Review & Giveaway: Fresh Baby So Easy Baby Food Kit & Toddler Cook Book

As I have mentioned before, I am going to try to make my own baby food with Emma. My goal is not to use ANY jarred food. This way I know what is going into her food and I don't have to worry about preservatives or artificial flavoring or other yucky things that they can put in baby food. 

I contacted Fresh Baby, who sells products and cookbooks to make homemade food a breeze for parents, and they were kind enough to send us out the So Easy Baby Food Kit and Toddler Cookbook to try out!

The Product: Fresh Baby So Easy Baby Food Kit (Includes: cookbook, how-to video, freezer storage trays, and nutrition tips card leave you with only one thing to add - fresh ingredients!) and Toddler Cookbook.

The Price: So Easy Baby Food Kit: $37.95, Toddler Cookbook: $8.95

The Company: "Reminiscent of the movie, “Baby Boom”, starring Diane Keaton, Fresh Baby is the inspiration of two sisters, Joan Ahlers and Cheryl Tallman, who live in rural parts of The United States, thousands of miles apart. In raising their children, they could not identify all-natural alternatives for healthy and hassle-free feeding. Drawing upon their own concerns as parents, the two women began developing products for today's busy parents and caregivers with a product line that includes: homemade baby food kits, baby food cookbooks, baby food and breast milk storage trays, breastfeeding reminders, and child development diaries. Since its inception in October 2002, Fresh Baby has leveraged the ever-increasing consumer interest in natural living and healthy eating to curb the childhood obesity epidemic plaguing the nation. Through the development of products that encourage breastfeeding and developing children's healthy eating habits, Fresh Baby is helping parents proactively respond to this healthcare crisis.


Selected by Entrepreneur Magazine as a “Hot Company to watch in 2004”, Fresh Baby is a company on the move. It’s approach, expertise, and thinking has been tapped by major media outlets, including The Daily Buzz, Fit Pregnancy, Organic Style, Scholastic Parent & Child, The Boston Globe, The Detroit Free Press, and many other print, radio and TV outlets. Fresh Baby has an iParenting award and was one of five finalists in the new product awards at the 2004 Natural Products Show.


Helping parents raise healthy kids: 
 
The facts are disturbing. One in six children attending school today are obese. The number of obese preschoolers has doubled in the last 3 decades and 30-40% of these children are now at risk of developing Type 2 Diabetes. More alarming still, a staggering 80% of overweight children will grow up to be obese adults. Tallman and Ahlers believe one of the keys to solving this healthcare crisis lies with parents.
With research concluding that children's eating preferences are established by age 3, it is clear that parents play a crucial role in getting their children off to the right start. Fresh Baby was founded on the belief that all parents want to raise healthy children, but when it comes to healthy eating habits, they lack the tools, skills, and knowledge needed to be effective.


Fresh Baby's commitment to equipping parents goes beyond product sales. Their monthly newsletter, Fresh Ideas, is completely free and packed with family-friendly recipes and tips on healthy eating for the whole family. Cheryl and Joan also volunteer their time speaking to groups of new parents on subjects such as introducing solid foods, making baby food, and raising a healthy eater.


Making fresh, natural foods easy, convenient, and fun: 

Both Cheryl and Joan started out by making food for their own children and found that it was actually easy with a few simple tools. And interestingly, once they got started making baby food, it was really quite convenient. All total, it took about 30 minutes a week. The So Easy Baby Food Kit is the result of this experience and much research. The kit provides families with everything they need to create homemade meals for their babies. Just open the box and get started.


Fresh Baby puts a modern twist on the conventional wisdom that when you make it yourself, you know it’s better. From writing easy-to-follow, tasty recipes for using fresh ingredients, to recommending simple activities that build good eating habits, to answering all the questions and eliminating the guesswork, Fresh Baby has thought of it all.


Fresh Baby Goal


“The ultimate goal of Fresh Baby is to have our name synonymous with family-friendly healthy eating." says co-founder Cheryl Tallman. Over time, Fresh Baby will offer a complete array of products for newborn through school-aged children that support parents in developing good eating habits for their children and thereby reduce their children’s risk of obesity."

Mommy Thinks: I used the trays, which are BPA Free and phthalate-free, to make Riley some frozen fruit cubes and also froze some breast milk to use when we start feeding Emma solids! I love that they are made in the USA! The tip cards, cookbook, and DVD are all useful! They offer up lots of information I wish I had when I started Riley on solids. They offers information such as vitamins in each fruit and veggie and organic vs. non organic. This is definitely great for first time parents if they want all of the info in one place! :)

We tried out tons of recipes from the Toddler Cookbook! This is exactly what I was looking for! Riley gets bored with the same food over and over again!

 

Riley Thinks: Lately, Riley has been refusing to eat foods that would normally appeal to him so I was excited to try something new to give him! His favorite recipes out of the Toddler Cookbook were the Blackbean soup, Broccoli & Rice Casserole, and the Green Bean Casserole (this was Kyle's favorite too!). Oh! And there is a topic for "Converting Picky Eaters" that I just loved!

What we would like to see more of: I would love to see a "Party Foods" Cookbook!

The Giveaway: Now for the giveaway!!! Tasty Baby has offered one lucky Chubby Cheeks Reader the same products I received (So Easy Baby Food Kit AND Toddler Cookbook)!

HOW TO WIN:

Please make sure you leave your email address or I won't be able to contact you. If it is linked on your blog profile please double check to make sure that it is not private. I do check to make sure that every task is completed so please make sure you remember to do what you posted! And please remember that there is only ONE mandatory entry. The other ones are just for fun and to give you a better shot at winning!

Mandatory Entry:

This entry must be completed or all of your other ones will be deleted!

Visit Fresh Baby and tell me something you learned from their website!

Bonus Entries: 

1. Follow Chubby Cheeks via Google Connect over there on the right sidebar

2. Become a fan of Chubby Cheeks Thinks on Facebook

3.Follow me on Twitter & tweet about this giveaway leaving the link in a comment (you can tweet once a day and grab an extra entry!)

"@chubbycheeks143 is giving away a So Easy Food Kit & Toddler Cookbook! I want to win! http://tiny.cc/fev2w"  
 

4. Subscribe to Fresh Baby's Newsletter via email.

5. Subscribe to Fresh Baby's Blog via email.

6. Subscribe to my blog via email

7. Blog about this giveaway and leave a link to it

8. Grab my button for your blog and leave a link where it can be found (left side of this page)

9. Enter this giveaway in a Linky and leave the link in a comment here

10. Enter in any of my other giveaways and leave a comment here (please leave a comment for each giveaway you entered)

Don't want to wait for the giveaway to end? You can purchase Fresh Baby Product on their website, Amazon and other various retailers!

Open to the US only!

This giveaway will end on May 22, 2010 at 11:59 pm EST. Random.org will select the winner. I will contact you by email (please post with comments if it is not on your profile). You will have 48 hours to respond before a new winner is picked.Good luck!

Disclosure: I received the products mentioned above to review free of charge (Thanks to Fresh Baby). No monetary compensation was received by me. This is my completely honest opinion above and may differ from yours.