Baby Food Month 5: Part 2

This was our largest batch so far and consisted of 3 recipes; Red Delicious, Veggie Oats, and Baby Green Machine. My goal was to make these heartier and thicker than the previous batches and to prep  only twice a month. It was a time consuming batch so unless your feeling ambitious and have the time you might want to consider one recipe at a time. 

Red Delicious

Ingrdients

- 2 beets washed (cut the stems back to about an inch and keep skin in tact)

- 8 red apples peeled, cored and cut into cubes

- 2 sweet potatoes washed pealed and cut into cubes

- 2 tbsp chia seeds

- 1/2 water (reserved)

Directions

1) Boil the beets whole for about 45 minutes to an hour or until done over medium/high heat. Remove the beats from the water, blanch them in cold water and cut off the skin and remaining stems.

2) Drain some of the water and add a steam basket and the sweet potatoes and apples. Steam for 10-15 minutes then remove from heat, reserving the remaining water.

3) Add all ingredients to a food processor or blender adding chia seeds and water as necessary.

4) Let cool before storing.

Veggie Oats

Ingrdients

- 1 Butternut squash peeled and cut into cubes

- 8-10 Carrots peeled and cut

- 1/2 cup dried Old-Fashioned Oats

- 1/2 cup water (reserved)

Directions

1) Steam the carrots and squash together until cooked through and softened 

2) Add oats to a small saucepan of hot water and heat for about 20 minutes over medium/low heat stirring often.

3) Blend all ingredients in a food processor or blender adding water as necessary until smooth.

4) Set aside until cooled and then store as you see fit.

Green Machine

Ingrdients

- 2 cups kale stems trimmed (packed)

- 1 lb green beans

- 2 Pears peeled and cut into cubes

- 1/2 cup brown rice cereal (recipe here)

- 1/2 cup water (reserved)

Directions

1) Steam kale until cooked down and green beans and pears until soft. 

2) Blend together all ingredients adding water until it reaches desired consistency and let cool.

3) Store as you see fit.

      

If your following along here is a list of the foods we've introduced so far...

Fruits

Bananas

Apples

Peaches

Pears

Prunes

Vegetables

Avacado's

Broccoli

Spinach

Butternut squash

Beets

Green beans

Peas

Sweet potato

Carrots

Kale

Grains and Proteins

Oats

Rice

Chia Seeds

Have any tasty recipes? Please share in the comments below, we would love to try them out!!

As always thanks for reading!

Brittini Rae

Product Junkie: 10 Products for the First 3 Months

I've come to accept that I'm a serious product junkie and that perhaps I purchased way more than what was necessary when it came to preparing for my son. One thing is for sure: all baby products are not created equal! Thus here are my top 10 products for Jackson from birth through three months. These were my personal "must haves" that truly got me through some long days lol.


1) Baby Bjorn Carrier. This thing is worth every penny and is the multitasking mom (or dad) jackpot! Completely saved my day on numerous occasions and allowed Jackson to nod off on me while I washed the dishes, worked on paperwork, prepped dinner, you name it. I'm pretty sure other brands work just as well including the Infantino version that a friend of mine had and loved. This was also great to have when I forgot my stroller in the other car (which happened often). Definitely something I'll be putting up for baby number two.

Jackson and Chase hanging at the mall

2) 4Moms MamaRoo Infant Seat. Also known as our little space ship. In addition to all the comments we get from visitors about how cool it looks it's actually very functional. For the first 3 months of Jacksons life he fell asleep as soon as we turned on the "car ride" setting. It also allows you to hook up your phone or iPad to play music through it. My husband loved to turn on hip hop lullaby's lol. Hey whatever works right.

 

3) Skip Hop Duo Diaper Bag  (and Bottle Bag)
Before Jackson was born I got a cute expensive diaper bag from pottery and it wasn't functional AT ALL! It had one interior pocket and that was it. I took one trip to the doctors office when Jackson was a couple days old and went straight to Target to find one that worked better. This is the bag we settled on and it has several functional pockets and includes features such as a changing mat, stroller hooks, and mesh side pockets for bottles. The bottle bag holds two bottles and we can fit a few freshly squeezed pouches in there too.



4) Grayco Pac n Play. What I liked most about this particular pac and play is that it two inserts on top that could used for napping and changing and were really easy to remove and clean. We got a good bit of use out of the inserts before we removed the top to use the lower setting. This is another product I'll be dusting off for baby number two when it's time.

5) Boon GRASS Countertop Drying Rack
I actually had two other drying racks and preferred this one more. My only regret with this drying rack is not getting the longer one! It served it's purpose and then some.

6) Tummy Time Mat or Floor Gym (any brand will do). Here is one from Amzaon that is really good and easy to travel with. I like it because the pillow isn't as bulky as some of the other ones advertised and seems a little more natural for infants. We also had a Baby Einstein one as pictured below on the left and a Fisher Price mat that had several different uses. We started monitored tummy time as on the Baby Einstein mat around 2 weeks old with no difficulty.



7) Crane Humidifier
I didn't think we needed a humidifier until we, well, needed a humidifier lol. I know friends who have several different types and they work just fine. I will say I really like how simple it is to clean and how cute it is. It came in several colors too.



8) NoseFrida: The Snot Sucker Nasal Aspirator. My husband hates this thing. But I'm the resident booger remover so my opinion trumps here lol. This is SOO much better than those blue little snot bulbs its ridiculous. It's also a lot easier to clean. Oh and do yourself a favor if you do use the little blue thing from the hospital don't get curious and cut it open.... insert horrified face here.

9) Boppy Pillow. This pillow was great! I used it for breastfeeding all the time when Jackson was little and he napped in it all the time. When it was time to part ways with it there was legit separation anxiety (as shown in the second picture). Ours came with a slipcover that could be removed for washing, not sure if they are all like that but it was a necessary feature.

10) 4Moms Infant Tub

This tub was pretty cool! It's designed to be used with running water allowing the dirty water to flow out so the water is consistently clean. It has a digital thermometer and can be used in the bath tub or the sink. My only negatives were that it could use an insert for the newborn stage and he grew out of it quickly but for us the benefits outweighed the cons! Once Jackson outgrew it we switched to a basic blow up one shaped like a whale. Amazing. I'll post on it later lol.

BONUS: This ones for you Angela! The Chicco Bravo Trio Travel System. So many of my friends have this travel system and we all absolutely love it. I'm listing it as a bonus because it has a lot of functionality through the toddler years. Jackson was only 5 pounds 8 ounces when he was born and he fit nicely in it when we left the hospital and still fits in it now. It breaks down easily, clicks into place so you know it's locked in properly and has cup holders and lots of other features. We purchased an extra base for both of our cars and it's been smooth sailing. You will not be disappointed if you get this!

  

Hooks shown here were purchased separately

Each of the items shown here (except for the diaper bag and MamaRoo) we received at our baby shower and were relatively inexpensive coming in under $50. They made our lives easy and made for a happy baby :-). If your trying to save even more money check some children consignment stores in your area or check to see if a friend has what you're looking for. More often than not people are looking to make room in their homes and would love to give some things away! Everyone wins making for some happy moms and happy babies :-)

Any items that were a must have for your infant? Please share in the comments!

Britt

Organic Brown Rice 3 Ways!

Organic Brown Rice Powder

Brown rice and oats are two of those thing's that are great to have on hand to add to puree's or milk and are super simple to make at home and the significantly less expensive! It's the type of thing you genuinely don't even think it make yourself. Simply put your organic brown rice (I get ours from Trader Joe's) in a blender or food processor and blend until its a fine powder. You can store your rice powder in a container in the fridge or cabinet and have it available when you need it.

Organic Brown Rice Cereal (Infant)

Ingredients
-1 cup water
-1/4 cup brown rice powder

Directions
Bring your water to a boil and add your brown rice powder wisking until smooth. Cook for about 5 minutes on low heat continuing to stir. The cereal can be served however you like.

Fun Ways to Serve Rice Cereal

- Add brown rice cereal powder to a night time bottle (check with your pediatrician for age)

- Brown rice cereal with apple or peach puree (4+ months)

- Brown rice with puree'd carrots and nutmeg

Organic Brown Rice

When Jackson started feeding himself I started making organic short grain brown rice for his meals in larger batches. It's great to have on hand already cooked. You can freeze the rice in snack bag sized portions, small containers, etc.

Ingredients
-2 1/2 cup water
-1 cup brown rice
* Follow the directions on the bag of rice, making sure to rinse and drain your rice prior to cooking*

Fun Ways to Serve
- Brown rice, chicken and broccoli
- Veggie "fried" rice (peas, carrots, zucchini and brown rice)
- Avacado, cilantro, and lime brown rice

Please look out for some of the recipes for the combinations listed above!

Britt

Prunes: Say what now!?

I wanted to break away from the normal Thursday post to throw in an extra, albeit very necesary, recipe: Prunes!  It was about this time in my "foodevers" that I noticed Jackson wasn't, well, pooping as he normally did. Sorry, theres really no cute way to say that. Apparently once you start introducing puree's and solids it's pretty much inevitable. 

Anywho, my mom suggested prunes so I took to Pinterest to find a good way to puree them. After researching a few different pins I settled on a prune, cloves and pear mix and it worked so well....Jackson didn't really care for it at first as you'll see below but he ate enough to do the trick.

So let's dig in! I made a pretty large batch so I could have it available whenever we needed it.

Ingredients

~ 4 Pears

~ 1 bag pitted pruned (I use the Trader Joe's brand)

~ 2 cups hot water

~ 1/4 teaspoon ground cloves

Directions

1) Place prunes in a bowl submerged in hot water while doing step 2.

2) Clean, core and chop pears and place in a steam basket for about 10 minutes. Set aside the pears  to let cool some and reserve the water.

3) Add the pears, prunes and ground cloves to your blender or food processor until smooth adding water as needed.

This recipe yielded about 24 ounces of puree and stored in the freezer nicely. I would suggest using within 3-4 days when storing in the fridge.

Enjoy!!

Hated It (insert two snaps- in "Z" formation if your fancy) 

Baby Food Month 5: Part 1

Welcome to baby food month 5!! For those following along we are now working on puree's for our 5 month olds :-) Time flies! Dr. Udekwu, the coolest pediatrician in Pittsburgh who encouraged me to share these baby food endeavors, suggested we start to increase Jackson's food to two meals a day. So this month my goal was to make much larger batches and introduce a variety of new foods! We will still only introduce one new food at a time but now every three to four days. 

I did three batches to start out the month so the focus of this post is on green bean, butternut squash and pear, and pea's. The butternut squash and pear was a repeat from last week,  check that post for recipe details. We are a fan of squash so this is a staple we will probably always keep available in the freezer.

New to the mix were green beans and pea's. Green beans need to be washed, ends broken off, and rinse again. Once they are cleaned place them in a steamer for 3 to 5 minutes and then drain them in cool water to stop the cooking process and preserve the color. Next, puree them adding some of the water from the pot they were steamed in until smooth and set them aside to let cool completely. Lastly, once cool, you can package them using your fresh squeezed station or similar.

I purchased the pea's fresh form Trader Joe's but I've used frozen before too. I love the color of this one! If your making a large batch like I did here bring a large pot of water to a boil, add about 4-5 cups of peas to the pot and reduce the heat and simmer for about 7-8 minutes. Blend them in a food processor or blender adding reserved water from the pot as necessary.

Below is a picture of each batch.

Enjoy

From L to R, green beans,
butternut squash and pear, and peas

Note: At this stage each individual fresh squeezed package holds 4 ounces of food and equals one meal.

Nursery Organization

Happy Thursday friends!

Today on the blog is nursery organization. This was by far my absolute favorite part of nesting! Anyone who knows me knows my love for all things organizing and OCD and my son's room is likely the truest reflection of my addiction. There is literally a place for everything and since he's not old enough to dress and bathe himself it actually stays clean :-)

A little background about my sons room, it was also my room growing up so it has a lot of great memories :-). It may no longer have the bright pink carpet my mom let me pick out when I was 6 or  the suspended hammock filled with stuffed animals but it's still got some character from my childhood that makes me smile to see Jackson playing in it!

Okay so I'm going to start with my favorite storage space in the room and those are these 4 cream boxes I got from Ikea for $17 each. I love them and they fit perfectly in this sofa table we used as an alternative for the Expedit they no longer make. It ended up fitting perfectly in the room and we used the top for book storage. I can see it transitioning nicely into his "big boy room" one day.

Ikea sofa table with Kvarnvik boxes and lids

Inside each of the 4 boxes I stored different items including bath related items (wash clothes and towels, bath toys, bath wash/shampoo, etc), health stuff (baby medications, vitamin d drops, q tips and cotton balls, keepsakes and miscellaneous storage.

Bath Storage

Health Related Storage

Dresser Drawer Organization

His dresser is also from Ikea. It was once in the guest room and because I loved the stain it became inspiration for the nursery. Its drawers are very spacious and I love the yellow stripes on the inside. In the top drawer I keep changing and daily necessities in drawer organizers from Target. The second drawer houses pj's, onesie's and sweats.

Closet Organization

My OCD really comes in handy with our smaller closets, this one included. A friend gave me a tip to organize clothes starting from newborn to 9 months first and then swapping out larger sizes as they are outgrown. I also used little hangers that separated his clothes from newborn, 0 to 3 months, 3-6, 6-9 and so forth. You can make your own or purchase from places like Buy Buy Baby, Etsy or similar. I still use them and they go up to 2T. Pictured below are sizes 3 and 4 shoes and clothes sizes 9 to 18 months.

On the bottom of the closet is the Kallax shelving unit from Ikea with some random storage from home goods (gray bins with handles) and target (blue bins).  In the gray bins I keep bibs, burp cloths and like items in one, and hats, socks and like accessories in the other. The blue bins store current size diapers and wipes.

Paperwork Billfold

This was one of the best gifts I got at my baby shower, so much so that I make them for every shower I go to lol. It has 8 categories including birth certificate and social security card, keepsakes, milestones, pediatricians visits, immunization records, insurance paperwork, receipts and warranties, and manuals. I keep it right at the top of the closet and absolutely love it (thanks Jas!)

Toy Storage

Lastly are random bins around the room I use to keep small toys (larger toys I keep downstairs in his play space). My kid likes to push them over to play with the toys :-)

I'd love to hear about your nursery organizing tips or thoughts so please share in the comments! I also  plan to do a post soon on how to make the paperwork billfold :-)

Thanks for reading!

Britt

Baby Food Month 4, Week 4: Butternut Squash, Pear and Oats

This is the final week of baby's first month of puree's! We haven't run into any allergies so far and I've learned that I don't have a picky child (thank goodness)!  Now this was my first time making butternut squash ever lol. I had no idea how to even cook it so I took to Pinterest and found that you can cut it in half lengthwise and bake it in the oven. You can check this out on the website I used, The Healthy Foodie. I later found that I prefer to just peal the outer skin, cube it and steam it but both ways work good.

The pears were just pealed cut and steamed and then both were mixed together in the food processor with a couple tablespoons of oats.

The final result was more of the same and another successful batch my kiddo eagerly consumed.

My goal for Jackson is to introduce him to 50 different fruits and vegetables, chicken and cod, eggs, and some cheeses and herbs before his first birthday! If your following along our food list so far includes.

Bananas

Apples

Peaches

Pears

Avacado's 

Broccoli

Spinach

Butternut Squash

Oats

Next month begins more complex puree's where I did 3 to 4 ingredients per batch. We also started 2 meals per day in month 2!

Mom Cons: Scuba Steve

My sister Brianna and I have this tendency to see something we like (jewelry, home decor, furniture up-cycle projects, etc), text a picture of it to our mom and plead with her to make it. Typically in like a 24 hour window. You name it, we think our mom can make it. It's gotten so bad that our friends text us like "hey, you think your mom could make this." Half the things in my daycare are some crazy creative idea brought to life by my mom aka Gia. So every once in a while I'm going to share the random projects we've conned my mom into making starting with "Scuba Steve". If any items are for sale I'll direct you to her Etsy page!

So this Halloween we had two parties to attend, one for the daycare and one for Jackson's cousin's first birthday. Two days before halloween we found a lion costume at Babies "R" Us for the daycare party that was really cute and 65% off.

It was the only cute costume I could find in his size so I took to Pinterest and looked for something I could task my mom with making in, of course, 24 hours.  After like 5 minutes of searching I found a baby scuba costume and text my mom "Jackson needs this." In true Gia form she agreed :-)

She pulled together what we like to call "Scuba Steve" in what I can only image is the first of many costumes by Grandma! 

Jackson with his Aunt Brianna

Scuba Steve :-)

She used two container lids to make the goggles, a 1 liter pepsi bottle for the tank, and breast pump tube wrapped in silver tape attached to a pacifier for the tube and mouthpiece. The fins were made from black felt and velcro lol. Shirt, pants and socks are just Koala and Carters from Babies "R" Us.

Thanks for all you do for us mom, and thanks everyone for reading. Happy Friday!

Brittini Rae