The Newest Diet Craze

(at least it is at my house).

Have a baby, wait about a year and then loose weight like no other diet!  It is the "you aren't allowed your own food anymore because anything on your plate is really my food" diet!  Guaranteed to help you never eat a full meal again!  Even your drinks are not safe! 

I don't think I've eaten anything without little hands claiming some of it since September...

But who can deny this face?  Especially when she signs "more please" and shakes her head yes with a big grin. 

Now I know how my mom felt when I "shared" her lunch with her.

Busy Times and a Link to a Giveaway

Aria went to the park for the first time today!  It was a lot less exciting than I had imagined it in my head.  We would go and she would love swinging in the swing, with the wind in her little hair and she would squeal and kick her little legs.  Then we would go down the slide a few times and she would clap and point to go up it again.  Then we would run around (with me holding her hands cause that little girl still isn't walking!).  It would be magical.

Instead she sat in the mulch and picked at it (it was rubbery mulch stuff for kids to play on) and she would pick up a piece and pretend like she was going to hand it to me, I would reach for it, and then she quickly clutched it to her chest.  I kept trying to get her to play with the other kids her age.  Nope, she just sat there in the mulch babbling away to herself.  Or she would just sit and stare at the other kids, like a creeper.  She needs some more socializing.  I think we will go to the park again tomorrow.

She did not like the swing, but she liked staring at the kids on the other swings.

Clutching onto her dear mulch

I like the playground, Mom!

Staring at kids, being a baby creeper.

She was wiped out when we got home so I put her down for a nap and got the butternut squash all cut up and into a baking pan so I could make her some baby food.  I am getting pretty tired of making her the same squash meal, so I'm sure she is tired of eating it too.  So I went online and found this awesome website, Weelicoius.com, that has some pretty good recipes on it.  And, lucky me, Ergobaby Blog is giving away a cookbook!  Score!  So, you should check out Ergobaby Blog and Weelicoius and see how easy it is to make homemade baby food.  Plus, Catherine is a pretty awesome name, if I do say so myself.

A big trip to the Farmer's Market means a lot of cooking!

My parents are here visiting this weekend which means - lots of food!  Yesterday we spent the better part of the day making a ton of food and we spent ALL day today making even more.  Tomorrow, after they pick my brother up from a college preview weekend, they will be coming back to make even more!  Love it.

On Thursday I had gone to the Farmer's Market near NC State in Raleigh.  It was very glamorous and bustling with activity.  Aria loved every minute of it.  I came away with 4 "green" bags full of produce.  My intentions were to make most of her food for the month and freeze the rest of it for the winter months.  I was able to find a really nice stand by a local farmer who had a TON of different types of fruits and veggies and they were all pesticide free and looked amazing.  I think I'm already spoiled by this market even though I live an hour away from it.

Farmer's Market bounty!

 So among other things that were made yesterday, for Aria we made peaches, plums and butternut squash.  For the peaches and plums we blanched them in a heavy-bottomed pot for about 10 minutes.  Before placing them in the water, I cut a X into it and placed the fruit X-side down into the water.  The skins didn't peel away like I had expected them to, but it was still a lot easier than if I had tried to peel them off before cooking them.  I blended them up in her baby bullet and froze half of it and kept half of it out for her food for the next few days.  For the butternut squash I just lined a pyrex dish with foil, cut them in half, de-seeded them and put them flesh-side down into the pan and cooked them for about 45 minutes at 375F.  When they are done you can literally just spoon the meat out of the skin.  I didn't even have to blend that up in the bullet - she will eat it as is.  It doesn't get easier than that.  I also rinsed and froze the blueberries on cookie sheets in the freezer and then bagged them up for later.  So much cheaper than getting a tiny bag of frozen organic blueberries at the store.  I also did this with some peach slices so Brad and I have some fruit to snack on later this year too.

The plums and some eggplant ready for the freezer!

 Today was a bigger adventure.  I had picked up a different type of eggplant and beets at the Farmer's Market, neither of which I had ever bought before.  The lady at the booth told me that this type of eggplant was much sweeter and tender than the traditional type you see in the store and since I was making it for Aria, she recommended this kind.  I have found conflicting names on the internet but they all say some form of "striped" in the name.  We skinned it and cut it up and steamed it in the microwave for about 4 minutes.  It was very soft, kind of like tofu but had an amazing texture after I blended it in the bullet.  It was kind of like really creamy mashed potatoes with a really nice earthy flavor.  I would much rather substitute these for potatoes than cauliflower if I ever do a low-carb type diet again.  I think I might try that the next time I come upon this type.  I froze half and kept half of it in the fridge.  Aria tried it and loved it, so I'm pleased with the results and how  quick it was to make.

The striped eggplant blended up!  Creamy!

We also made her some beets and potatoes.  Basic cooking like before.  Cut the beets up and boiled them until they were tender.  Peeled the skin off of them afterwards.  Then peeled, cut and boiled some potatoes.  Then I put equal amounts of each into the baby bullet and whizzed it up.  It had an amazing color and texture to it.  Didn't taste bad at all.  I would probably add salt to it for myself, but I didn't put anything into Aria's batch.

The beets cooking.  Look at those rings!  So much prettier in real life.

Aria's beets and potatoes all mixed up and ready for the fridge.

 Then we peeled, cut and blended up some pears for her too.  In addition to all of this we also made beet, potato and egg salad for us for dinner along with a veggie couscous cold salad and pan fried chicken.  The chicken was so tender, I went back for seconds!

Tonight's dinner.  Beet, potato and egg salad, cold couscous veggie salad and pan fried chicken breasts.

I also learned how to roast red peppers in the oven.  Although I don't really like peppers, I am going to add them to my homemade hummus.  Probably one of the only times I don't mind them.  I'm hopefully going to make this tomorrow.

And on top of all of that, my dad made homemade bread and homemade pita bread.  It was a really long day full of a ton of dishes (I think I ran the dishwasher 4 times today) and full of cooking, but it was really fun and we have a lot of great food waiting for us on days that I have too much going on to cook!

Homemade loaf bread and homemade pitas.