Baby Food! (because babies eat too!)

I've been making a lot of my own baby food lately. There are several reasons (healthier, fresher, easier to store, fun to make...) but I'm doing it mainly because...well, I'm cheap. I got the idea one day when I was cleaning out the freezer. We were almost out of peas, E's favorite, so I decided to try my hand with my new blender.

I did a few quick online searches and basically they said to steam your veggies, mash them up and freeze them in ice cube trays. So, that's basically what I do!

So far, we've tried Peas, Mixed Veggies, Sweet Potatoes (I bake those, then peel them and mash them up), and lately been venturing into different combos.

Over the weekend, I made Cauliflower and Carrots, these were a little thicker, so I added some breast-milk into them, like I do with the sweet potatoes. I've read you can also use formula, and sometimes I add extra of the water I steamed them in, depending on the veggie--sometimes though, the steamed water can make it bitter, or so I've read.

In addition to the cauliflower-carrots, I made a couple fruit combos. Before this weekend, the only fruit I'd done was peaches (I would literally buy the frozen non-sweetened ones, thaw them out, mix them up and re-freeze them) so I was curious to see what he'd like. The first combo was an idea I had gotten from Chanda, a fellow baby-food maker. She said that her daughter loves fruit and yogurt so I thought, might as well! I took out my bag of mixed berries, added a banana and some yogurt, just like a smoothie, put in some breast-milk and blended away. I let E try it as I was filling the trays and ended up saving a bowl for him, he LOVED it.

I then decided I would try apples, So I cored one, skinned it, chopped it and steamed it in the microwave. I have a giant glad-ware container that works great for steaming since I don't have a steamer and well...probably wouldn't use if even if I did. While they were steaming I chunked up a kiwi and a banana, and grabbed a few of the berries he loved so much. After the apples were mostly soft, I dumped them and the tiny bit of juice/water that was in the container, mixed in the other fruit and blended it. I thought this one was a little bitter, but E loved it. (I think the problem was there wasn't the yogurt or any sugar that I'm used to, so it just wasn't as sweet.)

Overall, I'm pretty happy I decided to go on my baby-food making adventures, and will probably continue to do it, at least until he decides that he doesn't have to gag with texture...This weekend, I'm going to try chicken and pasta. I bought some Pastini, the itty bitty stars to try.


Tips:
I use my blender, usually on puree.
I blend the fruits/veggies both cold and hot, not really a difference as long as they are cooked.
When it's time to eat them, I usually set them out as I start cooking dinner, so they are softened by the time he's ready to eat. I have microwaved them for 30 sec at a time or so though when needed, stirring lots and usually letting it sit on the counter to come back to room temp.
If you're not sure how to cook something, look it up! I've used here a few times and here. I'm sure there are plenty of other great resources. If you know of one, please let me know!

Any combos you think I should try?

mmmm...meatloaf...

Yesterday was one of those icky kinda days. It was raining, chilly (inside anyway) and just seemed like a day for comfort food. I didn't have anything much thawed out, just a couple of pounds of ground pork that needed to be used or frozen...I didn't have some of things I normally have on hand and was stumped.

Then I found a meatloaf mix from Elsie's Kitchen the last time they were in town. (I normally DO make my own meatloaf, however, I was out of breadcrumbs...plus this is delicious and super easy.) I just started using ground pork recently, so this was new but I thought it certainly couldn't hurt any...and if all else failed, we could order pizza.

Mix was simple--called for 2 eggs, 1/2 cup water and 2 lbs of meat. Mix and bake at 350 for around 1/2 hour. I added some ketchup to the mix (I just squirted some in there, but I would guess less than 1/4 cup. I normally add mushrooms, some shredded cheese and once in a while bacon, buuut I was out of all of that, so just ketchup it was.)

Once that was mixed and in the oven, I whipped up a couple boxes of au gratin potatoes and then Spenny picked the veggies, so we had peas.

The meatloaf took right at 30 minutes to get done, so I took it out, cranked the oven to 450 to finish up the potatoes for another 5-10 minutes, then put the meatloaf back in for just a couple of minutes to let the ketchup bake on. It was pretty good! The color was different...it was lighter, the smell was a little off from the beef kind, but the best part of it was there was not a ton of grease in the bottom of the pan. Plus, the taste was pretty darn good! It was different of course, but not bad at all and I think that it would be pretty easy to get used to.

It's been FOREVER...

But I've still been cooking, just lazily!
Couple of recipes I've been wanting to share....

Pepsi Roast

1 roast (I've been using pork, but the original recipe was for beef)
1 can of cream of mushroom soup
1 package of dry onion soup mix
Pepsi

(The soups/Pepsi may very, depending on the size of your roast, I think the last time I made it (we had company over) I used an 8 lb roast, 2 of the tall cans of cream of mushroom soup, 2 packages and about a 1/3 of a 2 liter bottle of Pepsi.)

If you do this in the crock pot, it's super easy, just mix up the soups with some pepsi, throw the roast in, and cook on low pretty much all day until it's done. The soups/Pepsi make a great yummy thick richy gravy, so all you need to finish the meal out is some mashed potatoes and some veggies, maybe some bread or a salad...or whatever your normally fix with your roasts. If you do it in the oven, I use my big roasting pan and cook for several hours, depending on the size of the roast.


This is one I stole from my MM girl Nikki...it's AMAZING!!!

1 box cook and serve chocolate pudding
1 box chocolate cake mix
1/2cup chocolate chips
1/2cup chopped nuts (optional- i'm not a huge fan of the nuts, so i bypass them)

prepare pudding and add dry cake mix into the pudding
pour into greased and floured 9 x 13 pan
sprinkle with chips and nuts
bake at 350 for 30 minutes
sprinkle powdered sugar if you want

(I never flour my pan tho...or use nuts...lol)

I've also tried a new variation of the cake, I used white cake, vanilla pudding and cherry chips on one half and chocolate on the other...it wasn't very pretty looking but as soon as I covered it in whipped topping, it was pretty darn delicious!! My mom also tried a similar one after I told her about it, she used strawberry cake, vanilla pudding and white chocolate chips and said that it was good as well.

Other than that, we've been doing pretty easy, throw together type stuff...or worse, eating out! lol Lazy much? :)

Happy Cooking!