What to Do With Blended Meals

We have always found it easier to cook up meals for Ellie in big batches, then store everything in the fridge and/or freezer. But once everything is blended what's the best solution? Here are are favorite things, we hope you find it helpful. 

If you have ideas and hacks for storing your blended meals we haven't shared, drop them in the comments - We'd love to hear your ideas!

Mason Jars 
We love using wide mouth, straight sided, quilted canning jars. They are perfect for portioning Ellie's meals.  She eats 4 jars full everyday.  Her meals are typically about 1 calorie per 1 ml of food.  Measuring meal portions with mason jars is easy if you know how much your jar holds.  The glass jars fit well in fridge and freezer bins for simple organization. They're freezer/dishwasher/microwave safe and, are easy to clean. 

Plastic Lids
We love plastic canning jar lids because they are 1 piece, don't rust, easy to clean (dishwasher safe), and provide a reusable canvas for food labeling.

Chalk Markers:  
These chalk pens stand up well to use in pantry, freezer, fridge but still wash off easily for continued use. We have a drawer style freezer in the kitchen so it's easy to see the labeling on our plastic lids. We also have a stand up freezer with storage containers, it's easy to pull out the container and scan the lids for Ellie's next meal.

Freezer & Freezer Organizing Bins:
mDesign 16" bins  are the perfect size to line up 5 of Ellie's jars. We use these in our standup deep freezer and our refrigerator's freezer drawer. It's important to keep blends labeled, separated, and organized. We found out the hard way once when we stored leftover (really super delicious) turkey gravy in the freezer in one of the same jars with lids we juse for Ellie's food.  It was labeled "Turkey Gravy" but somehow the label was overlooked and a caregiver on night shift fed Ellie an entire jar of turkey gravy.  She got sick and had tummy trouble for a couple days.  Lesson learned: it's better to be overly organized and label EVERYTHING than to cross your fingers and hope you've got the right food!

Baskets:
A plastic basket that is easy to clean and allows air flow makes very functional pantry or supply closet storage.  It works well for us to store clean lids and other tube feeding supplies like syringes and extensions.

Rotating your stocked blends:
We use a first in first out method of rotating our blends to make sure they are always safe.  Food safety is top priority! We keep 5 meals in the refrigerator at a time.  This gives them enough time to safely thaw in the refrigerator. Everytime we use a jar of blends from the refrigerator, we pull a frozen meal from the freezer and place it at the back of the bin.  Please always use safe food handling practices and proper hygiene while preparing food for anyone, including Tubies.

That's it. We hope this helps you get organized and gain confidence while you meal prep! Happy Blending!

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