Little Spoon is a meal subscription service that offers a variety of ready-to-heat meals specifically designed for babies and young children, primarily up to age 8. Founded by a single mom of three, Little Spoon was launched with the goal of taking the daily stress of healthy meal preparation away from parents. Little Spoon uses a vacuum seal to extend the shelf life of its plates to last 14 days in the refrigerator and up to two months in the freezer.
Little Spoon has a line of baby food (Babyblends), toddler + kids meals, as well as smoothie pouches, and vitamin boosters. The baby food line features pureed blends of organic fruits and vegetables, often mixed with interesting “superfood” flavors such as spirulina or turmeric, while the toddler + kids meals are small plates that include finger foods for younger eaters as well as some fork and spoon meals for older kids. Little Spoon stands out among other meal delivery services for its modern aesthetic, nutritionally balanced meals that target the needs of growing children, and its use of whole food ingredients that may not typically be thought of as “kids food.” Here, we’ve broken down Little Spoon’s meal delivery service, focusing on the toddler + kids meals, to help you determine if it’s a good fit for your family.
Little Spoon prioritizes meals made with nutritious ingredients, free of added sugar, fillers, and additives.
Pricing: Good Value
Little Spoon offers three weekly meal plans: Babyblends, Plates, and Smoothies. One household can sign up for more than one plan and coordinate them to be delivered at the same time by reaching out to customer service, but otherwise, plans cannot be customized to include items from more than one plan. Pricing for the Babyblends plan ranges from one to three blends per day; pricing for the Plates plan includes options for four, six, nine, or 12 meals per week; the Smoothies plan includes options for five, nine, 12, or 18 smoothies per week. All pricing plans are based on a two-week delivery of items.
- Babyblends Plans: $3.49 per blend, reduced to $2.74 per blend for the largest plan (42 blends per delivery)
- Plates Plans: $6.49 per plate, reduced to $4.99 per plate for the largest plan (24 meals per delivery)
- Smoothies Plans: $3.49 per smoothie; reduced to $2.49 per smoothie for the largest plan (36 smoothies per delivery)
Shipping is a flat fee that varies based on your zip code and transit method. For our order of eight Plates, which was delivered to the East Coast, we were charged a $6 shipping fee.
How It Works: Pick Your Plan by Age
The first step to ordering is to choose the best plan(s) based on the age of your children. Once you determine which one is appropriate, select the number of meals and then checkout and go through the payment process. After payment, you will see some automatically populated meals in your cart with the ability to filter for a number of preferences. You then have the ability to view the full menu and change quantities of items, remove, or add meals in order to customize your cart. However, you cannot make swaps within a specific meal. Each meal comes plated for a single serving, designed to be reheated in the microwave or transferred to the oven.
Dietary preferences include removing some of the major allergens or eliminating meals that require a spoon or fork for parents who just want to stick to finger foods. According to the company, Little Spoon meals can cater to the following special diets: dairy-free, egg-free, gluten/wheat-free, vegan, and vegetarian. Little Spoon does have protocols in place to limit cross-contamination, however, the company can not guarantee products are 100% allergy-free.
Little Spoon prioritizes meals made with nutritious ingredients, free of added sugar, fillers, and additives. The company works with food industry experts to guide and validate its menu offerings and ingredient standards.
Choosing Meals: Meals Plus Add-Ons
Once meals are chosen, they can easily be modified in your account. Meals can be removed, added, or multiplied. The cutoff time for modifying orders is 5 p.m. ET the Saturday before your scheduled delivery. There are different numbers of menu items available depending on your plan, and menu options rotate seasonally. As of February 2022, the Babyblends plan included 17 different menu items and the Plates plan had 28 different items, including several options labeled as recommended for Picky Eaters or First Time Faves.
Most items seem to be intended for lunch and dinner, but several would also make great savory breakfast choices. There is a good mix of options for plant-based eaters or those with other dietary preferences. The Smoothie plan offers eight different smoothie flavors, designed as healthy snacks featuring fruits and veggies. All smoothies are dairy-free.
Add-ons are available for all meal plans. Smoothies can be added or a subscription of add-on sauce packs or vitamin boosters. There are three sauces available, designed for dipping: veggie ketchup, soy glaze, and honey mustard. Each sauce comes in a neat vacuum-sealed cup, packaged in a box of three.
Boosters include powdered vitamin supplements that can be added to a Babyblend, smoothie, or liquid of your choice.
Verywell Fit / Eric Kleinberg
What We Made
For this review, we ordered from the Plates Plan and received the following items along with an assortment of additional add-on sauces.
- Cheesy black bean pupusas with southwest veggie quinoa
- Spinach + cheese ravioli with veggie marinara sauce
- Mac + three cheese with invisible butternut squash + carrots
- Chicken super nuggets with sweet potato carrot poppers + broccoli
- Veggie tender parm with peas
Packaging: Modern and Reusable
We really liked the packaging for our Little Spoon delivery. Overall, it was minimalistic but very thoughtful and still had a modern aesthetic with bright colored designs on the outer sleeves and reusable aquamarine-colored plates. The cardboard box, insulation, and packaging used for the plates were all recyclable and BPA-free. The cardboard box came filled with recycled denim insulation that can be easily snipped out of the plastic wrapping and recycled with paper products.
Our box had four ice packs and some dry ice; our products actually arrived frozen, just from the dry ice. The plastic wrapping and plastic bags for dry ice and ice packs can all be recycled with plastics. We really appreciated the vacuum sealing technique; the food on each plate is held completely in place because the film ends up forming a seal directly around the food rather than just the plate. Visually, this is noticeably more appealing than other meal delivery services we have tried where the food and sauce move around in transit and looked messy upon arrival.
Customer Support: Efficient and Friendly
The box itself contained a postcard about Little Spoon along with a mini-magazine for parents put out by the company as part of its “Is this Normal” blog and online community platform. The magazine contained supplemental information on the various stages of feeding, from an infant’s first bite of food to older kids and tips for picky eaters.
There was also a guide for suggestions for meals that are “Finger Food Faves,” “Picky Eater Go-Tos,” and “Protein Packed,” presumably to provide some guidance for future orders. In addition, it included content on general guidelines for heating, specifically which kinds of dishes were best for microwave vs. oven vs. skillet, along with practical tips related to the meals. There were also some helpful parenting tips and even a fun quiz titled “What kind of parent are you?” (We promise this was completely non-judgmental!) We found the magazine to be a creative way to give helpful information and also build a sense of community among fellow parents given its witty lighthearted tone.
The fun, friendly vibe of the collateral materials also carries over to customer service. Available via bot chat, live person chat, email, phone, text, and weekend support, there was no shortage of ways to reach a team member. We reached out via bot chat, live person chat, as well as email and received responses immediately, within minutes. All agents were extra helpful and very personable. While we did not have any issues with our delivery, we reached out to customer service with some general questions along with a request for some personalized recommendations and we received helpful and thorough information on each occasion.
Verywell Fit / Eric Kleinberg
Nutrition: More of What you Want, Less of What you Don’t
Overall, the nutrition profile of the meals is intended to be designed for the specific needs of the targeted age group for the plan—either growing infants or growing toddlers and big kids. While the company does not disclose detailed thresholds for all nutrients, it does consult with a registered dietitian and pledges to use wholesome “clean” ingredients. Each plate that we ordered contained a good balance of protein, healthy fat, and complex carbohydrates that provide additional fiber. According to the FAQ section, all Plates contain 500mg or less of sodium. We found most of ours to be well below this, closer to 300mg per serving, which is unusual for pre-made food. In terms of added sugar, there is only a small amount of cane sugar or maple syrup added to a handful of Plates. Detailed nutrition information is provided for each meal prior to ordering.
Little Spoon discloses all major allergens and while it does not use nuts in any meals, it is not possible to guarantee 100% allergy-free meals, because Plates are produced at a facility that also makes gluten, soy, dairy, and egg products. Meals can still be filtered for vegan, vegetarian, gluten-free, dairy-free, and egg-free, but keep in mind the risk of cross-contamination.
The Cooking Process: Heat and Eat
The cooking process is very straightforward and simple. The reheating instructions are listed on the outer sleeve of the packaging and include options for reheating in the microwave or oven with one noted as the “Recommended Method.” In the booklet, we saw there are also instructions for reheating in a skillet for some dishes but we did not come across these on any of the sleeves for our particular items.
When reheating in the microwave, the tray is put directly in the microwave without puncturing the vacuum seal; this seal puffs up during heating, which is normal as it inflates with steam. Reheating times were listed as 60-90 seconds for all dishes. We found this to be accurate for the most part, but since some of our dishes were heated from frozen due to the dry ice, we left it in for the full 90 seconds or added on another 10 seconds. When reheating in the oven, we just had to transfer to an oven-safe dish. Times were accurate and there were even listed instructions for adding on additional time if reheating from frozen. The breaded items, such as the nuggets, definitely benefited from reheating in the oven since the microwave results in soggy breading.
Flavor, Freshness, and Quality: Good Quality, Kid-Approved Flavor
Our tasting group included a 3-year-old, a 6-year-old, and a parent. The kids loved the flavors of nearly everything they tried but were not fans of the quinoa side that recurred in a few of the plates. This was a personal preference though. The potstickers were a huge hit as well as the mac + three cheese, the pupusas, and the veggie tenders. The sweet potato carrot poppers also went over really well. The sauces were fun for dipping and had great flavor.
The kids really enjoyed the fun packaging and plates and seemed excited to discover each new meal. The only downside that we experienced was that the portions were too small for our growing kids with good appetites. When they found a dish they loved, they really wanted more and we needed to reheat two or more plates per child for each to feel satisfied, especially when they did not enjoy one of the sides. But once you understand your children’s preferences, you could always buy multiples of their favorites. We do just wish there was a family-size option or some larger serving sizes for some of the dishes, especially since that would make it easier for the whole family to eat at least some components of the meal together.
Overall, we felt the quality was excellent—the green vegetables maintained a vibrant color and the other cooked components had decent texture rather than all being soft or mushy, which is frequently a challenge with heat-and-eat meals. We were really impressed by the long shelf life and that the quality of the food didn’t seem to be negatively impacted, due to the vacuum seal.
Little Spoon’s high quality is not just apparent in its food preparation but also it’s sourcing; the company uses only meat and eggs that are antibiotic, hormone-free, and humanely raised, plus non-GMO and mostly organic fruits and veggies. (All baby food is USDA certified organic), but there is the potential for some of the produce in other items to be non-organic depending on availability. Little Spoon sources all ingredients from trusted purveyors and farms in the United States and prepares its meals free of additives and preservatives.
Verywell Fit / Eric Kleinberg
Little Spoon Is Good For
Little Spoon is ideal for parents who want convenient “fast food” to feed their babies and children that is also nutritious and minimally processed. This is also great for parents who try to stay away from foods with unwanted additives such as artificial coloring, along with added sugar, and/or excess salt—but still, demand food that tastes good and is fun for kids to enjoy. Little Spoon strikes the right balance, appealing to kids and their parents.
This is also a great service for eco-conscious parents and those who prioritize organic, non-GMO ingredients. Little Spoon may not be the best fit for families who enjoy eating “family-style” since all meals are individually portioned. Additionally, it may not be the best fit for kiddos with big appetites because we found the portions to be a bit small without supplementing with any other sides. There also may be fewer options for picky eaters, but there are probably several standby dishes that finicky kids would enjoy.
Detailed nutrition information is provided for each meal prior to ordering.
The Competition: Little Spoon vs. Yumble
Little Spoon and Yumble are both meal delivery services for kids that offer heat-and-eat single serving plates. In addition to plates for toddlers and big kids, Little Spoon also has a plan for baby food and smoothies, whereas Yumble starts its plans for ages 12 months and older (up to 12 years). The concept and menus are similar, although Yumble’s food arrives in more traditional heat-and-eat trays and are not sealed as tightly as the trays from Little Spoon, so the food shifts during transit and didn’t visually look as appealing, even after reheating.
Yumble is priced slightly higher, but its portions are slightly larger. Both companies prioritize sustainably sourced proteins and wholesome ingredients free of preservatives, although Little Spoon seems to have slightly stricter standards across the board. We felt the packaging, quality of ingredients, pricing, and variety of meals from Little Spoon were better overall.
Final Verdict
We highly recommend Little Spoon for parents who want a break from cooking and meal planning but still want to feed their children a cooked-from-scratch kind of meal, made with wholesome ingredients that contain all of the nutrients needed for growing bodies. This is also a great way to expose your children to a variety of foods and flavors along with some kid-friendly classics.
Methodology
We ordered, cooked, and evaluated meals from 27 meal delivery services to get a sense of each one’s offerings, nutrition profiles, prices, and, of course, flavors. We contacted the customer service teams at each of the companies, collected data, and wrote detailed reviews about each one.
Our writers are all registered dietitians and relied on their research and its resulting data to inform their reviews.