Welcome to my 100th post! It has been a really fun journey for me thus far, throwing my two cents into the blogiverse about terrific products and services I have found that work for me as a new mom. Thank you so much for joining me. Your presence (and your comments!) mean more to me than I can even express.

In celebration of hitting this blogging milestone, I have an INCREDIBLE review and giveaway for you today. It is my great pleasure to introduce you to a product that has been given prime kitchen real estate in our home over the past 6 weeks. Meet the Babycook by Beaba.

The Beaba Babycook food maker, put out by Scandinavian Child, is a fabulous system that steams, purees, reheats AND defrosts baby food. Seriously, one little machine does all of these things for you. I didn’t really understand why having a product that could do all of these things really mattered until Darah started on her solid food journey. If you are going to be starting your baby on solid foods in the near future, let me explain some of the things that you are going to need to consider and do, and this will help you see just how awesome the Babycook really is.

First, you need to decide if you want to make your own baby food. I’m a working mom, so at first I assumed that I wouldn’t have time to prepare Darah’s food myself. I started researching what goes into jarred foods, and most of them are FILLED with preservatives and, depending on the fruit or vegetable, lots of pesticides. Furthermore, they don’t taste fresh. There are some organic jarred foods, and those are definitely improvements. However, the cost for those foods really adds up! I noticed that it would be easy for me to spend $10-15 each week on jarred organic food for Darah. After talking with other moms, I realized that if I had the right equipment, I could make Darah’s food myself, using fresh organic items, for a fraction of what it would cost me to purchase jarred food.

After you decide to give making your own food a shot, you will need to get cooking! The vast majority of baby food recipes call for you to steam the fruits or veggies and then puree them. You can see where you will quickly be making a big mess in your kitchen by getting out your pots to steam, and then lugging out your big food processor (assuming you even have one) for the pureeing. In many cases, simply fork-mashing the food isn’t sufficient, so that’s not really a good alternative.

If you make a large batch of food at one time (and I would definitely recommend that) you are going to need to freeze it so that it will last. And this, of course, means that you are going to need to defrost it later. Some people are a little bit uncomfortable with using microwaves on their babies’ food, and if you feel that way, then having the Babycook ready to defrost the food for you is awesome. Furthermore, if you added breast milk to the baby food in order to thin it out, then microwaving the food when you reheat it is out of the question. I personally am not against using a microwave, but I do add breast milk to the food. I guess that wouldn’t really have been an option for me if I didn’t have the Babycook, because I don’t know how I would have heated up the food once I added the milk!

If you don’t have a food processor and you want to make your own baby food, this is an absolute must. I have a food processor, but I still consider this product to be essential for me! I absolutely love how I can handle all aspects of cooking and preparing this food in one container. I also like just how easy it is to go through all the steps. Let me walk you through the process for making carrots.

The Babycook comes with instructions that tell you how much water you will need to use when steaming. You may need to fill the water line to 1, 2 or 3. You’ll noticed that I missed the mark just a bit, but that’s because my batch of food was on the small side.

Once you have the right amount of water, you will add it to the tower of the machine and close the lid. Then you add your food to the steam basket, close the lid, secure it onto the base of the machine, and turn on the steamer. Watch the clock or set a timer so that you will know when to turn it off (my one suggestion to Beaba is that they add a timer to the machine, itself.)

Once your food is cooked, remove the steam basket and dump the food back into the blender base. Reattach the lid and turn on the blend button. You can make your food as smooth or as chunky as you like, and that will all depend on your baby’s age. Darah still needs her food to be on the smooth side. That’s all it takes to make food that is absolutely excellent for your baby!

So far I have used the Babycook to make pears, bananas
mangoes, avocados, sweet potatoes, squash, carrots and peas. Every weekend I make 1 or 2 things for Darah to try out during the following week. This has honestly been a really fun experience for me, and the Beaba Babycook has made it easy. Grocery shopping has become a fun adventure, and so far (knock on wood), Darah has enjoyed every food she has been offered. I’m so happy that I am able to provide her with organic, fresh food that is made with a whole lot of love and not a whole lot of time!

Edit: This giveaway is now CLOSED.
Buy It! I wholeheartedly believe that the Beaba Babycook is an investment worth making. You can purchase one on Amazon for under $100. It will last through all your child-rearing years, and will be ready for you to pass along to a friend or family member when you are finished using it!

Win It! Scandinavian Child is celebrating with me today by offering one lucky Stuff Parents Need reader a Babycook in the new color that is about to hit the shelves, latte! In addition, you will receive a Babycook Book, hot off the press! Can you believe it?! The contest will run until Sunday, March 20th at 7:59pm CST. A winner will be randomly selected and emailed, and will have 48 hours to claim their prize. Open to residents of the United States.

Mandatory Entry: Tell me why you need the Beaba Babycook in your home, and what you would make first in it!

Additional Entries:

1. Subscribe to my blog via RSS or email
2. Follow me through Google connect
3. Put my button on your blog and leave a url where I can find it
4. Subscribe to the Scandinavian Child blog, and if you add their button to your blog, leave your url and this will be worth an extra entry (1 entry for subscribing, and 1 entry for adding the button)
5. Become a fan of Scandinavian Child on Facebook
6. Follow Stuff Parents Need on Twitter (leave your Twitter ID)
7. Follow Scandinavian Child on Twitter (leave your Twitter ID)
8. Enter any other currently open giveaway on my site (one extra entry per giveaway that you enter)

Disclosure: I was provided with a product sample for review purposes. The opinions expressed here are strictly my own.