Kitchen Update!!

Sooo no one warned me how difficult a total kitchen upgrade would be on a new mom 😳😳😳!! Who told me I could do this! Seriously, I've been washing dishes out of the bathroom sink for far too long! My Uncle who is my contractor is AMAZING, but there are so many unexpected delays that I probably should have figured in. Like the fact that the cabinet company may back order one wall cabinet setting back the entire project. Or that countertops have a 3-4 week minimum turn around time 😱. Orrrr that the microwave we ordered might have a short in it that causes the vent to come on and off randomly annoying the hell out of everybody in the house 😩... But overall, I'm overjoyed with the work done!! The temporary crockpot and grill cooking were totally worth it now that it's coming to an end! So a little update on what the kiddo had been up to and then on to the progress pics 😁😁😁!

Jackson is 1 year and 1 month old and in full out pre-terrible two's 😳 lol. To add to the kitchen reno he has had an ear infection that required antibiotics twice daily, allergies requiring baby Zyrtec, and we found out he was anemic and had to start an iron supplement (something apparently very common in breast fead babies once they stop breast milk). So for all breast feeding moms a quick heads up, red meat is pretty much the only natural way to get a significant enough amount of iron. We go back to the doctor at the end of June to check on all of his poor little problems lol. Otherwise he is literally all over the place exploring EVERYTHING. Last week he picked up a caterpillar and well... yea, it was gross.. We have baby gates everywhere lol. We've been working on body part identification and words which we have been pretty impressed with!

Admittedly, we have been doing a LOT of prepared foods meal prepping from Whole Foods with the kitchen down. I've still been making fresh fruit and applesauce pouches for snacks. This momma is tired chasing after the kiddo and working so I've been so grateful to have that store close by! The iron supplement is required to be taken with orange juice and they also have a station where you can squeeze it fresh. Since they have to take it daily I figured it was likely healthier to go fresh squeezed. That may be helpful to know if you find yourself in the same boat as us! When our kitchen is complete I'll go back to using our juicer at home but I'm not even about to try and clean that thing in the bathroom sink 😒.

So that's about it as far as Jackson updates now check out some kitchen progress pic's below if your interested!! Backsplash, touch ups, floor trim and the window paint are all happening this week. After that we are just waiting on the countertops so the sink can go back in 😁😁. Before and after's to come later! Thanks for all your continued support in reading the blog!! It's been such a great experience for me ☺️☺️

Love,

Britt

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Jackson's First Birthday!

It's so crazy to say this but my baby is 1!!! This year flew by! Next week I plan to pick back up with our crazy food prep without a full functioning kitchen *insert crying face here* but this week I just need to reflect on this milestone. Because of Jackson this past year was the most fulfilling year of my life. In celebration, we threw him a big diy Sesame Street themed birthday party and it was kid packed and so much fun! At the last minute my husband ordered a huge jump jump obstacle course (which I wish I had gotten more pictures of) and it was a huge hit lol! We made a large "photo booth" with props, a Cookie Monster bean bag toss, had a local Balloon Artist and a coloring table! 

Below are some pictures of the party and all the things we put together with a lot of help from my mother!! Happy first birthday to my baby!!!

Can you tell me how to get to Jackson Street!?

The Inflatable Bouncer

Cookie Monster Toss game

Photo backdrop and props

Favor Bags and Bubble Favors

Smash Cake Realness

  

Under Construction

The time has FINALLY come my friends! My kitchen is being renovated!! I feel like I've waited forever to start this project and I couldn't be more excited! The down side, however, is that it is way more challenging to food prep 😩. So, for the next few weeks all Jackson's food (and ours too for the most part) is being made in either my handy dandy slow cooker or griddle 😳. Oh and because this week clearly wasn't challenging enough, my poor baby is teething and doesn't want to chew anything. So back to puree's we go for a week.

Sunday I made his favorite applesauce with blueberry's and peaches and a couple of different smoothies to throw in the freezer. They went over well enough but I ended up eating half his food 😩 Anywho, the recipes are shared below!

Blueberry and Peach Applesauce
Ingredients:
~ 10 apples peeled, cored and chopped (red delicious work best)
~ 1 bag frozen peaches
~ 1/2 bag frozen blueberries
~ 1 lemon (1 lemon peel and 2 tablespoons lemon juice)
~ 2 tablespoons cinnamon
~ 1 cinnamon stick
~ 1/3 cup brown sugar (optional)

Directions:

1) Dump the chopped apples, peaches and blueberries in your slow cooker together.

2) Sprinkle your cinnamon and brown sugar (optional) evenly across the top, followed by the lemon juice and toss with a wooden spoon.

3) Add your lemon peel and cinnamon stick and close your lid, letting the applesauce cook throughout the day. If your slow cooker has it, have the setting change to "keep warm" after the 6 hours is up if you don't plan to be home.

4) Mix your applesauce and let cool for 15-20 minutes before refrigerating or continuing to step 5.

5) Using the Fresh Squeezed Station (or however your storing your applesauce) fill labeled pouches with 4 ounces of applesauce each and let them continue cooling before refrigerating or freezing.

   

For the smoothies I made 2 different kind, Peanut Butter Banana and Pineapple Orange and Strawberry. Side Note: Because he hasn't been eating a lot lately I used a good bit of breast milk for the bases of them both.

Peanut Butter Banana Smoothie

Ingredients:

3 tbsp peanut butter

2 frozen bananas

1 cup whole milk yogurt or breastmilk

honey to taste*

Combine all ingredients in a blender and blend until smooth. Serve immediately in a straw cup or in a Fresh Squeezed pouch!

Yummm...

Chase liked it too!

Pineapple Orange Strawberry Smoothie

Ingredients:

1 cup frozen pineapple

2 oranges peeled

1/2 cup strawberries

1/2 cup whole milk yogurt or breastmilk

Combine all ingredients in a blender and blend until smooth. Serve immediately in a straw cup or in a Fresh Squeezed pouch!

He's way to big for this Exersaucer...

I hope your little one likes some of these recipes!! I'm looking for ways to pack in the nutrients without rejection so please share any helpful tips!

~Happy Friday,

Brittini

  

Packing in the Veggies

Up until Jackson turned 8 months he would eat literally anything including all fruits and vegetables. Now that he realizes he can spit food out and throw it on the floor he's gotten a lot pickier. So my current solution is to hide fruits and veggies in other foods. Since he loves eggs I started packing different veggies into mini quiches. He ended up loving them :-). I gave myself a couple mom points for this one!

So to start a basic spinach quiche you'll need the following ingredients, feel free to swap out the veggies for whatever your little one needs or is lacking...

Ingredients

1/2 cup spinach finely chopped

1/4 cup onion finely chopped

4 eggs
1/4 cup parmesan cheese (optional)

1 tbsp garlic finely chopped

desired seasonings to taste

Directions

1) Set your oven to 350 degrees and coat ramekins in Pam or something similar (I use olive oil)

2) Finely chop your vegetables and mix them with the eggs, milk, cheese and seasonings

3) Fill 6 ramekins 3/4 of the way full with the egg mixture (they rise a good bit)

4) Set on an oven baking sheet and bake until quiches are a golden brown on top and no longer jiggle (about 20 minutes).

5) Let sit for about 5 minutes before cutting into bite sized pieces 

This recipe was so good I stole one for myself lol. They also freeze and store really well and are easy enough to make in large batches. Let me know what veggies you packed into your quiches in the comments or on my Facebook page to share with other moms!

Thanks for reading and have a great start to your week :-)

~Britt

Starting Finger Foods

Hello friends and happy Monday!! Today's post highlights my favorite time in Jackson's food journey, starting solids! A few of my friends with little ones following along with the puree's on this blog have asked about the right time to start weaning and begin finger foods. Jackson's pediatrician never gave us a particular month to start solids the way she did with puree's. She wanted us to look for certain queue's from him including crawling with his stomach off the ground and his ability to pick food up with his hands and feed himself without any help. The first time we encouraged Jackson to self-feed was some time in month 6. He started with blueberries, bananas and avocados and we just let him go for it without any help.

Note: Had I known better at this time I would have coated the bananas and avocados with something like a crushed Cheerio to make them easier to grip... This helped a great deal in the future :-)

blueberries, banana, and avocado

The majority of the food ended up on the floor but we tried lol. I continued once a day until I noticed Jackson starting to use his pointer and thumb to grab food and managing to get them into his mouth (which only took a week or two).  

chicken, potato, and zucchini

Once he got the hang of it we prepped every meal like that and eventually weaned him off pureed meals. We still use the Fresh Squeezed Station however, for snacks, yogurts and smoothies on the go. Here are a few great finger foods for starting out (remember to steam and cut most raw foods first or use very ripe fruits)

~banana
~sweet potato
~avocado
~carrots
~apples
~peaches
~whole grain toast
~green beans
~peas
~whole wheat elbow macaroni
~beans

The next few food posts will be of a few s food combinations and recipes like zucchini fritters, banana and blueberry pancakes, and mini quiches.

Foods we've tried so far...

Fruits

Bananas

Apples

Peaches

Pears

Prunes

Lemon

Blueberry

Vegetables

Avocado

Broccoli

Spinach

Butternut squash

Beets

Green beans

Peas

Potato

Sweet potato

Carrots

Kale

Zucchini 

Meats and Fish

Chicken

Grains and Proteins

Oats

Rice

Chia Seeds

Are there any cool finger foods you've tried with your little one? Share them in the comments!

Britt

Product Review: Fresh Squeezed Station

Okay so if you follow my blog you can clearly see my obsession with making homemade baby food and using the Infantino Fresh Squeezed Station. A few of my mommy friends asked me to do a review so I'm going to try and list a few pluses and minuses and how to get the best out of your Station! Simply put, we love it, but let me tell you why. Ive been using the system for almost 7 months now and it's the most simple food storage system for baby food I have tried. The single use pouches get pitched after each use and the caps can be washed and used again. They freeze and thaw quickly and hold 4 ounces of baby food each.

The Station itself costs $25 and comes with 10 pouches and caps and is BPA and PVC free. You can get additional food storage pouches in packs of 50 for $15-$17. A friends of mine recently got a 50 pack of the pouches for $4.99 from Marshall's so be on the look out there too.

You can get the Fresh Squeezed Station from pretty much any baby store but if you visit the actual Infantino Site they have a list of several different recipes to try (I didn't realize this until Jackson was well into solids 😩)

When I'm storing the pouches I stand them upright for easier storage and keep them in the Fridge and Freezer Sleeve... Not sure if it's a more efficient way of keeping them or if it just looks neater lol.

My only negative is that it can be a bit messy to use sometimes. I would suggest getting the add on funnel for a few extra dollars. For me it drastically minimized the mess and any wasted food. I wish I had known about it months ago!

If I had taken pictures of what my station looked like before I got the funnel you would see food everywhere lol.

Although we've graduated form puree's to mostly finger food we still use the pouches for on the go applesauces, yogurts, and smoothies. My son's old enough now that I can take the top off and hand him the pouch and he feeds himself from it.

See some of the other post on the blog for some recipes we've tried using this system and as always share any cool things you've tried!

Breast Milk Smoothies

This is such a fun way to sneak in fruits and veggies and they are just as simple to make as your own smoothies just with a little breast milk! When Jackson turned about 8 months I started using yogurt instead of breast milk, just check with your pediatrician first to make your your son or daughter is ready.

Side note: I was once told when introducing new things to try them over and over again before you give up on it and smoothies were no exception. Typically there are several reasons a child rejects foods or drinks and they aren't likely taste related. For example if your child isn't receptive to water it isn't because they don't like the taste but because the consistency takes some getting used to. My first instinct was to add something sweet and tasty to water like squeezed grape juice but the solution was more simply to keep trying at it. My friend over at Yummyspoonfuls said "you want to help him appreciate real water and to know that from an early age when you are thirsty you drink water and when you want a treat you can drink a little juice" (I just love her :-).

Okay so now that I've bored you enough here is one of our basic breast milk smoothie recipes! You can literally use fruits (or veggies) you have puree'd at home.

Ingredients
2 ounces puree'd carrots
2 ounces puree'd butternut squash
2 ounces breast milk

Directions:

Since all my ingredients are frozen I place them all in his cup and let them thaw fully at room temperature (or if you are preparing enough ahead of time you can thaw in the fridge). I chose not to blend the ingredients together because I've read you can destroy the properties of breast milk that way  so I just simply swirl them all together once fully thawed.

That's all it's really simple!! Here are some other combinations we have tried:

~ Strawberry, banana and spinach

~ Mango and orange

~ Raspberry and blueberry

Quick Tip: Freeze some of your most used puree's in ice cube trays for easy and quick prep. You can pop them out of the trays and into gallon freezer bags for easy storage. It makes life so much easier.

Please leave any tips or recipes you've tried in the comments! Thanks for reading and good luck!

~Britt

Milk Storage Update

Well we are now nearing the middle of March (month 11) so I decided to check on our breast milk supply and see about how much longer we can make it. There are 80 bags of 5-7 ounces each left in our freezer (or about 400-500 ounces on the conservative side). If your following along in the exclusive pumping experiment I stopped pumping in early November and have been living off the freezer for 4 and a half months now. Wow. That seems kind of crazy. We went through about 3500 ounces of breastmilk 😳.

Freezer #1 in October

Last month Jackson's pediatrician allowed us to introduce 2 ounces of organic cows milk (whole) per day in addition to a daily 20-25 ounces of breast milk. His intake decreased from about 30 ounces per day when he started eating 3 meals. He's not nearly as excited about milk anymore, it's all about food, lol.

At 10 months we began giving Jackson about 4 ounces of cows milk per day and haven't had any issues. Many blogs I've seen say to wait until a year old to introduce milk but we chose to follow our pediatricians advice so this is just our journey here. I've had several children in my daycare switch entirely to cows milk at 10 months at the advice of their pediatrician without issue as well. Jackson has also done hard cheeses and yogurt without any problems (all in moderation).

Oh, here's a little background on Jackson's growth. When he was born he was a small 5.8lbs and because of this his pediatrician watched his weight closely in the first month until she became comfortable with it around month 2. He consistently gained weight and is pretty tall (currently 30 or so inches) and is very much built like my husband lol. I'm giving you this background because in hindsight I spent way too much time concerned about why he was slimmer than other kids his age when he was always drinking milk and eating or snacking. He never had a single developmental issue and during our hospital stay when he was born all his tests and scores were near perfect. Our conclusion: It's just how he is built. He is currently around 18/19 pounds and wearing 12 month clothes and turns 11 months March 24th. Developmentally he's been amazing. Throughout our journey this first year we've learned to stop comparing his size to others let him be! Just a little encouragement to moms in a similar boat ☺️

 

Okay back to the milk! Here are a few pictures of some of our current stash (a good bit is still at my moms in her freezer). It's kind of sad to see it all gone but then I think of my deep freezer and all the bulk shopping I can do without guilt lol 😀

At month 11 I plan to switch to half breast milk, half organic cows milk daily and continue until the breastmilk is gone. Thanks for following along! If you have any questions please don't hesitate to post in the comments and I'll reply as soon as I can ☺️

Have a great weekend everyone!

Britt