All 4 of my children’s first taste of food was avocado and sweet potatoes that I introduced when they were about 9-12 months old. I generally make my own baby food until they are old enough to eat table food and enjoy whatever the rest of the family is eating for dinner, but with this 4th baby I’ve just been so busy I’ve been begrudgingly giving him store-bought organic purees in pouches when I’m short on time.
Thankfully, I found an easier option than preparing my own baby food that doesn’t hurt my conscious. It’s called Raised Real.
With 4 kids, one of which has food allergies, it can be challenging to figure out nutritious, healthy meals that everyone will enjoy. Not having to think about what to feed my youngest is a huge relief! It’s easy enough for him to get lost in the shuffle of the chaos trying to keep up with homeschooling, homesteading, and housecleaning. At least I don’t have to worry about what to feed the baby!
What Is Raised Real?
Alright, so Raised Real is basically the best thing to ever happen to busy parents. It’s a baby meal delivery service that arrives at your doorstep with 20 flash frozen, organically-sourced, little meals that are developed by a nutritionist, and curated especially for baby’s growth and development. The box of baby meals are shipped right to your doorstep every 2 weeks but you can change the frequency of deliveries to every 4 or 6 weeks, depending on how much your baby eats.
When your big box of baby meals arrive, just chuck them all into your freezer! When your baby is ready to eat, just pull out a package, steam it for 5-10 mins, sauté it in a pan, or microwave it for 15-30 seconds. It’s that easy!
Best of all, you get to decide how you want to serve it. You can easily puree it once it’s steamed, mash it lightly or leave it whole as finger food for older, more dexterous babies.
Since my baby seems to be a fan of beans, I tried out the meal with black beans in it first. The meal boasted red peppers, black beans, cumin, cilantro, and avocado oil. Each meal comes with a little meal card that tells you how to food is helping your developing baby and the nutrition facts. They also tell you how much water to add if you are using a Beaba Babycook (a baby food steamer which they used to include free with your first box of food when you subscribe, but apparently, do not anymore).
Since I didn’t have a Beaba, and the whole point of a meal delivery service for your baby is simplicity, I decided to try preparing the food in the microwave before pulling out a pot and having one more thing on the stove.
I poured 1/4 of the bag into a microwaveable glass jar, added a splash of water and microwaved it for 15 seconds. It came out perfect! What a relief to have a nutritious, organic meal ready to serve to my baby in seconds with little to no thought. Just my kind of thing!
The beans were soft enough for my baby to pick up with his expert pincer grasp and chew with his 4 little teeth. He’s also enjoying trying to feed himself with his new Beaba First Stage Silicone Spoon so I poured the food into his bblüv Miäm silicone plate so he could just have at it! We’re not afraid of baby led weaning in this house.
Ready to get nerdy? Science has shown that pairing things like bananas and spinach together can actually help babies development. Raised Real takes the time to make meals that not only taste good, but are as healthy as possible for your tiny human. Each meal contains healthy fats and proteins which are proven to help brain, bone, eye, and muscle development. Plus, each meal has only 8 grams or less of sugar. Each box that is delivered to your door is specially curated to make sure that your tiny human will get the balanced variety of food they need for proper development.
Our box came with 4 each of these 5 yummy meals:
None of Raised Real’s meals contain tree nuts, peanuts, shellfish, fish, wheat, dairy, soy, or egg, although some of the meals contain coconut. Most people who are allergic to tree nuts can safely eat coconut though.
They even have a baby food hotline that you can text if you have questions! (Who has time to make a phone call, right?)
Worth it or not?
With anywhere from 6-9 people to cook dinner for every night, Raised Real has made preparing food for my baby simple and brainless. I can quickly prepare food for my youngest in less than 10 minutes without using any brain power, which on most days, I am short on.
While some might argue that it’s easier and cheaper to just mash or puree up whatever the adults are eating and give it to the baby, that HIGHLY depends on what you are eating! If you are a typical American, what you are serving at the dinner table likely has added sugar, salt and even things like preservatives that your baby doesn’t need. If you grow your own food in your backyard and eat only organically, then yes, it might be easier and cheaper for you to make your own baby food if you have time for that. For those of you that can’t buy all your food at Whole Foods or grow it all in your backyard, Raised Real is a real-life solution for busy parents that want the best for their baby. Totally worth it in my opinion.
Promo Code for $25 Off!
If you want to try out Raised Real for yourself, just use my exclusive promo code SARAHB25 to get $25 off your first box of food!
Remember, you can get your box of food delivered every 2, 4 or 6 weeks and can skip shipments if necessary. My youngest is 13 months old and eats like a bird, so we only use about 4 meals a week, so our first box will easily last us for 6 weeks.
Let me know if you have any questions and we’d love to hear what you think of Raised Real if you decide to try them out!
Disclosure: I received a free box of food from Raised Real in exchange for my honest review. All opinions are my own.
Leave us a comment!