Ella Organics

Visit Ella Organic's beautiful website to learn about the product, have fun and find out about ordering!

One thing that I love the Anchorage Outdoor Family Network is the variety of people.  There is a large section of organic and cloth diapering parents, parents that dress their children in the highest styles (who I readily take all fashion advice from), alligator wrestlers, ex-dog mushers and everything in between.  It seems that I can always find a kindred spirit, hear an entertaining story and learn something new (did you know that you get pizza dough from the Moose's Tooth?).

I am passionate about getting my kids outside and am forcing a love of all things nature on my children.  I extended breastfeed, co-sleep, am a vegetarian and stay at home with my kids.  Because of these things, people assume I cloth diaper, use reuseable wipes and only feed my children organic food.  I do use reusable bags, focus on healthy eating (with a good dose of ice cream) and ditch the car whenever possible in lieu of biking.  

Even though I am not focused on the "organic" aspect of food, I contacted the company and asked for a sample.  They sent me a box overflowing with yummy goodness.  As my kiddos are a bit older, I offered the box to a mom of twins.  I kept two packets for "just in case food" and I am so glad that I did.  The mom never returned my emails for the review!

I love the concept behind this company who also gives back to the community: We think it's important to always approach things from a child's point of view. So, we've taken simple, natural ingredients that ooze goodness and createdbaby foods, and packaging, that should really connect with kids - with flavours, colours, textures and even names that will appeal to all of their senses. We have 9 ranges at the moment: stage 1 baby food, stage 2 baby food, stage 3 toddler food, stage 1 fruit + baby rice, baby brekkie, yum yummy cookies,stacks of sticks, cooking sauce, pasta + rice and smoothie fruits! We're always thinking of yummy new ranges to add to our family of yummy 100% organic foods!

I did keep three packages of "smoothies" - The Red One, The Green One and The Purple One.  I gave away the baby food even though the Apple and Rutabaga sounded interesting.  I pulled out the Red One which is a puree of Bananas, Strawberries, Apples and Raspberries on a hike for dessert.  It was quite sweet tasting, but the kids loved it.  The Green One (Apple, Pear, Banana and Kiwi) was also a great snack on the playground.  The last one we tried was the Purple One (bananas, apples, black currants, blue berries and lemon juice).  While I liked this one, it wasn't my favorite.  Oddly enough, it was my kiddos' favorite!  I enjoyed the fact that I could taste the actual fruit flavor, instead of a fake flavoring.

I know that a few companies are starting to package their food in the pouches, but I love that Ella's tops are resealable.  The kids slurped (that is one fun feature!) some of the pouch and the rest stayed safely inside the pouch the rest of the day (even though it somehow managed to end up at the bottom of my pack).  My 20 month old can easily hold and drink from the pouch, without the fountain factor of juice boxes.

They offer a wide range of organic and healthy options for babies and children (adults like them too!).  The packaging is enticing to children (due to fabulous colors), easy for adults to open one-handed, sealable and allows children to feed themselves.  I would love to try freezing them for a hot day treat or to keep the rest of the snacks cold.  It also would be nice to have a larger smoothie pouch for older kiddos.  My almost three year old enjoyed the smoothie as well as my 20 month old.  I haven't tried their other snacks, but they look fantastic!  You can find some of these at Target currently, but just order them from Amazon so you don't have to waste gas on a shopping trip!

I give this company my Alaskan Mom Approval as their food is healthy, able to easily slip into a day pack, allows kids to slurp while in the stroller (or back pack) which lets the adult stay outside in mother nature that much longer!  The company was so friendly and helpful when processing my request and you know that gives them five stars in my book!