Thursday, December 29, 2011

A note about baby food: Mac and Cheese!

I am a HUGE advocate of homemade baby food! Max has only had a few store bought baby food items: apples and chicken, sweet potatoes and chicken (I don't have the equipment to blend the chicken up enough for him to eat), oatmeal, and yogurt. He occasionally has apple sauce from the store, but it's the same kind I eat at this point.

Let me just tell you...we figured out that making your own baby food is EXTREMELY cost effective! It costs about a third of what store bought baby food costs, and it is so extremely easy!

The basic rules? Cook (in whatever way you will lose the least amount of nutrients- usually baking or steaming), add a bit of water or breast milk, and blend! We put it in ice trays and freeze for later, then just pop them out when we are ready to use them. At this point, we occasionally add some seasonings and are trying to add more variety by mixing different things together, etc.

Our newest venture? Mac and cheese! I simply took a little bit of spaghetti noodles (leftover from last night's dinner), put some butter and a little cheese on top, and microwaved it all for a few seconds. Then I just put it all in the blender with a splash of water and puréed it until it was the right consistency. Max. Loved. It. And it was so simple and easy to make! Please, moms, do not let me catch you buying store bought baby mac and cheese for your little ones!

As we are getting a bit more adventurous with Max's diet I will be filling you in a little more about how we do things over here :)

Here are a few pictures of my sweet boy enjoying his dinner!

Wednesday, December 28, 2011

Learning how to cook

So, since I am now a stay at home mom, at least for a little while longer...and that is my "job"...I have decided I need to get better at it :) And that means that I need to learn to cook.

For those of you who may not know me very well, I am a terrible cook. I have actually improved a little bit over the last few months- at one point, while I was still pregnant with Max, I was attempting to make spaghetti for dinner and the noodles were all sticking together, and not cooking properly as a result. I remember crying and telling Nick, "I can't even make noodles!" Well, I have come a LONG way since then :) I even made breakfast (including homemade gravy) for 6 people on Christmas Eve.

However, I still feel like I have no idea how to make a decent meal for my family on a daily basis. And that definitely has to change.

Tucker an Chelsea (my brother and his lovely wife-to-be) gave me an apron for Christmas that I completely adore (Anthropolgie...what's not to love?!?!) and it has inspired me, somehow, to be fearless in the kitchen!

I'm going to set goals for myself to make two new things- one dinner type item and one baked item- each week, for a while anyway. AND I'm going to tell all of you about those adventures in the kitchen so I will actually stick to it :) All of this will be starting next week, because we have way too much going on before then. I am so excited to get started...wish me luck!

Tuesday, December 27, 2011

Yes, I am back, again.

I know, I said I was moving to tumblr. But Blogger got an iPhone app, and so I am back again! I just don't have the time right now to blog on the computer. Plus Max thinks he loves the computer, which makes it that much more difficult! I will have to update the look of our blog, now that it's not all about having a baby ;)

I hope everyone had a great Christmas! Ours could not have possibly been better...and Max loved it! However, our house (which was spotless before everything started on Christmas Eve) is now a complete disaster. Our very generous family's gave Max tons of fun toys, but I have no clue where to put them all just yet. And we hosted our first Christmas eve brunch with Nick's family, which of course we never had time to clean up after before leaving for Wilkes. It was all completely worth it!

I will leave you (for now) with a picture of our sweet boy, helping us get ready for Christmas!