Bluum Box Review: January 2014

This is my fifth box since deciding to try Bluum. Bluum‘s pricing is very similar to Citrus Lane, at $25 per box on a month to month basis, $23 per month for a three month subscription (less than CL), $21 per month for a six month subscription (the same as CL), and even less than that for a one year subscription. Also of note is that Bluum offers more ways to earn rewards and free boxes than Citrus Lane does (which is why I’m on the month to month plan at the moment, hoping to earn a free box!). I’m still pretty impressed with the box. I was told that Bluum would primarily send samples, but I believe it to be of phenomenal value.

My box this month was the box for seventeen month olds. This box seemed to have a theme primarily of mealtime type items.

1. Organic Smoothie Fruits: The Green One from Ella’s Kitchen
Price: $1.29
Status: Great
Comments: I actually really like receiving food pouches in my subscription boxes. I have yet to feed them to Baby Girl yet, but I think she’ll really like them, and I look forward to trying!

2. Organic Smoothie Fruits: The Yellow One from Ella’s Kitchen
Price: $1.29
Status: Great
Comments: How fun to get two different flavors! I’m super glad about this!

3.Sippigrips from Booginhead
Price: $15.00
Status: Meh
Comments: These are actually pretty high quality and a nice item (plus I love that it’s a two pack!), but Baby Girl really doesn’t need these anymore. She has a good handle on her toys, cups, and other items, and she’s old enough to walk around now, so I’m not really worried about her dropping things or throwing things out of the car seat/stroller/shopping cart. These would have been awesome to have a few months ago though, and you can bet I’m going to re-gift them!

4.  Divided Plate from Bumkins
Price: $6.95
Status: Great
Comments: I love this item. I love the Bumkins brand, I love Dr. Seuss, and I love this plate! I wish it was a bit smaller, as this is quite a large plate and doesn’t fit well on Baby Girl’s high chair tray, but it’s cute, it’s durable, and it will be perfect for teaching her to eat off of a plate (she doesn’t do so well with that right now).

5. Toddler Fork
Price: $10.00
Status: Good
Comments: We can pretty much always use more utensils for Baby Girl, for sure. This one is a little odd, and I’m not sure how well she’ll do with it, and I’m skeptical of the price point, but it’s fine.

6.Waterproof Super Bib from Bumkins
Price: $6.95
Status: Awesome!
Comments: Bumkins Super Bibs really are the best bibs around for toddlers. Waterproof, food-catching pocket, machine washable, they are just awesome. I only wish we hadn’t gotten such a girly one…not a fan of the pink.

7. Oscillo from Boiron
Price: $6.99
Status: Meh.
Comments: Not a big fan of receiving flu medicine in my box, to tell the truth. Yes, it’s flu season, but this is a bit like getting a bottle of aspirin. Not cool.

So was it worth it? Definitely. The total value of the box was $48.47, compared to a $25 purchase price. After subtracting the items I will probably regift, I got around $27 worth of value, which is still above the purchase price. Plus, now I have some really high quality items to gift my mom friends with tinier babies!

Are you interested in signing up for Bluum?

Click here to sign up and receive 50% off your first box!

Citrus Lane Review: November 2013

It’s that time of the month again! Time to review another Citrus Lane box and see if it was worth it’s purchase price! See my reviews for previous months here.

For those of you who are unfamiliar with how Citrus Lane works, it is a subscription service that sends you age appropriate items for your child aged 0-5 years every month. The cost of the subscription depends on how long you are willing to commit to. For month to month or three month subscriptions, your cost is $25.00 per month, while it goes down to $21.00 per month if you sign up for a six month or one year subscription. To personalize the box, you choose the child’s age and gender (or neutral) and receive items appropriate to those selections.

In my reviews, I can only review what my daughter receives in her box. I will always tell you what my age and gender selections were, give you a description of the items, what I think of them, pricing, etc.

This month my daughter received a sixteen month old box with a neutral gender selection.

1. Tugboat from Green Toys
Price: $14.99
Status: Awesome
Comments: Yay! I was so excited to see a Green Toys item in the box this month. Their products are always a huge hit with Baby Girl, and the company is awesome too. I would have preferred a toy that wasn’t primarily for the bathtub, but this was awesome.

2. Zootensils from Skip Hop
Price: $6.00
Status: Awesome!
Comments: Another product that basically hit the nail on the head! We’ve just started working with Baby Girl on using utensils, and were looking at what to purchase. What a timely arrival! Not only that, but we are big fans of the Skip Hop brand in our house, and own many of their products, so we know these will hold up to Baby Girl’s abuse.

3. Reusable Snack Bags from Bumkins
Price: $6.95
Status: Useful
Comments: To be honest, I’m a Bumkins fan, and I was super-duper hopeful when I saw the Bumkins logo that it would be a pack of their absolutely awesome toddler bibs. It wasn’t, it was reusable snack bags, but I’m sure we’ll get some use out of these. Although, we have received a lot of different snack containers in our Citrus Lane boxes, and I’m not really sure how many of these we really need.

4. Lip Comfort from Pur~lisse
Price: $16.00
Status: Meh
Comments: Uh, how much chap stick/lip balm type items do they think I need? And why are these things all so freaking expensive? Crazy! I’ll probably use it, or give it away, but not the best item in the box.

5. Second Blends Pouch from Plum Organics
Price: $1.99
Status: Disappointing
Comments: I love Plum Organics products, and I was so happy to see Citrus Lane finally include a food item that my daughter could actually eat. Then I found out about the voluntary recall issued on this product and that I have to throw it out! Such a bummer. CL says that they will be sending us all vouchers, but I have yet to see it.

6. TinyPrints Coupon
Price: N/A
Status: Not even worth including.
Comments: I hate this item. Especially because if it hadn’t been included in the box it probably would have been a super satisfying month. This coupon is for four sets of address labels and free shipping…on an order of $99+. This is not a gift, or an item. It is a glorified coupon. Not cool Citrus Lane, not cool.

Final Thoughts:
I’m very excited to be amped up about a box again! This box was pretty awesome, and made me glad to be a Citrus Lane subscriber!

Optional Add-to-Box:
Citrus Lane has just opened their new Holiday shop, where you can buy things like a normal store, or use your Citrus Lane credits, and they will ship the items in your next box. I did purchase an item I was pretty excited about and had it added to my December box.

By the Numbers:
Total value of the box items: $45.93
Total value of items I will use: $27.94
Is the value greater than the cost? YES
The value in this box would have been even greater if they hadn’t used the super expensive lip treatment to bump up the value! I was/am in love with this box, and while the recall (which CL had no control over) was a dampener, if the Bumkins product had been bibs instead of snack bags, I would be doing a completely embarrassing happy dance.

Looking for my previous Citrus Lane reviews? CLICK HERE!

CLICK HERE TO SAVE $10 ON YOUR CITRUS LANE SUBSCRIPTION!

Here’s to Baby Food: Butternut Squash

While it is one of my favorite foods, my husband is not a big fan of butternut squash, and while Baby Girl doesn’t hate it, it really isn’t her favorite. This is how I prepared it for her.

Ingredients
1 Butternut Squash
Water

Equipment
Shallow Baking Dish
Oven
Blender OR Food Processor
Large Spoon

Directions
1. Slice the squash in half lengthwise. Using a spoon, scrape out the fibrous strings and seeds.

2. Place the two halves of the squash in a shallow glass baking dish, cut side down. Put enough water in the dish that it comes about 1/4 inch up the sides of the squash.

3. Bake the squash at 375° until wrinkled and tender, about 60 minutes (an hour). Let cool completely.

4. Using a spoon, scoop the flesh out of the skin and into a blender or food processor.

5. Blend or process the squash until smooth, adding water to aid the blending process as necessary.

Easy as pie, and pretty hands off. This makes a very smooth puree that is super delicious. You can store it in airtight containers in the refrigerator for up to three days, or in the freezer for up to three months. If your baby is old enough for spices, feel free to add dash of cinnamon or nutmeg for flavor.

Looking to make lunch for yourself? Put some of this super smooth puree in a small saucepan, add low sodium (or homemade) vegetable stock to thin it out, and cook it, stirring constantly, to make squash soup. For more flavor, add a little bit of applesauce and your favorite squash friendly spices.

Here’s to Baby Food: Banana

This is going to be one of my faster baby food posts. I know I’ve said that every one of these so far is easy…but this is the easiest. Easy as pie, and Baby Girl absolutely loves it.

Ingredients:
Banana

Equipment:
Bowl and Fork

1. Peel banana.

2. Mash banana with a fork. If your baby is too young for the chunks and you need it to be smooth, put it in a food processor or blender for a few seconds.

No need to store it, it mixes up too easily. If you do want to store it, feel free to do so in airtight containers in the fridge for up to three days or in the freezer for up to three months. It will start to turn brown if stored, but it’s still edible.

If your baby is old enough for spices, feel free to add some cinnamon or nutmeg for a little flavor.

Here’s to Baby Food: Sweet Potatoes

I love sweet potatoes. I like them sweet, I like them savory, I just like them. My husband on the other hand does not. As a result, we don’t eat a lot of them at our house. That said, it is a great first food for baby. It is flavorful, blends smooth, and is sweet enough to cater to an infant’s natural sweet tooth. You can roast, boil, or bake sweet potatoes before pureeing them, this is only one option, but this is how I did it. It is by far the smoothest baby food I have made to date, and one of Baby Girl’s favorites. It is suitable for babies aged six months and older.

Ingredients
2 Sweet Potatoes
Water

Equipment
Fork
Baking Sheet
Oven
Knife
Spoon
Blender of Food Processor

Directions
1. Thoroughly wash the sweet potatoes.

2. Prick the sweet potatoes several times with a fork and place them on a baking sheet.

3. Bake the sweet potatoes at 425° until they are wrinkled and tender, about 60 minutes (an hour).

4. Slice the sweet potatoes in half. Using a spoon, scoop the flesh out of the skin (carefully, so as not to get skin pieces in the puree) and into a blender or food processor.

5. Blend or process the sweet potatoes until smooth, adding water to aid the blending process as necessary.

That’s it! While it takes more forethought than some of the other, faster recipes I’ve provided, I found this to be one of the easier ones. The baking time is hands-off, and the blending time is quick. You can store sweet potato puree in the refrigerator for up to three days, or in the freezer for up to three months. If your baby is old enough to enjoy spices, feel free to add a dash of cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, or any combination of the three to their sweet potatoes. For a more savory flavor, you can add rosemary and thyme.