Published on July 16, 2018 | Last Updated on July 16, 2018

This post has been sponsored by Mott’s® Juice. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Right around the time Piper turned six months old, we started to incorporate solids into her diet. Luckily she isn’t very picky when it comes to flavors but some textures she doesn’t care for. When we first started experimenting, I would give her banana or avocado in a mesh fresh food holder so she could get familiar with the flavors.

Only a little bit of food comes out at a time, it’s more of her gnawing on it than anything! She loved the flavors of both banana and avocado but when I was ready to transition her to eating small pieces of avocado mashed up, she would spit it out immediately. After several days of this in a row I realized she was having a hard time getting used to the texture. I never intended to make baby food or purees because I can barely manage to fix a meal for myself these days but I knew we needed to figure something out!

I decided to add a splash of Mott’s® for Tots Organic Juice available at Target to some steamed carrots and a little bit of pureed organic prunes. The Organic Apple White Grape (available only at Target) has 40% less sugar than regular apple juice, so I feel good about using it to improve the texture while adding flavor without a ton of sugar!

We recently started incorporating prunes into her diet to prevent her from getting plugged up now that she’s eating solids. I’ve heard some babies hate prunes, but this little lady loves them and it works like a charm!

Here’s a semi-homemade recipe to improve the textures of solid foods if you’re wanting to introduce more foods than just purees!

CARROT, APPLE & PRUNES

• 1 cup of steamed organic carrots – I buy raw baby carrots but you could buy frozen to save more time!

• A tbsp of organic pureed prunes

• A splash of Mott’s® for Tots Organic Apple White Grape Juice

I’m trying to get her to like different textures so I mashed up the carrots in the bowl so they were mostly smooth but still have some whole pieces. Then I stirred in the prunes and added a splash of Mott’s for Tots Organic Juice. You can adjust the amount of juice you use to get the consistency you want.

Target is my go-to for diapers, formula, wipes and all the things we constantly need for Piper. I don’t think there’s anything that makes me happier as a mom than to walk into the baby section and see the gift card offers or deals on the Cartwheel app! I’m all about a good deal and right now you can Save 20% on Mott’s for Tots Organic Juice with Cartwheel in the Target app through 7/28.