Tuesday, April 17, 2012

Baby Food

I started writing this blog, in order to share recipes, sewing ideas and help others. Of course some folks think I have ENTIRELY too much time on my hands. Maybe someday I will have time to share more cooking, sewing and recipes. 


I kind of have this thing that I want my grandkids to eat well. Even tho it is CLEARLY out of my hands. I am not the "bowls of M&M's all over the house" kind of Gramma, but love to make cookies and goodies with the kids and let them help me make applesauce and things out of the garden. I try to have real food here when they come to visit. When Cohen was in the NICU, there was SO little I could do for him, I started making applesauce. It grew from there. 


I see so much on line on "how do I make food for my baby". (Google it and you get: About 810,000,000 results (0.26 seconds) My response has always been, as we did, smash up whatever YOU are eating and toss it on the tray! I am sensing that this answer will not cut it anymore...


Jana is not real keen on touching raw meat of any kind. She said he could legally have chicken now, so I offered to take this on. 


SO here is: CHICKEN DINNER FOR COHEN. 


Go to the hen house and find your least productive laying hen, start a LARGE pot of boiling water on a fire in the yard...JUST kidding! 


I used 2 large chicken breasts
4 large peeled carrots
1 cup white rice cooked. 
Cut the chicken in cubes, cook it on the stove top. cut the carrot in chunks, boil till done. Make one cup white rice. 






When it is all cooked, I put it all in my Cuisinart, the chicken, rice and carrots AND the water from the carrots. Whirl away. It is pureed and ready to eat, or freeze. I leave some tiny chunks of carrots and rice in a bowl, to put on his tray so he can practice feeding himself. 

You get THIS





I then choose the appropriate size cookie baller. He is using the "big boy" scoop now, 


I blob the mixture on a tupperware lid and freeze. 
( Set them beside all the other food  you have been making him, sweet potatoes and applesauce. Follow the same procedure for these yummy dishes.) They are easy to just pick off these lids. 





When they are frozen, put them in a freezer bag and back in the freezer. You can pull out what he will eat that day and put it in the fridge, till you warm it up.  Add water or formula if it is not "runny" enough for your baby. These are very easy to take WITH you, too, when on the road. 
ALWAYS label what goes in your freezer. I am pretty sure my husband will be excited when he sees the "muffins". I guess they are healthy... 




So there it is, Google it now and you will get About 810,000,001 results (0.26 seconds!


I just wanted to share how EASY it is and not hard to get your baby some yummy, 
REAL food. Have you SMELLED those jars of baby meats? Cat food smells more appetizing. If you feed it to your child, I think YOU should have to eat a jar first!!  
The happy helper! 





Sunday, April 15, 2012

Soap Day

Well, it is FINALLY here. Soap day. I have been pinning recipes, saving containers, and using up the rest of our soap products. It is official, we have NO more laundry soap, dishwasher soap, dish washing soap. So the day is here.

To back up a bit, my dear husband has been working really LONG hours, for a LONG time. He is a turnaround planner at the BP refinery and has been working long and hard since the fire on February 17. They moved his "spring" turnaround up several weeks, which threw it all into high gear. I can count the days off he has had on one hand! They call it "fatigue management". He usually tries to call me at some point in the day to see "what I am doing". today was no different. I said, "making soap!". I usually get the same response to pretty much whatever I say, as he is so tired. Like, "that's nice". Today was "WHAT?". I am sure he pictured me out in the yard with a small fire, stirring a black cauldron of lye and whatever, as in days of old. After that, I'd be slaughtering the chickens... I assured him it was not a big deal and I'd be careful and remember to turn off the stove. He always thanks me for putting up with this crazy schedule and I always say, "don't worry, I am VERY self entertaining." While that is true, I am ready for this to be OVER and have him be around home.

So here we go: All the folks who put up the lovely pictures and directions, and explain it all, are all over Pinterest, so I won't do that here.

I used this for the laundry soap, this for the dish soap, this for the dishwasher soap and this for the room deodorizers. My favorite!

I made my list at went to Walmart, as that is where the blogs said I could find most the ingredients. The blogs also do the cost breakdown and the HUGE savings I will be seeing!


So for a grand total of :$26.95 I got all the ingredients to make all the soaps. 



I was busy mixing all this up in my vat

As the dog was waiting patiently where he always does when I am cooking, hoping I will spill, what I am sure is in HIS mind, is Steak tartar!!

Here is the finished pile of soap and little air fresheners. SO when there is a run on the market for laundry soap, you know where to come! I will trade you for a bag of rice!! 

This is from the laundry soap gal:
"Why would I bother to make laundry detergent when I could just conveniently grab a bottle off the shelf at the store?  Several reasons, the first of which is cold, hard cash.  I have always purchased the large economy bottles of a name brand “he” (high efficiency) laundry detergent.  It’s not the cheapest, nor is it the most common $14-a-bottle brand.  I pay, on average, $8.00 for a 75-load bottle of my old detergent.  I would have been happy to cut that price in half.  Instead, I discovered that by making the recipe I am going to share with you, a 75-load bottle of DIY detergent saved me $7.79¾!!!  That is a little more than a 97% savings!  Hello!  Making my own is no longer JUST an option.  It’s ridiculous not to.  It cost only 20¼¢ for the ingredients to make a 75-load bottle of detergent!  Translate that savings over a year’s worth of laundry and that put’s a tidy sum back into our family’s budget."

Where WAS the internet, Pinterest, and all these great ideas when I had 5 kids at home, doing 5 or 6 loads of laundry a DAY. (out in the yard, over a boiling cauldron, and beating it on a rock!). I could have saved a FORTUNE! With all this savings I figure it will free up  a bit more cashola to spend on my favorite passion....    SEWING!

Please check out my daughters blog to find out what we are up to with all the fabric!

If you need a project, or want to know what all the fabric is about, check this out! 
Happy Sunday!