Because I'm crazy for that cow....

So we were on a somewhat routine shopping trip this morning trying to quickly grab whatever we needed because the kids still had not had breakfast,
(yes, I'm that mom - shush we were at the store to get breakfast...)
{and free cookies}
and Teijah tends to be so ravenous (you, know when he is actually hungry and willing to eat) that he tries to open all sorts of packages with his teeth in an attempt to satisfy said hunger. If we are not quick when he is experiencing said raging hunger that results in a remembrance of his hunt and gather instincts... well lets just say I imagine it would result in me being forced to hide buy a lot of half eaten merchandise.
So any way there we were, rushing around with the cart that is way too huge that Teijah insists on getting even though he always decides to walk 2 minutes later...
We ran towards the dairy section and grabbed a few varieties of pre-made yogurt then we headed over to the organic dairy section to pick my soy milk (which isn't organic anymore apparently... bastards. When I started drinking it the box always read *filtered water, *organic soybeans, etc., and then I see this new green {not pretty btw} box of "Organic Silk". Whatever.) While I reached out for my *not organic* soy milk I thought it would be cute to get the baby some of his own gimmicky baby yogurt so I scanned the organic baby varieties and much to my surprise found this:


and I said to myself {yes, out loud} well that's pretty awesome. You see I've been randomly sneaking veggies into baby's whatever doesn't usually have veg via these Happy Baby spinach and fruit cubes {which I don't entirely ♥ btw, way too watery. My homemade food has substance and I was really hoping the "just like homemade" stuff would too. So what I do is after it has had it's 30 seconds in the microwave and before I stir, I drain off the excess water and then mix it into say fresh banana, and plain yogurt, or my frozen bannappley yogurt oatmeal cubes.}
*ahem*
so anyway I scan the ingredients for any offenders, decide this may be the best thing ever, then place one of each {of 2 kinds they had} into my cart. Awesomeness.

We check out, weigh everyone, and of course a few "drinkable" yogurts were passed to the starving children in the car... they turned down the apples, they wanted more artificially flavoured and dyed yogurt... tough cookies I say.
So we get home.
I get everything situated while children chant things like "have some please mom" and try to open more yogurts with their teeth. I set the older children up with their greek {not artificially flavoured & dyed} yogurt, orange juice and a doughnut of their picking {yes, doughnuts.}
Then I took pictures of the baby yogurt. Why? because I'm nuts.
And while I was photographing the boxes I notices that *tee.hee.hee* this is not Stoneyfield after all... It's Horizon... an right there on the box is my favourite little cow. I of course can not believe I didn't notice in the store, but am psyched. I love that cow! I love that it's skim milk has the substance of whole... that's a sign of some very happy cows folks.I also love how it never seems to irritate my lactose intolerance as much as "regular" milk. One day that happy cow's milk will be the only milk that passes through my kiddies lips... but for now *grrr* The government buys my milk and apparently my kids aren't good enough for organic.
moving on...
Then it was "little" man's turn
{did I mention he's walking.. or toddling really he's pretty wobbly sometimes, but seriously he's 7 months old give the kid a break.}


He's also pretty mad in this picture, am sure he's thinking:
"why does she keep taking pictures instead of feeding me!"
Except I also imagine that he swears and calls me vial woman... like Stewie.


Notice now he see's the food and is now looking hopeful.
Notice also how I manage to get consistent blurry backgrounds with my crappy point and click. I wouldn't exactly call it bokeh... but I'm still pretty proud that I figured it out. You see really it's all about the closeness of the camera and the half button focus.
moving on
So I decided to let him try the strawberry carrot first.


*Yum* It looks creamy and promising.


*giggles* I missed his mouth trying to get a picture.


There that's better... he totally "baby birded it" for every bite. And he ate the whole four ounces...
See?


{and see there's that consentrated focus/blurry back ground thing again - just not quite where I wanted it *sighs* a point and shoot can only do so much}


So any way here's the gimmick:
*It is yogurt with fruit AND a veg.
*it comes in 3 flavours: banana sweet potato, strawberry carrot, butternut squash apple
*and if you go here now you can get a coupon.
{there is also currently a coupon on the package.. :( but I totally ripped mine.}
* they are DHA enriched but not via a supplement of synthetic source, they use Algal oil from algea - so this yogurt is ok for lacto-vegetarians} - No this is a big deal because it means that the DHA is 100% bioavailable... for those of you that didn't just finish a nutrition class *grins* bioavailablity is how much of what ever you are intacking actually can be used - or is available to the body. So all food sources are always 100% while supplements are only maybe 30% bioavailable... get it?
*they come in cute 4 oz containers
*What can I say... I love the cow... it makes me happy.

Oh one thing though... it does have sugar... I felt a little tricked when I scanned the ingredient a second time at home. As you know {or don't know but are about to} I've been trying to kick the sugar out of our home and one of the ways I've been working on it is to find ways to cook fruits and veg to bring out their natural sweetness ... so the unexpected *unbleached cane sugar* sighting made me cringe a little. It is the 5th ingredient though. It's the third {of like 20} in Danimals, and the second in the greek yogurt we bought today, so I'm going with it's not that bad, and it's placement on the list means it's scant.... and Ori absolutely ♥ -ed it.
All in all I think that it's an awesome edition to our homemade stuff.
So check it out,
show the cow some love {I really &hearts that cow!},
{and sneak your kids some veggies too!}

Blueberries!

Woohoo! Blueberries were on sale at Target for $1 so, thinking of My Love who refuses to feed himself unless it's convenient, I bought a few. With a blueberry stash on hand it was inevitable that when Teijah requested pancakes this morning so well that it could have been his sister asking I of course obliged and made blueberry pancakes.
For those of you that don't know me personally, Teijah (pronounced Tay-ah in case you were wondering)just started talking so sometimes it's hard to tell him no, or be very frustrated with him for asking me for things when I'm busy (which happens with his sister all the time). This morning he told me "hungry, mom." which is awesome because it was the first time he said hungry. So, instead of pumping like I normally do when I first get up, I went straight to the kitchen. Of course I was followed by my extra tiny 2 1/2 year old who then requested "pancakes, please? pancakes, mom?" Who could say no to that? He even helped put the blueberries on the counter. children are so helpful and polite at this age! Hopefully I find a way to keep him that way. I think having a small child in the house all the time helps, Rowan E. seems to be remember her manners more often now that she sees how much attention her brother gets for it. how effective it is. Now if I could just get her to stop whining and freaking out for no reason so he stops learning that from her. When I figure out how to make a little girl stop whining - you better believe there is going to be a blog post about it! For now she has been informed that any time he acts in said whiny manner she will also be punished - I will not have a house full of whiny children... "whining goes to the bedroom" as we say here and I do not want to have to say it 20 times a day... whoa... so yeah have you noticed the about me at the upper right hand corner?... I warned you I was highly distractable...
So anyway, as I was making a few dozen mini blueberry pancakes (because mini pancakes means no silverware... and I hate silverware, mainly the washing of it) I realized that yesterday was the day that little Ori was supposed to try a new food but he had not. Then it hit me - what better time then now to let him try some blueberries? And what a blueberry mess he was afterward! I refrained the urge to roast the blueberries to make them more blueberry-y because: a.) I already had roasted bananas in the fridge (and it seemed silly to just roast blueberries), and b.) though I know that cooking the berries down make them far more tasty I wasn't sure the nutritional value of the delicate berries would hold up during cooking.

Roasted Bananas w/ Blueberries

2 tbs roasted bananas w/o booby milk (so basically banana concentrate *lol* not banana pudding)
1 or 2 big handfuls of fresh blueberries
optional water, booby milk, whatever for mixing.

Dump bananas & blueberries in food processor or blender, *attempt to blend.
put into storage containers. Feed to happy, unsuspecting baby. Wash blueberry covered baby while imagining he's that girl from Charlie & The Chocolate Factory.

* I say attempt because I attempted to use my 1 cup blender and it was just too thick w/ to small an amount to blend so I added a little water (like I said I did not pump this morning so I didn't have fresh booby milk on hand) so it would blend. Roasted bananas do this cool/weird thickening thing but still be sure not to add too much liquid so you don't end up with a smoothie. :) I ended up with about 4 tablespoons.

Starting Solids: Stage 1 Oven Roasted Bananas

Considering my obsession w/ banana sticker boobvertisement I felt that it was only fitting that little Ori's first solid food be bananas. And shush he's 5 months 3 weeks... I think that one week isn't going to make much a difference. That being said for the past month my dear youngest child has been fascinated by all things food; staring intently as people ate or chewed, reaching out and trying to grab said food or utensil, and sometimes managing to grab the a fore mentioned utensil which successfully led to food being tossed. Bottom line? He was ready. Which is something that I think is important; all babies are going to think the new experience is a little weird but you shouldn't have to force them into eating solids. For instance, Teijah, who is finally becoming an avid eater really didn't eat consistently till after he was one - he was indeed my little veal chop and would avoid solids at all costs.
Wait what was that? What about rice cereal? Well it turns out studies have been revealing that grains may not be the best things to start little people off on where digestion is concerned, a better choice for first foods may very well be easily digestible things such as fruits, orange veggies, or avocado(yum). So on to the bananas!

First (depending on how you currently choose to nourish your little one and how you are planning on storing your homemade baby food) you'll need to pump some booby milk.

Tah-dah! Did I mention my deep sympathy for cows? Ah, what was that, can you use frozen? No. No, you can't. More on that later.

Preheat your oven to 400 degrees F.

Choose your banana *lol*
Of course I chose by sticker but you can choose however you would like.(Set sticker aside for later use.)
Next, cut your chosen banana into small uniform pieces. You can do them like this:
or this (but add five minutes or so to your cook time):
Then line a pan, (cookie sheet, cake pan, whatever) with aluminum foil *note to self: buy that non-stick aluminum foil for future baby food making endevours* You want to avoid greasing it, spraying it with Pam or anything like that because it's important that babies first food are simple and single ingredient to keep track of any allergic reactions. I suppose you could also eliminate the aluminum foil.. if you like to scrub dishes but I myself am bad at hate to clean so I try to simplify the mess and as a bonus aluminum foil is recyclable.
Place bananas in a single layer on foil.
place pan in oven *duh* and cook for 15-20 minutes. Get out trusty mini food chopper/processor thing. I got this Chef Mate one at for $9.99 at Target.
I'm not sure how great it will be at grinding up grains and legumes later on in our baby food making adventure but it certainly does the job for now.Place slightly ugly bananas into mini chopper.
Remove aluminum foil from pan, roll into a ball, and toss it into your recycling bin/basket/whatever... just recycle.
*A note about roasting: Roasting does not always render the prettiest fruits and veggies but it does concentrate their flavours (i.e bananas are banana-ier, sweet potatoes- you get my point)and make them extra yummy without added salt or sugar - or anything really, and you get all this with minimal alteration of the nutritional value of said foods.Blend banana into a smooth puree. Now here's were you start to have options. Here's what I did this time: Add a couple of ounces of booby milk to thin out bananas to an easy to swallow consistency.
Decide you don't want to add anymore booby milk, i.e: liquid gold into these stupid bananas and decide to thin out the bananas more later. Then place roasted bananas con booby leche into reuseable single serving sized containers I did 2 TBSP per container.

Place extra servings and booby milk safely in you refrigerator.

Place reserved banana sticker on babies head in commemoration of this momentous occasion.

Take bad picture with camera in one hand and baby food container and spoon in the other but love it anyway because it's documentation of your baby's first bite.

Offer baby water every few sips to help him wash down his yummy bananas.

When baby decides he (or she) is done clean him (or her) up and let them experiment with there newest feeding tool.

Yes, I do ♥ the colour orange. Now sometimes new experiances can be alarming, even for the most ready babies.

I imagine they may even worry if they will ever have their booby again. So it's important to comfort them, reassure them, and even offer them a booby.

After all that work baby may even take a nap, giving you a break to, you know, clean up after all the other children who probably had a cereal fight when you were having your booby time with your youngest.

*About breast milk: Now these bananas definitely need something to thin them out. Breast milk storage guidelines still apply so if you use frozen breast milk you can not freeze the bananas baby food cube style, and if you use fresh breast milk keep in mind that microwaving or cooking the bananas pretty much kills all the extra benefits the breast milk adds so if you plan on making large batches and freezing you'll have to defrost the bananas under running warm water (just like breast milk). For more information on this and pretty much anything else you want to know about making your own baby food visit my new favourite website: wholesomebabyfood.com