I Tri and Craft

thoughts from a mother of boys, a marathoner, a triathlete, a crafter, a wife, and a scientist


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Homemade Baby Food Plan

This upcoming weekend I plan on making some more baby food.

Not just plan veggies like green beans or sweet potatoes, but some things with more flavor.  I plan on freezing each of these recipes.  These recipes are suitable for babies over the age of 6 months.

Baby Food Blender

Sweet Potato and Carrots

1 medium sweet potato (orange-fleshed ones are a good source of vit. C and beta carotene) peeled and chopped

2-3 large carrots, peeled and chopped

Steam vegetables for about 20 minutes, until tender.  Try not to over cook.  Transfer to blender and puree, using water from steamer.  Breast milk or formula could be used instead of water to obtain desired constancy.

See-in-the-Dark Puree

(from Annabel Karmel)

1 small onion, sliced

2 Tblsp unsalted butter

1 pound carrots, peeled and chopped

1 1/2 cup vegetable or chicken stock

1/4 cup orange juice

Saute onion in butter until soft, add carrots for 3-4 minutes.  Add the stock and bring to a boil.  Reduce heat and simmer for another 20 minutes, until carrots are soft.  Transfer to blender adding orange juice and puree.

Sweet potato with spinach and peas

1/2 Tblsp unsalted butter

1 large sweet potato, peeled and chopped

1/2 cup frozen peas

3/4 cup fresh baby spinach, washed and tough stems removed

1 cup water

Melt butter in sauce pan and sweet potato, cooking for a minute.  Add water and bring to a boil, cover and simmer for 7-8 minutes.  Add the peas and spinach, cooking for another 3 minutes.  Transfer vegetables to blender, puree until smooth, adding water from pan as needed.

Tomato, cauliflower and carrot with basil

(from Annabel Karmel)

2 medium carrots, peeled and sliced

1 cup chopped cauliflower florets

2 Tblsp unsalted butter

2 medium tomatoes, peeled, seeded and chopped (or a can of chopped tomatoes, drained & juices reserved)

2-3 fresh basil leaves

1/2 cup grated cheddar cheese

Put carrots in small saucepan, cover with boiling water and juices from tomatoes.  Cover and simmer for 10 minutes.  Add the cauliflower and cook for another 7-8 minutes, adding more water as needed.

Meanwhile, saute tomatoes in butter until mushy.  Remove from heat and stir in basil and cheese until melted.

Puree carrots and cauliflower with tomato sauce adding cooking liquid as needed.

Vegetable puree with tomato and cheese

(also from Annabel Karmel)

3 medium carrots, peeled and chopped

1 cup chopped cauliflower florets

1/3 cup sliced zucchini

1 Tblsp Unsalted butter

2 medium tomatoes, peeled, seeded and chopped

1/2  cup cheddar cheese, grated

Put the carrots into a steamer and cook for 10 minutes.  Add cauliflower and zucchini and steam for another 7-8 minutes.

Meanwhile, saute tomatoes in butter for about 2 minutes, until mushy.  Remove from heat and stir in cheese, until melted.

Transfer all ingredients to blender and puree until smooth.  If too thick add water from steamed vegetables or breast milk/formula.

Avocado and Banana

Some other recipes from Annabel Karmel that I plan to make:

(You might need to create a free account to see the recipes)

Eat Your Greens

Peach, Apple & Strawberry

Butternut Squash & Pear

This is a lot of baby food!

There is no way Baby Sid can consume all this food before it goes bad.  To avoid all this work going to waste, I plan on freezing most of it.

I will fill ice-cube trays with the puree and freeze.  After which I can place frozen cubes in a labeled bag or container.  Depending on the size of the ice-cube tray, each cube is about 1/2 a serving of food.

Place cubes for the day in the fridge to defrost, or to defrost quickly in the microwave or warm water.  Just be sure to mix completely so there are no hot spots.  If frozen puree are a little runny after defrosting just add some of your baby’s powdered cereal to thicken.

Happy Baby Food Making

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A Superhero Birthday Party

Here is the long-awaited post about Ian’s 3rd birthday party.

Superhero Birthday party

I let him pick out his theme and this year he wanted Superheros.  So I quickly started pinning ideas to my Pinterest Board.

I kept checking with him to make sure he didn’t change his mind about the theme.  Every time I asked him what kind of party he wanted he would throw his fists in the air and shout “SUPERHERO BIRFDAY PARTY!”

I originally thought about taking some pictures of him in his superhero costumes and making a comic book for his invitation.  Due to  my limited time and his unwillingness to pose for pictures, I decided to make a newspaper cover as his invitation.

invite_altered

I used pictures I had previously taken of him.  The hardest part was thinking of what to write!

I wanted the kids attending the party to decorate their own capes.  This was a battle between my mom and I, she didn’t want a bunch of kids gluing stuff while in her house.  I had originally thought of iron-on but then someone would have to man the iron.  In the end we decided it was the best option.

I also decided to go with inexpensive so we used all felt for the capes, masks and decorations.

Superhero Birthday Party

I think we ended up with 24 capes (big enough for a 7-year old), 24 masks and all the shapes for about $40.  Which is less than two-bucks a cape!  The most expensive thing was the binding web.  We made the capes too large and trimmed them to fit each child.  She used this pattern for the portion around the neck.

Superhero Birthday Party

I printed out the shapes and my mom cut them all out, and the webbing to fit.  She went a little overboard, but it allowed for each kid to have as much on their capes as they wanted.

This is one little girl's cape

This is one little girl’s cape

This kids placed the shapes and then a friend of mine, or my mom, ironed them on.

When making decorations for a party I usually find a digital scrapbook kit I like and use it.  I could not find one for superheros.  There were some available, but none that I liked.  So I just used pictures that I found on Google.  I tried to only use ones from Marvel or DC, but I can’t really say for sure where I got all of them.

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What party is complete with out party hats?

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I used Photoshop to make these and bought the string at the fabric store.  It is elastic thread.

Superhero Birthday Party

I wanted a night-time city scape behind the food table, I got the idea from this post and this one.

Of course Ian needed to help.

I just used a cardboard box and some poster paint.

Superhero Birthday Party

I wanted some hanging decorations and saw this post that used pinwheels.  I usually make decorations for the table dishes but decided to use the circles for the pinwheels.

Superhero Birthday Party

I was so pleased with them that we used the same concept for a baby shower.

My Aunt made this wonderful cake!  Ian was so excited about it.

Superhero Birthday party

Picture by D.Edgley

I saw these suckers all over Pinterest, this post has a printable template, but I just made my own.

Superhero Birthday Party

I printed them on card-stock and used a hotglue gun to glue the masks on.  Superhero Birthday Party

I really like the idea this mom had about adapting the game “pin the tail on…”  I photo-shoped a picture of Ian on a comic book city and had a poster printed.  I did cut out little masks, but we never got a chance to play.

Superhero Birthday Party

I used this posts idea about making a banner with the Superman logo that says “Happy Birthday”

(please excuse my mom’s gold mini-blinds…)

Superhero Birthday Party

I loved the boxes in this post, so I decided to make my own.  I was just going to make a few for decorations, but of course my mom said they had to be filled with candy, which meant I had to make 40 of them!  They all had to be cut out, folded and glued together!

Superhero Party

I made three different styles.  They are my new favorite thing to make.

Superhero Birthday Party

The gift bags we just got at Party City, we added a few things that we found along the way, plus a bottle of bubbles!

Superhero Birthday Party

I made the food labels using the same circles on the pinwheels and on the party hats.

Superhero Birthday Party

This Avengers Scene I downloaded from Spoonful.com.  They had a number of printables that I didn’t get a chance to use.  They had some great masks, like the Hulk and Ironman, but I didn’t get them made.

The other thing I wanted to do but didn’t get a chance to, was to turn my mom’s front porch screen into a red telephone both door.  I just ran out of time.

The End

The Birthday Boy had a great time.

 

 

Happy Party Planning

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Meal Plan Monday April 15

Happy Tax Day!

Did you mail yours off?

I kept asking my husband if he was sure we didn’t need to go pick our taxes up and sign something.  He kept telling me that it was all electronic this year (this is the first year we don’t have a bunch of stuff that makes e-filing impossible).  I got a call on Sat, “this is a reminder you need to mail your state taxes in on Monday, so come by this weekend and pick them up”….

Once again it was a very busy weekend for us.  While I never made it to the store, I was able to make a meal plan for the next couple weeks.  Which includes a day for making baby food.

Let's Eat!

Meal Plan 4/15-4/21

Mon: Lemon Chicken Romano with Lemon Risotto

Tue: Parmesan Crusted Pesto Grilled Cheese Sandwich with Crockpot Tomato Basil Soup

Wed: Hubby’s Birthday so we are going OUT to dinner!

Thr: Pepperjack Pulled Pork Ciabatta Sandwich with some kinda veggie on the side

Fri: Crockpot Pesto Ranch Chicken with pasta

Sat: Baby Food Making Time!

Sun: Beer Marinated Pork Chops with Cheese Topping and Roasted Ranch Potatoes with Bacon and Cheese and Southern Biscuits

Happy Cooking

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Need something to help plan your meals?  I use the Plan to Eat online meal planner.  Try it free for 30 days

Simple Meal Planning - Plan to Eat

Find more recipes at I’m an Organizing Junkie or Erin Brans.com


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Weekly Photo Challenge: Change

I have been working on some things for a baby shower this weekend and realized I have not posted anything on Ian’s birthday party.  But today is not the day for it either.

However, I did want to take a minute and post about the weekly photo challenge.  This week the topic is Change.

With that in mind, it always amazes me how quickly a baby changes.  One day he is a messy little squirmy thing that can hardly open his eyes and the next day he is sitting up eating food by himself.

In the blink of an eye my newborn baby has turned into a Bouncy Baby Boy.

Baby_Sid_Change

Since we can’t get those days back, I keep trying to capture them in film and written words.  That way when I am old and senile I can look back and remember.

Happy Shooting

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