Beaba BabyCook Review and Cookbook Giveaway

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Remember a while back I wrote about making homemade baby food?  *You can jog your memory here* I showed off my beautiful Beaba BabyCook and told you it was an unnecessary item that I just HAD to have.  I’m totally and completely retracting everything I said.  You DO need a BabyCook! 

I never knew how much I’d fall in love with the little green machine.  Or how it would change my life. 

Of course, I use the BabyCook for making LBG’s solids, but I also use it to reheat them.  I just put the ice cubes in a small jar, fill the water to the “1” line and place the jar in the steamer basket.  In a few minutes his lunch is nice and warm!  If it’s a little on the thick side, I use some of the steam water to thin it just like I would when making it from the raw veggies.

Now for the fun part.  I even use it to cook for The Father and myself.  We recently realized we don’t eat as many veggies as we should so we’ve decided to have a veggie with every meal.  Instead of boiling water on the stove then steaming the green beans or carrots, I just pop them into the Babycook and within a few minutes I have enough for the two of us.  Same goes for my lunch.  I’ve made myself countless lunches of steamed broccoli, carrots, potatoes, etc. 

One night TF was staying late for work so I steamed some broccoli and potatoes for myself then made some yummy applesauce with cinnamon for dessert!  How cool is that?!

We’ve used the food processor portion for chopping garlic and onions, too.  Over the weekend we made our own hummus! 

See, I told you that you need one!  If you aren’t looking for spend $150, never fear, my dears.  Scandinavian Child has refurbished BabyCooks here.  They are in “like new” condition but might have some slight imperfections, aesthetically speaking.  They are 35% off MSRP!  How cool is that?!

I firmly believe in telling a company if you love or hate their products.  When I emailed Scandinavian Child to tell them how much I love my Beaba BabyCook, they surprised me with a cookbook!  Not only that, one lucky reader gets a copy of the Beaba BabyCook Book, too!!! 

Just a little about the book.  It was written by a French chef and has recipes for babies of all ages.  Each recipe has a shopping list, which is helpful, and different variations are provided so kids of all ages can enjoy!  LBG tried the Winter Squash Veloute for dinner they other night and loved it!  I’ve made the Cinnamon Cookies and Chocolate Cookies for TF and myself.  We just substituted regular cow’s milk for the formula.  They were fantastic!

So here’s how it works:
Please leave separate comment for each entry

-    Visit BeabaUSA then come back and tell me about one of their super cool products
-    Become a fan of Scandinavian Child on Facebook
-    Follow @ScanChild on Twitter
-    Follow @LBGsMama me on Twitter- that's me!
-    Tweet about the giveaway- 1 entry per day you tweet!
-    Follow me publicly using Google Friend Connect
-    Vote for me on Topmommyblogs.com <--- click to cast vote!

I will be choosing the winner using Random.org on Sunday, April 25 at 9pm EST.

Good luck!

A Few Mishaps at the Market

One of the cool things about making your own baby food is that your kiddo can try many foods that are not sold in jars.  I’m taking this opportunity and using it to the fullest.  I’ve made the decision that this week LBG will get to try parsnips.

After his 6 month checkup- he’s growing up big and strong!- I headed over to Whole Foods to see if they had any.  Prior to leaving this house earlier in the afternoon, I did some quick research, which means Google images, as to what a parsnip looks like.  As far as I know, I’ve never tried one.  Mr. Google Image told me they look just like a carrot only white.

As soon as I walked into the produce section, my eyes started skimming the sea of apples and oranges and potatoes until my eye landed on the ghostly beauties.  I was even excited they still had the greens attached, which means a little something extra for the compost bin!  As I’m putting the bunch into the little plastic bag (I really need to buy some reusable) the mister turns on. 

Oh yeah.  I totally get sprayed!  Not only that, LBG who’s pretending to be a monkey riding on my back gets a light shower!

It was probably a sign from the heavens that I should have taken a shower this morning.  To add confusion to the mix, I notice that the label that is holding the bunch together says “Daikon Radish.”  Being the terrible techie that I am, I left my iphone out in the car so that means I need to make an executive decision without the help of my friend Mr. Google.  I decide that this is probably a similar case of yams v. sweet potatoes.  Two very different animals, but in this country sweet potatoes are sold under both names.

Parsnips- Daikon Radish.  Tomayto- Tomahto.  On with life we go.

I gather a few other items that I need then head to the check out.  Dude, it was cold outside especially now that we are all wet!

When I get home, I do a quick google just to confirm my suspicion before I start slicing and dicing.  Well, gosh darn it, turns out they are two veeeeeeeeeery different animals!

Great googley moogley, what am I going to do know with a bunch of “Daikon Radishes?”

There is an upside to this story.  I tried kombucha for the first time.  It was pretty yummy!  You should try some fermented tea yumminess sometime.

Dinner with Dear Ol' Dad

This afternoon I asked TF if he would feed LBG his solid dinner.  I had no idea I’d have tears running down my face from laughing so hard! 

I’ve found that the best way to make banana puree is to mash it with a garlic press.  It’s messy but it gets the job done!  We let LBG play with a few slices while I turned the rest of the banana into a sloppy gunk.  It’s amazing how he will put anything in his mouth, except food!

Anyhooo back to the story.  TF scooped up the first spoonful of ‘nanas and LBG totally missed the bite.  Yup it went straight into his eye!  Of course, TF is a man and has to make sure LBG stays clean through out the eating process, so it was wiped up and then eating continued.  I swear each meal uses 35 cloth napkins! 

While TF was turning around to ask me a question, LBG reached over and landed his hand right into the bowl! {insert high pitch squeal here} No big deal, except that he that needed to scratch his head after.  I’m pretty sure he was giving us a sign that we should start washing our hair with banana puree.  I’ll have to ask him about it later. 

TF thought I was kidding when I told him that blowing raspberries while eating is appropriate table manners when you are a sweet little boy.  I’m fairly sure he got a few banana showers!  It’s ok, I’m sure it will make him sweeter. 

You’d think that after the first hand in the bowl experience, he’d learn not to leave the bowl sitting on the highchair tray. Nope.  This time the bowl was tipped forward right into LBG lap! {high pitch squeal and raspberry] A quick cleanup and the meal continued on! 

Soon LBG decided to start play a game.  It was the “pretend to be hungry but actually be full game.”  He has a tale-tell sign that he is full.  Locked lips and spitting out food if you can manage to get some in.  Not today!  He’d open his mouth, take a huge bite then spit it out {squeak} Rinse. Repeat.  I do believe I heard “he’s just screwin’ with me” uttered, but I can’t be certain.

I finally told TF that the meal was over and it was time to off LBG some water from his shot glass special cup.  Just as TF was making the sign for “water,” LBG reaches forward and snatched the glass right out of his hand and flung it over his shoulder! {shriek and giggle}  It was like a scene straight from a movie!  Luckily for us, it landed on the carpet and there wasn’t much water in it.  I guess the saying is true “never give a baby more water than you want to clean up!”

I love watching my boys have dinner together! 

Food and other tiny thoughts

If a little boy giggles each time he takes a bite of sweet potatoes, does that mean he likes them? 

I'm going to venture out and say quite possibly! 

So far, LBG has tried quite a few fruits and veggies.  Some of which are definitely his favorites and others he couldn't care less about.  Here is the run down:

Avocado- hates with a firey passion
Apples- Ok, not the greatest things in the world, but they are food and so they will be eaten
Carrots- Yummy!
Green Beans- Holding onto first place with a death grip!!  The kid attacks the spoon and has gagged himself on numerous occasions. 
Squash- Edible.  He doesn't seem to like butternut over acorn or vice versa.
Pears-Super Yummy!
Sweet Potatoes- giggle inducing
Rice Cereal- was good until other grains were tired, now it's yucky.  He will be trying brown rice soon.
Oatmeal- Yum!
Whole Grain Cereal- A big win for the grain family

Today is LBG's last day of mandatory sweet potatoes, so from now on I'll be rotating through our stash of purees.  I don't think it's polite to mix two foods together, but I'll definitely prepare two different ones so he can have more of a "meal."

Generally speaking, his grains and fruits are served in the morning cold, and veggies are warm in the afternoon.  That's how I prefer to eat so I offer it the same way.  He hasn't exactly complained... yet!

I'm also in the process of teaching him how to drink out of a cup.  So with each meal, he gets to drink 1 Tbsp of water from a shot glass an infant sized cup!  He hasn't exactly gotten the hang of it just yet, but I'm sure with practice he'll get better.  

Back to sweet potatoes- Let me give you a visual for a moment.  Last night while eating sweet potatoes, LBG decided to take matters into his own hands because I wasn't shoveling them in fast enough.  Keep in mind he is still sitting in my lap to eat since he's outgrown the bumbo and can't quite sit unassisted just yet.   


As the spoon comes near his mouth, he grab the spoon and "helps" guide it into his mouth- completely missing and getting some in his eyelashes.  Then as I'm holding the bowl in one hand and the spoon in the other to scoop out some more, he reaches into the bowl and scoops out a handful- Hand is then shoved into mouth.  What doesn't make it into his mouth is now being worn by me.  Yay!  Of course, I forgot to put a bib on him and don my rainslicker.  By the time dinner was over, he was covered from his slopping the potatoes all over the place, my shoes, arm, and jeans were all potatoed!


I can't wait until he is about to sit unassisted because I'm just going to strip him down and let him have at his food.  No need for me two get a food bath, ha!

The Curious Case of the Green Glop

LGB was supposed to begin solids on the 17th of this month.  We pushed the date forward by a week or so due to The Father leaving for a business trip.  I wanted him to expirience all that there is to expirience when it comes to eating food for the first time.

Don't worry, on the 17th I'll still be posting a giveaway because it's awesome and I want to share!

Here's the run down:

My favorite website at the moment is wholesomebabyfood.com.  I have a baby food book that is also helpful, but WBF goes more in depth.  WBF says that avocados are great first foods and many of my friends have offered them to their tots as a first food.  The best part is that you don't have to cook them.  Just slice 'em up mash with a little breastmilk/formula and away you go!

Neither TF nor I like avocados.  They make great face masks but that's about it.  It would be great if LBG likes them.  He will have a favorite food that is all his own.  As I was slicing up 1/2 of the first avocado, I handed a slice to TF and he took a bite.  The next step was horrific... he barfed it up into the sink!  How's that for not liking them? 

We mashed up the slices, mixed with some formula and offered it to our sweet little boy.  I've never in my life seen a baby react the way he did.  We're talking sealing his lips shut after the first bite, trying to escape the bumbo, looking every where except the woman who birth him and shoved the green glop into his mouth.  We tried a few more bites he refused by spitting it out. 

We thought he might just not like the way they tasted with formula so we mashed up the other 1/2 and thinned it with a little filtered water.  Same reaction.  This is not what trying your first food is supposed to be like.  It's supposed to be about messes and funny faces.  Not a baby crying and looking at you with fear in his eyes. 

He's had random bowls of rice cereal and never fought it this badly.  I mean, he didn't exactly get any of the cereal down, but there was no fight. 

From my research, you are supposed to feed the same food for 4 days to see if there is any reaction in the way of allergies.  As dinner time rolled around (it was really middle of the afternoon late lunch) I looked at the 3 remaining avocados and just couldn't force him to eat something that he seemed to hate.  We moved on.

The next food on our list was green beans.  Again, a green food but this time a veggie.  We decided to compare reactions.  TF and I both tried the green beans and deemed them edible- something we couldn't exactly say about the avocado.  We could have given him a bad one and would never know.

Holy cow!  My little boy LOVES green beans!  The kid was attacking the spoon!  I couldn't get them in his mouth fast enough.  He devoured an entire 1 oz ice cube portion with in 2 or so minutes.  I guess he really didn't like the avocado.  Today will be day three of green beans and he is still happy as a clam.

Our plan in that when he is 6 month old, we will be doing a modified version of baby-led weaning and will be offering him many of the foods we eat in their original form.  He will still be offered purees but he will also be handed a whole steamed green bean.  We will try the avocado again when were get to that point.  He can mash it with his fingers himself and maybe he will like it better with nothing added to thin out the consistancy.  Always worth a shot!

Next up: Apples! 

Food, baby style

First let me start off by saying that making baby food is highly addictive!  You could probably call me a baby food junkie!

So far, I've made carrots, green beans, apples, pears, and sweet potatoes.  I'm gearing up to make squash! 

I thought it would be fun to chronicle my carrot puree-making process!  Please keep in mind that a regular 'ol blender and steamer basket can do the same job- but I like gadgetry!

Step 1: Whole carrots.  I used to buy baby carrots because they were so cute, but then I learned there are no such animals!  Baby carrots are just regular carrots cut down on a lathe.  Ooooops!

 

Step 2:  Wash the carrots.  I just rinsed them off in some warm water.  Nothing fancy so I didn't take a photo.

Step 3: Skin the carrots and cut the ends off (not sure if you really need to cut the ends off, but I did.)  Make sure you save all the scraps for the compost!   

Step 4: Chopped up carrots cook better, so have at it!

Step 5: Fill up the steamer basket with all of your nicely chopped orange yummies!

 

Step 6:  Start up the sauna!  Steam those babies until they are soft!

 

Step 7: All done cooking!!  Don't they look amazing??

Step 8:  Puree!  If it's a bit on the thick side, you can add some of the cooking water in to thin it out.  Carrots are high in nitrates, so I used some filtered water instead.

Step 9: Load up your ice cube tray.  Ours came with a handy lid, but I'm sure plastic wrap will work just as well.

Step 10 and 11:  Freeze and then transer to a different storage container so you can reuse the ice cube tray.  I didn't photograph these steps because they are fairly boring.  Don't forget to label the containers.

I originally intended to use pyrex, but I found something cooler on my Target excursion.  Anchor makes some really cool glass storage containers with BPA free lids!  We bought a few and will be buying more as we go along.  Eventually these will become our everyday storage containers!

Lessons learned- Pear sauce tastes much better than apple sauce!  Who woulda thunk'd?!  I think I'll be canning a few jars this fall for the whole family to enjoy. 

Practice Makes Perfect

Ok, Ok, I know... perfect practice makes perfect. 
Perfect practice is NOT what we did last night.

Yesterday, I came home from my cackle party (mommy get together) to find a beautiful box on the front porch.  My heart started to flutter and a tear came to my eye- it was a sign that baby food making was about to commence!

I came inside with LBG sleeping in his carseat, let out the dogs, and then ripped open the box.  I saw my LBG's newest piece of kitchen gadgetry... the glorious Beaba BabyCook!  ::swooooooooon::

As soon as The Father came home from work, I cooked dinner, and decided we needed to test out our new slice of fun!  We had a bag of carrots in the fridge that were slightly past their prime.  I'd bought them to remind us to eat more veggies but apparently it didn't work.  They weren't as fresh as I'd like them to be for LBG to eat, but they were fine for practice.

Carrots have a lot of nitrates in them which aren't good for wee tots, but you can cut down on them by removing the peel and not using the cooking water to thin the puree out.  Buuuuuut, for my practice session, peels were left on.  Yup, I was that lazy!

I chopped up 4 carrots to do my test batch.  Steamed 'em up, then pureed the tar out of 'em!  All using one little machine!  I was afraid that the carrots wouldn't be fully cooked becuase the instructions didn't say how full to fill basket.  Suprisingly, they came out perfect!

The Father took a taste or 3 and deemed them decent enough to feed LBG knowing full well that using better quality carrots would taste even better. 

I plopped the orange slush into my nifty babyfood icecube trays, snapped on the lids, and there they sit in the freezer.  I need start my pyrex collection in which the ice cubes will live in once they are solid.  That might be a fun thing to do today.

The usage of pyrex is a double task.  We have taken on the challenge to make our kitchen plastic free by the end of the year.  So once we are finished with babycubes we'll have some beautiful pyrex for storage!

Annnnnnnd, without much further ado: The big news!  LBG will be beginning his solids soon and in honor of the day, we'll be having a giveaway!  I have something super cool... so stay tuned!

It's Grub Time!

As we promised, LBG will get to being eating purees soon!

He turns 5 months old on March 17th and we will celebrate by eating avacado!  I should mention that I'm not a guac. fan but I'm hoping he will like.  Oh yeah, The Father isn't a fan either. 

Being first time parent's we've decided to purchase as many unnessesary items as humanly possible.  Here are a few of tonight's purchases:

 

Gotta steam and puree the yummies somehow!

Dining on the fine stainless

These spoons and forks are made from corn! We also got two bowls.

There are a few other purchases that will be made soon.  I can't, well actually I could, empty the checkbook in one sitting!  I'll post more about them later, but items include a high chair, storage containers, a few Pyrex containers, and some more bibs.

Oh yeah, and a note about the highchair:  As you read in my last post, we were given an amazing 3-in-1.  It will be used as a highchair, but not right away.  Our dining area is carpeted and we are worried about it's stability.  We also won't have it finished in time.  Of course, can't forget that LBG is probably going to want to use it as a rocking horse/ desk.  Besides, it will be great to have a second baby sitting device for when we have dinner guest with small children in tow.

Meatless Monday

This week Meatless Monday will be happening on a Tuesday.  No, I won't be entitling it Tofu Tuesday.

It's a funny story, really.  The Father made some amazing fish and chips yesterday.  We don't really eat fried food, but this is our exception.  He used up the rest of the frozen fish freezer which in turn made for tons of leftovers.  They probably won't be good tomorrow, so they are our dinner for tonight.

As penance, I've planned an amazing dinner!
I'll be trying my hand a making spinach quiche!  I've never made a quiche so it shall be a fun adventure.  Lunch will be slightly boring- baked potato for myself and a microwavable noodles with peanut sauce doo-hicky.

One Tomato... Two Tomato...

I've finally finished reading Animal, Vegetable, Miracle!

There is a story the author tells about growing and canning her own tomatos for use the rest of the year.  I can't remember the exact number, but she had something like 300+ pounds of tomatoes that summer!

This got me thinking about my quest to can my own tomatoes this year.  How many cans of diced tomatoes are we going to need all fall, winter, and spring?  Crushed?  Stewed?  Of course, we can't leave out salsa, pasta and pizza sauce!  How many pounds of tomatoes are we going to need?

There is another small issue that I have to address.  I've never, ever made homemade pasta sauce with fresh tomatoes! Or salsa for that matter!

So here is my plan.  We will start with diced and crushed tomatoes.  I'll dedicate a whole week to canning crushed tomatoes, and then a whole week to diced.  In the meantime, I'll be trying out salsa and pasta sauce recipes until I find one that The Father and I like.  Then I'll dedicate a whole week to each of those.   I've decided our magic number will be 50!

That's right... 50 jars of each type of tomatoes!  We try to not eat the same meal twice in one week so this will give us enough jars to have chili, pasta, stew each week.  Will we eat all three each week?  Surely not, but the option is always there.  On top of that, the pasta sauce jars will be small because we only use about 1/2 a jar of store bought sauce per meal.  If I'm cooking for a larger crowd, I can open two jars.  In fact, most jars will be on the smaller side to mimick the metal cans you buy at the market.

LGB is going to spend his first summer making plenty o' trips to the farmer's market and will be smelling lots of tomatos cooking away!  It will be like my family's summer tradition of shucking (in the South, we shuck our corn!) 50 billion ears of corn each summer.  We'd sit on the kitchen floor for 2-3 days swimming in corn huskes and corn cobs.  We'd eat corn for 3 meals a day and watch as many rented movies as we possibly could.  At the end of our hard labor, my family would have enough homemade creamed, kernaled, and corn on the cob to last us until the next summer! 

My family had corn, LBG's family will have tomatoes.  Please don't ask where we will be storing all these tomatoes, we don't even know where we will be living as of yet.  We own a jelly cabinet who has been begging us to return him to his original purpose of holding homemade canned items!

If you are wondering how many pounds of tomatoes we will need, I can assure you of this:  It will be more that 1 and less than 1,000. 

Trivia for the day:  I HATE raw tomatoes!  I'll only eat them cooked as a sauce or in fresh salsa.  I only like the juice from the store, bought salsa jars!

...and now it's time for tea

I'm a bit of a tea junkie!  I can't wait to be able to share my love of tea with LBG!  As the good Mississippian I am, I love sweet, iced tea.  As the kid and wife of New Englanders and having going to high school in Connecticut, hot tea has a special place in my heart as well!

Since we are currently living in the month of February, here are the current favorites for drinking hot!

• Zhena's Gypsy Tea's Red Lavender- It's fair trade, organic, and caffeine free.  The sachets are compostable and the tin is recycleable!
• Zhena's Gypsy Tea's Coconut Chai- Fair trade and organic.  It's moderately caffeinated and is certified gluten and allergen free.  You can compost the sachets and recycle the tin.
• Mighty Leaf Tea's Organic Spring Jasmine- Of course, it's organic and lightly caffeinated.  The pouches are biodegratable and the box is printed with soy ink!  
• Guayaki Yerba Mate's Mate Chocolatte- An organic, shade grown tea.  The company is a member of the Fair Trade Foundation.  
• Tazo's Organic Apple Red- USDA Certified Organic and the box is recyclable.  They don't say the tea bags are compostable, but I've always thrown them in the compost bin.
• Stash's Raspberry and White Tea- Decaffinated.  Once again, I compost the tea bags.
• Traditional Medicinals' Seasonal Herb Sampler- Contains four types of tea that are all caffeine free.  100% organic ingredients certified by the California Certified Organic Farmers.

You should give them a try!  I bought all of them from my local Kroger so I assume they are fairly easy to find in grocery stores.  If they aren't in the tea section, check out the organic area.  Remember, if you use honey, locally harvested and raw is best!  You support a local beekeeper, but also the local pollens in the honey help with pollen allergies!

Yogurt... DIY Style!

Betcha didn't know you could make your own yogurt, didja?

It's so much fun and super yummy.  The best part... it's so easy because you use your crockpot! 

We make a batch or two a week and it usually lasts about 2 days before we eat it all!  I like my yogurts flavored and The Father enjoys just plain.  As a compromise, we rotate!

What's that?  You enjoy thick, creamy Greek Style yogurt better?  Just strain it through a cheese cloth over night in the fridge!  It's that simple.

With out much further ado, I give you...
Crock Pot Yogurt!

This is the recipe we started with.  Then we made a few variations for our flavored varieties.  I suggest you start with the recipe in the link before you try it flavored.  Just a few pointers and suggestions before you begin: Make sure the milk is not "Ultra Pasturized," your yo just won't gurt if you do.  Sorry.  Also, no need to buy a vat of plain yogurt.  A single serving container is just enough to get the job done.  After you make the first batch, you won't need store bought anymore. 

Here is our twist on the subject. 
We use organic whole milk.  *Kroger really needs to stop upping the price, seriously!*  For the starter, we used a single serving of Dannon plain flavored (is that a flavor?)

Follow the regular instructions until you get to the part about mixing in the starter.  In you small mixing bowl add a 1/2 of sugar and 2Tbsp of vanilla extract.  Add in your warm milk and the starter and mix up really.  Be quick so it doesn't cool off too much.  After you pour everything back into the crock pot, give it a super duper stir.  I use a wooden spoon. 

When your 8 hours are up, measure out a cup or so to use as your starter for the next batch.  The rest goes into a cheese cloth lined noodle strainer balanced over a bowl to catch the dripping.  Store over night in the fridge and the WA-LA!  You have Greek Style yogurt!  If you don't want to strain it, no one is going to make you, but I do suggest ladling off the liquid that is at the top. 

Ok, so you don't like vanilla yogurt, but you would like a flavor.  Hit up Google for recipes of compote.  You can have blueberry, strawberry, pineapple, broccoli flavored... the possibilities are endless!  Just stir it into your yogurt and off ya go!

Enjoy!

Now I just need to learn how to make my beloved Kefir! 

Meatless Monday- The Inaugural Event...

Was slightly a bust.  Here is how the whole thing went down.

Sunday, I escaped ran out for a few minutes to buy this weeks groceries.  I had my handy-dandy list in tow along with with my reusable bags and my list of the Dirty Dozen.  At the advice of an anonymous reader, we were going to have squash with brown sugar.  I was super excited to try a new recipe. 

I got all my groceries, paid, then headed home.  Upon arriving home... dang it, I forgot to buy squash!!!!!  Moving on to plan B.  Broccoli with cheese sauce and baked potatoes.  I love broccoli so I was super excited.  I even found a recipe for cheese sauce with out the use of a can of chedder cheese and a slice of American product (I refuse to call it cheese!)

Monday rolls around and The Father calls to inform me that he has an event at work at 6pm.  I assume it will take 2 hours then he will have to drive an hour to get home.  9 pm is a bit late to be eating dinner, so I decided that we could just fend for ourselves and I'll cook the broccoli a different night.

For my dinner, I had a bagel with goat's milk cream cheese and for his, he ate the left over banana nut muffins.  We were both really proud of ourselves for going a whole day meatless.  I knew it wouldn't be hard, but The Father admitted it was much easier than he anticipated. 

Hopefully next week will go a little better.  I was really looking forward to cooking a new dish!

The Dirty and The Clean

If I were a millionaire, we'd only be eating organic foods.  I'm not... so we don't.  Every trip to the grocery store is an inner battle.  Do I buy regular GMO (genetically-modified organisms)  and pesticide laden foods or go for the expensive organics?

A few months ago, I was introduced to the concept of the Dirty Dozen.  This list has helped me out greatly in the produce department.  No questions asked, if they are on the list, organics are bought.

So here is the list:

Fruits

Apples

Cherries

Grapes

Nectarines

Peaches

Pears

Raspberries

Strawberries

Veggies

Bell Peppers

Celery

Potatoes

Spinach

Did you know there is an opposite of the Dirty Dozen?  It's commonly referred to as the Clean 15!  You can skip the organic varieties of these.

I'll be sweet and list them for you:

Fruits

Banana

Blueberries

Kiwi

Mango

Papaya

Pineapple

Watermelon

Veggies

Asparagus

Avocado (is this a fruit or veg?)

Broccoli

Cabbage

Garlic

Onion

Shelling Peas

Sweet Corn

These two lists have helped me a ton during my grocery shopping outings.  If I could memorize them, it would be super awesome! 

If you'd like to watch a really awesome movie about Pesticides and GMOs, I highly recommend watching The Future of Food.  I believe you can watch it for free via Hulu.com.  It's some scary stuff.

Meatless Monday

A few years ago, The Father suggested we become vegetarians.  I was all for it and knew it wouldn't be hard for me.  I also knew it would be a bit of a challenge for him.  He'd suggested it so we went with it.  Things were going really well for about a month!  I was super proud of him!

Then I found the tell-all receipt!  The Father had been eating Whoppers on the sly!!!!!!!!  When confronted he was super sweet and said he didn't have the  heart to tell me he needs meat in his diet.   We left the subject out in the cold and went on with our lives.  Until yesterday... dun dun dun!!!!

I've been reading about the concept of Meatless Monday.  As the name says, you go one day a week meat free.  I purposed this to The Father and he said he'd humor me and we'd call it a date.  Not only would we eat meat-free for an entire day, it would challenge us to try new recipes because pasta and salads will get old after a while. 

Tonight was our first night.  I have to admit, I went the safe route and made pasta.  I didn't have much forewarning that we be vegetarians for a whole day until we were on our way to the grocery market.  Next week will be much better because I'll have a whole week to plan meals!

Lunch Menu

Toasted seseme seed bagel

I topped mine with goat cream cheese and TF had peanut butter

Strawberry Kefir to drink

Tonight's Menu:

Navy beans baked in molasses and brown sugar

Gorgonzola filled ravioli with tomato sauce (from a jar bought last fall)

Chevre Cheese crumbled on to the pasta

Grape/pomegranate/blueberry juice to drink

I'm actually proud of myself and The Father enjoyed both meals.  I think this might just be a tradition that sticks!

We're Sproutin', Baby!

Anyone who knows me in the real world knows I love, love, love asian food!  When ordering Chinese, beef with bean sprouts is a must.  Of course you should also know, a sandwich just isn't complete with out alfalfa sprouts!  Sure, you can buy these at the grocery store; but it's sooooo much cooler to grow your own.

It's almost silly how easy it is to grow your own sprouts!  There are special jars you can buy but, we use a mason jar with ring sans the lid and some cheese cloth or a square of muslin.  Currently, we have lentils in our jar and some alfalfa seeds in the spice cabinet waiting their turn.  You can use just about any bean or seed.

The Process:
Add your seeds or beans to the jar.  Make sure to sort beans to make sure there are no stones.  I don't fill it more than 1/3 of the way up.

Finish filling the jar with water and then cover with the fabric and ring.

Drain out the water.  This is just to rinse the beans.

Refill with water and let sit for 12 hours.  Once again drain.

Every day for the next 4-5 days, fill with water swirl around and then drain.  Twice a day is best but not mandatory.  Keep your jar out of sunlight but the light from a room is fine.

Wahoooo!  You have sprouts!  Just give them a quick rinse before you eat them!  It's a bit hard to see the shoots in the jar right now, but I'll take some photos of the finished product!

Homemade Vanilla!

Once again, I live up to my mantra:
"Why buy what you can make?!"

Saturday, LBG and I made a quick field trip down the street to the grocery store in search of vanilla beans. We were going to do some homemaking!

The notion of making homemade vanilla extract was placed in my head a few weeks ago courtesy of TheBump.com. Mr. Google helped me find a recipe that sounded easy enough. The hard part was deciding how I was going to make it.

Rum, vodka, brandy... so many choices! The idea is to soak a few split vanilla beans in the alcohol of your choice for 8 weeks then WA LA! you have vanilla extract.

Ok, back to my story! We left the house knowing we'd be making a few varieties. I wanted to try with vodka and brandy. I thought about rum but then decided Coconut Malibu probably isn't idea and that was all my liquor cabinet had to offer. I'd loaded three empty jam jars into the dishwasher so they'd nice and clean for our little project.

Once we arrived at the lovely establishment known as Kroger, my plans suddenly hit the floor and shattered into a million pieces. Vanilla beans are expensive! Not Saffron expensive, but still not on the cheap side. We bought a few extra groceries, paid, and left. $13.00 poorer and 4, yes, 4, vanilla beans richer. We'd be only using vodka for our alcohol.

So here's how it works...
PS: I was on the ball this time and actually have photo-documentation


Fill a jar with boiling water and let sit for 10 minutes


Once the 10 minutes are up, pour out the water. I needed to let my jar cool a bit because my vodka is kept nice and frosty in the freezer. Split open 3 vanilla beans and put them in the jar.


Offer your beautiful beans a healthy swig of the good stuff. 1 cup to be exact. If you find this process too stressful, have a slurp or 5 yourself!


Lid up and there you have it, Ladies and Gents! In 8 short weeks you will be amazed-- or so I've been told! Just give it a quick shake every so often just woke make sure your beautiful beans are awake!

You are probably wondering what LBG was doing during this time. I can assure you he wasn't sampling the liquids! He was doing something we should all be doing more:

OH YEAH!! You are probably wondering what became of the fourth bean. I'm not cold hearted enough to leave it lonely in a jar. It is aiding in the making of vanilla sugar, of course!

Hemp Milk is Yummy

You should drink it!
It's good for you!

The End