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

Slow Cooker Cinnamon Peach Applesauce

I've been lazy with my prepping lately but I was inspired by my dear friend Erica and her son Shane and their "foodevers" as she ran through about 50 fresh squeezed bags in a couple of days! Shane is a few months younger than Jackson and Erica shares my love for homemade baby food and a special affinity for the Fresh Squeezed Station. We have an addiction, and we're okay with that ... #whatfriendshipsaremadeof lol.

So today I got back into the groove with an old favorite of mine: Slow Cooker Cinnamon Peach Applesauce. With 5 ingredients t's so easy and delicious it's ridiculous. To prep turn your slow cooker on low and set to 6 hours.

*Side Note: Bare with my kitchen, my husband promised me a renovation soon and its coming... that wallpaper has GOT TO GO!

   

Ingredients:
~ 12-15 apples peeled, cored and chopped (red delicious work best)
~ 5 peaches peeled and chopped
~ 1 lemon (1 lemon peel and 2 tablespoons lemon juice
~ 3 tablespoons cinnamon
~ 1 cinnamon stick
~ 1/3 cup brown sugar (optional)

Directions:

1) Dump the chopped apples and peaches 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.  Makes about 55-60 ounces of applesauce or 14-16 Fresh Squeezed Servings.

**I've kept up to 5 days in the fridge without a problem, but the suggestion from Fresh Squeezed is to use within 48 hours (2 months in the freezer** 

If you have any cool applesauce recipes with other fun fruits please share and we will try them out!

Enjoy!

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