Baby Food

[jschyun]

I admit that as an adult, I used to eat those toddler sized chicken sticks (just like vienna sausages, except with less salt). My best friend watched me eat them once and said it was the most disgusting thing he ever saw me eat.

I was kind of curious if anyone else ate stuff packaged for babies.

[hjshorter]

I love Zweiback.

[Raynickben]

I used to love the pureed apricots before I had kids. After......not so much.

I've got to tell you that just opening the jar of meat sticks made me gag. Eating it? No can do.

[Al_Dente]

I used to love the pureed apricots before I had kids.  After......not so much.

I've got to tell you that just opening the jar of meat sticks made me gag.  Eating it?  No can do.

Mmmmm..... jar of meat sticks.....

(a la Homer)

[fifi]

When my daughter was little we used to feed her Gerber's Junior Blueberry Buckle. We loved that stuff. It was really good spooned over ice cream. I haven't been able to find it for years. I have used warmed raspberry cobbler over bread pudding. A friend was over and had a jar in her baby bag. I had leftover bread pudding that we warmed up for a snack... looked at the jar... hmmm... it was pretty good.

[beegew]

Mother always had a case of Gerber's 'Cereal, Eggs, and Bacon, Junior' on hand for us as teenagers. It was just yummy, lots of smokey bacon flavor and perfectly seasoned. Two jars each, dumped in a bowl, popped in the microwave, on a frigid New Jersey morning, was just the ticket. Hands down better than a bowl of oatmeal or cold cereal! Then, inexplicably, the flavor and consistancy changed. The smoke vanished, along with about a gazillion grams of sodium, and it became 'cereal and eggs'. Gack! (Just like when they changed the Twinkies spongecake, but that's a whole 'nuther tale of childhood trauma....) But, to this day, we have Junior bananas and peaches in the cupboard. The bananas came in particularly handy when our son was running cross country in high school. (The potassium count is through the roof, and that little jar packs quite a nutritional wallop, not to mention the convenience.) I adore them or the peaches for a sweet treat that's low on additives.

Now the meat sticks are a whole 'nuther story. Great for toddler finger food, but too close to Vienna Snausages for me to even consider a nibble.

[SethG]

I almost started this exact thread a week ago, then searched the archives and found at least one thread in which everyone said how disgusting baby food is. So I held my tongue.

But now I can come clean. I have eaten lots of jarred baby food since we had a baby. Yes, the meats are revolting. But, especially in the organic lines (Gerber's Tender Harvest, Nature's Best, and there's another good one I can't remember now), the fruits taste fine. Pears, apples, peaches. All pretty tasty. And the sweet potatoes and squashes aren't bad either.

I don't think I ever popped open a jar because I really wanted it, but there were definitely times when I was feeding my daughter and said to her "You gonna finish that?"

As a father, I've had many opportunities to drink breast milk too, but that's another story.

Okay, sickos, I'll tell you. You're SUPPOSED to taste it before you feed it to your child. You take it out of the freezer, thaw it out, and taste it to make sure it hasn't spoiled. Then you let your child drink it.

[Carolyn Tillie]

Until my mid-twenties, once every other year or so I would buy and eat a jar of Plum B.F. Haven't even thought about these past fifteen years until this thread, but the memory is still relatively pleasant. It was just decent, not-very-sweet, concentrated Plum flavor that didn't (doesn't?) exist in any other product that I am aware of...

[tryska]

i like gerber banana.

[Mottmott]

I confess to not having tasted baby food since my kids were babies.

I was feeding my aging cats baby food meats during their last years, but was never tempted to taste it. It was odd, though. Sometimes they'd "refuse" a jar. It made me wonder if some of these jars might be "off." I think I'd never feed the stuff to babies, but just grind my own.

[FistFullaRoux]

I'll admit to still having a soft spot (no pun intended) for Gerber's tapioca pudding. There's just something about it. My wife is about to have gastric bypass surgery, so we've been doing tastings, since she'll have to be on it for a little while, at least. Most of it is OK, but the meat products are just foul. She's seriously considering silken tofu (possibly mixed with MetRx) as a primary protein source.

And regarding the breast milk thing brought up earlier, I keep having this strange question running through my head... Could you make cheese with it?

[Raynickben]

Breast milk cheese? Oh my g-d.

I do have one point to bring up....as tasty as the baby fruit jars are they are so damn expensive!!! Don't you just lose it when you open up a new jar and the baby takes two bites and that's it? You can't save it for later

[Kim WB]

shhhhhhh..my older son is 16 and a very picky eater..I mean terrible. Always has been, always will be. Won't eat real pasta sauces, will eat ragu jarred sauce in tiny quantites. I buy baby food carrots or squash, and add it into the sauce. He mostly eats all white or beige food, so I can't do it often, if I'm lucky twice a week. Sometimes it backfires, casue I'll heat upt he sauce, and he'll decide he just wants butter on his pasta.

With a house of teens, once my daughter asked why we had baby food in the back back back shelf of the pantry. I told her it was on sale, and I bought it for my sister, who has little ones. They believed me, but now I hide it better

[hjshorter]

And regarding the breast milk thing brought up earlier, I keep having this strange question running through my head... Could you make cheese with it? 

Probably. Just leave a bottle under the seat of your car for a week, like I did. We did not even bother opening it to wash - it went straight into the trash.

And yes, you are supposed to taste it after thawing. That always gave me the creeps for some reason.

[NeroW]

I like Gerber banana, plum, and pear.

I keep on trying to think of legitimate uses for them, but I can't.

[guajolote]

I like Gerber banana, plum, and pear.

Now I know what to get you for your birthday.

[Raynickben]

I like Gerber banana, plum, and pear.

I keep on trying to think of legitimate uses for them, but I can't.

I did use a couple of jars of the banana in place of "real" bananas in a banana bread. It worked pretty well but lacked that strong banana flavor. But hey...I was able to use them without throwing away $$$.

[mfkWisher]

Gerbers' Dutch Apple Dessert. Used to eat it on the sly (after lunch, in a shady corner of the playground) until the end of 1st grade.

[snowangel]

I find this amazing. I have three kids (now 13, 9 and 7) and NEVER bought any baby food Diana's first food, at 6 toothless months, was bratwurst with brown mustard. Her second food was pad thai.

[jschyun]

I find this amazing.  I have three kids (now 13, 9 and 7) and NEVER bought any baby food Diana's first food, at 6 toothless months, was bratwurst with brown mustard.  Her second food was pad thai.

What's funny is the fact that my mother never used baby food. Never. She didn't trust it so she scraped up bananas herself and fed them to us, ground up rice and made a gruel, made applesauce on a little grater...you get the picture.

I started eating those toddler sausages as an adult because they looked like vienna sausages and I love vienna sausages. Signs that say "for toddlers age 2-3" don't dissuade me from eating them.

[havemycake]

What a cool thread!

I am as yet childless, but have helped feed numerous cousins, neices and nephews. I love strained bananas and strained apricots as well as Pablum.Blueberries are good too. Although they taste in no way like the real thing!

The savory stuff is gross in my opinion.

[The_Happy_Phantom]

And regarding the breast milk thing brought up earlier, I keep having this strange question running through my head... Could you make cheese with it?

Someone who's name escapes me at the moment (and it's beginning to tick me off) actually looked into human breast milk cheese - the expert he/she consulted said it would be possible, but not very tasty. Anyone care to experiment?

[MHesse]

A couple of nights ago, on FoodTV, there was a small piece about an amateur museum of all food sold in the US. Apparently, Gerber had a line of jarred food intended for for adults that it sold in the 50s or 60s. Sorry, can't remember the name, and a brief net search didn't turn up anything. The product line was not succesful and was quickly discontinued.

The museum had other strange items, such as eggs that were made in the toaster.

--mh

[canoodle]

It was Gerbers Singles. Yeah, right. Make people feel alienated, alone and pathetic by naming your products "singles"

[Carema]

And regarding the breast milk thing brought up earlier, I keep having this strange question running through my head... Could you make cheese with it?  

Probably. Just leave a bottle under the seat of your car for a week, like I did. We did not even bother opening it to wash - it went straight into the trash.

And yes, you are supposed to taste it after thawing. That always gave me the creeps for some reason.

Human breast milk is high in sugar and low in fat. It probably would not make very good cheese. It is amazing to me that everyone is willing to feed baby things that seem "disgusting, gross, or weird". No baby or adult human should really be eating that shit, should they? You can steam all manner of vegtable, smash it and freeze in ice cubes trays. You could even thaw these out in baby food jars if that would seem more comfortable. This is a food forum. Not a processed crap forum. What a disservice we are paying our children.

PS: If you are not willing to taste human breast milk, what kind of a foodie are you. It is usually free (unless you take out an ad) and it is interesting and more disgestable than cow, sheep, or goat milk.

Edited September 27, 2003 by Carema (log)