Today on AOBF, we introduce you to Little Foodie Club, an organic baby food delivery program run by food writer and restaurant editor, Kerstin Kuhn and husband Adam Fenn.
Loved by VOGUE, Molly Sims, Marie Chantal, and goop, this brand was named by Gwyneth a “baby food brand doing it right” and I couldn’t agree more. Known for their 21 days to solid foods program as well as their “happy meals” – I have loved using them for Grace as she began her little life as a foodie.
As a busy, working mom of four and also a mom who wants only the best, most fresh and organic foods for her baby, this service came highly recommended by a friend. Not only do I love the packaging (it’s so cute) but Grace loved the 21 day to solid foods and I love the integrity and motivation behind this brand. I feel safe giving this to my baby as many of the pouches you get from Whole Foods and other organic markets have been found to have mold and other issues with their shelf life and ingredients. I also love supporting another female owned brand run by a fellow mother.
Read on to hear the story behind Little Foodie Club and if you’re in the zone with littles at home… try them. Their pricing is approachable and you get what you pay for. Hope you enjoy it as much as we have!
Tell us about yourself and the backstory of Little Foodie Club.
My background is in food writing. I was the restaurant editor of a really big hospitality magazine in the UK for many years and as part of that job I travelled all around the world to interview top chefs and eat at their restaurants. Food is my biggest passion in life: I love to eat, read recipe books, shop at the markets and cook at home for friends and family. When I had my daughter Maxine I really wanted to encourage her to love food too. I’d seen from first hand experience of other people’s children that they can be really picky eaters, who refuse to try things and turn their noses up at anything green. I didn’t want that for my Maxi so I started researching how to raise a kid who has a healthy and adventurous palate.
The journalist in me really dove into this subject and I came across a number of different scientific studies that suggested that a baby’s very first foods impact their future eating preferences. This really got my attention.
Can you share with us some of the research behind Little Foodie Club?
What these studies mostly found was that while babies are born with innate taste preferences for sweet and salty foods, they have a “flavor window” between four and seven months during which time they’re particularly open to experiencing new tastes. The more you bombard them with different tastes during this time, the more you can teach them to enjoy these tastes. In other words, babies’ palates are blank canvases that can be trained to like certain foods like bitter vegetables – the key is to continually expose them to them.
Tell us about Maxine, the original Little Foodie:)
So when it came to transitioning Maxi to solid foods I did just that. I went to the markets and bought all the vegetables I could find, from asparagus to zucchini and everything in between and I cooked and pureed them and fed them to her, giving her a new food to taste almost everyday. After the initial stage of single-ingredients, I started getting creative with blends, adding herbs and spices and homemade bone broths to make her purees taste delicious. She really enjoyed spicy foods – apparently babies’ taste buds can handle heat better than adults! Maxi quickly turned into a little foodie. She visibly enjoyed mealtimes and loved almost all of the dishes I cooked for her. It was such a fun experience for me as a mom.
But many of my friends really struggled with solids. Their babies didn’t like the foods they gave them, they didn’t have the time or inclination to cook and puree foods and resorted to store bought baby foods and overall mealtimes wasn’t a very enjoyable part of their parenting journey at all. Slowly I began to share my baby food with my friends and their babies responded so well to my purees that the idea of starting a baby food company came as a natural next step.
What’s the philosophy of Little Foodie Club?
The core idea of Little Foodie Club is to help parents raise healthy eaters. By providing curated meal plans that expose babies to a huge variety of ingredients, tastes, textures, colors and scents we want to really open their minds and palates to the world of fresh, healthy eating. The more we get babies used to tasting new foods in infancy, the more open and willing they will be to continue to eat healthy foods when they get older. And unlike all other baby food brands, Little Foodie Club never mixes vegetables with fruits as we believe that masking the taste of vegetables by adding fruits only perpetuates a baby’s innate preference for sugary foods.
A healthy diet is the basis for a lifetime of healthy living – studies show that healthy eaters are more likely to exercise and they’re less likely to suffer from illnesses such as obesity, heart disease and even certain types of cancer. As a parent you can teach your child to love healthy food right from the very first mouthful so let’s do it!
Give us the 411 on Little Foodie Club 21 Days to Solids:
The 21 Days to Solids plan is designed to make the transition to solid foods a fun, culinary adventure. Developed with leading pediatricians and infant nutrition experts, it is the first of its kind: based on the scientific discovery that the bigger the variety of fresh vegetables babies are exposed to in the first few weeks of eating solids, the more willing they will be to eat vegetables and accept new foods when they are older. The plan exposes a baby to a different organic vegetable or fruit each day for 21 days, paving the way for a lifetime of healthy and adventurous eating habits.
Beyond First Bites: 6 months plus baby blends
Once graduated from the 21 Days transitioning to solids plan, families can sign up to different subscription-based meal plans from a 6 month plus range made up of smooth combination purees and focused on discovering flavors.
Babies can try fruity combos like Banana & Kiwi with Cardamom, or Pear & Raspberry with Lavender; as well as veggie blends such as Sweet Potato & Spinach Coconut Curry, or Lentils with Rainbow Carrots and Thyme. What’s more, Little Foodie Club is the only upmarket baby food subscription service that offers meat and seafood based purées, including a Baby Beef Casserole, Wild Salmon with Beets and Dill, or Lamb with Potatoes, Spinach & Rosemary.
Each unique recipe is designed to tantalize babies’ tiny taste buds and expand their palates for a lifelong love for fresh, tasty and unprocessed foods, while also taking care of a babies’ complete nutritional needs.
Share with us about Little Foodie Club ingredients…
At Little Foodie Club we believe that babies deserve only the best. We pride ourselves on top-quality ingredients that we aim to source directly from local suppliers so you can feel 100% confident about what your baby is eating.
All of our ingredients are certified organic. Unlike a lot of other baby food companies we offer meat and salmon as we believe that these proteins are very important in boosting your little ones’ brains. Our meats are organic, pasture-raised and grass-fed and completely free of hormones or antibiotics, and our wild Alaskan salmon comes from sustainable fisheries.
OUR COMMITMENT TO QUALITY
✔All ingredients are certified organic
✔No artificial ingredients, colorings, additives or preservatives
✔No sugar, sweeteners or salt
✔Everything is prepared fresh from scratch in small batches
✔The food is flash frozen immediately after cooking, locking in nutrients and freshness
Do you have a favorite recipe to share?
Iron deficiency is a common nutritional problem in early childhood, so introducing your baby to red meat – a rich source of iron – is very important. This beef casserole is slow-cooked with carrots, tomatoes, and Italian herbs. It’s delicious!
Ingredients:
- 1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
- 1 small onion, finely chopped
- 1 stalk celery, finely chopped
- 2 large carrots, finely chopped
- 1 clove garlic, crushed
- 8oz ground beef
- 1 cup strained tomatoes
- 1 bay leaf
- ½ tsp oregano
- ½ tsp basil
- ½ thyme
Directions:
- Place a large heavy-bottomed saucepan on a medium heat.
- Add the olive oil and then the onion, celery and carrot.
- Sauté for 3-4 minutes, then add the garlic and continue to stir for another 1-2 minutes.
- Add the beef and stir until the meat is browned all over.
- Then pour in the strained tomatoes and add the herbs and bay leaf and give it all a good stir.
- Reduce the heat to low-medium, place a lid on the pan and leave to simmer for about an hour until all the flavors have developed into a wonderfully rich sauce.
- Leave to cool then place in a food processor and purée to your desired consistency.
Little Foodie Club is a dream when it comes to a food delivery service you can trust for your families.
*Due to Covid, Little Foodie Club is taking a needed break, but please do bookmark them, and sign up for their emails for when they return.
