A few years ago for my birthday, Chad got me a George Foreman Contemporary Grill – 80 sq. in. (GRV80), which I was really excited about.  I know some people don’t like getting kitchen or household things as gifts, but I love it.  I stay home with the kids, so I’m using stuff like that all day.  I’m not going to complain about something that makes my everyday life easier or more fun!  I might complain if he tried to pass off the best treatment for acne as a gift, though.

Anyway, back to the grill.  I love it, but it only took one use to realize that it is a pain-in-the-butt to clean!  This one doesn’t have removable plates, so I was stuck scrubbing all the burned-on juices off of it every time.  That easily made up for the time I saved by not starting up the grill outside!

Until my grandma gave me a really great tip that I now use every time I grill!  As soon as I take the food off of the grill, I unplug it and lay a wet (not damp) paper towel over the plates and close it up while we go eat.  When I come back to it after dinner, it’s a snap to wipe it off quickly and put it away.  And I’m all for anything that makes cleanup go faster!

For more great tips and tricks, visit Works For Me Wednesday.

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I’ve expanded my baby-food-making efforts this week.  Kelvin has just started eating meat in the last few weeks.  When I first started him on meat, life was crazy and we were out of town and stuff, so I just fed him the jarred baby food dinners with meat in them.  He didn’t seem to care for them much, but he tolerated a little bit at a time (and filled up on fruit instead).

This week, I made him a Chicken, Carrot and Rice Dinner and a Beef, Peas and Potatoes Dinner (I made lots of each of them and froze them, of course).  I think he’s in love.  He just gobbles up several “cubes” at a time!  It looks kind of gross (maybe a little like pet supplements ), but he thinks it’s great!  I think the main reason he prefers my homemade food over jarred food is the texture.  Mine isn’t perfectly smooth and he seems to like things that he has to chew a little.  And I’m perfectly fine with that…my homemade baby food costs a lot less, is better for him and I know exactly what’s going into it!  It’s a win-win situation!

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I can’t believe that I have two kids, but I just tried making my own baby food this week.  I even had everything I’d need for making baby food when Ava was a baby, but I was really overwhelmed by it for some reason.  I don’t know why, because it’s so easy!

I have the Kidco Feeding System, but you could easily make your own food with just a food processor and ice cube trays.

I made green beans yesterday and apples today.  For the green beans, I cooked 2 cups of fresh green beans, sent them through the electric food mill, added enough water to make it like Stage 1 food and put it in trays to freeze.  Then today, I just took the cubes of food out of the trays and stored them in a ziploc bag in the freezer.  For the apples, I used 2 apples, cooked them with 3 Tablespoons of water on the stove until they were mushy and then pureed and froze them.  It’s so unbelievably easy and doesn’t even take very long.

I’m sure it’s going to save us lots of money, because Kelvin is like a bottomless pit.  It always took Ava several days to finish a jar of baby food, but Kelvin eats at least 1, sometimes 2, every day.  Tonight he actually ate 6 oz of food (2 oz of green beans, 2 oz of apples and 2 oz of cereal).

I’m going to try carrots tomorrow….now that I’ve started, I just don’t want to stop!  By the end of the week, I should have enough different kinds of food made that I won’t have to use any jarred food anymore!

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This week, we had a WIC appointment, so we had a discussion with a dietician as usual.  She was looking over Ava’s food log and then at mine and noticed that I eat less fruits and vegetables than she does.  I explained that we eat the same thing for breakfast and dinner, but I usually fix her a balanced lunch while I’m holding Kelvin and then I just grab leftovers or something really easy after they go down for their naps.  She suggested that I eat lunch with her, too, because it would help me eat more fruits and vegetables and it would also set a good example for her when she saw me eating them.

I decided to give it a shot, but didn’t expect to see much difference in Ava’s eating.  She’s already really good at eating a lot of fruit and she eats TONS of green beans and broccoli, but doesn’t really like other vegetables.  So the next day, I made lunch for both of us and included carrots as part of it.  Usually, she won’t even touch carrots but I was out of green beans so I gave them to her anyway.  Sure enough, she saw me eating carrots and polished off all of hers and even wanted seconds!

I’ll admit I was very surprised.  I knew children are always watching their parents and picking up their habits, but I didn’t think a simple thing like seeing me eat carrots would change her attitude about them!

And here’s a thought…you could probably get your children to drink more water if you buy these snazzy promotional water bottles and they see you drinking out of them!

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We’ve had a very rough weekend at our house and it’s continuing this week now that I’m sick. I didn’t want to neglect our little blog now that we’re whipping it back into shape, though! I have several post ideas, but I get exhausted just thinking about writing them now.

So instead, I’m going to share a very helpful website with you, Wholesome Toddler Food. I’ve done tons of research on feeding toddlers because Ava tends to be a very picky eater, but this one is the best one I’ve found…hands down! It has meal ideas, menus, recipes, and tips for feeding the picky eater. Honestly, this site has been my bible for feeding Ava for the past year. I hope it helps someone else as much as it has helped me!

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I wish I had enjoyed having uninterrupted time in the kitchen before I had Ava.  I guess that’s one of those things that you don’t know what you’ve got until it’s gone.  Deep down, I really do enjoy cooking, but it’s hard to remember that when I’m always rushed when I’m in the kitchen.

That’s why I’m always interested in finding ways to save time on both food prep and cleanup.  Here are some of my favorites:

1. Buy meat in large quantities, cook it all at once, divide it into meal-size portions and refreeze it.  I do this with ground beef and both my mom and I buy whole turkeys to do this with.  This is honestly my biggest time-saver of all.
2. To quickly clean pots or pans, boil a little vinegar and water in them.
3. When you’re making a meal that would freeze well (pretty much all casseroles), double it and freeze it in a greased casserole dish.  The next day, fill the sink with an inch or two of hot water, put the casserole dish in it for about a minute and the entire casserole will pop out easily.  Then your dish won’t be out of commission in the freezer and you can keep the casserole either in a zip-loc bag or wrapped in aluminum foil.
4. Keep a roll of masking tape and a permanent marker in your kitchen.  When you’re putting away leftovers, write the name of the food and the date on the tape and place it on the lid.
5. Make a menu before doing the grocery shopping.  This saves tons of time with not having to make frequent trips to the store during the week.  It also saves time because you don’t have to go through your cabinets and refrigerator at 5:00 wondering what on earth you’re going to make for dinner!
6. If you don’t use an entire green pepper for a dish, chop the rest of it up and freeze it for future use.

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What mother can’t use a little boost of inspiration in the kitchen from time to time?

Here are some newer websites that offer recipes, cooking tips, and are sources for ingredients and other items you may not normally run across.

Definitely worth exploring:

• chef2chef.net: A great resource for the best place to get many cooking supplies and ingredients.

• earthy.com: A great place to find obscure and unusual ingredients.

• foodreference.com: This is the site to go to when you just have to find out how green goddess dressing got its name. Lots of great info here.

• foodgeeks.com: Recipes, a food community, and even a food encyclopedia!

• culinarycafe.com: Recipes, cooking tips, and chat available. This is a great place to find others and discuss recipes or what’s for dinner.

• ethnicgrocer.com: Find recipes from any country and then even buy the ingredients you need to make it on the site.

• recipesource.com: A great source for recipes and just food in general from just about every country imaginable.

• ivu.org: The International Vegetarian Union has great international vegetarian recipes.

• orientalfood.com/recipe: Lots of great Asian recipes on this site.

There you go! That should take care of you all for a while. Please let me know if you find something great…I’d love to hear about it!

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