How to Make Homemade Zucchini Baby Food

Why make your own baby food?

Many parents and care givers choose to make their own baby food:

To Save Money

No Added Sugars

No Preservatives

No Chemicals

No Dyes

When is Zucchini safe to introduce?

Zucchini is a safe food to introduce after you child is at least 6 months old. Once they are 8 months you may keep the skin in the puree. Before an infant is 8 months they are unable to digest the skin of a zucchini. However, the skin is where practically all of the nutrients are. This post will be for my son who is not yet 8 months, so the skin will be removed.


How to Make Homemade Zucchini Baby Food:

* First choose 2 small organic zucchinis. You want them to be small because they are the most tender.

* WASH your food! Even if its organic. Even if you will be peeling it. Then peel if you choose to.

Even if you are peeling it you HAVE to clean it. You might be thinking

"No way, you are just tossing the skin anyway!"

That is correct in the macro sense of things. But think of the micro sense; if you use a peeler or a knife and are cutting off the skin you are then pushing the dirty bits into the flesh of your food with every swipe.

* After peeling, chop them into small equal circles.

* Now you will steam or boil your zucchini. I placed mine into a small pot of water. I turned it to medium heat. Once at a nice rolling boil I turned it down to a low boil. Let it boil until soft.

* After they are soft, remove the cooked zucchini from the pot with a slotted spoon. You will want to save the water if you choose to make your puree ever thinner. This water has some of the nutrients from the vegetable so you would want to use this water over fresh filtered water when thinning.

You will place the zucchini in your blender. I will be using a Baby Bullet, but any blender will do the trick. I sometimes use a Cuisinart Hand Blender.

* Once it is at the consistency you desire you will place them into individual feeding containers. I will be using the containers which came with a Baby Bullet System but any Tupperware container will do. Make sure you NEVER feed your baby out of a container and put it back in the fridge. Once a spoon which has entered a mouth and was dipped back into the food the food now has bacteria in it which will cause you to be unable to reuse it later. If you will not use the whole container at the feeding simply move the quantity you desire into a different dish.

* You do not need to wait for the vegetable to completely cool before freezing or refrigeration (you do wait for meats to cool before freezing). If you are able to freeze them it will be like blanching. Your newly made puree will only be good for 24 hours in the refrigerator. If you want to keep some longer you can freeze them, which will keep for up to 30 days in a freezer, or up to 60 days in a deep freezer. I would suggest putting your containers IN a Ziploc freezer bag or into ANOTHER larger container to avoid freezer burn. Once you defrost a frozen container it is only good for 24 hours.

Make sure to label your food. I use a small piece of tape and a Sharpie to label. This way I can easily identify and rotate my food but not permanently mark my containers.

I hope your little one loves his or her new food experience!

How to Have a Stroke

Both children are napping.
Peace.
Quiet.
Breathing at a slow pace.
I am browsing the internet and listening to Pandora Radio from my phone. I put on the classical channel. Enjoying the moment to the max.

::HEY! PANDORA LISTENER!!!...blah blah commercial 5 times louder then the LIGHT LISTENING I was taking in:: 

My heart jumped into my throat as if someone jumped out of my phone into my dining room.

Calm down, Pandora. There are plenty of other radio apps I can choose from. I will let this slide but if you scare me again like that I will be trying out I<3Radio or whatever that app all the young-ins are bopping around to.

Reader, now you may now continue your life even though my throat is still sore from being stretched from my temporary organ misplacement experience.

How to Make Your Own Homemade Coffee Creamer

I have been trying to have less and less chemicals and preservatives in my families diet. While we are a far cry away from being a chem-free family I do my best. I am currently nursing my youngest so I am really trying to watch what I take in, being that I am his primary food source. Below is my recipe for homemade coffee creamer. There are some preserves and chemicals in it but it is far far better then other pre-made flavored creamers you would buy off the shelf at your local grocer.

Homemade Creamer

2 cups milk
1 cup flavoring
1 can condensed milk


Mix well every time! The condensed milk will settle to the bottom of container.

 

Cilantro Lime and Avocado Southwest Salad

I love a nice crisp salad in the summer. This is my version on a Southwest Salad.

Southwest Salad with Cilantro Lime and Avocado Dressing

Ingredients:

Salad:
Romain lettuce (chopped into strips)
Green onions (chopped finely)
1 Can of corn (rinsed)
1 Can of black beans (rinsed)
1-2 Large colorful bell peppers (chopped finely)
Pint of cherry tomatoes (sliced in halves)

Dressing:
1 avocado
1 bushel of fresh cilantro (break off stem **where the rubber band is)
1 lime (roll before squeezing to loosen liquids to make it easy on yourself)
1/4 cup of olive oil (California is a nice option but use whatever you have on hand)
1 teaspoon of salt
1 tablespoon of cider vinegar

Blend dressing in whatever blending device you like...I used my infants baby bullet because it was on my counter at the time. If it blends it will work!

I butchered a bird like a MasterChef

DH and I love to watch cooking shows and get super hungry doing so.
Masterchef is one of our current favorites. While watching we are always commenting,
   "oh I can so do that!" 
   "What are they thinking?! Apples with turmeric, in THAT dish?! Come on!"
   "What is that? Is that alive?"
   ....you get the idea.

I decided that since I am raising 2 kids under 2 that I should take and put more challenging things on my plate, like recreated things they do or other crazy Pinterest ideas (***Side note: DH hates to go out to eat in a restaurant so if I want something fancy more then 4 - 6 times per year I have to create it myself .... and no darling, Wendys drive thru isn't 'going out to eat').

I found a local farmer from a lower west-side Cleveland farm and bought a few half chickens from her. I love a good free range/hormone free chicken. Below is a picture of my first attempt of butchering my own chicken. I am quite pleased with how it turned out. The breast was cut short and that thigh has seen better days. However, for a first try I think I did fairly well.

I watched a video on YouTube.com to get a grasp on how to this this magic with a knife. I wanted to share the URL, but it has been deleted. Probably had hidden Nazi subliminal messaging in it, like most YouTube videos do. ***Side note: this was butchered with your basic table steak knife. I was unable to get threw the skin (yes, I also removed the skin myself) with the huge butcher knife, so the good old trusty table knife it was.

A week after attempting this I visited the West Side Market in Downtown Cleveland, Ohio. I found beautiful skinned and separated, yet bone in, chicken parts and will be purchasing my parts from them in the future.

Here is a link to the butcher:
 http://westsidemarket.org/vendor/kauffman-poultry/?portfolioID=955

Because my children dont listen to me...

Because my children don't listen to me I will pretend that the internet does!

This is the beginning of a blog that will be more of a space cadet, ADD, hmm, I can see that, why am I still reading this, sort of blog.

:::prances off screen:::