Homemade Baby Lasagna with The Blendtec Designer 725 Blender

Ava is now nearly 5 months old, and so it is almost time to start thinking about introducing her to real food.  With Keira I made most of her baby food with fresh organic fruits and vegetables and meat.  I plan to do the same with Ava and now that I have a brand new and very powerful  Blendtec Designer 725 Blender, baby food making will be even easier.

The new Blendtec Designer 725 is the world’s most powerful home blender with cool features like a 100-speed touch slider that allows you to change the speed with the swipe of a finger over the touchscreen for precision control over your blend .  Yes. I did just say touchscreen. 

The moment the Blendtec Designer 725 starts up you can just feel the commercial-quality power of the blender.

The blender comes with 5 pre-programmed blend cycles which are set with blend times and speed patterns so you can easily whip up a perfect smoothie, salsa, ice cream , soup and even whole juices using the pre-sets. 

It also features a full-text digital display that shares blending tips and help with blender use.  After using a cycle it will suggest other uses for the same pre-set cycle which is helpful for those of us who are not chefs.  I love that the display also features a built in quick-start guide to help owners quickly and easily become familiar with the features of the blender. 

On first use I was walked through setup with a step-by-step guide which allowed me to get going without having to pick up the user manual again.

Owners are also able to track the number of blends on the digital display which allows you to earn rewards such as exclusive recipes and Blendtec kitchen accessories. Rewards can be redeemed online or through the Blendtec mobile app. The more you blend, the more you earn.  How cool is that?  Does your blender earn you free stuff?

Making fresh homemade baby food in a Blendtec blender is so easy, and I should know, I’ve used other tools and they generally are unable to achieve the desired textures.  Especially when it comes to stage one when you want super smooth purees.

I like the control over the ingredients that homemade provides – I do not have to worry about added salt or sugar, and I can ensure all the ingredients are organic.  The savings from making large batches of baby food is pretty nice too.  You do not have to really know what you are doing in the kitchen to make baby food and you do not need to spend a lot of time on it either. 

Check out the Blendtec website for some great baby food recipes that really highlight just how easy it is to make homemade baby food.  At this time they are beginner stage recipes so very simple to follow and they are great to build on to create more complex recipes as your baby grows.

The first blend I wanted to try out with The Blendtec Designer 725 was for Baby Lasagna.  It is a more complex recipe and meant for infants 9 months or older due to the large variety of ingredients and texture.

I opted to use the Wildside+ jar for this recipe versus the Twister just based on capacity.  I made the blend a bit chunkier in texture as that is what you want to achieve for 9 months and up. 

Homemade Baby Lasagna

Ingredients:

1 Tbsp Extra Virgin Olive Oil
8-10 cubes stewing beef
1 small onion
1 carrot, sliced
1/2 cup rice pasta
1 Can diced Organic Tomatoes
1/4 cup water
1 tsp Oregano
1 tsp Basil
1/3 cup shredded Mozzarella
1/2 cup Cottage Cheese

Directions:

In a large saucepan, heat up olive oil over medium-high heat and brown the beef. 

Add the onion, carrot, pasta, tomatoes, water, oregano and basil and bring to a boil.

Reduce the heat to a simmer and cover, stirring occasionally for 25 minutes until consistency is thick, similar to a stew.

Remove from heat and stir in cheeses.

Remove to the Wildside+ Jar and cover.

 Push the speed up button until blender reaches speed 4.  Allow the blender to run for 10-15 seconds and then press the “X” button to stop.

Serve immediately and freeze excess baby food in ice cube trays.

Homemade baby food can be left refrigerated for up to 3 days or 3 months in the freezer.  I love just being able to pull out the frozen cubes and quickly heat them.  They are just as convenient as store bought jarred purees but without the worry over ingredients.

 This makes about 24 cubes of food and is a nice, all in one meal that is worth the little extra effort it takes to prepare.  As your baby gets older you could even omit the pasta from the recipe and serve this over macaroni or small shells as a sauce.

Disclosure: I was provided with the above mentioned product in order to facilitate this review.  All thoughts and opinions are honest and my own.