Piccolo baby food subscription box

There have been (many!) stressful things about giving birth in lockdown - but when my baby turned six months and another lockdown loomed, I started to worry again! In her first months, where I worried about sourcing my next slot from Ocado/Tesco/random farm someone's said has spare capacity on Facebook, at least I knew my babe wouldn't go hungry as all her food came from my boobs. 

Not so when weaning beckoned and a food delivery slot once again became as rare as a parent happy that schools were shut. So when Cat, the founder of Piccolo, a baby food brand I've written about a few times at work, and told me about her new subscription service.. I was excited!

It works like this: you fill in a cute form about your baby - what you want them to eat, what kind of milk they have, any allergies, your lifestyle (ha, I yearn for the days when I had a lifestyle beyond up-play-school-walk-bed!)  and each month, or as often as you want, you receive 35-40 servings of meals and snacks.

You can pick between Piccolo's amazing organic pouches, or their cooking range (think baby-friendly stock, tiny pasta, tons-of-vegetables sauces), and milk too if you're after formula. It all arrives in a big box (which incidentally is an excellent hour's activity for kids if you brand it a spaceship/car garage/etc!).

Our box was a lifeline: I've currently got three kids at home, the baby, her toddler brother, and her five-year-old big brother, and it's.... chaos! To know that the baby's meals can be grabbed from the subscription box whenever the day has been a bit too long, or I'm knackered, or we're going for a pizza and it's not baby-appropriate, is a big relief. Especially as I've met Piccolo's founder Cat a few times and totally trust that the food is nutritious, goof stuff. 

Initially, there was a but... My babe refused to eat purees or pouches! This was GREAT, obviously as I'd prepared about 90 different puree varieties in the freezer before learning this. But even so I found Piccolo's stash was super helpful as I could use vegetable pouches to make really healthy muffins, packed with veg and they only took five minutes to make (seriously - recipe below!). The tiny pasta and sauces are so useful too for baby-led weaners. And there's currently 25% off with the code FIRSTORDER25.

Baby muffins for BLW made from Piccolo pouches

Ingredients:

2 x Piccolo vegetable pouches - I often go for carrot, sweet potato and butternut squash

2 eggs

150g wholemeal flour

100g melted butter

1 teaspoon baking powder

30-50g grated cheese

Method:

Preheat the oven to 180 degrees. 

Mix together all the ingredients apart from the cheese. Pour into small muffin cases (I usually get 20-25 portions). Sprinkle the cheese on top of each muffin. 

Bake for 15m.

They last about three days, so I usually freeze half the batch, then just remove one or two from the freezer in the morning and it's ready for lunch or supper. 

They're really great for when you're eating out in a park or picnicking with older kids and the baby can eat a healthy muffin from their buggy (expect all the mess though, obviously!) 

Enjoy!

* we were sent a review box but rest assured, we're seriously gobby and only rave about things we really love