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Baby Food Pouches

22 May

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I love the baby food pouches. And have found  way to make my own for a fraction of the price.

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They are wonderful because babies are good at sucking.  They suck at sleeping through the night (haha, get it) and they also suck since they nurse or take milk from a bottle.  Haven has been eating solids for almost a month now and she is pretty good at holding on to the pouches and sucking the fruits and veggies out at her leisure.

Unfortunately these pouches are pretty spendy, especially since they contain about 3 ounces and cost over $1 each.

When Hudson was a baby we used a combination of store-bought pouches, food put in icetrays as well as pouches you can fill up on the spot.  These are all okay options but the icetray food was a pain to defrost (microwave etc) and the pouches you fill up on the spot were a challenge too since many times we didn’t have time to fill with the appropriate baby food.  Who has freshly made sweet potaotes constantly laying around.  Yeah, me neither.

Fortunately, fourth kids the charm and we have found the PERFECT baby feeding pouch option!  Hooray.  Infantino pouches to the rescue.  I spent an hour or so making pouches about a month ago and still have plenty waiting for Haven’s dining pleasure in the future.

I bought 4 organic mangoes and pureed them in my blender.  The 4 mangoes made 15 pouches.  So each pouch cost me less than 27 cents.  And I know they are safe, and homemade and the pouch is filled with mango and nothing else.

I made these while Haven was asleep (she is cute even through the monitor):

IMG_5004I have also made pouches filled with sweet potatoes, avocado and pear.  They are very easy to thaw.  I either put them in a bowl of warm water or take a few out in the morning for her daily meals.

I have a drawer in the freezer filled with these awesome pouches:

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Granola

20 Jan

There are a few things I really hate buying and want to make myself.  On that list of things to learn how to make and to make them on a regular basis:

1.  Bread

2. Laundry Soap

3. Granola

4. Bars of Soap

5. Money, kidding- just seeing if you are paying attention =)

So I started off my grand list by tackling the easiest one- granola!

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It was so easy to make, really quick and delicious too.

Here is the recipe I started with and have since changed a few things to make peanut butter, chocolate and even one with a bunch of dried fruit.

2 cups old-fashioned oats

3/4 cup shredded sweetened coconut

1/2 cup chopped almonds

1/3 cup pepitas

2 tablespoons brown sugar

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon salt

4 tablespoons coconut oil, melted

1/2 cup pure maple syrup

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/4 teaspoon coconut extract

1.Preheat oven to 300 degrees and line a large baking sheet with parchment paper. Set aside.

2.  In a large bowl, combine oats, coconut, almonds, pepitas, brown sugar, cinnamon, and salt. In a small bowl, whisk together coconut oil, maple syrup, vanilla, and coconut extract.  Pour liquid mixture over dry ingredients and stir until well-coated.

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3.  Pour the granola mixture onto the prepared baking sheet. Spread granola into an even layer. Bake for 30 minutes or until granola is golden brown, stirring every ten minutes. Let granola cool completely.  Store in an air-tight container for up to 1 month. (I promise you, it won’t last that long)

Enjoy!

 

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Egg Roll Recipe

11 Nov

I now firmly believe that every household needs a deep fryer.  We were at a “Welcome to Fall Party” a couple months ago (yeah we have pretty cool friends) and the hostess made these babies in her deep fryer.

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I think we ordered our own deep fryer immediately upon returning home, gotta love amazon prime right?  Then two days later this beauty showed up and we had to try it ourself.

Here is the egg rolls recipe:

12 egg roll wraps

1 lb ground pork

2 tsp chopped fresh ginger

2 garlic cloves

1 tsp salt

1 tsp sugar

1/4 cup soy sauce

1 tsp sesame oil

16 ounce bag cabbage and carrot mix

4 green onions, sliced

1 egg

1 tsp water

(look up the how to instructions since Hudson is sitting on my lap and he might delete this whole post if I try and do that)

And then wait…

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A deep fryer like this makes a fish fry a breeze, it look a fraction of the time to fry the walleyes Jared caught in the Boundary Waters and our stove wasn’t covered in oil for the next few weeks.

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You wouldn’t believe how easy it is to make sweet and sour sauce-

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Oh and while your oil is already warm, it would be a shame not to make some donuts!

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In other news this blog has over 100,000 views! Thanks guys, you make me feel so special =)  And my birthday is tomorrow, maybe Jared should make these for me, maybe just the donuts…or maybe both.

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Popsicle Recipe

12 Oct

I know we are headed out of popsicle season but since my kids love these so much we will be making them for a few more months.  I experimented with yogurt, fruit and different juices but this ended up being the biggest hit.

Get ready for a very complex and time demanding recipe:

2 cups orange juice

2 cups vanilla coconut milk

Mix these together and then pour into a popsicle holder or a cup with a stick taped to the middle.

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I promise you, these will be a hit.  I believe these are the most delicious frozen treat I have ever tasted and the kids love them just as much as those sugar infused, dye loaded popsicles you can pick up at the grocery store.

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In the above picture this is Aleah in the middle of saying, “Woah! This tastes good!”

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Oatmeal Blueberry Muffins

16 Sep

I have a wizz bang recipe for you wonderful people.

The reason why it is so grand is that you can let your kids eat 7 of them at once and they won’t go into a diabetic coma!  Hooray!  I think there is less brown sugar in these muffins than they demand on their oatmeal in the morning.

Jared’s dad is coming from Colorado with some of his friends to camp in the Boundary Waters so I made them some of these beauties.  What a better way to start a camping trip then with some healthy yet tasty muffins.

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Look at those giant blueberries!  When the girls went picking with us they called berries that big “chunkers!”  They are so silly.

This recipe comes from an old friend and her blog over here.  Whenever I am at a loss about what to make I head over to her blog and I know whatever recipe I choose to make will come out delicious because her recipes are tried and delish.

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The recipe:

1 1/4 cup flour

1 1/4 cup oats

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

1 cup unsweetened applesauce

1/2 cup buttermilk

1/2 cup brown sugar

2 Tablespoons oil

1 egg

3/4 cup blueberries (fresh or frozen)

Mix it all up and cook it in muffin liners at 375 for 15 minutes.

Thanks Bethany for your blog and wonderful recipe!

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French Breakfast Puffs

13 May

I love the Pioneer Woman, she is so inspiring and her recipes are out of this world.

Since we are having some rainy yucky weather around here we decided to spice up our life with some delicious treats. Here is the link to her recipe- (click me)

My mom gave me one of her cookbook a while back and I love trying out new dishes every few weeks.

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I have gotten away from cookbooks and been relying on internet search recipes  like allrecipes.com but have found that sometimes you need a good solid cookbook to get some new ideas into dinner rotation.  Instead of me searching for what I already know about I can browse through the book with beautiful pictures and find some much needed inspiration.

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The girls loved being in charge of rolling the muffins in the butter and cinnamon sugar.  I tried my best to stay out of it and let them do their thing.

 Happy Baking!

Crash Potatoes

8 Jan

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While it is colder than both the north and south poles and our weather in Cook, MN is similar to that on Mars– I am trying to stay positive and keep the house warm and happy.  And what could be happier than the most delicious potatoes you have ever tasted.  Thanks to the Pioneer Woman (holy moly I love her) you are so so close to making this a reality.

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I think I got a “Best mom EVER” chant from Sophi after making this last night.

Ingredients:

  • 12 whole New Potatoes (or Other Small Round Potatoes)
  • 3 Tablespoons Olive Oil
  •  Kosher Salt To Taste
  •  Black Pepper To Taste
  •  Rosemary (or Other Herbs Of Choice) To Taste

Head over to her beauty of a site for the rest of the instructions.

One change I made (by accident) was I cooked them at 350 degrees instead of at 450 degree.  They took twice as long to cook but had more time to soak up the olive oil, salt and pepper goodness.

These potatoes are the best of every potato option since they are crispy on the outside, mushy on the inside AND you don’t have to cut up any potatoes!

(the crusty stuff left on the pan is flipping to die for…see above picture)

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Real Gingerbread House

21 Dec

This is the first time I have ever made the gingerbread for a gingerbread house instead of using a pre-made kit or simply using graham crackers. We ate half of the gingerbread when it was fresh and warm out of the oven then used the rest for the house.

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Here is the recipe:

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Soft and Chewy Gingerbread Bars 

Ingredients:

1/2 cup butter, softened (save wrapper)

1/2 cup sugar

1/2 cup brown sugar

1 egg

3/4 tsp vanilla

1/4 cup molasses

little bit of cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg, ginger and salt

2 cups flour

1 tsp baking soda

Directions:

Preheat oven to 325 degrees.

Line jelly roll pan with parchment paper and rub with the butter wrapper, set aside

In a large bowl, cream butter and sugars together until light and fluffy.  Stir in egg, vanilla and molasses.  Whip 1-2 minutes.  Stir in remaining ingredients and mix until dry ingredients are just combined.  Press into prepared pan and bake 20-22 minutes or until edges are barely starting to brown.  Cool completely.

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Fresh Bread

9 Oct

There is no smell in the world quite like the smell of homemade bread baking in the oven.

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And now that most people have traded their popsicles and fruit salads for pumpkin and hot beveragaes I thought I would give all you wonderful people a super easy recipe for homemade bread.  And the best part is it doesn’t require a bread machine or kneeding.

I want to get better at making bread, fancy bread with sunflower seeds and cranberries in it or even rye bread.  Some day I will be a bread superstar.  But until then I will make this bread and my family will think I am awesome because they don’t know any better =)

Ingredients:

3 cups flour

1/4 tsp instant yeast

1 1/4 tsp salt

1 1/2 cups water

1.  Mix: In a large bowl combine flour, yeast and salt.  Stir in water.  Don’t fret over the shaggy. sticky dough.

2.  Rest: Cover the bowl with plastic wrap.  Let the dough rest at room temperature for at least 12 hours, preferably 18.  Dough is ready when dotted with bubbles.

3.  Deflate: Lightly flour a wrok surface and scoop dough onto it; sprinkle it with a little more flour and fold it once or twice.  Cover loosely with plastic wrap; let rest 15 minutes.

4.  Shape:  Dust dough lightly with flour; gently and quickly shape into a ball.  Coat a cotton towel with flour, wheat bran or cornmeal.  Put dough seam side down on a towel and dust with more flour, bran or cornmeal.  Cover with another towel and let rise for 2 hours.  When it is ready, dough will have doubled and will not readily spring back when poked.

5.  Bake:  At least half an hour before dough is ready, heat oven to 450 degrees.  Put a 4- to 8-quart heavy covered pot (cast iron, enamel, Pyrex or ceramic) in the oven as it heats.  Carefully slide pot out of oven.  Pull off top towel.  Slip hand under bottom towel and turn dough over into pot, seam side up.  Cover pot with lid and bake 30 minutes.  Remove lid and bake another 10 minutes, until beautifully browned.  Cool on rack (yeah right- I don’t have the patience for that!  I am diving right in!).

Cookie Dough

27 Aug

Not like the raw egg has ever stopped me from eating cookie dough before but…

here is an eggless cookie dough recipe for y’all.

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Since it has been too hot to turn on the oven for the past few days (AND I NEEDED COOKIES) I decided to make some family friendly cookie dough that can’t possible give us all salmonella.  Hooray- go me.

Here is the recipe from over here–

INGREDIENTS

  • 1 stick unsalted butter, softened
  • 3/4 cups packed brown sugar
  • 1 teaspoons vanilla
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 1 cup all-purpose flour
  • 2 tablespoons milk
  • 1/2 cup mini chocolate chips
  • 1/2 cup milk chocolate chips (Ghirardelli is my fave)

DIRECTIONS

  1. With your mixer, cream together butter and brown sugar. Add in vanilla and salt, mix.
  2. Add in flour. The mixture is going to be crumbly at this point.
  3. Add in 2 tablespoons of milk and mix. Now the dough will look like the cookie dough you’re used to seeing.
  4. Fold in 1/2 cup mini chocolate chips and 1/2 cup milk chocolate chips.
  5. Store leftovers in the refrigerator. Freeze for up to three months.

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So even if it is too hot to fire up the ol’ oven you can still enjoy a delicious cookie snack without making your family sick.

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