The 1 Thing Camila Alves Always Has in Her Kitchen

"Yummy Spoonfuls started over nine years ago, and Agatha Achindu founded it. She was doing it in Atlanta, and she had her own mission of bringing the best for babies. She used to go to hospitals and teach moms how to make their own baby food and all that kind of stuff.

My journey was that I made food for all my kids. After my third, I remember I was living in a trailer — we were on location in Calgary — and I was like, it's 3 a.m., I've got bowls of purées everywhere, the kitchen's a mess, the baby is about to wake up for her next feed. I'm going to be here all night feeding, making the food, cleaning up, trying to figure out whether I'm giving the right amount of this or that. Why is it so hard to go the store, open the freezer door, and pick up the most pure form of baby and kid's food?

I had a business for over 10 years in the fashion industry. I didn't know much about food, so I had to really get down and learn what that business is. A friend of mine, who is in the food industry, said, 'Look, instead of starting all the way from scratch, why don't you meet this lady that's doing something similar to what you want to do?' And I reached out to Agatha, we sat down across from each other, and right there we clicked. You know, she's from Africa; I'm from Brazil. She comes from a family of farmers, and I do, too."

"We keep the process as simple as we can to where we start from wholesome ingredients just like you would at home. Clean them up, peel and lightly cook them, and then we purée and flash freeze, which locks in all the nutrients, the textures, the colors, and the flavors. The way we like to think about it is your kitchen away from home, so what you see on the front of the package is what you get inside. Period. As a mom, I'm just so frustrated going into stores. It takes me three times longer to get through anything, because I have to read [all the labels]. We try to keep it very honest and straight to the point. Having the clear window in the packaging was a big thing for us to be able to really showcase that."

"The idea is to really make it cultural. We have the basics — your carrots, your butternut squash, your apples — but the idea is to really take kids on a flavor journey. When we created them, Agatha and I were in the kitchen for three days straight. We probably had four hours of sleep within the three days — we were zombies at the end of it. We created, like, 72 or 75 recipes, and the idea when we were doing it was, OK we're going to do the basics. Then, 'What did I grow up with? What did you grow up with? What do we see when we go on our trips to Europe?' It was really bringing in our background: Latin, Brazilian, South American, and African."

"We always have a pot of beans at home — and it's a different kind of beans every time. That's like a staple."

"You don't need to overpack. I mean, we've done Brazil for a month where every child had one carry-on each and that's it. So keep it as simple as you can. And make sure you have enough snacks! We take a lot of fruits on-the-go — my kids love fruit so much. We do a lot of vegetables. You know, then we have the chips that we like. So it's a balance of everything. Having food for them when they're on trips is a good thing. And watch the dairy. It creates extra mucus and the ears get more sensitive, which makes them more likely to get sick. So maybe a week to 10 days before a trip, I start really watching the dairy and bringing it way down. Then, on the return, the same thing."