Purely Pears: Home-Delivered Meals for Baby

If you’re a busy mom of infants or toddlers, you’d probably welcome any little convenience to get through the day. A new Boston-based company Purely Pears delivers freshly prepared organic baby food to your front door. They offered me samples to taste and experience the efficiency of their delivery service. Since my son is beyond toddler, I enlisted the help of my coworker Margaret, an RN at Dana-Farber who is mom to the über-adorable 9-month-old Mayla.

Purely Pears delivers free of charge within a 20-mile radius of Boston and offers two stages. Stage 1 includes apples, pears, sweet potatoes, butternut squash, broccoli and peas. Stage 2 offers combinations like apple, sweet potato and nutmeg; peas and cinnamon; and butternut squash, apple and pear. After you place your order, it is freshly made, packed within 24 hours and delivered to your home, office or daycare in an insulated cooler. It can be refrigerated for up to 4 days.

The verdict

After trialing Purely Pears products for a week, Margaret's verdict was in. She was impressed with the overall appearance, noting the bright colors and super smooth textures of the purees. They smelled like real fruits and vegetables, which confirmed their freshness. She felt that the flavors and odors were more authentic than popular store brands. “Mayla loved every one of the flavors! It was also the first time I introduced her to spices and she ate them right up without hesitation.” Margaret said big pluses were the convenience of home delivery and knowing that high quality, fresh ingredients were used without additives. 

A lot of food!

Margaret's only negative note was that the container size of 5 oz. was a bit large as Mayla could eat at most half a container at one meal (store baby food is packaged in 2.5-3.5 oz. sizes, which would be more realistic). She had to divide the purees into 2 or 3 oz. containers so that she could refrigerate or freeze them separately and reheat only what was needed. (Margaret emailed the company to check if freezing was ok since the website did not mention this; they replied that the products were good to freeze for up to one month.)

Margaret transferred the food into smaller serving sizes.The website offers a 3-day, 7-day or 1-month supply. The 3-day supply includes nine 5-oz. containers for $29, which Margaret noted would realistically last Mayla eight days because she ate about 5-7 oz. per day. She did feel the price was steep; however the home delivery and quality made it more acceptable. Overall Margaret gave highest marks for freshness and that it passed Mayla’s taste-test with flying colors!

Photo credit: Dr. GreeneI like this concept because it supports exposing infants to great-tasting fruits and vegetables as soon as possible so they have an early positive experience...before they are introduced to cookies and other processed sweets that will win them over. The two most common problems I encounter when counseling the pediatric population is 1) overweight kids and 2) picky eaters, often with produce being the target of dislike. Most commercial jarred baby fruits and veggies don't taste great and pureeing fresh produce can be time-consuming, so Purely Pears might be a nice occasional option if you're on a budget. Also I love that they add spices, a taste that new parents may not think to expose their kids to. Spices and herbs are rich in antioxidants but have distinct and sometimes strong flavors; again, if kids are exposed early, they're more likely to accept them throughout their childhood.

Want to try for yourself? Purely Pears is offering FitMamaEats readers a special discount of a 3-day food supply for $20, which includes delivery. Just use the code FitMama20 at checkout. Another savings option is their Mombassadors program that offers discounts to you and friends that you refer into the program (good idea for moms' groups!).

Be Berry Careful at Pinkberry

It took me a while but I finally made it to a Pinkberry. The Street on Route 9 in Chestnut Hill has transformed the landscape that used to house some decent stores into a trendy and upscale strip. There's still a lot of construction underway but today I met up with fellow Healthworks fitness trainer Tracie to check out Lululemon and Pinkberry. I know that Pinkberry is insanely popular in New York City and I've been thrilled to see frozen yogurt (made with real yogurt) shops popping up around Boston. Pinkberry debuted in 2005 after much creative thought, giving as much attention to detail in the store design as the product itself. Its website states, "Pinkberry is a great tasting and healthy frozen yogurt with nonfat and lowfat flavors that are packed with live and active cultures—so much so that Pinkberry carries the seal of approval from the National Yogurt Association." Early on, Pinkberry received flak for calling its product "all natural" when it contains several additives and fillers to improve the texture, and for not containing enough active live cultures to qualify as real yogurt. It has since erased the term "all natural" and does now contain the Live and Active Cultures seal from the National Yogurt Association, meaning that it must contain at least 10 million cultures per gram at the time of manufacture. But still I'm always a skeptic about foods touted as "healthy," so I dug into Pinkberry's menu. 

PROS: Pinkberry's frozen yogurt contains several active live cultures, or probiotics, including S. thermophilus, L. bulgaricus, and L. acidophilus, which may be beneficial for digestive health and strong immune function. Most of the flavors are fat and cholesterol free and very low in sodium. There are several fresh fruit and vegetable (cucumbers and grape tomatoes!) topping choices, which add a burst of nutrients. The menu lists detailed nutrition information so you can make a very healthful, calorie-controlled choice...if you bring a calculator to do the math, as you'll see next.

CONS: The nutrition facts page lists some bizarre measurements to calculate calories. It states at the top that a standard frozen yogurt serving size is 1/2 cup, or 100 grams. It then lists Pinkberry's available sizes, followed by numbers that don't carry an explanation:

Pinkberry Serving per cup size: Mini .9 | Small 1.4 | Medium 2.3 | Large 3.7 | Take Home 7.1

A chart of all the flavors follows with the serving size in grams (varies from 96-120 grams depending on the flavor) and the calories in that serving. I'm guessing that this chart is listing an approximate 1/2 cup serving or ~100 grams, and the numbers in bold above are factors to multiply by the calories, since Pinkberry doesn't offer an exact 1/2 cup serving? So for example, the original flavor has about 100 calories per 100 grams; a small cup (100 x 1.4) is 140 calories, a medium 230 calories, and a large 370 calories. The coconut has 140 calories per 100 grams so a medium size would provide 322 calories. The toppings range from 25-100 calories per serving, if the staff are indeed sticking to one portion. But even if they do, I noticed that most customers were ordering a medium size loaded with 2-3 toppings, which could potentially add up to more than 600 calories for just a medium cup.

Left: Small original with honey almond granola 170 calories, 1 gram fat. Right: Small strawberry with strawberries, raspberries, and yogurt chips 225 calories, 3 grams fat.

Bottom Line: Pinkberry wears a health halo, which research shows can cause people to eat larger portions and more calories than a full fat/calorie food. If weight control is not your problem, then this would be a great place to enjoy a potentially nutrient-rich treat. If you are watching your weight, beware that you can't eat all you want. Stick to a small cup with one favorite topping (or 2-3 fruit or vegetable toppings), which will keep it under 300 calories.

Tasty Tidbits at Whole Foods

I recently attended a Whole Foods blogger event in Wellesley featuring Chad Sarno, consulting research and development chef for Whole Foods Market and coauthor of the new cookbook Crazy Sexy Kitchen with New York Times bestselling author and cancer survivor Kris Carr. We each received a copy of the cookbook, and after thumbing through it I found a plant-happy collection of vegan recipes, most of which are a half to one-page long with a philosophy toward non-dairy, gluten-free, alkaline, and low-glycemic foods. I appreciated the introductory chapters on cooking basics that guide you through the vitals like various knife cutting techniques and how to prepare whole grains and beans. There are several unusual but easy smoothie concoctions and fresh salad dishes that I'll be sure to test for this blog in the near future. 

On this particular night, I was inspired watching Chad whip up quick and delicious creations right before our eyes. He demonstrated an array of 2-bite vegan appetizer recipes (see pic below!) that we lucky bloggers sampled in abundance—one bite after another popped with maxed out flavor. Clockwise from top: Jackfruit Carnitas with Avocado and Pico, Crostini with Pureed Artichoke and Garlicky Mushrooms, Cucumber Cups with Cashew Cream Cheese and Balsamic Pickled Figs, Smoked Portabella Satay with Almond Chile Sauce

I decided to recreate his sweet ending of cocoa truffles: a no-cook, no-fuss treat that has my stamp of approval as a healthful dessert! That night Chad didn't provide the recipe and was just throwing in a little of this and that, so later he did email this version below and gave me permission to reprint it. A few notes that it uses almond meal, which is ground up blanched almonds. You can probably make your own, especially as one 16 oz. package of Bob's Red Mill costs a hefty $12.99. The date paste adds natural sweetness; I panicked after blending it because it looked like pure liquid but it thickened up after a few minutes. The final mixture resembles a dry dark chocolate brownie batter. It is very rich and amazing so make the balls small and savor each one! If it tastes too bitter, you can use a bit less cocoa or add some sugar/honey.

Chad Sarno's Cocoa Truffles

Ingredients

1 cup almond meal/flour

1 cup rolled oats, ground into course meal

3 T almond or cashew butter (I used peanut butter)

3/4 cup cocoa powder, unsweetened

1 1/4 cup date paste* (or add enough until the mixture binds well)

1 T vanilla extract

Directions

1. Mix all ingredients in a large bowl with a wooden spoon until well blended. Refrigerate for about 30 minutes.
2. Roll or shape into small balls.
3. Coat surface of balls with coconut, cinnamon, Grape Nuts, crushed nuts, smoked salt, or more cocoa. Serve immediately or refrigerate for future munching!

*To make date paste, blend 1 cup of pitted dates with 1 cup water