Little Spoon Review: Balanced Meals for Children

Little Spoon is a meal subscription service that gives quite a lot of ready-to-heat meals particularly designed for infants and younger kids, primarily as much as age 8. Based by a single mother of three, Little Spoon was launched with the purpose of taking the every day stress of wholesome meal preparation away from mother and father. Little Spoon makes use of a vacuum seal to increase the shelf lifetime of its plates to final 14 days within the fridge and as much as two months within the freezer.

Little Spoon has a line of child meals (Babyblends), toddler + children meals, in addition to smoothie pouches, and vitamin boosters. The infant meals line options pureed blends of natural fruit and veggies, usually combined with attention-grabbing “superfood” flavors similar to spirulina or turmeric, whereas the toddler + children meals are small plates that embrace finger meals for youthful eaters in addition to some fork and spoon meals for older children. Little Spoon stands out amongst different meal supply providers for its fashionable aesthetic, nutritionally balanced meals that concentrate on the wants of rising kids, and its use of entire meals components that will not sometimes be regarded as “children meals.” Right here, we’ve damaged down Little Spoon’s meal supply service, specializing in the toddler + children meals, that will help you decide if it’s a very good match for your loved ones. 

Pricing: Good Worth

Little Spoon presents three weekly meal plans: Babyblends, Plates, and Smoothies. One family can join multiple plan and coordinate them to be delivered on the similar time by reaching out to customer support, however in any other case, plans can’t be personalized to incorporate gadgets from multiple plan. Pricing for the Babyblends plan ranges from one to 3 blends per day; pricing for the Plates plan contains choices for 4, six, 9, or 12 meals per week; the Smoothies plan contains choices for 5, 9, 12, or 18 smoothies per week. All pricing plans are primarily based on a two-week supply of things.

• Babyblends Plans: $3.49 per mix, diminished to $2.74 per mix for the most important plan (42 blends per supply)
• Plates Plans: $6.49 per plate, diminished to $4.99 per plate for the most important plan (24 meals per supply)
• Smoothies Plans: $3.49 per smoothie; diminished to $2.49 per smoothie for the most important plan (36 smoothies per supply)

Transport is a flat payment that varies primarily based in your zip code and transit technique. For our order of eight Plates, which was delivered to the East Coast, we have been charged a $6 transport payment.

How It Works: Decide Your Plan by Age

Step one to ordering is to decide on the very best plan(s) primarily based on the age of your kids. As soon as you establish which one is acceptable, choose the variety of meals after which checkout and undergo the fee course of. After fee, you will notice some mechanically populated meals in your cart with the flexibility to filter for quite a lot of preferences. You then have the flexibility to view the total menu and alter portions of things, take away, or add meals with a view to customise your cart. Nevertheless, you can’t make swaps inside a particular meal. Every meal comes plated for a single serving, designed to be reheated within the microwave or transferred to the oven.

Dietary preferences embrace eradicating among the main allergens or eliminating meals that require a spoon or fork for fogeys who simply need to stick with finger meals. Based on the corporate, Little Spoon meals can cater to the next particular diets: dairy-free, egg-free, gluten/wheat-free, vegan, and vegetarian. Little Spoon does have protocols in place to restrict cross-contamination, nevertheless, the corporate can’t assure merchandise are 100% allergy-free.

Little Spoon prioritizes meals made with nutritious components, freed from added sugar, fillers, and components. The corporate works with meals trade consultants to information and validate its menu choices and ingredient requirements. 

Selecting Meals: Meals Plus Add-Ons

As soon as meals are chosen, they’ll simply be modified in your account. Meals might be eliminated, added, or multiplied. The cutoff time for modifying orders is 5 p.m. ET the Saturday earlier than your scheduled supply. There are totally different numbers of menu gadgets obtainable relying in your plan, and menu choices rotate seasonally. As of February 2022, the Babyblends plan included 17 totally different menu gadgets and the Plates plan had 28 totally different gadgets, together with a number of choices labeled as advisable for Choosy Eaters or First Time Faves.

Most gadgets appear to be supposed for lunch and dinner, however a number of would additionally make nice savory breakfast selections. There’s a good mixture of choices for plant-based eaters or these with different dietary preferences. The Smoothie plan presents eight totally different smoothie flavors, designed as wholesome snacks that includes fruits and veggies. All smoothies are dairy-free. 

Add-ons can be found for all meal plans. Smoothies might be added or a subscription of add-on sauce packs or vitamin boosters. There are three sauces obtainable, designed for dipping: veggie ketchup, soy glaze, and honey mustard. Every sauce is available in a neat vacuum-sealed cup, packaged in a field of three.

Boosters embrace powdered vitamin dietary supplements that may be added to a Babyblend, smoothie, or liquid of your alternative. 

What We Made

For this evaluate, we ordered from the Plates Plan and obtained the next gadgets together with an assortment of further add-on sauces. 

• Tacky black bean pupusas with southwest veggie quinoa
• Spinach + cheese ravioli with veggie marinara sauce
• Mac + three cheese with invisible butternut squash + carrots
• Rooster tremendous nuggets with candy potato carrot poppers + broccoli
• Veggie tender parm with peas

Packaging: Fashionable and Reusable

We actually preferred the packaging for our Little Spoon supply. General, it was minimalistic however very considerate and nonetheless had a contemporary aesthetic with vibrant coloured designs on the outer sleeves and reusable aquamarine-colored plates. The cardboard field, insulation, and packaging used for the plates have been all recyclable and BPA-free. The cardboard field got here crammed with recycled denim insulation that may be simply snipped out of the plastic wrapping and recycled with paper merchandise.

Our field had 4 ice packs and a few dry ice; our merchandise really arrived frozen, simply from the dry ice. The plastic wrapping and plastic luggage for dry ice and ice packs can all be recycled with plastics. We actually appreciated the vacuum sealing method; the meals on every plate is held utterly in place as a result of the movie finally ends up forming a seal instantly across the meals fairly than simply the plate. Visually, that is noticeably extra interesting than different meal supply providers we have now tried the place the meals and sauce transfer round in transit and appeared messy upon arrival.

Buyer Assist: Environment friendly and Pleasant

The field itself contained a postcard about Little Spoon together with a mini-magazine for fogeys put out by the corporate as a part of its “Is this Normal” weblog and on-line group platform. The journal contained supplemental data on the varied levels of feeding, from an toddler’s first chunk of meals to older children and suggestions for choosy eaters. 

There was additionally a information for solutions for meals which are “Finger Meals Faves,” “Choosy Eater Go-Tos,” and “Protein Packed,” presumably to supply some steering for future orders. As well as, it included content material on common pointers for heating, particularly which sorts of dishes have been finest for microwave vs. oven vs. skillet, together with sensible suggestions associated to the meals. There have been additionally some useful parenting suggestions and even a enjoyable quiz titled “What sort of father or mother are you?” (We promise this was utterly non-judgmental!) We discovered the journal to be a artistic option to give useful data and in addition construct a way of group amongst fellow mother and father given its witty lighthearted tone.

The enjoyable, pleasant vibe of the collateral supplies additionally carries over to customer support. Accessible through bot chat, dwell individual chat, electronic mail, cellphone, textual content, and weekend help, there was no scarcity of how to succeed in a staff member. We reached out through bot chat, dwell individual chat, in addition to electronic mail and obtained responses instantly, inside minutes. All brokers have been further useful and really personable. Whereas we didn’t have any points with our supply, we reached out to customer support with some common questions together with a request for some customized suggestions and we obtained useful and thorough data on every event. 

Vitamin: Extra of What you Need, Much less of What you Don’t

General, the vitamin profile of the meals is meant to be designed for the precise wants of the focused age group for the plan—both rising infants or rising toddlers and large children. Whereas the corporate doesn’t disclose detailed thresholds for all vitamins, it does seek the advice of with a registered dietitian and pledges to make use of healthful “clear” components. Every plate that we ordered contained a very good stability of protein, wholesome fats, and sophisticated carbohydrates that present further fiber. Based on the FAQ part, all Plates include 500mg or much less of sodium. We discovered most of ours to be properly beneath this, nearer to 300mg per serving, which is uncommon for pre-made meals. When it comes to added sugar, there’s solely a small quantity of cane sugar or maple syrup added to a handful of Plates. Detailed vitamin data is offered for every meal previous to ordering. 

Little Spoon discloses all main allergens and whereas it doesn’t use nuts in any meals, it’s not doable to ensure 100% allergy-free meals, as a result of Plates are produced at a facility that additionally makes gluten, soy, dairy, and egg merchandise. Meals can nonetheless be filtered for vegan, vegetarian, gluten-free, dairy-free, and egg-free, however be mindful the chance of cross-contamination. 

The Cooking Course of: Warmth and Eat

The cooking course of may be very simple and easy. The reheating directions are listed on the outer sleeve of the packaging and embrace choices for reheating within the microwave or oven with one famous because the “Really useful Technique.” Within the booklet, we noticed there are additionally directions for reheating in a skillet for some dishes however we didn’t come throughout these on any of the sleeves for our specific gadgets.

When reheating within the microwave, the tray is put instantly within the microwave with out puncturing the vacuum seal; this seal puffs up throughout heating, which is regular because it inflates with steam. Reheating occasions have been listed as 60-90 seconds for all dishes. We discovered this to be correct for probably the most half, however since a few of our dishes have been heated from frozen as a result of dry ice, we left it in for the total 90 seconds or added on one other 10 seconds. When reheating within the oven, we simply needed to switch to an oven-safe dish. Instances have been correct and there have been even listed directions for including on further time if reheating from frozen. The breaded gadgets, such because the nuggets, positively benefited from reheating within the oven for the reason that microwave leads to soggy breading.

Taste, Freshness, and High quality: Good High quality, Child-Authorised Taste

Our tasting group included a 3-year-old, a 6-year-old, and a father or mother. The youngsters beloved the flavors of practically every little thing they tried however weren’t followers of the quinoa facet that recurred in a couple of of the plates. This was a private desire although. The potstickers have been an enormous hit in addition to the mac + three cheese, the pupusas, and the veggie tenders. The candy potato carrot poppers additionally went over rather well. The sauces have been enjoyable for dipping and had nice taste.

The youngsters actually loved the enjoyable packaging and plates and appeared excited to find every new meal. The one draw back that we skilled was that the parts have been too small for our rising children with good appetites. After they discovered a dish they beloved, they actually wished extra and we wanted to reheat two or extra plates per little one for every to really feel glad, particularly when they didn’t get pleasure from one of many sides. However when you perceive your kids’s preferences, you can all the time purchase multiples of their favorites. We just do want there was a family-size possibility or some bigger serving sizes for among the dishes, particularly since that might make it simpler for the entire household to eat at the least some elements of the meal collectively. 

General, we felt the standard was wonderful—the inexperienced greens maintained a vibrant colour and the opposite cooked elements had first rate texture fairly than all being gentle or mushy, which is often a problem with heat-and-eat meals. We have been actually impressed by the lengthy shelf life and that the standard of the meals didn’t appear to be negatively impacted, as a result of vacuum seal.

Little Spoon’s top quality isn’t just obvious in its meals preparation but in addition it is sourcing; the corporate makes use of solely meat and eggs which are antibiotic, hormone-free, and humanely raised, plus non-GMO and principally natural fruits and veggies. (All child meals is USDA certified organic), however there’s the potential for among the produce in different gadgets to be non-organic relying on availability. Little Spoon sources all components from trusted purveyors and farms in the US and prepares its meals freed from components and preservatives.

Little Spoon Is Good For

Little Spoon is good for fogeys who need handy “quick meals” to feed their infants and youngsters that can also be nutritious and minimally processed. That is additionally nice for fogeys who attempt to keep away from meals with undesirable components similar to synthetic coloring, together with added sugar, and/or extra salt—however nonetheless, demand meals that tastes good and is enjoyable for youths to get pleasure from. Little Spoon strikes the best stability, interesting to children and their mother and father.

That is additionally an awesome service for eco-conscious mother and father and those that prioritize natural, non-GMO components. Little Spoon is probably not the very best match for households who get pleasure from consuming “family-style” since all meals are individually portioned. Moreover, it is probably not the very best match for kiddos with huge appetites as a result of we discovered the parts to be a bit small with out supplementing with every other sides. There additionally could also be fewer choices for choosy eaters, however there are most likely a number of standby dishes that finicky children would get pleasure from.

The Competitors: Little Spoon vs. Yumble

Little Spoon and Yumble are each meal supply providers for youths that provide heat-and-eat single serving plates. Along with plates for toddlers and large children, Little Spoon additionally has a plan for child meals and smoothies, whereas Yumble begins its plans for ages 12 months and older (as much as 12 years). The idea and menus are comparable, though Yumble’s meals arrives in additional conventional heat-and-eat trays and should not sealed as tightly because the trays from Little Spoon, so the meals shifts throughout transit and didn’t visually look as interesting, even after reheating.

Yumble is priced barely larger, however its parts are barely bigger. Each corporations prioritize sustainably sourced proteins and healthful components freed from preservatives, though Little Spoon appears to have barely stricter requirements throughout the board. We felt the packaging, high quality of components, pricing, and number of meals from Little Spoon have been higher general.

Methodology

We ordered, cooked, and evaluated meals from 27 meal supply providers to get a way of every one’s choices, vitamin profiles, costs, and, in fact, flavors. We contacted the customer support groups at every of the businesses, collected information, and wrote detailed evaluations about every one.

Our writers are all registered dietitians and relied on their analysis and its ensuing information to tell their evaluations.