So I decided to try to make my own baby food.  I have been pretty passionate about Bug being strictly on breast milk and I love the fact that I know what she's getting so I thought what better way to continue that than making her food myself.  She has been so interested in our food lately and has done really well with sitting up [assisted] so I thought she was ready to test the waters a bit.  I did a little research before hand and decided we would start with sweet potatoes and apples; I know you're supposed to start with a veggie but we sometimes bend the rules.  So I started off with 4 medium sweet potatoes and 4 red apples.

I washed everything and then preheated the oven to 400.  I wrapped the potatoes in aluminum foil and threw them in the oven for around 40 minutes.

I then cored my apples, peeled them and cut them into cubes.

I boiled them for around 12 minutes then threw them into the blender and puréed them for a minute or so. 

I poured the puréed apples into an ice cube tray and popped them in the freezer.

I then scooped out the potato and put it in the blender.  I had to add about 1/3 cup of water while blending it to make it smooth.  I then poured the potatoes into ice cube trays and put them in the freezer.

So here's the cost break down:

4 apples yielded 16 servings: .28 per serving

4 sweet potatoes yielded 28 servings: .08 per serving

In all it took me about an hour but it would be easy to add a couple more of each, like I said we just want to test the water ;)  So I then just popped them out of the trays, put them in gallon freezer bags and put them date on them.

 

Next I think we will try carrots and maybe peas which I'm just positive she will hate ha-ha

 

**Bug did try a little of the apple that night and she did really well with it, probably confused on the texture and the spoon, but over all I think she will like starting solids.

One Pot Beef Stew

Spencer got on this kick a couple of months ago to start eating healthy... I'm talking body building healthy.  I was apprehensive because I didn't want to compromise good, flavorful food for something that was technically better for you or lack luster in taste.  If you know my husband you also know that he's really hard to please with food, I have all but failed to win him over with ever recipe I have tried off Pinterest.  So he found bodybuilding.com and their recipe database.  Almost ever recipe that I have tried from this site he has loved and I do have to admit they're usually pretty flavorful and easy to put together.

I found this recipe on their site and made some very minor adjustments to satisfy our tastebuds.  I'm not even kidding when I say we have this at least once a week and there are no leftovers.  Since I brown hamburger meat in advance and freeze it I can usually have this on the table from start to finish in about 20 minutes.

We [meaning Spence] like things a little spicy so I just use hot picante salsa but you can definitely use mild and it would be just as good!

One Pot Beef Stew

Serves 4

I lb hamburger meat

1/2 cup water

1 cup frozen corn

1 cup salsa

I can tomato soup

1 cup diced onion

1 1/2 cups carrots

1/2 tsp minced garlic

2 tbsp minced onion flakes

Brown hamburger meat and drain off excess grease.  Add minced garlic and sauté for 1 minute.  Add in chopped onion and carrots and sauté for additional 2 minutes. Add in the rest of the ingredients and cook on medium high for about 2 minutes. Reduce heat to low and cover for 10 minutes or until carrots are tender, stir every couple of minutes.

**The original recipe called for 1 cup mushrooms so I added some extra carrots instead and it called for 1/2 cup shredded cheese which I omit all together.

Broccoli Chicken Casserole

It's a lazy, wet, cold Sunday here so we basically plan on staying inside all day.  Spencer went hunting this morning but it's safe to say he didn't piddle around out there since it's so miserable.  When he came home I had to snap a pic of him and bug with their camo on.

My parents and sister came down to see bug and spend the day with us so I decided to make lunch at home so we didn't have to get out.  So my mom has this infamous casserole that she takes to every family event or cookout. It has become one of my staple comfort foods and it seems to feed the masses plus it's really easy to put together so that's always a plus.  A long time ago I discovered that you can shred chicken perfectly with a mixer. For real who knew.  I get a lot of flak from Spence about never using this expensive KitchenAid mixer that I just had to have but I use it every time I need to shred chicken ;)

Broccoli Chicken Casserole

Serves 6-8

3-4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts

1 bag of frozen or fresh broccoli- about 10 oz

2 cans cream of chicken soup

1 cup of mayo

1 cup of shredded cheddar cheese

Crushed ritz crackers- enough to cover top of casserole

Salt and pepper to taste

Preheat oven to 300. Boil and shred chicken breasts. Steam broccoli. Mix soup, mayo and cheese together and add salt/ pepper.  Put chicken on the bottom of a 9x13 dish, put broccoli on top of chicken and spread soup mixture on top. Sprinkle crushed ritz crackers on top. Bake for 30 minutes.

Voila! Comfort food at its finest