Homemade babyfood

I know 4 months is a little early to start a baby on baby food, but he was begging for our food as we were eating and it was a way to keep my husband from feeding the baby ice cream. (My husband loves feeding the baby with a spoon.) So we started with rice cereal. This morning (a week or so later) we added pumpkin! (It is suggested by experts to start a new food in the morning-a new food a week- in case there is a reaction, it will show up before the doctor's office closes. They also suggested starting with veggies...especially yellow ones+halloween=pumpkin.)

Instead of carving our 25 lb pumpkin, we drew a face on it, then a week later cut it up, cooked it, pureed it in the blender and have tons of pumpkin for: babyfood, pumpkin pie, cookies, bars, muffins & bread.
Note: since you have to add water to blend it (preferably the water you cooked it in), it will make your recipes more liquidy than a store bought can...you might need to tweak recipes. side note example: my husband made pumpkin cookies following a recipe for store bought canned pumpkin. It was really liquidy. He made one pan of cookies and they came out like pancakes!?!?! For the other pans he made pumpkin bars. It turned out great! We frosted them with a cream cheese frosting and everyone loved them.

Back to baby food. I use my blender to blend cooked fresh or frozen veggies. Never used canned...too much salt. Also, never make your own carrots (there are a couple other veggies too... beets...spinach...hmm....you'll have to look it up yourself)...they have too much nitrate for a baby. Buy this kind...or just don't give it to your baby...I never gave carrots to baby #1...there are so many other kinds of veggies.

Fruits: I use fruits I've canned myself-no sugar added, just blend them up too. Obviously bananas can be mashed by a fork. Watch out...they stain horribly.

Freezing baby food: Many people freeze homemade babyfood in ice cube trays. I use 4 oz bottle liners. This might last 2-3 feedings (maybe 4 in the beginning). When I want to defrost them, I give them a "hot bath." (put the bag in hot water...just make sure it doesn't cover the top...then water would get in and veggie would leak out.) I have 10 4 oz bags in our freezer right now. I think they stay good 3-6 months.

To make babyfood thinner (for younger babies): add water
To make babyfood thicker (for older babies): add rice cereal

Only serve the amount you think the baby will eat and throw away leftovers. Apparently there is some thing in baby saliva that makes the food bad after an hour.

I give him pumpkin at breakfast & rice cereal at dinner, 1/2 way inbetween nursings. I also have a small bottle of water nearby if he seems thirsty. When we add another veggie, I'll add lunch.

When your baby is 4-6months old, ask their pediatrician for info on feeding babies (how long to wait before serving cheese, yogart, meat, honey, etc.)

Possible feeding order:
Rice cereal
pumpkin
yams
frozen peas
frozen green beans
applesauce
peaches
pears
bananas

Has anyone made their own rice cereal??

Fr, frog

We did F & R worksheets.
He learned how to write his name all by himself!!
Here are the frog books we checked out:

• Tadpoles and frogs by Anna Milbourne (Information about frogs-not too many words on a page. Some pictures are photographs, some are drawings.)
• Jumpy, Green, and Croaky: What am I? by Moira Butterfield (Guess the animal according to the clues.)
• Jump, Frog, Jump by Robert Kalan (I think the drawings look like they were done by a kid, and I don't think the story is accurate (do turtles eat snakes?) but my little guy loved this story and saying "jump, frog, jump" over and over again.)
• From Tadpole to Frog by Anita Ganeri (Follows the life cycle of a frog (and gives a timeline). Briefly mentions that frogs mate and then the female frog lays eggs (no further questions were asked, I just read what the book said.))
• Frog and Toad are Friends by Arnold Lobel (Sort of a chapter book or book of short stories of these characters.)
• Too Many Frogs! by Sandy Asher (My little guy loved loved loved this book. Shares a message of politeness. Check out the facial expressions.)
• A Frog in the Bog by Karma Wilson (Pros: rhymes and has nice watercolor pictures. Cons: Weird story. Why would a frog eat 5 slugs? and then they all crawl out? weird.)

Taco Lasagna

Salsa or Spicy spaghetti sauce
Lasagna noodles
sour cream
cheese

I layered these 4 ingredients (in that order, sauce first) in the pan, twice. Then I cooked it for 25 mins if the noodles are already cooked, or 45 mins if they aren't (test with a fork). Let stand 5 mins before serving.
*Story behind this recipe: I was making a homemade spaghetti sauce. It was too spicy because I put 4 anaheim peppers in it. I remembered eating this at Granny's, so I made it.
**Could be a fun April Fool's dinner because it looks the same as regular lasagna.
***Thanks to Rob's Granny for the recipe.

OW sound, letters O & W, flowers

Monday: O worksheet. Read "The Flower Alphabet book" by JerryPallotta. (A type of flower f(color drawing included) or each letter of the alphabet (2 for the letter F?) and a brief description/background of it.)
Tuesday: W worksheet and "circle the o" worksheet. Read "Flower Garden" by Eve Bunting. (Nice story of how a girl and her dad built a flower garden and why. Nice pictures. The family is African American.)
Wednesday: Story time at the library. (I canned and froze 40 lbs of chicken, so we didn't have time for piano lessons.
Thursday: "circle the w" worksheet. Read "Lottie's New beach tOWel" by petra mathers. (A story of of Lottie the chicken and how a new towel is useful. Little guy liked this one alot and asked for it to be read over and over.)
Friday: Test: write O, W, S: 3 times. Still didn't get S (it's in his name, so we will be practicing alot.) Read "Owl Babies" by Martin Waddell. (3 babies thoughts while their mother is gone.)

Sh sound, letters S and H

*I should have spent more time practicing this sound, as it is a hard one for my little guy to say...Things were crazy, so it was mostly writing and being read to.
Monday: Letter S worksheet (this is a very hard letter for my little guy...very frustrating for him. He still does it backwards sometimes, or adds an extra loop to look like a backwards 3.)
Read: Seashells by the Seashore by Marianne Berkes. (A book in poem format that rhymes. It shows different types of shells and what their names are.)
Tuesday: Letter H worksheet. Read Old Shell, New Shell by Helen Ward. (A story about a hermit crab looking for a new shell that is just like his old one, except bigger.)
Wednesday: Storytime at the library. Piano lessons: learned the note "A." Learned a new song and "passed off" the first two, making the number of songs to practice this week: 4. Read: Shapes, Shapes, Shapes by Tana Hoban. (No words, just real life pictures to find shapes.)
Thursday: worksheet that colored in the words that start with letter S to show a picture. Practiced writing S lots of times on back of old paper. Read: Sheep on a Ship by Nancy Shaw. (Story about sheep's misfortunes on a ship. Nice pictures made with colored pencil.
Friday: test day: write S, H, and C three times each. Read Kermit the Hermit by Bill Peet. (A rhyming book about a hermit crab. Reminds me of Dr. Suess (though no made up words.))

Food Storage

We have recently completed our year supply of food. (yay us.) Some friends have asked me to blog about it, so here we go.
1. What did we store:

• 3 month supply of foods we normally eat. I buy alot when it's on sale and this is what we use in the kitchen, so it is rotated. I include the things I can (bottle) myself: applesauce, peaches, jam; in this category.
• 6 month supply: our ward put together packages of food that equaled 3 month supply, so we bought 2. It had long term stuff: rice, wheat, macaroni, oatmeal, beans, etc, and some things that we need to rotate through that won't last as long: crisco, oil, yeast.
• The last 3 months I wanted just basic rice and beans. But there were some sales, so we got some wheat too. I went to www.providentliving.org to see that we would need 25lbs of grains/person/month and 5 lbs of beans/legumes/person/month. This website tells how long the long-term storage stuff is good for too. Since this stuff is good for 30 years, I'm not planning on touching it (unless we need it because of unemployment, lack of food, etc) until 2035.
• As you can see if we had to live solely on our foodstorage, we would be eating the best at the beginning and eating blandly or creatively towards the end.

2. Prices I paid at Macey's grocery store in Utah this week:

• 50 lb white wheat (I heard it digests better than red) $12
• 20 lb long grain white rice $9
• 25 lb flour $7
• 25 lb sugar $10

3. How to find space: Now we have a house with tons of storage space, so it isn't an issue for us. When we lived in an apt, we put our bed on lifters and stored it under that.
4. Tips: Buy a little at a time when things are on sale. Start by getting one weeks worth of food, then two, then build up to a month, then three months. Then buy your other nine month stuff a bag at a time, when you can.
5. Stuff I still want to get: baking soda and vinegar for cleaning &/or cooking...since it is so useful and cheap, I want to get alot. And spices...I need to restock that. I guess we are never really done, are we.

EE sound, number 2, trees

Monday: Letter Ee worksheet (writing 3 times each). Talk about short e sound. Number 2 worksheet. Read: A Tree is Growing by Arthur Dorros. (A sciency book about leaves, bark, and differences between trees.)
Tuesday: Wrote #2 two more times (still needs practice!), circle Ee worksheet (same website). Read: A Tree is Nice by Janice May Udry. (He loved this book! It is a Caldecott book that talks about different ways we use trees-climbing, apples,etc. Nice pictures.)
Wednesday: storytime at library and piano lessons (learned the note 'e' and added 2 songs to what he can practice making a total of 5).
Thursday: Wrote #2 two more times, circle pictures of things that start with E, talk about ee sound. Read: Tell Me, Tree by Gail Gibbons (Sciency book that talks about different varieties of trees and how to tell them by bark and trees. Has sciency activity suggestions.)
Friday: Test: wrote E, e, 2, C three times. Read: The Alphabet Tree by Leo Lionni. (Cute story about turning letters into words, then sentences.)

Homemade Costa Vida/Cafe Rio

Tomatillo Ranch Salad dressing
*makes 1 Quart
*recipe from http://www.favfamilyrecipes.com/ , with my variations
1 packet Ranch mix (I used Western Family)
1 c. mayonnaise
1 c. buttermilk (I used 1 C milk+1 TBS lemon juice, letting it sit 10 mins)
2 tomatillos, remove husk, diced
1/2 bunch of fresh cilantro
1 clove garlic
juice of 1 lime (1 time I used 2 TBS lemon juice)
1 jalepeno (if you like it milder, just remove the seeds)
Mix all ingredients together in the blender.
*freezes well, just stir well with a fork after it defrosts in the fridge (do not microwave!!)
*The longer it sits for, the spicer it will be...(you might want to make it a day in advance) but I wouldn't leave it in the fridge longer than a week...no preservatives.

Easy Sweet Pork:
1-1 1/2 lbs pork (I use boneless porkribs...less than $1.50/lb.)
1 C salsa (I use Western Family)
1 C brown sugar
Cook in crockpot until shredable. (3-4 hrs on High) Shred. Mix in with juices in crockpot.
*Thanks Jessica!

CK sound, clocks and #1

Last year we did a co-op preschool using mothergoosetime (look it up, it was great!!) This year I didn't have anyone to do a co-op with, but am happy about it because I realize now that it would have been hard with a new baby. This year it is just me and my little guy one-on-one while the baby is sleeping. Here is a website I use: http://letteroftheweek.com/ Here's how the last two weeks went:
Monday: write letter C, and number one worksheets (he needs practice writing, so this is what we are focusing on this year. http://www.beginningreading.com/Alphabet%20Set%201.htm
Tuesday: write letter K worksheet, highlight CK combo in hickory, dickory dock poem.
Wednesday: storytime at library, piano lessons (learning middle C, D- find them on the piano and practice 1 song).
Thursday-off
Friday-off
Monday-off
Tuesday- practice writing CK together (I made 4 big boxes on a plain white piece of paper), read "The Clock" by Trent Duffy (a history about telling time. We just read the info about the pictures)
Wednesday-storytime at library, piano lessons (learning B, add 1 more song to learn and work on rhythm)
Thursday- write the word "clock" 3 times (I made 3 big boxes on a plain white piece of paper and wrote "clock" in all caps at the top), read "Starting off with Time" by Peter Patilla (how to tell time, other time concepts. Some things were too advanced, we just focused on things his level. It would have been fun to make our own clock (with a brad to move the hands) to practice telling time, but I didn't get around to it.
Friday-test day: I divided the paper in thirds. He had to write C, K, 1 in separate columns, 3 times. Read: "My Grandmother's Clock" by Geraldine McCaughrean.

Roasted Tomatillo Soup

5 Tomatillos
1 jalapeno
1 onion, separated
2-3 cloves garlic, minced
1 C cooked, shredded chicken
2 C chicken broth
1 C corn
1 C dry black beans, prepared and cooked (or 1 can favorite beans)
1/2 pint whipping cream
1 tsp salt
1 tsp cummin
1/2 tsp pepper
lime juice (could substitute lemon in a pinch)
1/2 bunch cilantro, chopped
Preheat oven to 450 degrees fahrenheit. Line cookie sheet with foil. Remove husks from tomatillos, wash, and cut in 1/2 and put on the foil. Cut onion in 1/4 and put 1/2 the onion on the foil. Cut jalapeno in 1/2, wash, deseed, put on foil. Roast 25 minutes, turning once (will get a little black spot). Blend roasted peppers and onions. Saute other 1/2 of onion (I cut into small pieces) and garlic in some butter/oil. Add everything except cream and cilantro. Simmer at least 30 minutes. Add cream last 10 minutes of cooking. Top with cilantro right before serving.
*Thanks to Melissa for this recipe