Tofu: The Perfect Baby Finger Food

Because Mr. B is sick and we have been busy, a short post tonight.  When I first began making homemade baby food, I found a helpful website.  Since Mr. B is mostly vegetarian (he liked my sardines the other day for lunch...yep, it's official he is weird too), I was happy to see how early I could give him tofu.  I was very surprised to find out how much he likes it.  He eats it plain as a finger food and will finish it off before almost anything else (except fruit) on his plate.  And tofu is the easiest homemade baby food protein. 

Step 1 Buy tofu...any consistency will dos
Step 2 Open container
Step 3 Cut off about 1 (2 when over 1 year old) inch cube and dice with a butter knife
Step 4 Put extra in a container and pour in fresh water to cover, refrigerate.
Step 5 Serve
Step 6 Every 1-2 days pour off water and add fresh water
Step 7 Act like you worked hard

The Compromise: people think you and your baby are strange, but remember they serve ground up chicken from a jar...YUCK!!!
The Sweet Reward:  Cheap, Easy, Healthy, One tool needed, Helps to Develop Fine Motor skills, Encourages Independence, Organic is available, and a Protein a baby actually eats

The Truth is that Mr. B actually likes all versions of tofu.  He gobbles up smoked tofu.

Tofu was easy for lunch on cleaning/laundry day with sick kid who didn't want to sleep alone in crib.

Here's the babyfood website, I couldn't live without
http://wholesomebabyfood.momtastic.com/solids2.htm

In future posts, I will share a few tricks I had to figure out on my own to make homemade babyfood

Tracy

Homemade and so Easy Laundry Detergent

In some ways laundry detergent represents the dawning of The Compromising Mother.  Picture me "nesting" in third trimester and finding a recipe for laundry detergent. "What?!?! You can make this yourself!!!" said the side of me that loved the PBS shows as a child where they went to a factory showing something being made....really anything...I didn't care as long as they showed me the process as I watched in slack-jawed-curiosity.  The compromising part is that it combines frugalness with environmentalism with being better for my family since I control the ingredients.  And remember how I choose new compromises in my life is that when it fulfills a few of my aspirations, is fun, and fairly easy; it is a sure win.  This is exactly that.  Let me show you since today is a detergent making day...and it doesn't happen often as it lasts us several months.  When there were just two of us, it lasted about 4-5 months.

Here are the ingredients (by the way, I use all of these for other diy cleaning...stay tuned)

 

all can be purchased easily. The washing soda and borax and Ivory soap all came from my grocery store

The small bottle contains castille soap and can be purchased at many stores, including Trader Joe's or Target

The Ingredients

4 cups of water

1 bar of any soap grated (I like Ivory)

one cup of Washing Soda

1/2 cup Borax

1 1/2 Tablespoons Castille Soap

3 gallons of water

5 gallon bucket leftover from cat who couldn't compromise

heat 4 cups of water to boiling and lower to a simmer
meanwhile grate 1 bar of soap

 I like to grate half of two different bars so I am left with two small bars perfect for handwashing.  The energy expenditure for liquid soap is not environmentally friendly so we switched a while back.

There is something very beautiful about pure white soap curls...Give me a minute

 I like to add the curls slowly and mix with a whisk, keep stirring until it dissolves, about 2 minutes.

Now add soap soup, Borax, washing soda, castille soap, and three gallons of water to your bucket

 Here's what it looks like all mixed up.

ooo tiny bubbles...I love up close and personal shots

Now let the whole thing set in its bucket for 24 hours

To be honest, I only let it sit 8 hours this time because I had too many piles of laundry waiting.  So, I sped it up by asking my in house muscles to mix it using the drill and a spade attachment...diy girls like me should always find a diy guy...thanks D!

After using the drill it looked like this.

Use one measuring cup of detergent per load.  If it separates with gelled solid on top and liquid on bottom (mine does), just make sure to get some of each part in the measuring cup.  I simply keep a spare measuring cup on top of bucket in laundry area of basement.

I did a little experiment this time.  The castille soap is new.  It is used as a stain fighter in my other cleaning products so I am hoping it will get the job done with all the stains my messy boy gets on his clothes.  The goal is to use less store bought stain fighters.

The Compromise: Every few months take about 5-10 minutes to make laundry detergent

The Sweet Reward:  Huge savings, no unpronounceable ingredients, having a large supply of detergent on hand, oh and I get to grate soap (seriously when was the last time you made soap curls)

Cleanfully Yours,

Tracy 

My Protein Resolution

My Protein Resolution...Did I mention I am weird?
 SSSsssshhhhhhhhhhhh....don't tell anyone it might end up on the Internet.

Yep, I did it I made a protein resolution and I have a little guy, Mr. B, to thank as my muse.  You see protein was always an after thought for me, making the mostly vegetarian part of our lives an easier thing.  I know the benefits of eating healthy food and not just expecting a miracle to occur in a vitamin pill (please begin conjuring images of soy lent green...yep, I'm that nerdy too). So, two weeks ago I began a resolution to cook a bag 'o beans weekly...well almost weekly (I am the compromising mother after all and realism is my game).  Oddly enough, I think, I cheated at my own game because the first week was black eyed peas...missing the essential "bean" in their title.  Cooked 'em up at the beginning of the week.  Used them in a Dijon shallot vinaigrette based salad, cooked with kale bell peppers and onions another night, fed to Mr. B for a few days, and frozen in small portions for later easy meals for Mr. B.  This week black beans (I want variety in our diets so I went totally opposite this time).  Same strategy but instead this time, but spiced with oregano, black pepper, thyme (thanks D for opening my eyes to this one), Bay leaf, and a little fennel.  Great side dish to chayote soup (a new thing) and stuffed jalapenos (whew baby watch out!).  Of course Mr. B food again. I'm thinking cannelini beans next week. How do I accomplish this rigorous schedule?  Remember, my love of easy and in walks the crock pot .  You can cook beans in the crock pot (Warning: red beans need a good boiling first to be safe!!!)

step 1soak overnight

Step 3 Play with close up shots using the mf setting on camera

Pretty!!!

Step 4 drain and add water to 1-2 inches over beans and cook for 8-10 hours on low.

Here's a link if you are a detail oriented person...not met...It's a struggle to follow recipes for me...I add a little this a little that until you have Oneoffer... naming rites belong to husband D here.

http://crockpot365.blogspot.com/2008/10/cooking-dried-beans-in-crockpot.html

The compromise:  must plan ahead the night before for preparing beans for dinner.

The Sweet Reward: The crock pot is green and frugal because it uses less energy.