Baby Food Making Party!

Since I am a stay at home mom (with the exception of the 4 hours a week I work), I don't bring in a whole lot of money!  While this is true, I feel like one of my responsibilities is to be wise with the money David makes and find ways to save money.  It almost becomes a game at times because, believe it or not, it can be fun to go way under budget on groceries knowing it was because I figured out a way to make that happen.

Most months we don't go way under budget.  Normally, its over :)  Add in baby items and that doesn't help anything!  One solution is cloth diapers which is a whole other topic!  The other is making my own baby food.  Let's be honest though, I am lazy.  I don't want to make baby food from scratch multiple times a day.

When a friend of mine suggested getting together and having a baby food making party, I thought it was brilliant.  It would accomplish so many things.  I would make all the baby food I would need in one night, hang out with friends, drink wine, and be "off" baby duty.

Here is how we did it.

Erin a.k.a Baby Food Making Pro, sent out an email with all the types of foods we would need:

-carrots
-butternut squash
-pears
-asparagus
-sweet potatoes
-zucchini
-blueberries (or blackberries)
-apples
-green beans
-plums
-apricots
-peas
-mangoes
-tofu

We divided the list among the three of us and bought our food.  Our guideline was the equivalent of 10 sweet potatoes, 2 big bag of carrots, etc.  We each just used our best judgement.

We picked a cooking night, met up, and got to work.

Some items, like green beans and peas, simply could be put in a steamer basket and go right on the stove.

Others needed to be pealed and chopped up like apples, pears, and plums.

To know exactly how to cook each item we used the book, Super Baby Food.

 Once they were super soft, in the blender and food processor they went!

We all brought as many containers as possible to transfer the food from Erin's to our own houses.  I brought every jar, glass container, and Tupperware I could find!  As the food was ready, it was divided between the three of us.

We kept working until all the food was done!  I think we stopped around 11:30 pm.  I was wore out.  Who knew making baby food was so hard?

If you are curious what you do with the tofu, you mix it with the blueberries or blackberries.  It turns out very pretty and purple in the end :)

Here is our final baby food loot:

I got home around 1:00 am, put my food in the refrigerator, and crashed.

The next few days, I slowly transferred the baby food into ice cube trays to freeze.  Once frozen, I popped 'em out and put them in Ziploc bags.  Make sure to label them :)  Carrots, butternut squash, and sweet potatoes all look very similar!

Yay!  That's the whole process. Oh, and then thaw them out as needed and feed your baby!  I love saving money and knowing exactly what Gwen is eating.  It is great.

Salsa Verde Chicken Enchiladas

Insta-ladas
(Instagrammed Enchiladas)

There aren't a ton of meals where I look forward to leftovers the next day.  You know, sometimes they don't heat up well or you just don't want to eat it twice in 24 hours.  These are a total exception.  I looked forward to eating these for leftovers all day.  I wish I was kidding!

I had these grand intentions of taking step by step pics, but Gwen kept needing her pacifier while she was "napping", so I don't have a ton of pictures. 

I got this recipe out of my good ole Betty Crocker Cook Book.  Everything from that thing is marvelous.  I appreciate that most of the recipes are twists on the classic dishes.  I would have never thought to make these with salsa verde (green salsa), but its so good!  Of course, you could make it with regular salsa (the red kind) and I am sure it would still be good!

Oh, I must add that these, according to Betty, are lower calorie.  According to me, probably not because I like way more cheese than her.

Here is the original recipe:

Chicken Enchiladas

Prep: 25 min   Total: 50 min   Servings: 6

1 cup salsa verde

1/4 cup cilantro sprigs

1/4 cup parsley sprigs

1 tablespoon lime juice

2 cloves garlic

2 cups chopped cooked chicken

3/4 cup shredded mozzarella cheese

6 flour tortillas

1 medium lime, cut into wedges

1. Heat oven to 350 degrees F.  Spray 11 x 7 inch (2-quart) glass baking dish with cooking spray.

2. Place salsa, cilantro sprigs, parsley sprigs, lime juice, and garlic in blender or food processor.  Cover and blend on high speed about 30 seconds or until smooth.  Reserve half of mixture.

3. Mix remaining sauce mixture, chicken, and 1/4 cup of cheese (or more if you like cheese).  Spoon 1/4 cup chicken mixture onto each tortilla.  Roll tortilla around filling and place seam side down in baking dish.

4.  Pour reserved sauce mixture over enchiladas.  Sprinkle with remaining 1/2 cup of cheese.  Bake uncovered 20-25 minutes or until hot.  Serve with lime wedges.

There you have it!  Yum!  

For a side, I make rice and guacamole.  

The very first picture shown is make assembled, but not yet cooked enchiladas with mild salsa.  The blender pictures are with hot salsa.  Both were very good, but the hot was HOT.  Probably depends on your preference if you like hot things or not.

Hope you like them!  Enjoy!

Chicken Pesto Stuffed Shells

So, my track record with Pinterest recipes is pretty bad.  Most of the time they just don't work out.

A couple weeks ago I was desperate for some new and unique recipe, so I resorted to Pinterest for inspiration.  I saw I had pinned a recipe for Chicken Pesto Shells and they just sounded amazing.  I went for it!  Fortunately, they even tasted great!  Most of the time when I cook it is unrewarding and I find dinner to taste just alright.  These were a big exception!  So yummy!

Here are my tips:

• Slightly under cook the shells... stuffing is WAY easier.
• Cook them covered in the oven to prevent drying out
• Add some extra water in the bottom of the pan to prevent drying out (2T ish)
• I used part parmesan cheese and part mozzarella 

Freezer Burritos

On Tuesdays and Wednesdays, I work late at the dance studio so David is left to fend for himself for dinner.  Sometimes we have plenty of leftovers or he eats peanut butter and jelly.  This week and next will be a little busy so he will have no leftovers to live off.

A few months ago I found this recipe for burritos off of Money Saving Mom that you can makes tons of and freeze.  You can then easily take one out of the freezer and just pop it in the microwave or oven.

Tonight David was not home so I cut the recipe in half and did some cooking to pass the time!

I followed the recipe exactly and they turned out great!  We don't ever eat refried beans, but love these burritos with them and it is a great way to make them more filling without paying for the meat.

I will definitely be making the full batch of these right before my due date!

Assembly line

Stuffing the burrito

Attempting to roll it up

The finished burrito pyramid 

Cookies Galore!

I love baking.

I don't always love cooking, but baking seems to be more my thing.  I love that in baking as long as you follow directions and measure carefully, it turns out!  Well, at least with the cupcakes and cookies I have made that is the case!  That may be a rookie statement, but for now I believe it!

Currently, I am on a cookie baking kick.  I made a lot of different cookies recently for hangouts with friends, so I thought I would share the ones I have made so far.

1. Chocolate Chip Cookies

I have never made chocolate chip cookies with any recipe other than this one.  My mom always made her chocolate chip cookies with the recipe on the back of the chocolate chips bag and it never fails!  Gotta love a classic chocolate chip cookie.

2. Cinnamon Sugar Butter Cookies

Yet another yummy cookie.  My dough would not go into a ball shape so I generously sprinkled the cinnamon sugar mixture on top.  Still good!  I also like my cookies super soft, so I often under cook them because who likes a hard cookie?  Turned out great!

3. Oatmeal Cookies

A friend's quote on these cookies, "These are the types of cookies you pass down the recipe to your kids!"  Guess where I found it?  On the back of Kroger brand Old Fashioned Oats.  I did add some chocolate chips to the recipe, but they were very good and gone immediately.

This is not the link I followed, but it is exactly the same with the exception that I used Old Fashioned oats and it turned out delicious.

4. Double Chocolate Chunk Cookies

I love chocolate and these cookies are chocolate plus some more chocolate!  I did not have any chocolate chunks so just used semi-sweet chocolate chips.  Some comments on the recipe suggested trying other varieties of chocolate chips which all sounded amazing.  Next time, I want to try them with mint chocolate chips or raspberry chips.  Yummmmm.

Pita Bread Pizza

A poor quality pic stitch picture of our dinner tonight!

This was quick, easy, and cheap!  Finally I am learning every night does not need to be gourmet.

 I found this recipe at $5 Dinners.   I have made two dinners from this site and both have been amazing!

I only made two slight changes.  Instead of cutting the pita bread in half, we left them whole to have a thicker crust pizza.  Second, we cooked them using our wonderful pizza cooker.  Basically it cooks the same as a conventional oven, but is way more fun.

The pizzas we made were:

• Pepperoni with homemade pizza sauce
• Barbecue Chicken
• Honey Mustard Chicken 

I had some shredded cooked chicken in the freezer, so this was super fast and fun to experiment with different possibilities.