Thank you!
Has anyone found good places to buy baby food in Zurich? I've been making vegetable and fruit purees from scratch, but sometimes, I need to resort to jarred food. I've found some options at Coop, but they tend to be mixed jars (apple with chicken or lamb and rice, etc.). I'm wondering if anywhere sells jars of just single vegetables (aside from apples and carrots which I've found) or fruits?
We used Hipp which claims to be organic and seemed to tick the "no added sugar or salt" box with me. Plus they do single purees (carrot, courgette or meats such as beef or pork)
There is a somewhat limited variety in the supermarkets but, oddly enough, if you go to Müller pharmacy downstairs in Jelmoli they have a better supply. Alternatively if you can make it up to Germany anytime, the supermarkets or pharmacies have an even better variety at a much fairer price.
If you want the top end of the market there is Holle which is only available from pharmacies here.
not the pharmacies, but the drugstores (Drogeriemärkte), such as dm and Müller.
What Sandgrounder said above sounds pretty good, but really it's so expensive buying the jars (and to be honest, most of the baby food you will buy will be a lot older than your baby )
Please forgive me if you already know this, but you can make a big batch of single puréed food, and freeze into icecube trays... (once frozen you can put them in freezer bags) they will last for weeks... If you're going out for the day, or even over night, you can take food straight from the freezer... It will defrost on the way....
I guess the plus with baby jars is that if you don't use it, it's not lost, but if you don't use the food you make, it's not a big deal... it probably would have cost you 1/50 of the price to make...
Buy yourself a supply of containers I can recommend some plastic tupperware style ones around 250ml, that way they will last until your baby is much older.
After 10 years I still can't get used to the difference between pharmacies and drugstores. Where I grew up there was just a "chemist" that sold all things related to that.
I just mashed up fresh fruits. There is a little machine you can buy that works like a garlic press, but I just did it with a fork. Cooking takes away a lot of the nutrients anyways. You can make baby food from your meals. We just kept a few potatoes, rice, peas and carrots and used them for the next day's baby food.
Most jars are full of filler and thickener - and salt and sugar. I do recommend Hipp and Holle though. To be honest, jars were more work as I had to wash and then recycle them.
Do be careful about buying chopped up veges in a bag. It seemed like a great short cut for me until I read the ingredients. Like salad in a bag, they contain additives to keep it fresh.
Don't despair with the cooking-out-the-nutrients thing. I was cheered when I watched a programme where they were testing different foods and the effects of cooking. I can remember with potatoes they showed that very little nutrition is released if the food is eaten raw but when cooked the body can process the otherwise locked-in nutrients.
With carrots, whereas some nutrients are lost with cooking, others, like beta-carotene are made more available to the body when cooked.
They tested other veg but I can't remember the outcome (it was on over a year ago) but, on the whole if you don't overcook stuff the veg still provides good nutrition.
Oh, beetroot was another one that benefited from cooking.
Finally - cook stuff with the skin on.
The Holle brand is widely available in drugstores and does a good range for those times you just need a jar of something ready made....
Great, thanks all. Completely agree about cooking myself, which is what we do the majority of the time. Appreciate the insight into finding a couple healthy options.