Sawyer loves story time at bedtime. Last night, while reading The Very Hungry Caterpillar, he decided he was going to try to read along. I think he did a pretty awesome job!
**Sorry for my loud reading, my mouth was right by the microphone
Tuesday, July 10, 2012
Monday, July 9, 2012
Adventures in baby-food Making: Sweet Potatoes
I love sweet potatoes; John hates them, so I was anxious to see what team Sawyer was on. Looks like I won! My mom and I had another fun baby-food making party Sunday and Sweet Potatoes were on the menu. They might be my favorite to make so far because of how easy they are. They blend to a really nice, smooth consistency. I gave Sawyer a small spoonful after I was done and he attacked it (see pic!), I’m already winning him over with my cooking.
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| Sawyer approved! |
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| My mom has had this book since she got married. It is super helpful for cooking times & temps for veggies. |
Steps
- Pre-heat oven to 400 degrees
- Clean and scrub potatoes very well.
- Cut off hard ends and discard
- Place on non-stick cooking sheet, bake for 40 minutes (they should be very soft and skin should start to separate from insides.
- Remove the skins (ours just peeled right off), also cut off any dark/bad spots if you see them.
- Put in blender and mix until pureed.
- Put in storage containers, freeze or refrigerator depending on when you plan to use them.
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| The finished product |
The Math
I was pretty shocked with the figures this time. Honesty, I would be making food even if it didn’t save me much but it sure does feel good to see the numbers and see how much it really does save. I used a couple different containers when I stored the food this time so I will do my totals by ounces versus containers made.
5 large sweet potatoes (98 cents per pound) made 22 oz. of baby food = $2.21
Total cost per ounce = 10 cents
STORE BOUGHT
Gerber 1st Foods SmartNourish Organic baby food (sweet potatoes) comes in 2 – 2.5 containers for $1.59 each, so 22 ounces = $6.99
Total cost per ounce = 32 cents
TOTAL SAVINGS PER OUNCE = 22 cents
1 day of Gerber’s Sweet Potatoes (2 containers or 5 ounces per day) = $1.59
1 day of Home-made Sweet Potatoes (5 ounces per day) = $0.50
Total Savings per day = $1.09
Total Savings per week (7 days) = $7.63
Total Savings per month (30 day month) = $32.70
Total Savings per year (365 days) = $397.85
WOWSERS!!! That is huge.
Lets put a “diaper” figure to that to make it more real. Our favorite fancy Pampers with the wetness indicator right now are running at $34.94 for 160, size 2 diapers at Walmart. So with your savings from Baby food you could buy 11.39 boxes at Walmart’s price or 1,822.4 diapers!!!
I think it is worth it, don’t you say? Let’s take it another step further to better seal the deal, they say most babies use about 10 diapers per day, so 1,822.4 diapers would last you approximately 182 days or HALF A YEAR. Are you a believer now?
Yay, my head is spinning a little.
Friday, July 6, 2012
Adventures in baby-food Making: Squash & Green Beans
Despite my previous post on how simple making carrots is, I have since learned Sawyer prefers the smooth pureed food that you find in the store. He still ate his carrots but made funny faces because there had little chunks. In order to get that pureed consistency, I need something besides my food processor (it only has chop & grind) and my blender is broken. My mom just bought a nice new Ninja blender, so I went over to her house for some baby-making fun.
SQUASH
The Squash was a fail….we only had a few small Summer Squash we bought at the Farmer’s Market and it just didn’t process very well. It was way too chunky and since there wasn’t enough “meat” it just couldn’t blend.
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| just not enough to get the blender going |
Next time, we will buy much more so it can blend better. For now he gets to eat the Gerber Organic baby food. He loves it!
If you do want to try making some, here’s how we did it:
Step 1. Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees
Step 2: Clean squash very well
Step 3. Cut off ends and discard
Step 4: Cut length wise down the squash
Step 5: Place seed side down on a non-stick cooking sheet
Step 6: Bake for 20-30 minutes (depending on how much you are cooking), check every 10 minutes or so and flip about half way in. Ours were soft after about 20 minutes but we only had 3 small summer squash
Step 7: Remove from oven and spoon out seeds.
Step 8: cut into small chunks
Step 9: Place in blender or processor and blend until pureed. (this is where we had issues)
Step 10: Divide into storage containers
GREEN BEANS
The Green Beans worked beautifully! Perfect texture and flavor, I could have eaten the whole thing.
Here’s how we did it:
Step 1. Clean beans very well
Step 2. Snap off both ends and discard
Step 3: Place clean beans in a pot of water
Step 4: Boil on medium for 30-40 minutes or until very soft
Step 5: Place in blender or food processor and blend until pureed.
Step 6: Divide into storage containers
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| Here is the Big bag of beans I got at the Farmer's Market |
In case you are curious on how much money making my own green beans cost, compared to store bought…here’s the math:
Huge bag of green beans at the farmer’s market
$2 made 7 containers of food = 29 cents per container.
Store Bought Baby Food (Gerber)
$3.20 bought 6 containers of food = 53 cents per container.
Sawyer eats 2 containers per day, here’s how the savings adds up:
1 week of homemade: = $4.06
1 week of store-bought = $7.42
Total Savings per week = $3.36
Total Savings per month = $13.44
Total Savings per year = $174.72
Thursday, July 5, 2012
Our little Firecracker’s 1st Independence Day
WARNING: You are about to see loads of Sawyer’s pool
pictures, we apologize for the cuteness.
Our 4th was another hot day spent at the pool.
First, we went to the Johnson’s for lots of swimming and yummy pool drinks and then we
finished the day with a bbq at my parent’s house. My mom even made Bushwhacker’s. They were our favorite drink when we visited Tortola. Mom, gotta say yours was just as delicious and brought me right back to BVIs! The recipe is after the photos.
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| Our Festive Hosts |
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| Sawyer is making such a silly face |
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| kicking up a storm |
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| Who you calling "Fishy" ? |
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| Yep that is 7 different types of liquor, wowsers! |
Here’s my mom's Bushwhacker Recipe:
The actual recipe says 1/2 oz of each of the following but her
brother Steve says he just puts one shot glass full of each in the blender so
that's what I did.
1/2 oz rum (he suggested Cruzan so I used Cruzan Coconut
Rum)
1/2 oz vodka
1/2 oz Bailey's
1/2 oz Kahlua
1/2 oz Amaretto
1/2 oz Frangelico
1/2 oz chocolate liqueur
1/2 oz creme de coconut (Coco Loco)
Put it all in a blender with 2-3 cups crushed ice, blend
until smooth (should be the consistency of a thin milk shake). To serve -
squirt down the sides of a glass with some Hershey's syrup (just streaks), pour
in the drink, top with whipped cream, ground nutmeg and a cherry. Makes 2 large
servings.
Monday, July 2, 2012
Rachel's 18th Birthday LAKE celebration
I am still in shock that my little sister turned 18 last week, so blogging about her birthday celebration at the lake this weekend seems so unreal. I feel like I was just changing her diapers and now she is changing my son’s. It’s just so surreal. Anyway...we spent the weekend at Table Rock to help her celebrate. We spent the night at Eagles Nest Condo and then Sunday my awesome sister and brother-in-law were kind enough to take us out on their boat for the whole day. We barbequed, swam and soaked up the sun (We all have sunburns to prove it, except Sawyer who I drenched in sunscreen). Sawyer got to float around in the water and took a nice long nap in the shade. Thanks Cindy & Rob for letting us tag along and use your boat, we had a blast!
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| My Adorable Parents |
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| The view from our condo |
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| Our little lake dude |
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| Dad grilling burgers while Captain Sleepy Head takes a cat nap |
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| The Birthday Girl and me |
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| Sawyer enjoying the lake with Aunt Cindy and Daddy |
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| Sawyer with his Aunts and Kaylee |
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| We need this floaty for the pool, so fun! |
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