DIY Tutorial: Baby Food Cubes

Let me just say right off the bat, this is probably the ONLY DIY Tutorial that I will ever do.  I am not one of those proactive bloggers who get their act together enough to make it a regular feature :)  However, this is how I spent an hour or so yesterday (and a bit of time this morning, as you will see) - and it was super easy - so I wanted to share.

This "frozen food cube" method came from Ruth Yaron's "Super Baby Food, 2nd Edition" book - Jess and I have been treating it as our baby food Bible.  Maybe I should go so far as to say "Bible" - we haven't been making all her food from the get-go, we've been testing out new foods on E using store-bought single servings.  Plus when any discrepancies pop up, we defer to our family doctor - who is awesome (and moving away this summer, booooo!!!).  (**Case in point, this book recommends introducing new foods after a 4 day waiting period starting around 5 or 6 months, but after listing all the foods we'd already introduced E to at her 6 month appointment, Dr M told us we could slow down a bit!)  But there is a ton of nutritional info, recipes, serving amounts, prep and storage tips --waaaayy more info than we'd ever need but it's a great reference. 

So we'd decided we wanted to get some more greens onto the "Eddy-Approved" food list.  She loves, of course, all the sweet stuff - bananas, pears, and now applesauce.  We've also already introduced carrots, peas, "spinach and potatoes", sweet potato, yogurt, and avocado.  According to Yaron, you can also include veg like green beans and asparagus by 7 months.  So I got a good, green bunch of each and decided to get-down with my baby-food-making self . . .

Materials Needed:

• ice cube trays
• food processor, blender, whatever you have that can turn cooked veg/fruit into a baby-friendly puree
• selected veg/fruit
• saran wrap and alum. foil
• freezer space

Step 1: Clean (soap and hot water) all your materials (very important since this is all home-made stuff)

Step 2: Wash and cook your selected fruit/veg.  This particular book has several methods for cooking everything, usually incorporating microwaving or steaming.  For a little less than 1 lb of green beans, I used 4 Tb water in a microwave-safe bowl with a cover and let'er run for 8 minutes, pausing 3x throughout to rearrange the beans for even cooking.  The 1 lb bunch of asparagus got  the same treatment except it was in for 7 minutes with one pause for rearrangement.  Generally you let the veg sit, covered, for 5 min after cooking to steam/and/or cool.

Step 3:  Puree your food.  Careful - it's probably still hot!  I threw in the left behind cooking water as well and got a nice greek yogurt-consistency puree.

Step 4: Spoon into ice cube trays.

Step 5: Cover well with saran wrap and then alum foil.

Step 6: Freeze overnight or at least 8 hours.

Step 7:  Pop out those cubes into freezer bags or another easy-access container, removing as much air as possible (I used a straw to suck out most of the remaining air from the freezer bag).

Basically then whenever I want one of these veg cubes I'll take it out and pop it in the microwave to defrost.  In the future, I think I'll do bigger batches, especially because she'll be eating 2-3 of these cubes in a sitting.  1 lb of each veg got me one ice cube tray each - it seems like it would be super easy to do several pounds at once and have a good supply ready to go in the freezer.

 So there you are!  A rare instance of my domesticity :)   

Happiness Is . . .

I'm pretty sure I've used this title for a post before but ah well!  Happiness, indeed, is:

An impromptu Thursday morning photo shoot . . .

                                Peanut Butter M&M's (yes, PEANUT BUTTER m&m's - you heard right)  . . .

                                                  (. . . especially when they go in here) . . .

                                                   First set of soft (orange!) outdoor wheels . . .

                                                    Green things under fancy grow lights!


What is Happiness to you??

Just Call Me Sally Jane

So first off, let me just say that when I had first mentioned "Sally Jane" of "Try Again, Sally Jane" fame, I had COMPLETELY forgotten that she is actually on roller skates!! And I didn't remember until my post-tryout wash-the-morning's-disappointment-off-my-body hot shower.  It made me smile :)

That's right, so I didn't make the Fresh Meat team this time around, but the evaluators were kind enough to take myself and another woman aside to say that we were REALLY CLOSE and to PLEASE COME BACK to the next batch of recruits - which will hopefully only be in a month or so.  In the meantime, they said I should really hit the gym to work on my strength and endurance.  This will likely end up being a good thing, because in another month I will be THAT much stronger and more sure on my skates.  I plan on being ripped, in fact :)

Thanks for all your encouragement thus far - this derby dance has just begun!

"How Did I Get Here?'

Sooooo this morning when I bounded out of bed (ack! I was supposed to be out of bed 10 min ago!) I didn't realize that my entire right leg was still asleep.  I crumpled to the floor, turning my ankle under me, and landed in a perfect derby "baseball" stop.  While I was lying on the floor of our bedroom, these things occurred to me:

 - "Oh crap.  How am I going to carry Eddy around with a sprained ankle?"
 - "What? I sprained my ankle?? But I've NEVER sprained my ankle before!!!!"
 - "Noooooo, what about DERBY????" (notice the implied inner monologue of whining?)
 - "Huh - there's my missing sock."

Poor Jesse was trying to run out the door to work but he got me some ice, propped me up, and tended to The Doodle who had also just woken up.  Thankfully it appears as though NOTHING IS BROKEN and possibly not even sprained.  E and I are going to take it easy today but it appears as though crisis has been averted. 

Apparently my body knows how to fall better than my conscious brain does.  Yay for spinal reflexes!!!!

And I AM participating in tryouts this Sunday, come hell or high water. 

:) 

In the meantime, more Eddy candy . . . (Thanks Damian for the Mommy and E shot!)

I Saw Grass in our Yard!!! Foooorrr about a Minute . . .

Yah, so this post was going to originally be about how the time of year has come when Spring is soooo close that I start wearing clothing that is not quite warm enough for the ACTUAL temp outside.  I start layering again, wearing sweaters and scarves when I should be wearing a full on coat, rainboots everywhere instead of snowboots . . . . You get the idea.

But then, last night, we got snow.  Yes, more snow.  More than a foot of the stuff.  And now I really can't justify flitting about in 3 layers of t-shirts when the snow has piled up on the windowsills. 

So instead, I will recall happier days, when we were living it up in southern climes, warm, no snow, a bigger dose of sunshine and Vit D dare I say??  Ok, so the "southern clime" was south Jersey about 2 weeks ago, but we still had a wonderful time!  Eddy got to visit Grandma and Grandpa Woodford down in Barnegat while Jess and I went for a  night at the Borgata in Atlantic City!  Thank you Grandma!!  I suspect that her motives for sending us off to the casino were about 40% for treating the two of us and about 60% for getting some Eddy-time!!  Just kidding :)  We KNOW that it was 100% Eddy-time!!!!!!!   Teehee . . .

We had a great date night at the Borgata.  I had never been to AC before - or a casino for that matter!  We made a night of it: dressed up, dinner, comedy show, a little gambling - we even ended "up" for the night after a lucky 5 minutes at my first slot machine and some tag-team action at a roulette machine (no, not a table, this was actually more a cross between a slot machine and a roulette table. 

Meanwhile, Eddy had a great time with Grandma and Grandpa.  She made friends with Mocha, supervised egg removal at the chicken coop, and generally dazzled everyone with her wit and charm. 

                                       All dolled up at the Borgata

Eddy and Grandpa going out to the chicken coop!

                                     Ducky goodness

In other Eddy news, to our simultaneous delight and dismay, she has started pushing up onto her knees!  She's not crawling yet, but she can scoot her way round a circle and push herself backwards a few feet.  Time to get baby-proofing!!!

Etsy is the Devil

As Kenneth would say: "Ohhhhh noh" . . . as if Etsy wasn't addictive and dangerous enough (holy baby paraphernalia, Batman!) I just found out from someone at practice that Etsy has DERBY gear as well.  These toe guards are fortunately/unfortunately already sold, but I thought some of you (NALLY!!!) would appreciate them.  These may have to be a Mother's Day present to myself if I make the team . . .

Derby Diaries: Fresh Meat

Ok, so some of y'all have heard through the grapevine that I've started playing roller derby as "fresh meat" with the Assault City Roller Derby (ACRD) ladies.  I've been kinda keeping quiet about it up til now for a few reasons:

a) it's been a looooooong time (decade +??) since I've donned a pair of skates and even then my skating was limited to "sticky skating" (all four eight wheels on the ground at all times!) - none of these crossovers, fancy stops, etc.

b) wasn't sure I was going to be able to keep up with the time commitment (practice is at least 2x per week at a rink 20 min away)

c) I've only been to three practices so far and I am a long ways (many months) from playing in a "bout"

d) I still have to actually "make" the team by passing a skills test in a couple weeks

However, after three practices I'm getting the derby bug!  We're learning basic derby skills like crossovers, falling safely (yay!), stops (hard), skating in close proximity to a pack of skaters . . . I've found that my biggest barrier to getting the technique for these things down is my fearfulness.  I know - seems funny to be playing a sport where much of the point IS to knock down and be knocked down by others if I'm so fearful of falling down.  Buuut that was part of why I decided to go out for ACRD - to be a bit less of a fraidy-cat!  To have the chance to get scrappy out there and feel the rush of competition and physicality I used to feel during basketball (what, that was only like, 8th grade!).  And derby IS competitive and physical - not quite like "Whip It" (less face-punching!) - I come away from our drills each week with sore glutes and abs (yay!) and I can already tell as I get better and better this is going to turn into a full body workout! 

So I've got the gear (quad skates, knee and elbow pads, wrist and mouth guards, helmet), a few spaces in the house to practice at night, and lots of room for improvement!  If I pass the skills test in a couple weeks I'll get to start practicing with the ACRD team - if not, I'll keep practicing as fresh meat and try, try again, Sally Jane!