Month: January 2011

homemades

Posted on by mommyinthemidwest

We got this cookbook from a friend for Christmas so over the weekend, I thought I’d be adventurous and try out a couple of the recipes.  I was intimidated by the words homemade and healthy because anything homemade that comes out of my kitchen is usually the opposite of healthy.  And when it comes to baby food, those little tubs/jars are so easy and convenient.  Truth be told, we never feed Theo store-bought baby food at home.  He eats whatever we eat 95% of the time.  We keep a jar of baby food in the diaper bag and we send Stage 3 foods (along with other snacks) to the babysitter because for now, it’s just easier.  I’m not looking forward to trying to pack a balanced lunch for him every day. 

Anyway, over the weekend I prepared the baby Broccoli and Cheese (mini) Casserole.  It made enough to fill four ramekins, 2 of which I froze for later.  It was actually quite easy and SO rewarding to watch him gobble it up.  He loved it.  Ingredients included broccoli (duh), cheddar cheese, chicken stock (the recipe called for veggie but I had chicken on hand), shallots (I omitted because they are disgusting and I didn’t want my baby to vomit), mushrooms, and brown rice.  I think that was it.  I thought each ramekin would yield two servings but he pretty much polished off the entire serving the first night and most of the second ramekin the second night.  (P.S. I tried the casserole and was not personally a fan of it, but to be fair, I don’t like mushrooms.  And I do like love salt, which the recipe is void of). 

Last night he had a little left over casserole along with his homemade “baby baked potato.”  I have only made homemade mashed potatoes once (which is what this recipe amounted to) and they were disgusting.  The texture was like concrete and the consistency was like rubber cement.  You could have used this stuff to lay a foundation for a house, no doubt about that.  The baby recipe says to use Yukon golds.  Peel and dice then boil for 10 minutes. Strain them but don’t rinse then return to warm pan and add unsalted butter (um, I used margarine…so sue me) and whole milk plain yogurt (I couldn’t find this so I used fat free plain yogurt).  Smash/mash them to your baby’s liking and add a sprinkle of parmesan or cheddar cheese.  Can I just say YUM?  They were the perfect consistency and texture.  Yogurt.  Who knew?  Maybe it was the golden potatoes – they did seem to have a bit of a different flavor.  Of course I added a little salt and pepper to mine but Theo liked them just the way they were prepared.  Oh, the recipe called for finely chopped chives, which I also left out because they are disgusting and I didn’t want my baby to puke.  If anyone wants the specific measurements (which I don’t think you really need), I’ll be happy to share them with you.

I don’t like onions in any form…can you tell?

~C~

snowy in the midwest

Posted on by mommyinthemidwest
With all the snow we’ve had lately, we haven’t been getting out and about too much.  Okay by Theo, he likes just watching it fall.

When he gets bored, he can always find the most mundane things fabulously entertaining.

Making new discoveries – sandwich baggies and the like

Oooh … all the pretty buttons on the dishwasher … I bet I could do some damage here.

Break for nuzzles

Get a load of this guy’s hair.  Yep, it’s time for a haircut.

There’s that ugly winter sky again

I don’t think we’ll be seeing many birds at this rate.

Or butterflies.

Or company.

If only I could take it back.  Do you think it will stop snowing if I take the decals down?

Might as well celebrate with some snowman jammies.


Hope you’re staying warm in some fleece jammies too…
~C~

the name thing

Posted on by mommyinthemidwest

In my job, I take down names.  That’s not the only thing I do, but I pay special attention to names.  I like names.  Maybe it’s because I’ve got an unnamed baby in my belly, or maybe it’s because I try to stash each name away in case I hear it again.  It never ceases to amaze me how many kids have different last names from at least one of their parents.  Sometimes kids have different last names from both of their parents.  Sometimes there are homes where 3 kids and both parents have the same last name and only 1 kid has a different last name.  Do they feel totally left out?

I understand that sometimes there are totally wonderful reasons for having a different last name from your kid or your parent, but in so many of the families that I deal with, it seems like the moms are just haphazardly going from one guy to the next for the sole purpose of having as many kids with different names as they can.  I don’t get it.  If you aren’t in a committed relationship with the dude, and don’t plan to be, why not give the kid your own last name?  At least there would be some unity with the kids.  I grew up in a family where all four of us had the same last name so I never knew any differently, but I remember thinking it was bizarre when my friends had different names from their parents.  Maybe the kids that have the different names don’t know any different and don’t care?  Any feedback on that?

And my next thing about names…what is wrong with people?  It is not necessary to include hyphens, apostrophes, and/or random capital letters in names.  It is not necessary to name all 7 of your kids after yourself in some way or another.  I have come across some of the craziest, made up sh*t in my job.  Why would you MAKE UP a name?  We were talking about names the other day and I was telling the da da about some of the crazy names I’ve heard at work.  He had a great idea…he said that every time someone wants to add a new name to the world, they would have to pay $25,000 to register it as an official name.  If you did not want to choose a name that had already been previously registered, then you pay the fee.  If you don’t want to pay the fee, you choose from the list.  LOL.  I’m not sure that will ever happen, but it’d sure make things simpler.  Have you been on babynames.com lately?  There are thousands of names to choose from.  Come on people, choose from the list. 

~C~