Lately...

Well, about three months ago, I said I was going to keep up my blog. I did really good for a few posts, and someone must have known I had enough time on my hands to blog, so not long after I was asked to serve in the Relief Society presidency, which has taken most of my free time away. Our president and one of our councilors both had babies in December, so they needed me to fill in where needed, and I basically have been a 3rd councilor. It has been very busy, especially during Christmas. I probably let myself get a bit more stressed than needed, but overall it has been very rewarding. I have become friends with so many more of my neighbors which has been really good for me. 

Fortunately I had some time today to catch up on my blog. I think of things to blog all the time, but just can't get around to it. Hopefully I can remember to take pictures and then post them when I get a chance.

So my days consist of playing with Jonas and Relief Society assignments. That's it. Since most of what I do with Relief Society involves other people's personal circumstances, I will focus the rest of this post on my adventures with a cute baby I know.

Jonas can crawl on all fours, but prefers to crawl army style and has quickly learned to pull himself up on things. As you can see from the picture below, he's pulled himself up in his crib. I discovered him like this, and immediately lowered his crib. He almost dove out just after I shot the picture.

Because he can pull himself up, nap time has become a lot more difficult. Instead of just laying him down, he'll stand up and it takes him a lot longer to settle down. We are working on this, and I'll just have to let him figure it out himself instead of going in there and trying to hold and rock him to sleep (which by the way does not work well either because he is so strong now and just wiggles out of my arms)!

You can also see in the picture that he sticks his tongue out a lot. This is because his first tooth is about to make its debut. He is eating a lot more solids. Our grocery budget has gone through the roof. How does that happen? 

So, in an effort to save money, I've been trying to make his own food. I bought little ziplock plastic containers (8oz) and cooked a big batch of vegetables, baked a couple small chicken breasts and cooked some ground turkey to mix together for frozen dinners. You can't really see the labels well in the photo, unless you can read my writing and have great vision. I've had a few requests to share my recipes so below are some of the "meals" I made him. 

-Chicken, carrots, peas and potatoes

-Chicken, carrots, peas and rice (gerber)

-Chicken, broccoli, carrots, potatoes

-Chicken and mixed veggies (corn, carrots, peas, broccoli, zucchini) and rice

-Chicken, butternut squash, pear and rice

-Turkey, sweet potatoes and corn

-Ratatouille (turkey, carrots, zucchini, peppers, garbanzo beans, tomato sauce and couscous)

To start, I put to boil a large pot of water. I began peeling and chopping large chunks of veggies in the order of the length of time it takes for them to soften in hot water. I prepared (and added to the water in this order) 1/2 a butternut squash, 1 large yam, 3 medium carrots, 1 large potato, 1 small zucchini and handful of broccoli (I cooked a handful of corn and about a cup of peas separately, since they are small). When they were soft enough I drained the water and separated them. I also baked a couple small chicken breasts and cooked some ground turkey. I then blended the desired veggie mix with about two ounces of meat (one ounce per serving) and a little bit of water. This made two dinner portions (about 12 oz). One dinner portion (6 oz) is mostly vegetables and about an ounce of lean meat (I estimated the size of his palm, since that is the portion size for adults for meat, right?) and in some cases, a grain (Gerber brown rice).

I made the ratatouille for dinner the following night and blended the things he could eat (before I added things like onions and garlic for me and James), gave him some that night, and froze the other portion.

And to keep up my supply of frozen meals, I will just make a little extra of veggies and meat when I make dinner. I will blend it all in my baby bullet and make two dinners, one for that night, and one for the freezer. Then there are nights, of course, that we eat things he can't eat (like French Toast tonight), that I can dig into my supply. 

I will probably experiment with other meat and veggie combos. If there are some that are particularly tasty, I'll post them. I also get my ideas from the food combinations of baby food at the grocery store. :)

Hopefully this will save us some money. It has been fun also.