Home Made Baby Food - Round 2

For round 1 of home made baby food click HERE

Madison is doing so great with her solid foods. She absolutely loves them, and she loves to help feed herself too. It's quite a messy experience with her. Way messier than Parker ever was.

We pretty much do all of her meals just in a diaper because of this. She helps the food into her mouth with her hand and then smears it around, or just swipes the spoon from us to help herself if we're not moving fast enough.

As we're adding more and more to her list of foods that she loves, I'm figuring out more recipes to keep the flavors interesting for her. After all, I wouldn't want bland, unseasoned foods. Check out round one of baby food prep here.

Broccoli and apple: Equal parts broccoli and apple. Steam or microwave the broccoli, and then blend with 1 chopped steamed apple (steam by microwaving chopped apple in a microwave safe bowl with 1 inch water for 2 minutes) or you can boil the apple for about 7 minutes. I leave the peels on my apples, but you can peel them before steaming. Puree until smooth.

Baby Oatmeal: This one's so easy, you'll wonder why you ever bought "baby" oatmeal. Take regular oatmeal, and in either a food processor or coffee grinder, pulse to chop the oats. Keep ground oats in a tupperware or mason jar until needed. Prepare for baby with breastmilk, formula, or water.

For extra flavors in your baby's oatmeal, try grinding some dried fruits (like apple or banana) to powder and add to oatmeal when you prepare it along with spices like cinnamon and cloves.

Apple and Carrots: Steam 2 apples and 3 whole carrots. Puree until smooth

Pumpkin, Apple, Banana: 1/2 cup canned (or fresh steamed*) pumpkin, 1 steamed apple, 1 banana. Season with ginger, cinnamon, and cloves to taste. Puree until smooth.

*To make fresh pumpkin puree

Home Made Baby Food

Home made baby food is so easy to make, and incredibly cheap compared to the store bought versions. Unfortunately, it can be difficult to find good combo recipes. Below, I've compiled a list of some of the ones I've been making for Madison.

Mom's Famous Crescent Rolls

My mom's crescent rolls are legend in our family. It's not a holiday meal without them. In fact, in years past my family has been known to make two double batches, just so that we have enough left overs.

Ingredients: 
1 pkg dry yeast
4 1/2 - 5 1/2 C all-purpose flour
1 tsp salt
1/2 C sugar
2 Eggs, lightly beaten
1/4 C warm water
3/4 C butter, softened
3/4 C warm milk

Dissolve yeast in warm water and let stand 5 min to proof the yeast. Combine 4 1/2 C flour, sugar, and salt in a large bowl. Cut in butter with pastry blender until mixture resembles coarse meal.

Combine eggs, milk, and yeast mixture: Add to the flour mixture stirring well. Dough will be sticky. Cover and refrigerate for several hours to overnight.

Once dough has risen, punch down and divide in half. Roll each half into a circle on a floured surface. Cut each circle into 12 wedges. Roll up each wedge tightly, beginning at wide end. Place rolls point side down on baking sheets. Cover and let rise until doubled in size in a warm place (oven heated to 200 works well).

Bake at 350 for approximately 10 minutes.
Yields 2 dozen rolls.

To freeze:
Allow to cool on cookie sheets or cooling rack. Place in ziplock bags and remove as much air as possible. Freeze until ready to use. Thaw in microwave when ready to eat

Honey Bourbon Chicken in the Crock-pot

This is a seriously delicious meal that I've made for my own family, and for others that I've delivered meals to after they had babies. It's always well received and everyone wants the recipe for it. Here it is, adapted from Once a Month Mom

Ingredients:

• 2 pounds chicken (I've made this with boneless, skinless breast and with bone in, skin on thighs. It's delicious with any part of the chicken you like to eat)
  
• salt and pepper to taste
• 1/4 cup minced dried onions
• 3/4 cup honey (you can substitute agave)
• 1/2 cup soy sauce
• 1/4 cup ketchup
• 1 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 teaspoon minced garlic
• 1/4 tablespoon red pepper flakes

Place all ingredients in a ziplock bag and remove as much air as possible before freezing.

To use: Thaw in the refrigerator. Place in crock-pot on low for 3-4 hours until cooked through.

Serve with rice, quinoa, or mashed potatoes

Honey Oat Bread

Doesn't this look delicious?

I'm working on stocking my freezer right now so that as we get closer to baby #2's arrival I will have less and less to do. With that I have also been trying to save some money and make a lot of things at home since we'll be down to 1 income once I go on maternity leave. With that said, my family LOVES bread (notice 1/2 of one of the loaves is already gone). I've made bread before, but usually it's banana or zucchini bread. I also make biscuits and muffins as quick breakfast or additions to meals, but never something for sandwiches.

While browsing Pinterest I found a blog by a woman who, like me, likes having a stocked freezer but hates having to plan the day before for something to be defrosted in the fridge. She posted this recipe for whole wheat honey oat bread that is dense enough for sandwiches and is delicious. Once it's cooled it can be sliced for sandwiches and frozen. It thaws quickly and tastes just as good after being frozen.

Get the recipe here.

Fair warning... This makes a lot of bread. The recipe on her site stated that it would make one large loaf. So I figured "I'll just double it. That way I have a loaf for now, and one for the freezer." After I let it rise the first time it was obvious that my "double batch" would not be fitting in my 2 loaf pans. I ended up with four loaves.

So now I think I'm going to go have a slice of toast with home made pomegranate jelly. Happy Baking!