Update..

So much for trying to keep the blog more up-to-date....

Here's a quick recap of the past 15 days (or so) while I try and get Anders down for his much needed nap...

A) S's parents visited for a long weekend. Yay! It was great to see family again and show off how much Anders has grown. Even though we live 1500+ miles away from ANY family member, we have been very lucky to be able to see one side of the family or the other about very 6 weeks.

B)  I am in the process of "building" a composter. I cannot seem to find one I like around here that fits my "low cost" desires...so we are building one.

C) We are making our dog food....Our dog, Bogey, has started thinning out, a lot, for no apparent reason. He eats a ton of food every day, and despite switching his food, vet visits, tests, etc... the only thing we can chalk it up to is his crazy energy level and high metaboism. So, after talking to our vet, we started making the dogs their own food, and it seems to have worked! We have gotten about 2 lbs on Bogey, which is huge!

D) Anders has decided that sitting is fun, but standing is AWESOME. 90% of the time we have to get him standing a soon a we put him down or he will squeal like some prehistoric dino. And, when we stand hm up, he stomps his feet like he is trying to walk.

E) Wee man, Anders, is still sleeping 12-15 hours a night solid, but naps are going out the window. We ae currently getting about 2 20 minute naps/day.

Alright,the kiddo is awake, surprise surprise! Hopefully some pictures this weekend!!!

Baby Food

This is a post about all things pureed. And cooking the living daylights out of steak for Anders...a feat that almost had S and I, as Medium Rare steak lovers, almost in tears.

We, and by that I mean I, decided early on that we really wanted to make all of Anders' baby food. S and I eat a mostly organic diet, and we wanted to do the same with A. When we started looking a organic baby food options in our area we were not impressed with the selection or the price. For example, I can buy 1 container of Earth's Best peas for $0.89 (on average) which is a 2 oz container; or I can buy 1 bag of organic frozen peas at Whole Foods for $1.69 and make 18-20 ounces of food. For my "frugal' lifestyle it was a no-brainer.

When we started to look into what we would need for baby food making we looked into the Beaba Babycook and ultimately decided against it-the main reason being that it makes very small volumes of food. We had recently gotten a Kitchenaid Food Processor for our wedding (which feels like it was ages ago....not just 1.5 years back) and we have a ton of these steamer baskets already.

Here's what we do:
1) prep veggies/fruit
2) steam them until very soft
3) process until desired smoothness is attained
4) pour into ice cube trays
5) freeze
6) store in labeled ziploc freezer bags

With chicken we simply poach it and them puree. Steak, we cook until well done. And, Anders favorite of them all, tofu is simply pureed.

Here's one of his favorite recipes:
Chicken with Apples and Carrots:
1) Peel and chop 10 medium carrots and 4 Apples
2) Steam carrots for 5 minutes then add apples (or steam seperately) and steam until very soft
3) While steaming, cut 2 chicken breasts into 1 inch chunks.
4) Place chicken into 8 cups boiling water and poach until cooked through.
5) Drain carrots and apples and reserve liquid.
6) Add poached chicken, carrots and apples to your food processor.
7) Process using a pulse setting until desired texture is achieved. Add reserved water from carrots and apples as needed for thinning.
8) Pour into ice cube trays and pop into freezer when cooled.
9) Once frozen, pop cubes into labeled ziploc bag, defrost cubes as needed.

My favorite food processor in action

Ready to freeze.

Anders loves this "recipe" and S and I really like it too-we try everything we make for Anders.

Enjoy, more recipes to come....