Adventures in baby-food Making: Peaches

The peaches right now are delicious! Lucky for Sawyer that was the next fruit on his list to try.  Once again, he loved them! There are a couple more steps but still pretty simple.

Steps

1. Scrub & clean peaches

2. Peal peaches so there is no skin remaining

3. remove pits from center of the peach

4. cut into small cubes

5. put into a food processor, blender or Baby Bullet with about a ¼ cup of water and puree .

3. Put in storage containers, freeze or refrigerator depending on when you plan to use them. (Here are some rules of thumb – 3 days in refrigerator or 30 days in freezer)

Sawyer had to crawl in to see what we were doing

we used 2 oz, 3.5 oz and 4 oz containers

The Math 

After making home-made baby food for the past 3 months I have found that you are most likely going to save money making your own. Even if it is less than a dollar a day, over time it’s still a savings and to me (being the frugal mom I am) it is worth it.

HOME-MADE

4 peaches at $1.49 a pound – made 23.5 oz of baby food = $3.00

Total cost per ounce = 13 cents

STORE BOUGHT

Gerber 1st Foods SmartNourish Organic baby food (peaches) comes in 2 – 3.5 containers for $1.49 each, so 16.5 ounces = $3.47

Total cost per ounce = 21 cents

TOTAL SAVINGS PER OUNCE = 8 cents

1 day of Gerber’s Peaches (2 containers or 7 ounces per day) =$1.49

1 day of Home-made Peaches (7 ounces per day) =  $.91

Total Savings per day = $.58

Total Savings per week (7 days) = $4.06

Total Savings per month (30 day month) = $17.40

Total Savings per year (365 days) = $211.70

Adventures in baby-food Making: Bananas

So I know a lot of moms can't find extra time to make their own baby food, I definitely wouldn't be able to do it without my mom's help (GO MOM!). BUT if you still want to try it then I have the easiest fruit there is...BANANAS. It's 3 easy steps and it makes yummy nanners.

If you buy your bananas a few days in advance they will taste better than the green un-ripened ones. Also, don't be worried when the finished product looks brown. This is normal!

See only 3 steps.

Steps

1. Peal Bananas

2. cut up, add about 1/4 cup water (per every 2 bananas) and put in processor, Baby Bullet or blender and Puree

3. Put in storage containers, freeze or refrigerator depending on when you plan to use them. (Here are some rules of thumb – 3 days in refrigerator or 30 days in freezer)

can get a little runny so you might not need as much water

5 bananas made 16.5 ounces of food, that is almost 2.5 days of food for Sawyer.

The Math

Sawyer is up to about 7 ounces now of fruits & veggies a day. He has gone from the supporter sitter to sitter level in Gerber's foods. This is a 2 ounce increase, so the savings have decreased a little. Bananas are about 49 cents a pound, one of the cheapest fruits I can think of so it is worth trying for sure. They yield some great savings and it is so easy it's something you could do really quickly if you are out of food. It's a good food to mix too with other fruits or even in rice cereal.

HOME-MADE

5 – bananas made 16.5 oz. of baby food = 61 cents

Total cost per ounce = 4 cents

STORE BOUGHT

Gerber 1st Foods SmartNourish Organic baby food (bananas) comes in 2 – 3.5 containers for $1.49 each, so 16.5 ounces = $3.47

Total cost per ounce = 21 cents

TOTAL SAVINGS PER OUNCE = 17 cents

1 day of Gerber’s Bananas (2 containers or 7 ounces per day) =$1.49

1 day of Home-made Bananas (5 ounces per day) =  $.28

Total Savings per day = $1.21

Total Savings per week (7 days) = $8.47

Total Savings per month (30 day month) = $36.30

Total Savings per year (365 days) = $441.65

Out with the Twenties, In with the Thirties

As I always say, I have the best friends and family ever, hands down (I would arm wrestle over this one). They threw me an awesome birthday bash Sunday to help me celebrate turning thirty. My actual bday isn't until Sept 10 so I get to enjoy my 20s for a couple more days.
Thanks to my besties, bestie's mom Darlene and my amazing mom for hosting, planning, cooking and decorating. It was a great night!
Even my Engel family came in from St. Louis. My cousin Erin got to finally meet Sawyer (instant buds!) since she has been in Scotland for the past year.

Yay, Sawyer finally meets Erin...he loves her!

Bowie misses Erin too

Grand Aunt Jules!

Decorations by Trina, awesome job!!!

Yummy Leis

my best buds!

we love each other and aren't afraid to show it

the beautiful Parker

passed out at the party

Ashton & Parker were way too cute!

Birthday Bushwhacker from my momma 

getting our grove on

The Engel crew

Me with my men 

Some of the ladies

playing a little Jenga

my sweetie 

How many 30 things do you see?

My soul sista!

Adventures in baby-food Making: Apples

Apples to me are the perfect fall fruit! I have been sort putting off starting Sawyer on the fruits because I just know he is going to love them more than veggies but as soon as the weather started to cool down, I starting thinking about apples. I picked up a huge bag of gala apples at Sam’s Club and decided to try to make some for little man. The best part, my friend Hugo & Wendy decided to give me their brand new, never been used Baby Bullet. They received it as a gift and knew they would never use it. Thank you guys sooooo much, it was so easy to use and made the best puree!! You guys are the best!

The very helpful Baby Bullet instruction guide

My mom did a little research on adding spices to baby food and found a really interesting article on the myths of baby food and why they don’t always have to be bland. The article raises some interesting & valid points and after reading it we decided to add Cinnamon to the apples in our recipe. You can read the article here: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/9646449/#.UD5CCo5438s

Cinnamon actually has a lot of health benefits associated with it and tastes delicious, to me it was a win win for Saywer. Here you can find the 11 health benefits of Cinnamon: http://www.organicauthority.com/health/11-health-benefits-of-cinnamon.html

Steps

1. Rinse and scrub Apples

2. Peel apples of all their skin

3. Core (we used a Pampered Chef apple corer)

4. Place in a large pot with ¼ cup water per apple used (add cinnamon sticks if desired)

5. Cook on medium/high heat until they boil, reduce heat and simmer for 10-15 minutes or until apples are very soft

6. Put Beets in Baby Bullet or processor (discard cinnamon sticks) and Puree.

7. Put in storage containers, freeze or refrigerator depending on when you plan to use them. (Here are some rules of thumb – 3 days in refrigerator or 30 days in freezer)

The adorable storage containers even have a date stamp

The Math

You can really choose any type of apple that suits your fancy...I choose Gala and they were $2.57 a pound and I used 6 (they were about a half a pound each)

HOME-MADE

6 – Gala Apples made 27 oz. of baby food = $7.71

Total cost per ounce = 29 cents

STORE BOUGHT

Gerber 1st Foods SmartNourish Organic baby food (apples) comes in 2 – 2.5 containers for $1.59 each, so 27 ounces = $8.59

Total cost per ounce = 31 cents

TOTAL SAVINGS PER OUNCE = 0.028 cents

*While this isn't a huge savings it tastes fantastic and John and I actually said we would eat it. It comes out just like applesauce. **

Sin City Celebration

John and I are about to turn 30 (me in Sept, John in Oct) and we thought the best way to beat the getting older blues was to head to Sin City. We took along our good friend Trina & Jammi. It was the first time I left our little Soy Bean and the night before I cried my eyes out thinking about leaving him. Luckily once we got there I was able to block the tears and enjoy myself.  It really helped that my parents skype us every day so we could see his adorable face. Plus, it looked like he had a blast with all the fun things they had planned for him.

We stayed off the strip this time at the Palms, it was really nice and offered a free shuttle straight to Caesar’s Palace. We really had a great time and it was just the perfect amount of time to celebrate but still not be away from Sawyer for too long. Thanks Trina & Jammi for helping us celebrate and play like kids again!

Here is what our weekend consisted of.............. 

FRIDAY

Arrive after 3:30 p.m., check-in & unpack.

Then shuttle ride to the strip to walk around before eating dinner at Jimmy Buffett’s Margaritaville. After dinner head back to the Palms and go out at Ghost Bar and dance until our feet were about to fall off.

Jammi got searched, ha!

Nachos from Margarittaville

Exploring the shops at Caesar's

Awesome Elephant at Marc Jacobs

Had to check out the water show, a Vegas Must!

Out at Ghost Bar

SATURDAY

Palms buffet for breakfast, head to the pool early around 10:00 am.

We took a quick  lunch break at the Palms buffet for unlimited beer & wine and then back to the pool for Taboo (from the Black Eye Peas) Pool Party.

We took the shuttle back to the strip for dinner at Toby Keith’s I love this Bar & Tavern before we went to Pure Night Club for JLO’s after party. We ended up leaving before JLO showed up and went back to the Palms where we ran into Volleyball Olympian Silver-Medalist Tayyiba Haneef-Park.

Daily Skypes with our little guy

Pool Day #1: Cold Adult Bev, check!

"Old Enough (But Not too Old)" Thank you Palms!

The crew on our first pool day

Taboo hosted the Pool Party

Ready to go out and we run into the ELVISES

Heading to dinner at PURE

Practicing his moves on the Strip

Nice way to end the night running into an Olympian

Super dirty feet..couldn't last with the heels on so we walked barefoot

SUNDAY

Another morning buffet followed by an all-day pool party with some new friends from Texas, California and even Columbia Mizzou student (woohoo). Probably one of my favorite days of just lounging and relaxing. We ended up ordering pizza from a close by Pizza Parlor. John decided to walk there but quickly discovered it was too far to walk. He somehow convinced the delivery driver to let  him drive home - only my husband! We chowed on 'za and chatted until we crashed around 1:00 AM. 

Pool Day #2 with our new friends

lots of fun inflatables

John got to drive the Pizza Man's car home, not surprised!

Zonked!

MONDAY

Got up at the break of dawn to be at the airport by 5:00 AM. Arrived home around 11:30 AM to a happy baby boy & our families. Sawyer even made a welcome home sign!!! It was a very successful trip!

Best Site Ever!!!