Homemade Baby Foods

After many months of no posts, finally a few minutes to get back to recording a few of the things we have been doing over the past few months. It has been a busy few months with moving, having a baby, and the holidays, I was most often in a Daze. But life is starting to fall into a more consistent routine, if such a thing exists, and we feel a bit more settled in our new home. Today I am going to share something I have been working on over the past few weeks as our new little one is starting to love solid foods. At first she protested, but now she loves everything we are feeding her. There is no doubt that jarred baby food is expensive, crazy expensive, right up there with formula. I have always breast fed my babies, but I have always bought the jarred baby foods to introduce them to solids. This time I decided to try my hand at making my own. It is so easy, so inexpensive, and really quite yummy! I have enjoyed sampling them all. Check out how simple it is:

Choose your fruit or veggie.

We have done bananas, strawberry- banana, mixed veggies, sweet potatoes, carrots, and broccoli. Cook your veggies until soft. I steamed most of mine.

Place your fruit and veggies in your super awesome blender.

 We are so happy with our Blendtec that we purchased about a year ago. It is amazing, but you could go with any type of blender or food processor.

Add liquid to get things rolling and to obtain desired thickness. My liquid of choice was breast milk.

Pour or Spoon (depends on the thickness) into ice cube trays.

Freeze!

 Once they are completely frozen they pop right out if you stick a knife down the edge. Don't let them sit out long or they thaw and precious bits stick to the bottom. Pop them right out and put them into zipper bags or your freezer container of choice.

Homemade Baby Food

To serve I just pull out a couple of cubes and heat them for about 30 seconds in the microwave. A few of the thicker ones, like my sweet potatoes, I add a bit more liquid to thin them out. Baby girl, loves, loves, loves them. We now have a stock pile in the freezer and we continue to add more variety day by day. I plan to do some fruit and veggie combos, like spinach with bananas, etc. The possibilities are endless.

Cool huh! Now let's look at a cost comparison:

Homemade VS. Store Bought Baby Food

Homemade Carrots - 4 oz. = $.09

Store Bought - 4 oz. = $0.63

Homemade Sweet Potato - 4 oz. = $0.31

Store Bought - 4 oz.= $0.63

Homemade Bananas - 4 oz. = $0.10

Store Bought - 4 oz. = $0.63

I think you get the idea. Super cheap, super yummy. I think even if you bought organic fruits and veggies you would save some money. Plus you know what your baby is eating and it can be super fresh, think of putting all those garden veggies you are going to grow this spring to work helping your baby to grow healthy and strong.

In the near future I will be posting about how to can homemade applesauce. We did a bunch this fall and I even canned some for baby girl with no sugar added. It turned out super yummy. Not only does she love it so does the rest of the family. 

Homemade Laundry Detergent: Update

I have been making Homemade Laundry Detergent for quite some time now. It saves a ton of money. It is easy to make and I am happy with the cleaning results. I posted the recipe for it here: http://ourprovidentlife.blogspot.com/2012/01/homemade-laundry-detergent.html . Since that post I have made one change to my detergent that I really like and so I wanted to update everyone in case you wanted to try it out.

Fels-Naptha great for Homemade Detergents

Here is my original recipe:
1 Bar Grated Soap (Ivory or Zote)
1 Cup Borax
1 Cup Washing Soda


Instead of Ivory which is what I was using I decided to try out Fels-Naptha. Well I love it. I think it is far superior to Ivory (sorry Ivory, better for the shower I think). The Fels-Naptha grates up nicely (looks like cheddar cheese) and has a great scent to it.

Grating up my Fels-Naptha for Homemade Laundry Detergent

The great thing about the Fels-Naptha is you only have to use 1/3 bar to equal 1 bar of Ivory. So I always make a triple batch of detergent.  Here is the new recipe:

1 Bar Grated Fels-Naptha Soap
3 Cups Borax
3 Cups Washing Soda
Mix Thoroughly. Use 1 TB. per load.

I have not tried Zote out yet but I will give it a shot in the future and let you know where I think it ranks. As for now, I am loving the Fels-Naptha and the cost is pretty much the same. If you are interested in a break down of how much homemade detergents and cleaners can save you check out this post: http://ourprovidentlife.blogspot.com/2012/04/making-cents-of-cleaning.html.

You can find Fels-Naptha, Borax, and Washing Soda in the laundry isle at your grocery store.

DIY: Frozen Spinach

Large bunch of Spinach harvested from our Garden.

As the days started to get warmer here in East Texas I knew that the days of being able to satisfy my spinach cravings were numbered. It made me a bit sad, because my spinach has been doing so well and we have all been loving it. As it started to bolt I decided to preserve a bunch of it by freezing.

Freezing is actually a really great way to preserve vegetables from your garden. Freezing allows you to preserve most of the nutrients and also helps to maintain the color and flavor.

Three bowl set up for freezing homegrown spinach.

For most vegetables blanching and cooling is a necessary step to properly preserve them. Blanching stops the enzyme action that helps vegetables to grow and mature. 

I used a three bowl set up to blanch and cool my spinach very quickly. It only took me about 20 minutes to do the whole batch.

Blanching Homegrown Spinach.

Cooling Spinach after blanching.

Draining water off of blanched and cooled spinach.

Of course the first step is to thoroughly wash the spinach, cut off thick stems and take out any bad leaves. Then you can start the blanching process.

The first bowl is for blanching. I have a large stock pot with a colander that fits inside, perfect for blanching. But you could also scoop it out with a slotted spoon.  Bring the water in your stock pot to a boil. Then add your spinach. I did several small batches because you want your spinach completely covered with water. Cover the pot and blanch for 3 minutes.
 

Remove your spinach promptly after 3 minutes and put it in a bowl full of ice water. I placed a colander inside a larger bowl of ice water for quick and easy transfer. Allow the spinach to cool for the same amount of time. If you are doing several batches be sure to change your water or add more ice to keep the water cold.





After cooling I transferred my spinach into another colander placed over a bowl to allow it to drain. After it drained for a bit I used my hands to squeeze out the remainder of the water.

Blanched, cooled, and drained spinach all ready for freezing.

After my spinach was blanched, cooled, and drained I placed it into Ziploc bags. Here they are all ready for the freezer. I got three quart sized bags of spinach from my garden that day. I was very excited. It was much easier than I thought and didn't take much time at all.





Remember that each type of vegetable has a different blanching time to prepare it for freezing. If you want to freeze other types of vegetables there are various places you can find time charts. Here is one from the Colorado State University Extension. Freezing is another way we can preserve some of that great garden harvest. Happy Freezing!

Also remember this great water conservation tip and use all that great spinach water to water you household plants and pots.

Garden Totals for 2012

456 Pounds of Produce

The grand total for all of our 2012 garden harvests adds up to 456 lbs of delicious top quality fresh food.  We preserved (bottled) a lot of our surplus for later eating, lots of tomatoes, beets, pickles, salsa etc.  We actually had some great bottled beets tonight for dinner, they add a nice color and variety to the dinner plate.  The kids loved how it turned their rice purple.

$861.71 Worth in Produce

So when we add up what all our garden goodness would cost in the store, we come up with $861.71!
That's over $71 per month in fresh off the vine and straight to the table fruit and veggies.

We used normal everyday pricing gathered througout the year.  We did not collect the organic pricing, which our food would stack up well against.  When you look at organic produce, you see a very high premium.

I would place our food above organic, we used beyond organic methods and techniques.  We are learning and progressing in our understanding of permaculture and other beyond organic methods. 

Soil

We have already started to plant our spring gardens.  We are amazed at how great our soil is, its rich, moist and dark.  It is a dream to dig and plant in.  We have used zero fertilizer and have built up our beds with worm castings (from our worm bins), leaves and grass clippings.  We also have incorporated Woody Beds (hugelculture) into most of our beds reducing water demands.  We are also amazed at how much life we find in the soil, its full of great insect life.

2013: Looking Forward

We look forward to this year, we hope to grow far more than last year in the same space.  We also are expanding our gardens out into the field behind us, planting in swales and contour beds.  We hope to greatly expand our harvest with this small area, we also plan to plant some pumpkins, squash and goards for market too. 

Using a Whole Chicken

Whole Chicken ready for Roasting

When I got married over 8 years ago, bone-in chicken was foreign to me. I don't remember my mom ever using it very much. We usually had boneless skinless chicken.  At least that is what I remember having as I got older and started learning to cook. Now in my home you rarely see boneless skinless chicken it is bone-in all the way baby. Over the years I have become more accustomed to cooking and utilizing a whole chicken. I try very hard to get the most out of one little bird.  One chicken usually provides two to three meals for my family of five and costs me between $3 and $4. It is much more cost effective than using boneless skinless chicken and I think it is actually a lot tastier too!

One way that I prepare a whole chicken is just to roast it up in the oven. I clean the bird out well and then stuff it with some yummy aromatics that usually include celery stalks, carrots, a quartered onion, 2 to 3 cloves of garlic, and some fresh herbs from the garden ( parsley, basil, cilantro, etc.) I usually remove most of the skin from my chicken too, this just makes it a bit healthier, and I have never had a problem with dry chicken. I rub down the top with olive oil and then add some seasoning, whatever you like. I am a fan of sage, season salt, black pepper and thyme. But I change it up depending on my mood. Cover the whole thing with foil and pop it in a 350 degree oven for a couple of hours, depending on the size of the bird. Just check it with a meat thermometer, but don't cook it too long or it will get dry. It comes out delicious and yummy. We usually eat this chicken along with some roasted or mashed potatoes and some steamed carrots or cabbage. But we never eat the whole chicken so then I use the leftovers for another meal or sometimes two depending on what I make. In addition, the chicken carcass along with the juices and aromatics are further cooked down into stock to be canned, frozen, or made into soup. One of my favorite second dishes to make with this chicken is my mom's Homemade Chicken Noodle Soup. In the next couple of days, I will share my recipe for this tasty soup along with some other ideas for utilizing your leftover chicken. If you haven't ever tried using a whole chicken give it a try.

Wrapping Things Up

I remember my grandparents would always give gifts wrapped up in the colored comic section of the newspaper and as a child I thought that was the neatest wrapping paper. Gift wrap is one of those things at Christmas time that we don't put a whole lot of thought into, especially how much it costs. But the cost for gift wrap, like many of the other small things, can really make a dent in our Holiday budgets. But with a little extra time and some creativity you can come up with some very inexpensive and unique ways to package your Christmas gifts. I always make lots of candy for Christmas and one of the ways I have found to give away my treats is to recycle empty food containers. I use nut cans, bread crumb containers, cereal and pasta boxes, the list is endless. You can clean out these types of containers and then dress them up with a piece of holiday scrapbook paper applied with Mod Podge or spray paint them and then punch holes in each side and add a ribbon for a handle. Brown paper bags offer a perfect canvas for you to decorate and add a little of your own personal touch to. If you look around there are many inexpensive and more personal possibilities for wrapping up your Christmas gifts.

For a few of our gifts this year I took several of the #10 Cans that we have cluttering up the garage and spray painted them silver. I just used what we had on hand. Then I took some scrapbook paper and some ModPodge and applied it to the can. I poked a hole in each side of my can and added a wire handle. They turned out really cute and it only took me about 1/2 hour to make 4 of them. I didn't spend any money because I just used supplies I had on hand. They worked perfectly for the gifts I needed them for.

Spray Painted #10 Can with ModPodged Decoration

Unique Gift Wrap Idea: Spray Painted and Decorated Cans

Keep in mind that a great time to buy gift wrap is right after Christmas when it is 50% to 75% off. I always snatch up a few rolls and put them away for the next year.


With the Christmas Season upon us and this year coming to a close, Jacob and I want to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas. We celebrate this time of year with joy and gratitude for the Birth and Life of our Savior Jesus Christ. We love Him and we are thankful for the bounteous blessings that have been poured out upon our family because of Him. We look forward to the New Year with anticipation for the things that will be able to learn about living our life more providently. We also can't wait to share these things with you so we hope you will continue to learn along with us.

Homemade Christmas: Jammies and Skirts

I always love for the kids to have a new outfit for church for Christmas. Last year I made my 6 year old a really detailed, time consuming dress that she still wears all the time. It turned out great and only cost me $12. I probably would have spent $150 if I had bought it. This year I went a little more simple and made both the girls skirts that they can wear with the black shirts they already have. And for my little man a matching tie.

Homemade Gifts: Simple Skirts and Matching Tie

They turned out super cute and didn't take much time at all. The best part was I made them from fabric I already had on hand. So my only cost was for some elastic.

One thing that we always do for Christmas Eve is give Pajamas and of course they are always homemade. I have done various types of jammies. Last year I made some super cute Scrubs for them. This year I lucked out and picked up these really cool tie dyed tees on clearance for $1.00 each. I couldn't beat that so all I had to do was re-size the tee for my 18 month old and sew up some matching fleece pajama pants. I spent $6 total for all three pair. Easy and they will love them.

Homemade Gift Ideas: Part Two

 Here are a few simple gifts I made this year for some of my friends.

Homemade Gifts: Cozy Rice Heat Bag

Cozy Rice Heat Bags:
You can make these from some of your larger fabric scraps. They are very easy to make. Just sew a rectangle the size you want your bag to be. Leave an opening on one end. Fill with rice or dried beans. Sew the opening closed. I also made a little pillowcase for mine that could be removed for laundering. Heat in the microwave to 30 to 60 seconds or pop in the freezer for an ice pack too.

I made these for several of my girl friends and ladies from my Church that I visit on a monthly basis.

I also included them in the gift that the kids are giving their teachers ( I will post these later if I get them done!). They are very simple and inexpensive and great for just about anyone.

Many years ago I was given a simple Nail ornament to hang on my tree as a reminder of the true reason we celebrate Christmas: the Birth and Life of the Savior Jesus Christ. I have always loved it and decided to make them for the Primary Teachers at our Church. 

They are very simple to make.

You just need a few supplies:

Masonry Nails - Home Depot or Lowe's
Wire - I used grounding wire also found at Lowe's but you can use a heavier craft wire. I just couldn't find any heavy enough without traveling further than I wanted to go.
Ribbon - Crimson Colored
Glue Gun
Wire Cutters
Scissors

Wrap the wire around the nail and form it into a hook for hanging on the tree. Hot Glue a ribbon to the front.

Here is the finished product. I typed up the poem on card stock and put them into little bags. Simple but meaningful and it is something that they will be able to use every year that will remind them of the Savior's Love for them.

I have included the poem below for your use. Unfortunately I don't know who the author is so I can't give anyone credit for it, but I think it is beautiful.


Hope you enjoy these ideas and they will help you on your way to having a wonderful Homemade Christmas.







                                                         It’s Christmas time at our house

and we are putting up the tree.

I wish I could find one simple way

to remember Christ’s gift to me.

Some little sign or symbol

to show friends stopping by,

The little babe was born one day

But really came to die.

Some symbol of his nail pierced hands.

The blood He shed for you and me . . .

What if I hung a simple nail

upon my Christmas tree?

A crimson bow tied ‘round the nail

as His blood flowed down so free

to save each person from their sin

and redeem us for all eternity.

I know it was His love for us

that held Him to that tree

but when I see this simple nail

I know He died for me.

May Christ’s love fill your

Home and Hearts this Christmas.

  

Homemade Gift Ideas: Part One

I just wanted to share with everyone some of the things I have been making this year for Christmas. There really are so many ideas for homemade gifts out there. I have a long list of things I hope to make some day. Maybe some of these ideas will inspire you like they did me.

Homemade Gift Idea: Take Along Barn

For my sweet 6 year old little girl, this fabulous barn. I got my inspiration from Serving Pink Lemonade's Blog.

I made mine a bit bigger than the one that inspired me so it would be the perfect size for a horse that my little girl got for her birthday this past year. She really loves horses. 

I had so much fun decorating it.

Homemade Gift Idea: Felt Doctor Kit

For my 4 year old little boy I made this Doctor Kit, which I saw in multiple places, both Sew Can Do and Vixen Made helped me with my inspiration.

It turned out so cute and I know he is going to love it. After I made this for him he told his dad he wanted one because it is his favorite thing to play with in Home Center at his Pre-K. I must have really been inspired!

It comes with a cast, stethoscope, blood pressure cuff, band-aids, a doctors bag, and I threw in a medicine syringe from the pharmacy. 

Homemade Gift Idea: Magnetic Fishing Game

For my 19 month old I made this stinkin' Cute magnetic fishing set. I saw it over at Home Stories A to Z.

What a great Idea! I loved it and knew I had to make it.

I knew that my little boy would love it too, so I made two fishing poles so there would be no arguing on Christmas morning.

Homemade Bicycle Buckets

My 6 year old and 4 year old asked for bikes for Christmas, this is one of the things that we had to purchase. But I found these adorable bicycle buckets at Noodlehead and I knew they would flip over them.

Homemade Gift Idea: Magnetic Alphabet

I am also working on these magnetic alphabet letters for my 19 month old. They are darling ( not quite done yet, but I still have a few days, right). I saw them first over on Hellobee.

Homemade Gift Idea: Itty Bitty Book of Colors

My latest project and also for my 19 month old is this itty bitty book of colors. I saw several at different sites, but I kind of set out to make my own version, mostly because I wanted it to be interactive, unlike the others that I had seen.

It is very simple and has one or two interactive pieces on almost every page. 

The apples and oranges here are both attached with velcro.






On this page both cows have velcro attachments.

As you can see very simple but it turned out just the way I wanted it to and it will be perfect to take to church.

My favorite page is this darling owl. I think he turned out so cute.





I am getting so excited for Christmas myself thinking of my sweet kids opening their gifts. I am looking forward to seeing their faces and excitement over these gifts. Another bonus is none of them require batteries, which we spent a small fortune on last year and I vowed I would never do that again. All these gifts were very inexpensive to make and really saved us a ton of money!

Check back for more Homemade Christmas Gift ideas later in the week.

Homemade Christmas

As always December has been a very busy month for me and the reason why I haven't posted anything yet this month. I have been wanted to write a post about all the things that have been keeping me so busy this month. I can probably sum it up in two words, "Homemade Christmas."  This is the reason I always find myself so busy the end of November and into December, we always try to give a lot of homemade Christmas gifts. This year we have even done more and I would say about 90% of our gifts are homemade. Which means we have been very, very busy. And although this isn't a crafting blog, I do love to do crafty things, so I am looking forward to sharing with you some of the things I have been making and the reasons why we love to give homemade gifts. 

The following is a post taken from my sister's blog dated September of 2011:

"I know how sad does this pillow case look?!  But I LOVE it!!  My cute sister Shaun-ta' made us pillow cases for Christmas in 1992 and I have used this pillow case almost 24/7 since.  It is soft and gets cold while you sleep so you don't get to hot in the night.  It is honestly the perfect one.  I always lay down at night and smile because I know my mom would cringe seeing the thread bear and "very loved" pillow case on my bed. It also makes me smile because I'm pretty sure Shaun-ta' has forgotten all about it or if she hasn't won't believe I'm still using it.  I need to Thank Ta' for making this for me so long ago!  It honestly was the best most used present I have ever gotten!"

Homemade Christmas Gift - Pillowcase given in 1992 still well loved today.

To the right is the photo of that well loved pillowcase and my sister was right, I had long forgotten about the pillowcases I made for Christmas in 1992. It made me so happy to know that hers is still loved and treasured. It is a great reminder to me that sometimes simple is the best.

So why is it that we like to do homemade Christmas gifts? Well, I think the first reason will come as no surprise to anyone, it saves us tons of money. I am always looking for ways to stretch our monthly income and we really don't have any extra for Christmas. I am always shocked at the thousands of dollars that families spend on Christmas every year. Although, I don't have an exact number I estimate that we have spent somewhere between $150 - $200 for our family of 5 for Christmas this year and we don't plan to spend anymore. That amount also includes gifts for our extended family, teachers, and friends and a chunk of that money was for shipping costs.  The second reason we do homemade gifts is the meaning and sentiment that comes along with the gift. As I have spent countless hours working on gifts for my children and other loved ones I have felt the joy that comes from giving something that really comes from my heart. As I finish each gift I can't wipe the smile off my face thinking of the joy that gift is going to bring someone else. I believe that things that come from our hands really do have more of our heart in them because they require us to sacrifice some of our time and talents to bless others.

If you have never taken the opportunity to give homemade gifts for Christmas give it a try one year and see if it doesn't bring more of the true meaning of Christmas into your home and heart. There are so many ideas out there, the possibilities are really endless. I had a hard time deciding what to make, so I already have a list of things I want to make for birthdays, Easter, and next Christmas!

Over the next few days I will share with you some of the things that I have been making this year. Hopefully they will inspire you  and give you some ideas for your own "Homemade Christmas."

Homemade Stuffing

A couple of weeks ago I made a couple loaves of bread that just didn't raise well. I am not sure what happened. My sweet little baby girl was helping me so maybe I didn't measure the yeast right, not sure, but I didn't want it to go to waste and I knew that it probably wouldn't get eaten, so I decided to make some homemade stuffing out of it. It worked great, so I thought I would share it with you since Thanksgiving Day is right around the corner.

I started by slicing and cutting my bread into cubes. I tried to make them as uniform as possible, so they would not only look pretty but toast up evenly too. I did a pretty good job (I even fooled Jacob who suspected they were homemade, but wasn't sure because of how evenly cut they were.) Yay, for me!

I put all of my bread crumbs into a large bowl. Then I drizzled them with about 3 to 4 Tb. of Olive Oil and tossed them to coat using my hands. Then I added some seasoning. I used garlic salt, onion powder, sage, rosemary, and some thyme, just typical poultry seasoning, but you can use whatever suits your taste.

I laid my bread crumbs out onto a baking sheet (I only did one loaf at a time). Then I baked them in a 375 degree oven until they were crispy and golden. It took about 30 minutes. Just watch them closely so you don't burn them.

Homemade Whole Grain Stuffing

Yum! They turned out great. Use in your favorite stuffing recipe or they would even be great as croutons. This is a great way to make stuffing more nutritious because you can use whole grain bread and it is also much cheaper than buying it in a box.