So I have been trying hard to eat lots of fruits and veggies and Id like to add more fruit but I always buy it and a lot of it goes bad. So I thought about adding more fruit by buying some containers of baby food and packing those with my lunches. I always liked the bananas and peaches so I figure it wont hurt right? The bananas have 100 c and I believe the peaches were 80 or 90. I seen gerber also makes organic kinds. Is this weird to anyone? lol

I went through a period of a couple months where I stocked babyfood at work. I'd buy the ones that had no added ingredients (like sugar). It was a quick easy snack.

I also buy frozen berries and stuff and those are a good option. Although fruit doesn't last long in my household

baby food is perfect for smoothies.

Can you buy less? So if you are buying 5 apples a week (for example) but only eating 2, next week just buy 2. It's better IMO to run out than have all sorts of waste. I find now I make at least 1 extra trip to the grocery store to get stuff that I've run out of- but it doesn't bother me to do this.

Also- check into how you are storing your food- make sure there isn't a better way to store it. Or eat the fruit that tends to go bad quicker first. When I buy strawberries I know I have to eat them within 3 days.

Baby food is very expensive to use as a fruit substitute. Some has added sugar and starch thickeners. Check ingredient label and the sugar and fiber counts. Sometimes the best part of the fruit (such as the apple peel) is removed.

Cooking/canning fruits removes some of the water from fruits, concentrating the fruit volume and sugars. Meaning it's more calorie-dense and digests faster (and can trigger hunger faster). Though it would be a better choice than dried fruits (again because the smaller volume and higher concentration of sugars means you can eat more before feeling satisfied).

As an occasional "treat" I don't see a problem with it, but I don't think canned/jarred fruit purees should be your main source of fruit.

There are a lot of ways to help fruit last longer.

The "green bags" really do help slow spoilage. I buy mine at the Dollar Tree 10 bags for $1 (at ten cents a bag, and they seem to work just as well as the expensive ones).

bananas - green bags. Do not refrigerate unripe bananas (they won't ripen properly). But once they're as ripe as you like them you can refrigerate them. The skin will turn black, but the banana inside will stay ripe but not overripe for a long time (at least a week if you like them pretty ripe and sometimes more than two weeks if you like them barely ripe). You can also slice and freeze bananas (without the skin). You can throw the frozen bananas into a blender or food processor and make an "ice cream" with them (only pureed frozen bananas, no other ingredient). Or you can add them to smoothies.

Strawberries. You can use them frozen in smoothies or puree them (like the bananas) with just a little bit of liquid and make a "sorbet" (liquid can be lemonade, fruit juice, diet Sprite or even water) and sweeten to taste. If you add more liquid you can make a virgin "strawberry daquiri" using diet lemonade or diet Mountain Dew or similar beverage.

Apples. Apples last a VERY long time in the refrigerator, especially if you pick crisp varieties like Braeburn, honeycrisp, fuji, Pink Lady...

Oranges. Oranges last a long time in the fridge too. You can also freeze orange slices (if they're seedless). There's a "popsicle" like treat that you can make by putting rinsed fresh fruit (I've only tried grapes, cherries and orange segments) in a ziploc bag and tossing the fruit with a bit of dry sugar free drink mix or sugar free jello straight from the packet to coat the fruit.

Grapes as mentioned are very good frozen (with or without the added sweetener). I usually only add the sugar free jello or drink mix to oranges and grapes that are a lot more tart than I expected, as I'm not a fan of too sour grapes or oranges.

I would think as long as you can afford it, and it gets you to eat fruits and veggies, go for it! There are recipes out there (try google) that use can use them in normal adult food as well. I remember something about the carrot puree being used instead of egg for breading chicken nuggets. Never tried it though. Might be something to look in to.

If it works for you, go with it.

I like Tupperware Fridgesmart containers for storing that sort of stuff.

A.

I usually buy my fruits at produce junction and its super cheap but you get more than u can possibly eat and since I like variety i always end up with way too much. Like instead of a bunch of bananas u buy it by the bag and theres about 3 bunches in there! I do still have my one apple a day and I figure Ill keep with that and add one jar of baby food in a day. Target makes its own brand and its $.97 for 2 containers.