Wednesday, January 29, 2014

Homemade baby food fruit roll ups

Okay, so I have struggled recently with all the left over baby food that my baby wouldn't eat. I got a ton on WIC, and even though I gave a ton away, we still have a cabinet full of baby food. So I decided to try to find recipes that will use the jarred baby food fruits up, and that are still actually edible. If you have these problems, let me present: 

Baby food fruit leather roll ups!

Seriously, it sounds disgusting. I know. But I am so pleased to tell you that you cannot taste the baby food in these, and they are healthy and yummy.  

The recipe is so versatile, that you can use pretty much any combo of fresh fruits and jarred baby food.
So here is what I did to make these yummy homemade fruit leathers: (When I cook/bake/make things, I am very non precise. I throw a little bit of this and a little bit of that in and then hope it turns out... so I apologize in advance for the un-precise measurements!)
I only have two trays for fruit leathers in my dehydrator, so I usually do individual batches rather than a big batch. Because of this, I like to use my individual sized blender, as it makes the perfect amount, and I don't have to haul out the big blender each time I make a batch.
I start out with a fruit juice of some sort. Apple, pineapple or any combo work great. In the following recipe I used apple. 
I like to use a little bit of fresh/frozen fruits for the fruit leathers texture. If you just use baby food, the texture is extremely soft and smooth, and I like the regular texture of fruit leather, so I stick with adding some fresh fruit. For these two batches I used frozen strawberries, fresh bananas and fresh pineapple chunks.
If you are like me, and like things extremely sweet, you will need some sort of sweetener, I just use regular ol sugar, but you could use anything that makes you happy. 
And now for the baby food. I always throw in a few different combos, and like to mix and match and try to have my husband guess what is inside. For these two batches I used apple baby food, as well as peach and pear baby foods. Combos work great too! 


Apple, pineapple and strawberry baby food fruit leathers
2 - 4oz jars of apple baby food
1 - 4oz jar of banana strawberry baby food
1/2 to 1 cup of apple juice
6-8 chunks of chopped pineapple
6-8 chopped strawberries
 2 Tsp sugar

Combine all ingredients in blender and blend until very smooth. If it is too thick, add more juice. (This should have the consistency of a thin smoothie. Pour onto greased tray and dehydrate for the amount of time your dehydrator appoints. Mine is 6-8 hours, depending on how thick I pour on the sheet.

Let cool and use plastic wrap to roll into individual sized portions.


 

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