By Jim McKenzie

Cuisinart Baby Food Maker & Bottle Warmer $129.00

During the course of being dad to 7 baby newbie eaters, I have tried almost every trick in the book for making baby food, mashing, grinding, chopping and pre-chewing it myself! So when I was approached to review the new Cuisinart Baby Food Maker & Bottle Warmer, the geek in me couldn’t resist a new challenge!

The machine is compact and has great easy-to-follow/easy-read instructions for those bleary eye mornings after no sleep! Ok, so I thought that I would give the machine the most difficult challenge – we’re a strict vegetarian household, so we steam all our vegetables for taste and to preserve nutrients. 

So in went the green beans, carrots and broccoli, stems and all; try grinding and mashing those up by hand – what a workout! 
The process is simple – just chop up the fruits or veggies, add some water to the machine and steam away! There’s no need to stand over the machine, it switches off when finished. Stage 2 is as difficult for the sleep-deprived dad as to turn the dial to “puree”! The machine creates a nice texture, and you are good to go. 
The other great thing is that you can make up to 4 cups in a batch, so there’s plenty left over to store in the fridge, even for a baby the size of my 110th percentile sized 7 month old, and the bowl, lid and blades are easy to dismantle and place in the dishwasher. 
I’m sure that my meat eating would use this for pureed cooked meats as well, and it comes with a handy recipe booklet which you’d find very useful!

Ok, there are two aspects of the machine which fall outside my direct ambit – we’re vegetarian, and we haven’t used baby bottles since our first baby 16 years ago. But in the spirit of this review, and having enjoyed playing with my new favorite toy, I tested the bottle warmer, which turned out to be very quick to use and heated the bottles to an ideal feeding temperature – again, a real bonus for those nighttime feeds.

Overall Rating? Put The Cuisinart Baby Food Maker & Bottle Warmer on your baby shower gift list, because  it’s multi-purpose! So, when baby gets too old for baby food, I’ll definitely use this for making salsa and soup!