Frozen Summer

Haven't written in a while.  But, I think this is going to be our weekly food journal and funtimes blog.  Why not?  

First week down, so many more to go.  What a week it has been.  Tuesday brought me to Tallahassee for a deposition.  Thursday was a surprise hearing in Hollywood, which I dragged the kids along with me for the 8 hour round trip drive.  Of course I couldn't call off our Orlando trip, after Preschooler couldn't stop talking about it at school!

Without ado, our menu for the week was:

Sunday: corn dogs, noodles, and veggies

Monday: leftovers (pork, mashed potato, and veggies)

Tuesday: leftovers (chicken thighs, pasta salad, and veggies)

Wednesday: fastfood as I was at work late 

Thursday: cheese, crackers, and grapes in the car 

Friday: pigs in a blanket, macaroni and cheese, veggies

Saturday: on the way home from Disney had frosty's! 

We went to the Frozen Summer Fun at Hollywood Studios.  We actually had a pretty good time and went fairly smoothly for my first solo Disney adventure.  I think the key for us was not over scheduling, which worked out perfectly.  Here's what we did:

(We rolled in around 9:00, after walking up to the gate, bag check, and activating our passes:)

9:45: met Woody and Buzz at the meet and greet station

10:30: Frozen welcome parade.  We stood on the left side of the stage, which worked perfectly for viewing Christoph and the guys with the axes (our favorites). After we had a potty break.

11:30: Disney Junior show (we had fastpasses).  Highly recommend for the 2-5 year old crowd.

We had lunch after the Disney Junior show; lunch thay we brought with us.  If we had to buy lunch, I don't think we would have time before our fastpasses for the Frozen sing along.  We had chicken nuggets, grapes, wheat thins, and I bought juice bottles with characters on them before the trip.  (Other snacks we had were go guts that I froze beforehand and we're nicely thawed, and Rice Krispy treats I made the night before.)

12:30: Frozen sing along (we had fastpasses). Real actors, cute show, but Toddler got a little antsy. Insert our next potty break following the show.

1:10-2:10 fastpasses for Toy Story Mania

1:45: we headed over to the Honey I Shrunk the Kids play area.  This was our mistake. Toddler wanted to go on the rope climbing thing, we ended up exiting after 10 minutes in full meltdown mode.  

2:30: Olaf summer show.  Cute little dance party.  People didn't start waiting or standing around until 5-10 minutes beforehand, so this was perfect.  Toddler finally calmed down, and we snacked for a little bit under the trees waiting for the show to start.

We then walked around the lake to check out the dinosaur, did our last potty call, and headed off.  

We left the park around 3:00.

Clearly, if you aren't alone with a pre-schooler and toddler you can do this much faster.  But, having kids has madde me manage my time expectations a little more closely.

I think it's important to note, we did not spend any money at Disney on this trip (besides the passes we already had).  Although, I was very close to caving to get Toddler a stuffed Mikey Mouse and Preschooler a gun that shoots bubbles.  However, noted for the Christmas list!

Fruity Ideas

The avocado, the chip's most awesome fruit sidekick, and Benjamin's newest flavor.  There were a lot of recipes out there, but I figured on this adventure, I would just throw it in the old food processor and see what happens.  Success!  The first attempt required no extra liquid, the second attempt I threw in an ounce of formula.  With the first attempt, the avocado was really ripe, while the second try, the avocado was a little soft, and nothing like the squishy-ness of the first.

Each avocado made about 4 oz. (I broke them up into two 2 oz. containers.)  While not the cheapest baby food item I have made, at about $.40 a jar, it is something unusual, which I haven't seen at the store.  Benjamin really enjoyed the avocado, and it's definitely in the rotation, especially when I'm making guacamole for the family.

Orange You Glad Your Baby Will Eat Carrots?

So, I have quickly discovered the downside to pushing carrots - they stain, really badly.  Everything I have read online about stain removal is to catch it quickly, and then pretreat it with something like Shout.  So, that's the plan the next time we have carrots, as soon as we are done, I'm taking Benjamin's bib, and any other item of clothing he manages to get the carrots on, and throwing it in the wash.  This saga is to be continued...

A blogging we will go!

So, I've never been really successful at journaling in the past, and I have a feeling that blogging may be too much like a journal, but we'll see I suppose.

I want to keep track of the food I'm making for Benjamin, the baby in my life.  So far, I have a recipe book that I'm cooking out of.  Hopefully, I'll be able to try different recipes from the internet and other recipe books as I go through this experiment.

Tonight I made bananas and sweet potatoes.  Bananas seem to be the tried and true food of our house at the moment.  Sweet potatoes were the unknown.  I choose sweet potatoes because I wanted to try another vegetable.  Benjamin had carrots out of the jar, and he will chug through them, but doesn't seem to enjoy them.  I'm happy to report sweet potatoes are a success!

(Both of these recipes I got from the amazing: The Best Homemade Baby Food on the Planet.)

Bananas!
I figured that using this recipe I made 2oz. for $.12!  To buy the banana baby food from the store, you're spending about $.50.  The savings in the long run are incredible, especially for such an easy recipe.

I modified the recipe in the book slightly, by adding liquid and making more than a 1/3 of a banana.

2 very ripe bananas
2 tablespoons of unsalted butter
4 oz. formula/breast milk

Cut bananas into pieces and saute in butter for 2 minutes.  Mash with fork.  Add formula/breast milk.
This made eight 2oz. containers. 

Sweet Potatoes!
I was able to make these at a cost of $.14 for a 2oz. container.  A little more expensive, by $.02, but still considerably cheaper than the $.50 per jar at the grocery store.  Amazingly, Benjamin loved these (I was ready for the same look of disgust that carrots brought).

1 sweet potato
1/2 cup formula
unsalted butter

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.  Wash and scrub the sweet potato.  Rub the potato with a little butter and place on a baking sheet.  Bake until soft, 30 to 50 minutes, depending on size.  Cool, peel, and chop into chunks.  Place in a blender with 1/2 cup formula and puree until completely smooth.  (Add more liquid as needed).

I found that it was easy to check to see if the potato was done by stabbing it with a fork.  This made three 2oz. containers.