Baby Gourmet Creative Combo Purées & Mushies: Review & Giveaway! (Closed)

Baby Gourmet is an organic baby food company with Canadian roots offering a wide variety of tasty, nutritious and convenient meals and snacks for little ones. Although we've historically made most of our baby food from scratch, there have been times when we've appreciated having "ready to go" options (e.g., while out and about,travelling, etc.) and, in these cases, Baby Gourmet's been our go-to brand. Our daughter has enjoyed various purées from their Simply Smart and Squoosh lines, and earlier this year when our son CJ was starting solids, I partnered with the company to review their Creamy Brown Rice Cereal.

Today I'll be sharing my thoughts on two other Baby Gourmet products I've most recently had the chance to test out - Creative Combos Purées and Mushies. Both are designed for babies 8+ months old, so the timing was perfect as our little man had just passed this milestone himself when I received my review package.

We got to test two of the five available Creative Combos flavours (Fruity Carrot & Greek Yogurt Smoothie, and Vanilla Banana Berry Risotto) and both flavours of Mushies (Banana Berry Greek Yogurt and Fruity Greens).


Product Info: Creative Combos Purées

At around eight months, your baby is ready for a new taste adventure.  At this age, babies like to feel the difference in textures.  Our Creative Combos deliver enhanced texture in our fruit & veggie recipes.


Fruity Carrot & Greek Yogurt Smoothie

Greek yogurt is perfect for babies because of the creamy texture and most importantly for the protein content. Jen`s kids love smoothies and a scoop of Greek yogurt always makes it way into the blender. Think healthy, natural creamsicle when you eat this one...yum!!!

Advantages:

• No added sugar or salt
• No fillers or thickeners
• BPA-free
• No gluten
• Kosher

Complete Recipe List:

• Organic Mango
• Organic Banana
• Organic Apple
• Organic Greek Yogurt
• Organic Carrot
• Organic Orange Juice Concentrate
• Organic Lemon Juice Concentrate
• Ascorbic Acid

Vanilla Banana Berry Risotto

Jen makes delicious vanilla bean rice pudding for her family and modifies it for baby by removing dairy and adding bananas and blueberries

 

Advantages:

• Organic
• 65% Daily Value Vitamin C
• No Added Sugar
• No Added Salt
• Nut Free
• No Fillers
• Kosher
• BPA Free Packaging

Complete Recipe List:

• Organic Banana
• Organic Apple
• Organic Brown Rice
• Water
• Organic Blueberry
• Pure Organic Vanilla Extract
• Ascorbic Acid
• Organic Lemon Juice Concentrate

My Review: Creative Combos Purées

Having tried (and thoroughly enjoyed) many of Baby Gourmet's other purées, we had high expectations for these ones, and they definitely didn't disappoint!

Taste-wise, both are flavourful and delicious. The ingredient combos work well together and the main flavours all come through. The Fruity Carrot & Greek Yogurt Smoothie is sweet and a little tangy, and the Vanilla Berry Banana Risotto is, well, very vanilla berry banana-y. (Shocker, right?) Both taste natural and "real", and neither is cloyingly sweet.

The VBBR is the more "interesting" of the two, texture-wise. The brown rice in it is moderately blended (as though it's been pulsed a couple times through a processor), yielding a chunky consistency that's adventurous but still totally manageable for the toothless folk.

 

The FCGY is smooth, but thicker and creamier than the 6-7 month purées we've tried.

I like to serve both combos mainly as snacks on the run, but sometimes I'll bust 'em out at home after meals, as a special treat. Both of my kids go a little cuckoo when they see one. CJ gives it the crazy "I want you!" eyes, and S inevitably pleads "Can I have some????" So it works out well - Ceej gets the first half and then S polishes it off, which (mostly) pleases both and helps ensure neither is over-fruit-sugared. (Particularly key for the FCGY, which has 22 grams per pouch.) An open package does last for 24+ hours in the fridge, however, which comes in handy when the little guy and I are snackin' alone.

On the few occasions we've allowed him to gulp down a whole pack in one sitting, it's taken him all of about 42 seconds. That's mommy's little competitive eater!

Overall, Baby Gourmet's definitely whipped up another healthy, tasty winner with their Creative Combos. (Heck, I may or may not have even slurped down a pouch (or two) myself - shhhhh! :)


Product Info: Mushies

For little mouths just discovering new textures and flavors, Mushies are the next step in developing a taste for good food. These freeze-dried packets of healthy bite-sized snacks have no added sugar or anything artificial – just pure, top quality organic ingredients. Perfect for babies and toddlers.


Banana Berry Greek Yogurt

Babies love our Vanilla Banana Berry Risotto, so Jen replaced the rice with protein-packed Greek Yogurt to give a creamy texture. Like all Mushies, Banana Berry Greek Yogurt is freeze dried with nothing artificial and no added sugar, a perfect melt in your mouth snack for self feeding babies.

 

Advantages:

• Perfect for little fingers
• No Added Sugar
• Nothing Artificial
• Only the best ingredients
• BPA Free Packaging
• Kosher

Complete Recipe List:

• Cultured Organic Milk
• Organic Skim Milk
• Organic Banana
• Organic Blueberry
• Organic White Grape Juice Concentrate
• Organic Whey Protein Concentrate
• Organic Tapioca Starch
• Citric Acid
• Mixed Tocopherols
• Ascorbic Acid

Fruity Greens

Inspired by the popularity of Juicy Pear & Garden Green baby food, Jen added the goodness of Kale and then freeze dried the new recipe into melt-in your mouth, bite-sized bits of fun that babies love to feed themselves. Another great way to help baby develop a love for green veggies!

Advantages:

• Perfect for little fingers
• No Added Sugar
• Nothing Artificial
• Only the best ingredients
• BPA Free Packaging
• Kosher
• Organic

Complete Recipe List:

• Organic Banana
• Organic Apple
• Organic Spinach
• Organic Pregelatinized Tapioca Starch
• Organic Kale
• Citric Acid
• Ascorbic Acid

My Review: Mushies

Mushies is Baby Gourmet's newest product line, launched this past June.When my BG contact first mentioned it to me, for some reason I assumed it would be a chewy snack and thus wondered how it would be safe for a toothless 8-month-old. Well, I assumed wrong. (And, clearly I didn't read the product description ahead of time, or the "freeze dried" bit would've steered me in the right direction!)

In actuality, Mushies are reminiscent of mini meringue cookies. They start out lightweight and solid, and then instantly crumble and melt in your mouth. So definitely no choking hazard here.

Here's a recommended(ish) serving size of Mushies including both flavours. I'm willing to bet you can tell which type is which. :)

Mushies are the perfect size for little fingers, and the dry texture makes them easy to grip.

OK, so that's all good - but how do they taste? Pretty darn good, I have to say! The Banana Berry Greek Yogurt is creamy with a subtle sweetness, and the Fruity Greens remind me of our morning green smoothies. The spinach comes through fairly assertively (which I like!), but it's tempered nicely by the apple and banana for an overall pleasing experience. Both our kids gulp down each flavour like there's no tomorrow!

Another thing I love about this snack is that it's essentially mess-free. You can't say that about too many things that are consumed by almost-one-year-olds!

I also like that each package contains about 3-4 servings. Big enough to share with friends, but small enough for a single child to consume before losing its freshness (i.e. within the recommended 5-7 day window).

The only thing I'm not overly thrilled with is the presence of a few funky ingredients (e.g., mixed tocopherols and pregelatinized tapioca starch) but everything appears to check out OK from a safety standpoint so I can deal. :)

Overall, I've gotta hand it to Baby Gourmet yet again. Mushies are a nutritious, fun, tasty, safe and accessible snack for new self-feeders (and their older siblings, who'll want in on the action too!) Definitely a great option to have kicking around your pantry.

Buy It: 

Visit the store locator to find a store which sells Creative Combos, Mushies and other Baby Gourmet Products near you!

Win It:

Two lucky Manager to Mom readers will each win a 12-pack of Creative Combos and an 8-pack of Mushies! (Note - flavours will be chosen by Baby Gourmet based on availability.) Open to CANADA ONLY.

To enter, fill out the Rafflecopter form below. Please follow all instructions within each entry option to ensure your entries are valid.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Disclosure:  The prize is being provided and shipped to the winner by Baby Gourmet.  I received no financial compensation for writing my review or offering this giveaway, although I did receive the sample items free of charge.  This is my completely honest opinion above and may be different from yours.