A Teaser

Lesson 12 - What spinach? I think a lot of moms will agree with me in saying that the health and nutrition of your child is probably THE most important thing in the first year. You are pretty much setting the standard for the rest of their life. I would much rather get him used to eating healthy things now than arguing with him about eating the good stuff later.
Mealtime has definitely been a challenge lately since my GREAT eater off all things pureed has turned into a picky eater. Enter Jessica Seinfeld's Deceptively Delicious. Works like a freaking charm. I am finding new ways to hide veggies in EVERYTHING. This even makes life easier for me because I prepare the purees ahead of time, freeze and then mix into whatever I am making.

Look for recipes, stories and outcomes on the new blog coming soon! Sorry to be a tease but I am SUPER busy this week!!

Practice Makes Perfect?

Evidently, the infamous giant cupcake is a difficult task to achieve. I do not bake. I am not good at it. There are still 4 months until Mason's first birthday. Plenty of time for me to learn and perfect my new craft, right? Then I remembered my Christmas cookie fiasco - who knew that 'softened butter' didn't mean 'microwave-melted butter'.

I present you with my very first attempt at the Wilton Giant Cupcake aka Mason's first birthday smash cake:

It tasted so gooooood. I think I did pretty well for my first try. I didn't buy any icing, so I whipped some up of my own and did some quicky decorations for fun. Let me know if anyone out there wants to hear my technique for baking this beast.

Making food, making food.

Since the peas went so well, I decided to go ahead and make zucchini, sweet potatoes, pears, and green beans. The preparations for the pears, green beans and zucchini were pretty similar to the peas: cut if needed, steam in steamer basket, then puree (the pears need cored and scooped from skin as well). I used frozen green beans and fresh pears and zucchini.

For the sweet potatoes, you have to bake them at 425 degrees for 45 minutes, then remove the skin before pureeing. Once the foods were frozen, I popped them out of the containers (so I could re-use them) and put into labeled freezer bags. These frozen foods will last for 3 months.

Cost breakdown:

Green beans (10 frozen ounces) yielded 4 Gerber containers (12 Tablespoons) = $.70

Normal Gerber cost: approx. $2.00

Savings: $1.30

Fresh zucchini (one large) yielded 5 Gerber containers (15 T) = $1.99

Normal Gerber cost: approx. $2.50

Savings: $.51

Fresh sweet potatoes (2 medium) yielded 12 Gerber containers (36 T) = $2.18

Normal Gerber cost: approx. $6.00

Savings: $3.82

Fresh pears (2) yielded 6 Gerber containers (18 T) = $2.05

Normal Gerber cost: approx. $3.00

Savings: $.95

Grand Totals (including peas):

My way cost $7.62

Gerber cost approx. $16.50

Total savings: $8.88

All-in-all, I pretty much cut my food costs in half. Now, of course there are going to be some foods that I simply cannot make myself, BUT I am also making some foods that Gerber does not offer. It took me very little time to make the food and the color differences between the packaged stuff and the freshly made is remarkable.

Homemade food trial numero uno: PEAS

I guess I decided on peas first because they seemed the easiest and they are Mason's fave, so why not? Here is the run-down:

I used freshly-frozen peas (10 ounces), a basket steamer, medium sized pot with lid, one inch of water, and food processor, spatula and left-over Gerber 1st Foods plastic containers (I am still waiting on my other containers to come in the mail).

I started by boiling an inch of water in the bottom of the pot and set the peas in the steamer basket on top, covered, and boiled for 5 minutes. When the 5 minutes was up, I reserved the cooking water, then I then rinsed the peas under cold water to stop the cooking. Next, I transferred the peas to the food processor and blended until smooth, adding the cooking water until I liked to consistency for Mason.

I used a tablespoon to scoop the peas into the Gerber containers and so I could keep track of how much I was transferring to the containers. I knew ahead of time that each Gerber container comes with about 3 tablespoons of food when you buy them. I filled 6 Gerber containers with 3 tablespoons each, totaling 18 tablespoons of food.

Total time spent from start to clean kitchen was 15 minutes.

Here is the best part:

Gerber 1st Foods 2 packs= approx. $1.00 so 6 total (3 2-packs) would be $3.00

Doing it my way, 6 containers (made from 10 ounces of peas) = $.70

That's a savings of $2.30! And no preservatives and/or added acid (seriously WTF?). The frozen puree lasts 3 months in the freezer or 3 days in the fridge. I don't know about you, but my time is money and 15 minutes is nothing compared to the benefits of making my own food. Plus, it is so damn pretty!

Peas

God help me, the kid LOVES peas. Maybe because they are bland just like that miserable excuse for food he is used to called formula. He gets so excited when I break out the peas, he blows his socks off. No joke.

Carrots

mmmm...notsomuch.

Oatmeal

What happens when you mix oatmeal with a 4.5 month-old who likes to stick everything in his mouth, including the spoon you are feeding him with?

Bottle Connoisseur

I have tried them all (almost). Why, you ask? Well, since Mason has been eating formula, he has been using the small wideneck BornFree bottles. The only problem was that they only hold 6 ounces and he was starting to eat more. Plus, he never had any stomach problems and I didn't see the point in continuing to clean a bottle, nipple, ring, cap, and two parts of a vent. So the hunt for new bottles began. I started buying what I thought looked like the best bottle but always found a problem and had to return and exchange, moving onto the next one. Here are my reviews* of the bottles I have tried (all are BPA-free):

BornFree: A-. Great bottles. Lots of parts. Highly recommend to use the 6oz widenecks as starter bottles so that you are covered in case you have a spitter.

Playtex Drop-Ins: B. Also great bottles. The only downfall is having to purchase the liners for them. Good for "lazy moms". I used these in the beginning along with the BornFree's.

MAM: D. The only reason I didn't fail these bottles is because they are cute. That's it. Thought I was getting less parts to clean. WRONG. The bottom screws off to reveal a vent system. They leak. They suck.

Avent: C. Good bottles, but leak horribly. Unless you have tons of time and patience to stand at your sink, dripping with formula, trying to screw the top on just right, don't buy these bottles. Plus, they lagged a little in the BPA switch-over. Losers.

Nuby: B. Adorable bottles, and MY favorite. No leaking issues BUT Mason didn't like them and I guess he gets a say. The "vari-flow" nipple was too hard for him to grasp since I guess he is lazy sucker. He did like to chew on the nipple though since it has little "nubs" that massage gums.

Gerber: A. Old school $3.99 for a 3-pack bottles that your mom probably fed you with. Good bottles, latex nipples (not my favorite, I prefer silicone but Gerber doesn't offer silicone until the level 3 nipples) BUT I found that the Evenflo nipples fit just fine.

Evenflo Pure Comfort (or something): A. This is what I am using now. So far no issues and I love that the bottle is angled for comfort. Little to clean, cute colors, no leaking. I think these are a keeper.

*I am not getting paid or anything to do this, just thought it might be helpful. Cheerio!

Birds and Cheese

23w 6d

Damn birds. Every morning. The chirping and the singing, "la la la chirp chirp chirp, it's Spring! Wake up assholes!" Okay, they don't say that, but I could have sworn I heard one of them yell that this morning at 5 a.m. Don't they have some worms to eat? Anything better to do? I am tired. I am so, so, tired. I just want one day where I can lay on the couch (because it's the only place I am comfortable) and SLEEP. No cooking, no cleaning, no entertaining. Our weeknights, weekends, LIVES are so insanely busy right now. I know that it is not going to get better, EVER, but I feel like if I just had one day to sleep I would feel ten thousand times better. I guess I should be thankful that we are in such high demand and so loved, but honestly people.

And the cheese. Stay with me here. I am slightly obsessed with stinky cheese. Blue, goat, brie, if it stinks, I want it. Of course a lot of the cheeses I want to eat are big no-no's when pregnant. I am especially obsessed with goat cheese right now. I'm talking looking-up-menu's obsessed. There is this wonderful pizza place in Cincinnati called Dewey's and they have an equally wonderful salad consisting of field greens, dried cranberries, toasted pine nuts and GOAT CHEESE all smothered in a balsamic vinaigrette. Are you salivating yet? I am. I actually dreamt about goat cheese last night.

The issue here is whether or not the cheese was made using pasteurized milk. Of course it is pretty difficult in the US to find a cheese that is not, but they are out there. In my grocery store there is a section of artisan cheeses if you will. Most of them are made using unpasteurized milk and therefor strictly prohibited by the pregnancy food police for risk of listeria. But you can pretty much bet the house that I will be asking my doctor about goat cheese on Friday.

Can you see now why I am so tired? All I do is think about goat cheese all day and night while the birds sing to me and the phone rings for get-togethers. Constant struggles.

A post about poop.

15w 1d

I won't devote the ENTIRE post to one of my favorite things in the world. I will try to cover all of the bases. You know, indigestion, gas.....and poop. Holy poop slinging monkeys. I don't think the baby enjoys my consumption of Tabasco. In case you have not had the pleasure in hearing me discuss my love for Tabasco, here is a summary: I love it. I would marry it (sorry Paul). I put it on a large variety of foods from eggs to toast, to chili, to apples. Okay, maybe not the last one, but you get the point. I am convinced that it is one of the best inventions of our time. You can find at least 2 bottles of this magical sauce in my pantry at any given time. I always stock up to make sure I will never be left without it. Had enough yet?

Well, as one might suspect, if you consume too much of the groovy sauce you can imagine the fire in the hole you may experience approximately 12-15 hours later. This is usually the case, and I spend those terrifying 10 minutes on the porcelain God promising I will never do it again, only to go to Chipotle and use an entire bottle on my burrito at lunch.

Last night was a totally different experience. My stomach hurt about 1 hour after I ate it. I was so confused. What was this burning sensation in my upper abdomen? That never happens. And the gas. OH the gas. I actually woke myself up from a dead sleep. Then the pooping this morning. OH the pooping. I think the toilet water actually boiled! This hurts me so bad to type this but, I don't think the baby enjoys Tabasco. WHYYYYYYY? Must I retire poor Tabascky to the back of the fridge for the next 5 months? I am so distraught. The rainy weather outside of my window describes, in perfect detail, the deep, dark feeling I am experiencing today. My friends, it is a truly sad day.

In other news, if you seeing Colleen this weekend, be sure to wish her a very happy birthday! And send her some popcorn tins.

New Lows?

9w6d

Someone mentioned yesterday on a chat board I frequent that pregnancy has brought them to new lows, and asked everyone what theirs were. I thought about this for a while and I was having trouble thinking of some for myself. Every one else's were things like, "I puked in my lunch bag during morning rush hour" or "I pissed myself during a board meeting the other day". Since I haven't really had any morning sickness and I am really good about making it to the bathroom on time I thought I was out and closed the post.

Once I got to thinking, I realized I do have some lows. Here we go:
-I used to work-out pretty frequently. I haven't worked out in a long time. Which brings me to point number two.
-I sleep. Constantly. I know this comes with the territory and shouldn't be considered a low, but I feel horrible sometimes about all the sleeping I do. I realize I am not on top of my game like I used to be. It takes me a couple days to finish laundry because I fall asleep during the spin cycle and forget about it. My husband has referred to me as lazy a couple times and it honestly does hurt my feelings, I am trying honey. But I need you to try too. Especially in the Understanding department. I also have been slacking in the dinner department since all I want to do is sleep when I come home from work. Which brings me to point three (like how I am doing this?).
-Food. I used to eat fairly healthy. I barely ever ate fast food, junk food, candy, etc. (unless it was a holiday, and who can resist those mini Snicker bars?). Now I could eat a whole bag of peach o's, whole can of mixed nuts, a bag of Doritos, box of Applejacks and 2 packs of Reese's Peanut Butter cups. And that's just Wednesday. Wednesday's lunch. Fine it was a snack. So sue me.

Speaking of sleeping, wanna see the new couch and tables? It's maaaaarvelous.

And just for your enjoyment, here's the Stinx:

Hoo-ray Food

6w 3d

This weekend I had a couple milestones in the food department. My first aversion, and my first craving. A lot of sources will tell you that morning sickness begins for the majority of women in week 6. While I haven't fully yacked yet, I have come close. Last night we ordered my favorite "fast" pizza, Papa John's (I say "fast" since nothing compares to Dinolfo's in Dover or Luigi's in Akron). I guess my body was not liking the smokiness of the pepperoni's mixed with the sauce because the only thing I could eat was the free cheesy bread. "Better ingredients, better pizza" Mr. Papa John's? I beg to differ.

Today, lunch had barely rolled around when I got an INCREDIBLE craving for Kraft Macaroni and Cheese. It is "the cheesiest" by the way. One thing you should know: I constantly make fun of the orange concoction that is Kraft Mac n' Cheese, because let's face it, if you are not 5 years old, or evidently a 25 year old pregnant lady, it's sick as hell. It took all of 2 minutes after flashing the puppy eyes at the husband for him to offer to come with me to the store to buy some. He questioned me when I grabbed 3 boxes and I flashed him the just as effective "you better shut the hell up or I am going to tackle you" eyes.

I almost finished the entire box by myself and now it is time for a nap.