Toddler Freezer Meals

When I first became "mommy" I had glorious plans of cooking all of my own baby food and saving tons of time and money and giving my little one the healthiest food possible. Well, DS started eating solids and I faithfully began pureeing various fruits and veggies, pouring the mixture into ice cube trays, and then transferring the frozen morsels into zip-loc baggies. That lasted a grand total of about....3 weeks.

I'm not sure why I failed exactly. Here are some thoughts though:

Maybe it was because getting the food out of my ice cube trays was so darn difficult and I was too cheap to spend the money on the good silicone ice cube trays online (looking back it would have been worth the money - so if you're thinking about it - do it!).

Maybe it had something to do with the depression that occurs when you dump a whole batch of wonderfully pureed frozen peas into the trash because DS simply will not eat them. 

Maybe it was because I wasn't packaging my food properly so it would stick together and get freezer burnt.

Maybe it was the fact that traveling with your baby and needing a meal on the go was not very convenient with frozen morsels.

Or maybe it was because I realized how much easier and more convenient it was to simply plop a few containers of baby food into my shopping cart while I was already at the store.

There's also that little bit of me that thought it was fun to try out all the new flavor combinations on young DS that I would never have made at home, like mac n cheese with carrots or beef vegetable stew. Come on, is that something I really would have pureed on my own? And if I did attempt such a feat would the consistency have turned out so delightfully creamy and easily spoonable? I doubt it.

Regardless of the why, the fact is that my glorious plans of me dancing around in the kitchen in a frilly apron and pearls, whipping up gorgeous pureed portions of homemade healthy baby food and spooning said creations into a delighted DS's mouth went right out the window....along with about 100 other things I thought I would or would not do when I became a mom.

So DS and I plodded along eating the stuff that comes in little glass jars and plastic containers. I felt a little guilty that it wasn't the most nutritious stuff on the planet, but consoled myself with the idea that many other mothers out there were doing the same thing. Anyways we continued plodding along in our dream land of pre-made baby meals when one day it hit. Toddlerhood. Which meant no more baby food. Now what? Dinner was easy, DS just eats what we eat. What about lunch and breakfast though? I'm not the type of woman to whip up a batch of pancakes and scrambled eggs every morning before hubby goes to work, and then pop a souffle in the oven for lunch. I turned to the pre-made stuff again. Only pre-made stuff for kids who are eating more adult food just isn't as good. Chef boyardee, spaghetti o's, mac n cheese, cut up hot dogs....yah, we did that for awhile. It just seemed so unhealthy and so much more processed than I was willing to overlook. I quickly turned to my lovely Internet and began googling for toddler meals and quickly stumbled on a fantastic notion: Freezer meals for Toddlers. What a splendid idea! But what about my experience with DIY baby food? Not so great. Still I decided to try it anyways.

I found a site called Onceamonthmom.com where the site owner and a few friends make monthly meal plans for adults and children. She had a special toddler meal plan for a month of food so I though I would try it. The theory behind her meal plans is that you buy all of your ingredients at once then on the first day of the month you spend an entire day cooking your freezer meals and then you're done for the next 30 days. So I jumped in. and tried it for the month of September. Oh boy.....It literally took me ALL day to finish cooking. it was after 9pm by the time I'd finished cooking and cleaning and I was completely exhausted. In the end it was worth it though.

Having homemade meals on hand to serve to DS for breakfast, lunch and snacks turned out to be such a blessing. It was so easy to get his meals ready and it actually saved me a lot of money. I spent about $70 on the ingredients when before I was spending about $150 a month on his food.

The only downside to this was that he didn't like some of the menu items in the line up. Plus some of the menu items just weren't feasible for his age. For instance, he loves to feed himself (actually he refuses to let me feed him) but he just isn't coordinated enough yet to handle getting a spoonful of potato soup to his mouth without spilling it all down his front first.

So, the moral of this story is that cooking freezer meals for your toddler's breakfast, lunch, and snacks for a month really saves time and money. I would recommend it and I plan on continuing to do so.

Two things I have changed though. For the month of October (post coming soon). I did not cook all of my meals on one day (WAY too much work in my opinion). Instead I spread the cooking out over several days. I would cook one or two breakfast items and lunch and snack items per day. Then freeze. This way I only spent about 1-1 1/2 hours cooking and DS could just eat whatever I had made that day before I froze the rest. It worked out really well. My second change is I created my own meal plan. One that included foods I knew DS would eat and could handle feeding himself. This is saving me even more money because a) I could design his meal plan using items we already had on hand b) I didn't end up throwing out a bunch of food that he simply didn't like. For the month of October I think I spent a total of $30 on groceries. Thats $1 a day to feed DS breakfast, lunch and an afternoon snack. Definitely worth it.

Play Dough...the good stuff!

As you may have read on a previous post DH and I are trying to be better at budgeting and saving money so we don't go broke before he graduates from school in 3 years. Well, part of that saving money plan involves me not going out and shopping so much with DS. The problem with this is we both get incredibly grouchy when we are stuck in the house all day.

Why are we stuck in the house all day you ask? Well there's this little thing called "fall" which I have been looking forward to for months. It is now October and guess what? Its not here yet. Its still in the upper 90s daily. Which means its still too hot for me to take DS to the park or let him run around outside. Its just too hot and he gets overheated very easily.

Which brings me back to my main point. We were stuck inside the house with no errands to run and DS and I were getting grouchier by the minute. What to do...what to do....Ah hah!! A blast from my past. Homemade Play Dough! I used to love the stuff when I was little. It feels and smells so much better than the store bought stuff too. So I whipped up a batch and within minutes we were squishing, rolling, pounding, and pulling a great big mound of beautiful wonderful play dough. It kept DS entertained all the way up until naptime. He did try to eat it a few times (which is fine because its perfectly safe, just probably not good in large amounts) and soon decided that wasn't such a good idea because playing with it was so much better.

Anyways, this recipe for homemade play dough saved us both that day. Maybe one day it will save you too. Don't doubt the dough.

Homemade Play Dough

Ingredients:

2 1/2 cups flour
1/2 cup salt
1-2 pkg. kool aid mix in whatever your preferred color is (the powder stuff)
3 tbsp. vegetable oil
2 cups boiling water

Bring a pot of 2 cups of water and vegetable oil to a boil. While you are waiting for the water, in a large bowl combine the flour, salt, and kool aid mix (how many packages you use depends on how intense you want the color to be). When the water is boiling add it to the dry ingredients and mix. Allow the mixture to cool a bit and then get in there with your hands to really incorporate the color. Once cooled you're ready to play!

If you store this dough in an air tight container it should last about 3 weeks. Enjoy!!

DIY Hospital Survival Kit

I was recently invited to intend a baby shower for one of the wives of DH's school friends. She already has a little girl and is now having a little boy. I wasn't quite sure what to get her so I did some googling (has this become and official word in the English language yet?) and found the idea to do a Hospital Survival Kit. How cute!! Here's what I decided to put together:

Fuzzy Socks: To keep your feet comfy and warm while waiting for baby to arrive in labor and delivery

Burt's Bees Chap-stick: Your lips tend to get chapped when all you're allowed to eat or drink is ice cubes! Plus Burt's Bees happens to be the best chapstick brand ever...in my professional opinion :)

Playing Cards: To pass the time if you're there for a while

Lotion: Does this need explanation? 

Headbands: To hold your hair back in L&D

Hair ties: Likewise ^

Junior Mints: To sneak when the nurses aren't looking, to share with DH, or to save as a treat after the baby is born

Hand Sanitizer: For guests to wash up before they touch your precious new little one. It is cold and flu season after all!

Makeup Removing Towelettes: It can be very refreshing to just have a clean face during labor if nothing else. 

Package them up in something cute (I used a cute bag I had on hand, but you could also make a cute little gift basket or even a bucket), label, and give to the mother to be!

Some other ideas I had for the bag but didn't have room for: mints, back scratcher, a little notebook to write thoughts and impressions in, more snacks, headphones to listen to an iPod, etc. There are many possibilities and this is a gift that you can really personalize to the mom.

Nostalgia aka the Good Ole' Days

Remember the good old days where people used to have recipe cards they exchanged with others to find good recipes? The only other option then was to either come up with something on your own or buy a cookbook. Nowadays you simply switch on your computer, pull up your web browser and voila! Tons and tons of recipes at your fingertips from all sorts of sources. Not only that, but most of the time you have helpful reviews to forewarn you if a recipe is actually as delicious as it sounds (and trust me there are some BAD ones out there).

My grandmother died about 12 years ago and last week my mom gave me this great bag that had a stack of her recipe cards and a pair of gloves she used to wear on special occasions. I can't remember a time in my life where I've ever seen a lady wearing a pair of nice dress gloves. It sounds so fun.

Anyways, the recipe cards are were really great to hold onto and peruse. There's something delicious about actually holding a hand written recipe in your hand, as opposed to reading a computer printed page or staring at the glare on your tablet. You feel a connection with the person who wrote the recipe down. These cards also give you a little glimpse into the life of that person. For instance, what kinds of food they ate. Did they have a sweet tooth? Did they like spicy foods? As I looked through Grandma J's cards I felt like she was there preparing an apple pie or some other equally delicious and grandmotherly dish. So in honor of Grandma J and the good ole days I'm going to gradually post her treasured recipes and try them out myself.

Thanks Grandma J. Miss you.

I love my Bountiful Baskets!

Bountiful Baskets are...well....bountiful! This weekend I got a myriad of delicious looking fruits and vegetables. Tons of bananas, limes, red pears, peaches, grapes, and yams. I also got some apples, apple-pears, honeydew, celery, carrots, collards, and tomatoes.

Here are a few reasons why we love our Bountiful Baskets:

1. It forces us to eat more healthy. I try to incorporate them into breakfast and lunch for DS and I and DH likes to use them in his fancy Vitamix for smoothies.

2. It helps us to be creative for dinners. I still usually plan out my monthly meals but then use my bountiful basket products to add to a recipe I was already making or to design a healthful side dish to go along with what I was already planning to prepare.

3. Its fun to go and get it and "discover" whats there. You never know exactly what you're going to get. It's always in season, fresh, and as local as possible though. Lately it has been a great experience for DS to help me load up our bags with all the bounty of our baskets. As he places each item in our bags I get to explain to him what that item is and talk about the color and the shape. Its a fun little learning experience and he loves being outdoors. Lately he has been getting confused over what items are ours and what items belong in other people's baskets, lol. We'll work on that.

4. Its a good way to get fresh fruits and veggies on the cheap. Because, let's face it, fresh produce isn't cheap and its only getting worse. 

How Bountiful Baskets work:

You go to BountifulBaskets.org and  create a login. You can then choose your area to order a Bountiful Basket and choose a location convenient to you. Bountiful Baskets are given out by local volunteers on Saturdays. You have Monday and Tuesday to submit your order. There are only so many baskets available so the earlier you order your basket the better! You then go to your location at the designated time and pick up your fresh fruits and veggies. Its that simple. For more information visit Bountiful Baskets here. 

Strawberry Peach Freezer Jam

Last night I tried making freezer jam for the first time. I received a ton of peaches in my Bountiful Basket this weekend (post coming on this). Neither DH or I enjoy the texture of fresh peaches but we sure do love the flavor. Therefore, I decided to try making some peach freezer jam. You would think that if it was my first time I would follow a recipe exactly right? Instead I decided I didn't want to make just plain old peach jam. I wanted to make Strawberry-Peach Jam. It sounds so delicious and such a great way to carry over the fruits of summer into the Fall and Winter. The color of the jam turned out absolutely gorgeous! I am now plotting creative ways to maybe gift some of my jam to friends and family. I will definitely consider making another batch of jam with the large number of pears I also received this week. Here is the recipe I used:

Strawberry-Peach Jam

2 cups fresh peaches, pitted, peeled, chopped and mashed (I used a potato masher, worked wonders)

1 cup fresh strawberries, stems removed, chopped and mashed

4-1/2 cups  sugar, measured into separate bowl

2 Tbsp.  fresh lemon juice

3/4 cup  water

1 box  SURE-JELL Fruit Pectin

 

1. Rinse clean freezer safe containers and lids with hot water. Dry thoroughly.

2.  Measure exactly 2 cups prepared peaches and 1 cup prepared strawberries into a large bowl. Add sugar and lemon juice; mix well. Let stand 10 min., stirring occasionally. 
 
3. Mix water and pectin in small saucepan. Bring to boil on high heat, stirring constantly. Boil and stir 1 min. Add to fruit mixture; stir 3 min. or until sugar is dissolved and no longer grainy.
 
4. Fill all of the containers immediately to within 1/2 inch of tops (I used a canning funnel and I definitely recommend one). Wipe off top edges of containers; immediately cover with lids. Let stand at room temperature 24 hours. Jam is now ready to use. Store in refrigerator up to 3 weeks or freeze extra containers up to 1 year. Thaw in refrigerator before using.  

Note: This filled 8 half pint sized jars (8 oz.) with about 2 tablespoons left over. It doesn't matter what brand of jars you buy just make sure they are freezer safe. I also read a recommendation that you buy jars with straight sides and not ones that curve outwards from the lid because your jar could break when the Jam expands in the freezer.  

Happy Jamming!  

Budgeting Fail

As I begin this post I let out a big sigh. Recently DH (dear husband) and I decided we need to get our finances in order. He is currently in school and on an army scholarship. Through the scholarship we earn about $2100 a month to live off of and support our family. Well the first year of his four year program flew by.....and so did a lot of our savings. We took a good hard look at our finances and found that we're overspending our monthly income by nearly 1000 a month. Ok, time to roll up our sleeves and start cutting back, right?

Wrong. This month we made a big push to keep our expenses down. Only problem is we have a lot of expenses that we just can't get out of, which leaves very little wiggle room once all the bills are paid. We have 7 days left of this month and we are already over budget by about 500. Gah!!

There are a few explanations for this:

1. Our electricity bill is much higher than average due to the soaring temperatures. It should be much more reasonable next month.

2. We got behind in our tithing payments while we were out of town...and DH decided it was time to catch up. There goes another chunk of money.

3. We found out we're having a baby girl. Which means I can get out of control with "getting ready" for baby expenses. For fun this month we went and made her a Build-A-Bear like we did when we found out we were having DS. We also stocked up on some clothes and diapers that were on sale. I'm hoping the buy now to save later approach works on this one. Luckily we only need a few more items for her and they're pretty inexpensive so this expenditure should go down next month.

4. My birthday is next month. To celebrate DH wanted to go see a Cirque show. He bought the tickets early to get good seats. Not easy on the budget.

5. Lots of various little expenses that we weren't expecting. A bill came through for some lab work I had to have done a few months ago, DS got sick so we had to go stock up on some medicine, etc. I guess we need to plan for these things a little bit better in future.

The good news is is we've saved about $70 on what we usually spend on groceries this month and about $100 on what we spend on eating out. This month I really cracked down on meal planning and DH really cracked down on eating out at school. Hopefully we can carry this over to next month.

We are using Mint.com to keep track of our finances. We've set up all of our budgets for things we have to buy and things that are likely to come up. We  may have failed this month but we've heard it takes a few months to get it down to a science. So far seeing everything on Mint has been really motivating and we're going to keep trying. Wish us luck!!I will have an update with October's results.

Toddler Learning

I am currently working on trying to find good ideas for teaching DS (Dear Son) the basics. He's 16 months old and I know once toddlers hit about 18 months their language is supposed to begin to blossom. I want DS to have a good head start in life since he will be one of the youngest kids on his class when he starts school. Also, when volunteering to help in the junior nursery (18 months-2 years) at church there were several kids in there who were great with their alphabet and their colors. I was shocked! I am a first time mom and I definitely don't want DS to get behind. So I've been researching various blogs and internet topics and trying to come up with some ideas for my son.

Now, like most toddlers, he has an attention span of approximately 60 seconds. So my goal is to chose one letter a week that corresponds with one color a week and a special word that goes with the letter of the week. Throughout the week I plan to point out words that start with that letter and things that correspond with the color of the week.

So to start out easy I'm going with the letter A. Here is the plan:

A is for Apple

 

Letter of the week: A

Find the letter A in his picture books

Print out Letter A printable and post on fridge for the week. Help DS to identify it       

 

Color of the Week: Red

Ideas: Make homemade red playdough

Identify the color red on toys and picture books

Try coloring an apple picture with red crayon

 

Number of the Week: 1

Count items around the house we only have 1 of

Show him one on his fingers

Look at the number 1 in his picture books

 

Word of the Week: Apple

Show him apples when we are out shopping and at home

Give him apples for snacks

Identify pictures of apples in picture books

 

Obviously when he gets a little bit older and has a longer attention span and better motor skills we will incorporate coloring sheets, matching activities, etc. I really like the printable "mommy school" packets put together by Alison on her Oopsey Daisy blog.

 

Right now I think that is too advanced for him, so we're just going to focus on incorporating the leter A "plan" into our daily conversations and activities.