The Making of M.O.M.

Although most of my readers probably already know HOW to make baby food, I thought I'd do a baby food making post. The reason(s) being:

1) I couldn't think of anything else.

2) I'm thinking of finally doing a Part 2 to this post, and making my own baby food is ONE way I help save our family money.

3) Because it's my blog and I can.

4) This little guy needed some (half) face time, and as you can see from the dirty highchair, hims likes some baby food.

So, here goes:

Today's lesson will be on how to make baby carrots. With baby food reaching an alarming $.69 a jar, it not only disgusts me to spend that kind of money, but I also can't help but wonder what extra "stuff" they put in it to make it stay the color that it should be (AKA..baby bananas, why aren't they brown?).

Anyway, I start with plain old carrots (or any other fruit/veggie I can find on sale).

Next, I dice the carrots as small as my knife and patience will allow. Smaller cubes means faster cooking time.

After cubing, I steam the carrots in AS LITTLE WATER AS POSSIBLE. I do this because I know that while cooking, the water gets all the good stuff, vitamins, minerals, etc. Then, I can just blend the water right in after they are cooked and I can keep all the goods from the "juice."

When the carrots (or whatever) become fork tender, I place them, a few tablespoons at a time into the blender. I blend after every few tablespoons so that I can get the desired consistency. For Stage 1 baby food, add LOTS of water. As your child progresses through the stages, you can make it lumpier and thicker. Baby D likes his food THICK, so if it's too runny when you go to feed them you can always add some rice (or oatmeal) cereal to thicken it up.

Once pureed to the consistency of your choice, I put my baby food into ice cube trays. Each cube holds about 1 tablespoon of baby food. Baby D will eat as much as 6 cubes at 1 meal!

I cover the ice cube trays in tin foil or saran wrap and freeze for at least 36 hours.

Once the cubes are frozen, I pop them out and bag them in zipper freezer bags.

Yeah, I'm just like a cooking show. I already had a bag of Sweet Potatoes prepared, so that's what you're getting to see.

When it's time to feed your little person, just pop a few cubes into a microwave safe dish, and microwave on high about 10 seconds per cube. Be sure to test the temperature though before you feed your baby so that your little one doesn't get burned.

And there you have it. This is my small way of helping ease the cost of our ever rising grocery bill. What are your secrets to making your grocery bills cheaper?

Potty training is one of the things I never really thought about before I had kids. Sure, I knew kids had to learn to use the potty, but the nitty gritty of potty training never crossed my mind. I never thought I'd pick up large chunks of poop off the carpet without totally gagging. It never occurred to me that cleaning up pools of pee pee would become a daily ritual.

I never thought I'd be so FREAKIN' excited to hear another person pee pee in the potty, much less "puuweep." Such was the case just this morning. I came from our bathroom, walked through our bedroom and heard the sound of liquid going into a potty. Usually, this means Elizabeth has gone, all on her own and is doing her thang. But this morning, I heard such noise (more boldly than I'm used to) and saw Elizabeth and Ashlee resting in our bed, watching cartoons.

I quickly scanned the room looking for Lucas, then I realized that the sound of the pee pee could only come from him (plus, I was tipped off by the velocity in which his stuff was hitting the water). Peering around the corner of the bathroom, I saw the greatest site ever...my 2 (almost 3) year old son, standing in front of the potty, peeing like a champ!

What made this so awesome is that he, for the 1st time, DIDN'T come and find me and ask me to help (or to hold his "wenis.") He did it, all on his own!

Now, if you're not a parent of a potty training aged child, or if you've never been through such years, this may seem like the stupidest post ever. But can I tell you that when Lucas came back to me just 2 minutes later announcing that he needed to "puuweep" it made my heart sing.

Folks, just so you really understand, this brings my daytime diapered people down to TWO, yes TWO. Only two people who now require me to change their diapers every 2-4 hours. 3/5 of my children are now going to the potty on a regular basis. I'm blown away, super excited and a little sad that my babies are getting so big.

So now, enjoy some pictures, courtesy of the our new "easy to go potty" look. The twins are in just undies so that potty access is easy, and Elizabeth, well, she was too concerned with getting paint on her clothes....she's a little OCD.

Oh, one last thing...if you invented flushable wet wipes, I owe you, BIG time. Email me and maybe I'll hook you up with some socks or something.

**Even as I typed this post, both Lucas and Ashlee went potty all by themselves. Sweetness!**