Homemade Baby Food

Hi! This is Jocelyn. I'm a friend of Natalyia's and will occasionally be posting to this blog as well! I have an 8 month old little boy and adding another member to the family has made me (or at least made me want to) be more careful about the way I spend our money, especially on everyday items, like groceries. One thing I have discovered as a BIG money saver has been to make my own baby food. There are a lot of great resources out there and my two favorite are Wholesome Baby Food.com and the book First Meals by Annabel Karmel (got it for $6 at Half Price Books...another great place to save money, also got a box of 16 cute thank you notes for $2 while I was there!).

I think homemade baby food looks, smells and most importantly tastes much better than the jar stuff! I keep a few jars on hand for times when I won't be around a fridge or microwave and I have compared. So, in my first time mom opinion, it is totally worth it to make your own! Get ready, this is going to be a pretty long post!

One 4 oz jar of baby food cost about $1 depending on the brand and where you buy. Here are a few examples of things I made for my son and about how much I saved:

Peas-
2-12 oz bag of frozen peas costs about $3
makes 8 jars worth
SAVES about $5

Sweet Potatoes-
4 sweet potatoes cost about $3
makes about 12 jars worth
SAVES about $9

Carrots-
1-2lb bag of carrots cost about $1
makes about 12 jars worth
SAVES about $11

Pears-
5lb bag (got it at Sam's) cost me $4.99
makes about 12 jars worth
SAVES about $7
TOTAL SAVINGS about $32 :) for 44 jars worth of food..that's over 70% saved!

I could list more...let me know if you want to know a certain favorite food and I may have made it :)

And the best part is that making your own baby food it VERY easy. If you don't already have a food processor this would be an added cost (but you can use it so many ways, so in my opinion you need one!). Here is how I made the previous list of foods:

Peas- place about 2 inches of water in a sauce pan, place a steamer basket in pan and fill with frozen peas, bring water to a boil and steam peas (about 5 mins or less) until tender, place steamed peas into food processor and puree until smooth, you will need to add a little of the hot water from the pan to get it to the correct texture, spoon smooth peas into ice cube trays and place in freezer until firm, pop out into labeled gallon bags and store for up to 3 months in your freezer. Pull out 2 or more cubes and defrost for about 1 minute in microwave, stir and add a 1/2 tsp butter if desired. My little one LOVES these!

Sweet potatoes- bake sweet potatoes in middle of oven or racks for 1 hour at 425 after scrubbing them clean and poking a few wholes in each, pop flesh out of skin and puree and store as described for peas (another favorite in my house!)

Carrots- wash, peel and cut into 1-2 inch pieces, steam as store as described with the peas (my son loves a cube of carrots mixed with a cube of sweet potatoes and a cube of pears!)

Pears- wash and peel pears, cut into 1-2 inch pieces and place in a skillet, cover will about 1 inch water, simmer until soft 10-15 minutes (I seasoned mine with a little cinnamon) puree and store as described with the peas.

I made all 4 of these in 1 day and it took me a bout 2 hours of work. Not to bad for the money saved. I also purchased some ice cubes trays for $1 at Walmart and already had (because I use it so often!) a food processor. You can get one for $20 - $200. Mine cost about $30.

Here is a pic of one of my son's favorite recipes from the First Meals book I mentioned above, Baby's First Chicken Casserole:



I hope you all find this helpful and it inspires you to try to make some of your own baby food. My little guy loves it and it feels great to know that I saved money and that I know exactly what he is eating because I made it!

Meal Plan Mondays

I promised Brock I was almost done so this will be short :) but I had to post this. This site, www.orgjunkie.com is all about organization and what caught my eye is that she has a Meal Plan Monday - complete with recipes and everything! I'll definitely be using this to change up and add some meals to our menus. The more recipes you have, the more you can do with what you already have, right? :) Plus, there's a McLinky at the end of this post and there are hundreds of other bloggers who have shared their meal plans as well!!! Wow!

There are other organizational tips on her site that I haven't gotten to check out yet but the meal plans are enough to make it a favorite!

Tom Thumb Rocks My Socks Off! :)

After that last post, I've been on a misson! The last hour while Gracie was napping, I started checking out grocery store specials (Albertsons, Wal-Mart, CVS, & Tom Thumb). Albertsons has really good specials/coupons! I'll be going there tonight to get some stuff on my list. I don't actually have their coupon page so I'll need to clip some of the deals when I get there. I was really disappointed with Wal-Marts specials. Maybe it's just because it's Easter but it was mostly toys and candy. I also wasn't super impressed with CVS. You have to be in the mood to sift through lots of stuff.
Tom Thumb however is awesome! Their specials were okay (Albertsons was better) but I already have a rewards card so I started looking at that. Apparently if you have a Rewards card, you can look at their coupons online, pick the ones you want, and upload it to your card. No clipping, just hand your card to the cashier when you check out and your coupons are used, along with whatever you've saved with your rewards card! :)
This was too good to not pass on! All this comparison shopping is a lot of work and time. I'm so glad Tom Thumb has a way to cut out some of the process! Yay :)

www.saveathomemommy.com

We're on our way back from Tennessee so I'm catching up on blogs and looking for new blogs. My friend Kristina had a link for Save At Home Mommy (if the title isn't incentive enough to check it out, I don't know what is!) so I checked it out. Now I'll look through the Ad pages we get in the mail but I don't really see coupons anymore. They just advertise sales in which the prices will be already marked down anyway, right? Or that's how I was thinking of it. On the website's blog roll, there was a link to The $30 grocery challenge (which I posted a link to on the right) and between these two sites, I am so convinced that I could do this. Maybe not $30, we'll see, but if I could get close to $30 I would be happy! I thought I had been doing well with our grocery budget... I make out a menu using whatever we have in the pantry first and then any extra meals we need, then I make my grocery list and stick to it so that I don't overspend. But $30?! This woman puts me to shame! In a good way though! :) I'm so curious to see if I can do it. It might take me a while to get there. Stockpiling seems to be what really helps so that may take a few times. But, I'll keep you all posted. :) I know every bit I save helps ensure that I can stay home part time!

Pork Chops, Sweet Potato, and Apples

Okay, I don't always get a workout in so I've been trying to cook really healthy to make up for it. Brock and I were cleaning out the office (we still have boxes in there from moving!) and I came across his P90X nutrition guide, which has RECIPES in it! :) I'm thinking these people should know what they're doing right? So, last night I tried their Pork Chop, Sweet Potato, & Apple bake. It sounded super easy.

I used 3 pork chops (which we're pretty thick so I cut them once lengthwise) and then cut them into quarters. Slice the sweet potato (I just needed one) thinly and core & quarter the apple. Layer those on top of each other; season as you like with salt, pepper, and cinnamon; and wrap up in foil. Cook at 350 for 40 minutes.

So that was the recipe... however, since it was wrapped in foil, it had all that meat gunk on it. I rinsed it all off and put the meat in one skillet, potato and apple in another. I poured the juices in with the meat and just a tablespoon of oil with the potato and apple. It turned out really well! :) I thought the sweet potato tasted like the sweet potato chips at Blue Mesa. (YUMMMM) Brock doesn't like sweet potato but he liked this. The only problem was that the pork chops did get a little dry. But for such an easy healthy recipe, I'll give it a try again! I may try browning it all first and then cooking it...

Why I Made This Blog

There's an excitement that comes with being a new bride. We desperately want to make our husbands happy and proud. This usually motivates us to show how resourceful we can be by clipping coupons, making menus and shopping lists; or how tidy we are by keeping up with the house (even if it means folding laundry till 11 at night); or what culinary geniuses they married. It's so much fun... and yet so much time! And once you add beautiful babies to the mix, it can be hard to keep your sanity. I'll be the first to admit I am not always the "joyful" wife (and Brock could be the second to nicely confirm) but it's still something I definitely strive for. I know I could never be the Proverbs 31 woman on my own but I'm hoping if I were to learn from others and save myself some time, maybe I could get a few steps closer. That is why I created this blog.
I've had several friends ask for recipes and I've asked friends for advice on budgeting. We sat and talked for hours about ideas on decorating our new homes and researching more ideas. My mom has given very valuable advice on maintaining a tidy home and other women have told me where to get the best deal on produce. SO... I'm hoping that you can join me in creating a place where we can all come to get tips from those we love, those who are in our shoes, and those who have wisdom to give. Whether it's a recipe that was so amazing you have to share it or just a quick post saying "Holy Cow, awesome sale going on at Kohl's", it will be appreciated! Just let me know if you would like to be a contributor, and I'll add you on here.
Thanks for checking this out and I hope that the gems shared here will make your day a little more joyful =)