?

Thanks!

[votre_ami03]

My mom did it, but I do believe it was about an hour. She was cooking regular baked potatoes too. She did put some butter on it too.


Christy, mommy to Nolan 7/22/03

[houseof3boys]

To bake:

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Bake sweet potato (or yams) on a foil-lined pan for 1 hour, turning after 30 minutes. Check for doneness with a fork; it should pierce easily. Cook for another 15 minutes. Set aside until cool enough to handle. Peel off outer skin and strain cooked potato in a food mill or fine gauge strainer. Or just scoop out the flesh and smush it so it is soft and not that lumpy.

To steam:

Sweet Potato Puree (Makes 30 cubes)

2 1/2 pounds sweet potatoes, skin on, cut into 2-inch pieces
Arrange sweet potatoes on a steamer rack in a large pan over 1 inch of water. cover, and bring to a boil. Reduce heat. Steam until tender, about 12 minutes. Pulse in a food processor, or pass through a food mill fitted with a medium disk. Add formula, breast milk, or boiled and cooled water as needed. Fill 1/4-cup plastic containers or ice cube trays with puree. Use same method for new or baking potatoes and any winter squash.



To microwave:

Pierce holes with a fork and micro on high for 7-9 minutes (it really depends on your microwave). I usually put it on a plate in case anything oozes out.

[houseof3boys]

Hmmm, I notice a difference between baked and nuked but Ryan isn't that picky so I don't know. Whatever works for you and Nolan!

It definitely could have been a bad potato. Here's a neat link with some facts I just learned:

http://www.healthypotato.com/

[votre_ami03]

Debbi, You are wonderful! That was very interesting.

Nolan definitely notices a diff, so baked it is. He really love sweet taters though.

Christy, mommy to Nolan 7/22/03

[amp]

Thanks, Debbi!!

[McQ]

Declan loves jarred sweet potatos and HATED mushed real baked sweet potatos. He'd gag and barf like you wouldn't believe. Even though I had mashed it all up he couldn't handle the consistency of it. But I think that's just a thing with him because we're really working on the consistency of his foods because thick/mashed things make him barf.

Allison
~ mommy to Declan 3.24.03