Review: Beaba Babycook and Blender
January 23, 2008 by Natalie · 5 Comments
When it was time for me to wean, I decided that as often as possible I wanted to make my baby’s food. As a result, it was essential that I had something simple to take a lot of the legwork out of it, otherwise it wouldn’t have been long before I was beating a path to the supermarket! That’s when I discovered the Beaba Babycook and Blender, a baby-portion blender that also steams, reheats, and defrosts.
Made from easy to clean polycarbonate, this is one of the best things I’ve ever bought, period.
How it works – Unscrew the lid on the left of the base unit and pour water into the reservoir. How much water depends on what you’re doing – It’s basically level one for reheating, level two for fruits and certain vegetables or defrosting and reheating, and level three for hard vegetables like potatoes, meat, fish etc.
The food goes into the vented basket, which in turn sits inside the jug. I often do meat plus some frozen vegetables and I do this on level three. Screw the jug lid on (it slots into the handle of the jug) and then place the jug on the base and basically turn it back anti clockwise so that it locks into the reservoir mechanism. Basically if you don’t do this, no cooking happens. Turn the dial on the base unit to steam and the orange light comes on. Depending on which level of water was poured in, the light will go off after 15 to 20 minutes. I then unscrew the lid of the jug and tip the contents into the liquid that has gathered in the jug, put the lid back on and turn the dial to the blender setting.
Ease to set up – Pretty straightforward. It also comes with an orange spatula and a mini recipe book for babies age 6 to 18 months. Don’t panic when you open the instruction manual and think it’s all in French (they’re a French company). The English ones are there!
Ease of use – The first few times you have to twist the jug into place takes a bit of a knack but you get the hang of it. You can control the consistency of what you’re blending by pouring out the cooking liquid before you blend and then pouring it in, in between blends. Sometimes if you’re like me where you have a scatty day…you will get a bit confused and forget to put the water in the reservoir and then wonder why it’s not working. A tip is to pour water to each of the levels and then pour them into a measuring jug to find out how much it is. This way you don’t end up having to take everything out of the jug just so that you can put the water in the reservoir!
Any negatives – Nothing big. My lid is a bit stained from cooking orange food like carrots and sweet potato. Takes a bit of practice getting used to the mechanism of making it work.
Value for money – It’s £70 which is quite an investment for weaning. They go like hotcakes on ebay and for decent prices so it’s worthwhile looking there too. It is an investment but over time it more than pays for itself and I’ll be using it when I have other babies! I wouldn’t recommend purchasing this if you’re in two minds about preparing most of your babies food as you could spend that money elsewhere.
Overall rating – 4.5 out of 5. Actually for me, I can get over those little things because it is one of those fabulous products that lets you feed your child healthily, let you feel good about your fantastic mothering skills (wink), and it makes life easier, especially when you’re not exactly wonder chef! Really it’s a 5 out of 5 for me!
This is one of my best purchases as a mum and for me an absolute essential! The bambino really enjoys her meals and the great thing is that I can just chuck all of the ingredients in, turn it on, and then leave it and get on with whatever I have to do instead of slaving over a hot stove 
Available at John Lewis
Comments
5 Responses to “Review: Beaba Babycook and Blender”Trackbacks
Check out what others are saying about this post...[...] weaning stage that can do it all for you. Over at Bambino Goodies, we have highly recommended the Beaba Babycook Steamer and Blender (£65), which Natalie used to prepare lots of yummy organic meals. There is an outlay though when you buy [...]
[...] 4. Beaba Babycook and Blender Review [...]
[...] It’s been a while since I’ve featured anything weaning related and although baby Nia’s only 13 weeks, I’m already looking forward to cranking out fab meals with my Beaba Babycook steamer and blender. [...]
[...] owned a Beaba Babycook Blender (see my review) for a couple of years and love it for its steaming, defrosting, and blending capabilities, but the [...]
[...] owned a Beaba Babycook Steamer and Blender since Saria was six months old and it’s a nifty gadget that I’ve used for cooking [...]