Deep Pore Cleaner

Are you on Pinterest? No? Don't start! I spend too much of my time on Pinterest that it's kind of sad, actually. But, some good things have come from this site, like the most amazing chocolate chip cookies ever! I found this DIY deep pore cleaner mask. It's supposed to be way better than those Biore nose strips we all spend too much money on. Atti and I went to HEB this afternoon and bought the gelatin and this is my project for tomorrow! I'll make sure to post how it goes!

Source: petitelefant.com via Linda on Pinterest

Adventures with Solid Food #11: Mango

http://flic.kr/p/cdDfNh

Believe it or not, Atti Murph has had eleven different kinds of solid foods! Compared to the disaster that was the prunes, mango puree was a walk in the park. I bought 2 12 oz bags of frozen mango chunks. Prep work done! All I did really was put both bags of mango and some water into a pot and cooked them until they were soft. Then I pureed them in our fancy new Ninja blender for only a few minutes and they were done! They made about 3 cups or 24 oz of food. I have learned to not fill up the ice cube trays to their maximum capacity and to leave room for the cubes to expand. This has made getting the cubes out much easier and I end up saving more food in the process.



Review:

 

 http://flic.kr/p/bWf5Ge

Will and I were both pretty excited to have Atti try mangoes. We thought for sure he was going to LOVE them. But his reaction was really more of a "meh" than anything else. Maybe it was also because he woke up earlier than usual. Who knows, but hopefully he warms up to them. Otherwise, I may have to keep these mangoes for myself!

Up next:

Eggplant

Random:

This is post #500!

Mother-Effed

You have to watch this! Too hilarious!

Adventures with Solid Food #10: Prunes

Oh, prunes. I have never really been a fan of prunes. But they were on the first foods list, and I want Atti to be a not picky eater, so I made them. Making these prunes into puree became the bane of my existence. I started with a regular 18 oz can of pitted prunes from HEB. There seems to be really no measured amount of water to put in, you just have to keep putting water in to thin the puree. So here I am, blending, adding water, blending some more, adding more water... you get the idea. Suddenly, there's this smell in the kitchen. I'm not sure what or where this is coming from, but I know that it's not good. Then, the blender stops. Craps out. Dies. Dead.

Dead. Dead.

Yep, the prunes killed my blender.

Meanwhile, I have some Granny Smith apples on the stove to make applesauce and they boil over. The prunes with water are still in the dead blender and are not finished...

What to do?

We have to buy a new blender.

Crap.

So, I get online and read reviews for all of these different blenders. We finally decide on one and find it at Bed, Bath & Beyond. The three of us jump into the car (we did manage to put a onesie on AMD before jumping in), and found ourselves a fancy new blender. We get home and I unpack everything, read how to put it all together, wash everything, and finish making the flipping prunes.

In all of this madness, I only took two pictures of the process.

http://flic.kr/p/bVhYJP

http://flic.kr/p/ccEeAS

And our new Ninja blender! Atti enjoys his Ninja food!

http://flic.kr/p/ccEi8W

Review:

http://flic.kr/p/bVmjme

He seems to think prunes are all right... sometimes he likes them, sometimes not so much.

Side note:

The prunes are pretty gooey. Even frozen. I don't know. We'll see how the next batch comes out.

Up next:

Mango Tango!

Have you seen this video?

It's a must! Best proposal ever. Ever.

Adventures with Solid Food #9: Sweet Potatoes

http://flic.kr/p/c6kPBs

I am trying to blog about the foods faster, so here we go! Today, Atti tried sweet potatoes for the first time! I made these about two weeks ago and they have been sitting in the freezer just waiting for Atti to try them. With frozen purees, from what I have read, they can last up to 6-8 weeks.

I used the book 201 Organic Baby Purees again, it's the only book I have and it's pretty good. This recipe took the longest, because I had to heat up the stove, bake the sweet potatoes, peel the skin, cut into small pieces, and then finally blend the taters while adding cooled boiled water to thin the puree.

http://flic.kr/p/c6DiZW

As you can tell from the picture, these two fat taters made a TON of food! I shelled out and purchased these fancy ice cube trays from amazon. These babies were made in New Zealand and I really like them. They make 1 oz food cubes, which we really like since our previous ones were only 3/4 oz. The only con I have is they can be somewhat tricky to get the cubes out. You can't twist the trays, you have to press one side of the cube for it to slide out.

http://flic.kr/p/c6DMmf

 

 Review:

 

 http://flic.kr/p/c6pefy

He really likes them! He is also now a big pro eating with the spoon. We have increased his spoon feedings to twice a day! Woo hoo!

Side note:

You may have noticed that Atti has been sitting in a different seat to eat. First, we sat him in our high chair, but he is too small for it and kept sliding all over the place. Then, we put a cart cover inside the high chair and that helped a little bit, but it also made a huge mess and I washed that cover every single day. Not kidding. So Atti and I went to Target and bought the tray for his Bumbo seat and it has been working great! We don't have to worry about him sliding all over the place which seems to make feeding times easier for everyone. As a bonus, after breakfast/lunch, we can just wipe down the tray and put some blocks there and viola! Instant play time after a meal. We now feed him in the living room after putting down a table cloth on the carpet (because, really).

Up next:

Prunes

As always, check out our flickr page for all of the food and Atti pictures here:
  http://www.flickr.com/photos/lindarenee/

Adventures with Solid Food #8: Pears

This time I'm going to do something different:  blogging about making pears the lazy way -- through photos! I used this recipe from simplybabyfoodrecipes.net found here: http://www.simplybabyfoodrecipes.net/2010/07/simply-pear-puree.html

Ms. Gardner also has a facebook page called The Baby Chef found here:
https://www.facebook.com/thebabychef

I had no idea I could just link her recipes! Here are some pictures of the process:

http://flic.kr/p/c6D6VL

Review:

http://flic.kr/p/c4HW4b

He really likes pears! So far he's a pretty good eater and likes most things.

Side note:

The pears came out pretty runny after being pureed in the blender. They did great in the freezer and were really easy to make!

Up next:

Sweet potatoes!