homemade baby food – BabyCostsMoney

Monday’s Mama is Slaying the #cutefood.

Published on January 15, 2018January 14, 2018 by Darlene Dee4 Comments

This Monday, I would like everyone to meet Angie Arias, the amazing mama behind the thepeacheepear.com. Angie is freaking awesome! She makes the CUTEST FOOD for her toddler. And it’s healthy. And she takes pictures of it, so follow her on Instagram for inspiration. Or, if you’re like me, follow her just so you know that at least one awesome mama is making these awesome adorable lunches for her toddler.

Ok, she did inspire me to break a granola bar in half for eyes and put it on a plate with a banana and Babystar LOVES it so Angie is totally onto something here.

Y’all.

I am OBSESSED with Angie’s Instagram. You will be too.

Angie is a stay at home mom to one beautiful, smart, funny, and active little girl. Her name is Emma and she will be two this month. (Happy birthday, Emma!) Angie love to cook so created this blog to share her healthy and delicious recipes. You can find everything from homemade baby purées, to finger foods, to fancy holiday themed meals to family meals and more. I have asked her more than once to come be my personal chef but I think she thinks that I’m joking. (I’m not. Her toddler food is fancier than anything I make for myself.)

Angie (Angelica if you’re nasty) answered some questions, because she’s so cool like that.

1. Are you kidding me with the food that you make?! Your Instagram has the cutest food EVER. I am dying to know: Does Emma really eat it?

Thank you! Yes, she really does. But she does have days that she wants to be difficult so she chooses what she wants to eat from her plate and what she refuses. That’s why I like to give her a variety of healthy and nutritious foods with all her meals. I get peace of mind that she’s still getting essential vitamins and minerals she needs from her foods.

2. Do you have any ‘simple spice it up’ advice for those of us that can’t make masterpieces out of every meal but totally want to make cute food that our kids will eat?

Just get creative and have fun with it. Use as many colors as possible and a good balanced variety of foods (fruits, veggies, nuts, beans, etc). The more colors the better. Also, my secret to a beautiful plate is using cookie cutters. I get all of mine on amazon and they’re pretty cheap. Use them on your fruits and veggies or even your bread to make a fun shaped toast. We all eat with our eyes and kids are no exception!

3. What is YOUR favorite food? And what is your favorite UNHEALTHY food?

That’s a hard one! Lol I really love food!! I guess I would have to say Salmon! And unhealthy food has to be pizza! I can eat a whole large pizza by myself lol!

4. It’s the PTA Bakesale: homemade, store bought, or NOPE?

A- Homemade of course! Thank you so much for having me.

(OMG y’all. Angie is a total badass AND she’s got manners. AND she can eat an entire pizza by herself. #TripleThreat)

tl;dr GET COOKIE CUTTERS FOR YOUR KID’S FOOD.

You can also find her on Twitter and Facebook and Pinterest . But don’t sleep on that Instagram. You’re welcome.

Eat a Peach.

Published on August 11, 2016August 8, 2016 by Darlene DeeLeave a comment

The Allman Brothers, whoa. Talk about a Throw Back Thursday.

I am referring to actual peaches here. And clementines. And strawberries and eggs and waffles and food food food. I hate calculating Babystar’s food. It feels so much like work and the rest of this blog is so much fun. I don’t want to be a food accountant when I grow up or ever. But I am addicted to accuracy so I have to include the money we spend on her food or the whole thing is RUINED. Why yes, I am super fun to live with, why do you ask?

This is a list of all the food I purchased in July strictly for Babystar. This is not all the food that she ate. She still shares with me a lot. But I am not going to calculate how much two bites of steak costs. I would have eaten those two bites if she didn’t. And I am not going to subtract the fruit I eat from the pounds of strawberries or bags of clementines we buy because they would have gone bad before she ate them anyway. Basically, I buy a lot more fruit (and cheese, weirdo baby) now than I ever did before. I buy almost the exact same amount of vegetables (now that she’s on her puree strike). I buy way more Cheerios. I don’t eat her gross veggie melts. You get it. Maybe you get it. Let me know. I’m trying to do this right.

nectarines (12) $8.04
watermelon (3x) $9.46
canned diced tomatoes (5x) $4.95
zucchini (3x) $4.50
so many bananas (infinity) $10.78
huge amount of Cheerios at Costco $5.99
fancy precut pineapple $5.79
so much cheese slices, deli and otherwise $18.23
clementines by the bag (3x) $9.97
cucumber $0.50
deli ham $3.30
ditalini pasta (2x) $5.38
strawberries (7x) $21.00
peaches (3x) $2.49
quinoa waffles (3x) $10.77
Gerber fruit/veggie/yogurt melts (13x) $34.97 (OMFG!)
string cheese (1x) $2.50
Gerber pasta bowl $2.39
sweet potato pancakes at a restaurant $4.99
mozzarella toast at a restaurant $4.99
fried rice at a restaurant (3x) $23.97

Total $194.96. What? Really?? DO YOU KNOW HOW MUCH OF THIS FOOD SHE THROWS ON THE FLOOR?!? Thank goodness breastmilk is still free.

Protip #1: If you have a town center like place where you hang out, or you live in a city or something, get a single banana from a grocery store as a snack when out and about. It will only cost about twenty cents. And if you are very lucky, that grocery store might have free samples out and then you get a whole baby buffet. I love our local Harris Teeter’s Baby Buffet.

Protip #2: You can make a pretty healthy baby pasta by stewing together diced tomatoes and chopped, peeled zucchini. And use tiny noodles (I like ditalini but I wish I could find a whole wheat version) so you don’t have to cut up the food. I do about 70/30 veggie to pasta ratio and since the ‘sauce’ is so chunky, Babystar can feed herself with her fingers. Which she insists on doing all the time now.

RAISING BABYSTAR: $11,671.09

MommyCon 2016 + GIVEAWAY.

Published on July 24, 2016August 5, 2016 by Darlene Dee25 Comments

Babystar and I went to MommyCon DC yesterday and had so much fun!

(I was NOT a member of the media team or blog team or whatever it was called and I did purchase my own ticket.)

We actually volunteered Thursday and Friday behind the scenes, and that was also a blast. (Yes, WE. Babystar came along too and even had some playmates her own age.) Everyone involved with Team MommyCon was really nice and great and seemed all about the cause. By the time Saturday actually arrived, I was already exhausted. But luckily very excited, and the excitement trumped the exhaustion.

We arrived early because my son (home from college for the summer) and his girlfriend were working the event. If you attended MommyCon DC and checked your stroller, you met my firstborn. Thanks for being nice to him. (I know you were nice because he told me he was surprised how nice EVERYONE was. I wasn’t surprised but thank you anyway.)

The best thing about having him working there was dropping off Babystar for five minutes at a time so I could PEE ALL BY MYSELF. Stroller check was located conveniently right next to the restrooms.

Babystar helped by stacking things. Also, LOOK AT THAT MOUNTAIN OF GIFT BAGS!

We attended last year and I definitely noticed a lot of improvement. The layout inside the convention center was smarter this year. Last year the vendor space was a bit cramped and the diaper changing area was ridiculously big and far away from the action. That was not the case this year, and the addition of a Quiet Room and Toddler Play Space was great. (Note to the convention center: that door to the Quiet Room needs some WD-40. Whoops.)

The best improvement IMO was the offering of speaker sessions. There were six different sessions happening at any time, which made it difficult to choose where to spend our time. (This is a good problem to have!) I really enjoyed Steps Toward Sustainability with Yvonne Brown, Dear Baby XO: Why Mom Fails are Good for You with Sarah Showfety, and Ring Slings 101. By far my favorite session was Why Toddlers Fear New Foods with Dawn Winkelman of EZPZ. I have raised two picky eaters already and learned a lot of ways to prevent this pickiness with Babystar, hopefully early enough to prevent any food issues. (I know Cloth Diapering 101 with Jenn Labit was great because I attended last year, so I felt ok about skipping it this year EVEN THOUGH I know she gives out cool gifts.) I wanted to attend the Babywearing Yoga and Babies at the Barre sessions, but. But. But I was so so SO tired from working while babywearing the previous two days AND Babystar was conveniently asleep in her carrier during both of those session times. So I shopped instead.

Want to see what I bought?

All the Smart Bottoms stars plus the teal Blueberry diaper in the front row from Lil Tulips: $139.31
The three striped diapers (SO PRETTY in person!) and the squiggly rainbow diaper from Blueberry Diapers: $96.80
Swim diaper from GroVia: $12 (MommyCon special price!)
Stuffed ninja that Babystar pointed out and then bit so I had to buy it (smart baby) from Wrap Scrap Creations: $20
Two Ubbi Tweat Snack Containers (you can see that one was used for Cheerios right away): $15 (MommyCon special pricing!)
Navy blue mesh ring sling from Cute Awakening: $35
Ziggy Stardust t-shirt for Babystar from Jammy Jams: $18

Merch total was $336.11 plus $84 for tickets (general admission plus the Feed the Baby VIP session on Friday) so my grand total was $420.11. Which is almost exactly $100 less than last year. I wanted to buy much more but restrained myself. I wanted more more MORE cloth diapers and a Tekhni ‘hip sack’ (which is really just a pretty fanny pack for fancy mamas) and a woven ring sling and and and. You get it.

I chatted with several of the vendors; again, everyone I talked to was so nice. Everyone. Of course they were, right? They are vendors. But everyone was SUPER above and beyond nice, and excited to chat about their products or just about babies or life in general.

Life Tip #1: Get some Oh My Yog! Organic Yogurt from Stonyfield in your life as soon as possible. Stonyfield gave some out during the VIP sessions on Friday and I cannot even tell you how delicious it is. You will thank me. Unless you really hate yogurt. Then you might not like it. But you might — it’s that good.

Life Tip #2: Find out where to buy Brewla ice pops near you and get the coffee flavored one and eat it immediately. They had samples on Saturday and they were SO GOOD. The Strawberry Hibiscus was also delicious. But that coffee flavored one tho.

Life Tip #3: (If you have a baby or a toddler.) Attend a MommyCon near you. I think it is finally worth traveling for, and I wouldn’t have said that last year. Xza and her team have been on a steep learning curve and the entire convention is really really good now.

Everyone always wants to know WHAT IS IN THE SWAG BAG?

Everyone gets a gift bag. And if you attend a VIP session (held the day before), you get another special individualized gift bag. I attended Feed the Baby with Jessica Martin-Weber from The Leaky B@@b and it was great because she is just adorable and funny and great. And all of this was in my VIP gift bag.

You guys, look! There is a coral EZPZ mini mat! Just like the one I gave away last week. And just like the one I already own and reviewed and wondered if it would work better if I never put it in the dishwasher. I’m going to do a blind ‘sticky test’ soon and I’ll let you know how it goes. I will also tell you all about the BiteSizers and Re-Play dishware and GOOtensils once Babystar uses them a bit.

(That can is tuna. I don’t know. Special you-can-eat-it-when-you-are-pregnant tuna but still. What?)

And everyone got a General Admission gift bag with some variation on these goodies.

Well technically, the Kind bar, Babyganics samples on the left, and GoGo applesauce were handed out by vendors in the exhibit hall. The rest was in the swag bag. Highlights included two types of reusable food pouches (Sage Spoonfuls and Little Green Pouch), an adorable doll sized cloth diaper from Nicki’s Diapers, and a Maya & Max by MOBY baby hat. Plus lots of other cool stuff, as you can see. I actually got another bag with a variation of these things at the end as a thank you for volunteering, so I’m going to give THIS one away. I’ll even pay your shipping costs, so US only please and sorry. Immediately after taking the above picture last night, I tied up the bag and set it aside for you.

I’m leaving this giveaway open until the middle of next week, because I will not be able to ship this out until August 5th.

THIS GIVEAWAY IS NOT AFFILIATED WITH OR ENDORSED BY MOMMYCON.

I’m just gifting you my super cool swag bag. 🙂

WE HAVE A WINNER! Gabriela, I just sent you an email. CONGRATULATIONS! And thank you to everyone who entered!!

Enter to win a MommyCon Swag Bag here!

RAISING BABYSTAR: $11,149.67

Brunch Baby.

Published on June 11, 2016June 11, 2016 by Darlene Dee1 Comment

A new era has begun. Last weekend at brunch (yes brunch — we fancy), Babystar refused her carefully thawed and packed puree (just kidding — I brought pouches) and instead shared my meal. First time ever. In fact, I think she ate about five percent of my thirteen dollar dish so I guess I have to add 0.65 to her totals. I had French toast and turkey sausage and home fries and scrambled egg and plus there were free homemade donuts on the table in lieu of a bread basket. FREE DONUTS, PEOPLE. She mostly ate the scrambled egg with a few bites of potato and French toast. She did not eat the food I packed for her. Not at all.

So now we share cereal and fruit (cut reallllly small) for breakfast. Pasta with tomato for lunch. Fried rice. Scrambled eggs. A waffle fry at Chik-Fil-a (yep). All of the strawberries. Peas and carrots. Extra ripe pears. Quinoa waffles. Thai noodles with tofu. Toast and applesauce. Pulled pork and mashed potatoes.

Plus she still will eat some purees sometimes* as long as she has something more solid to accompany the mush. It is fun and hilarious and annoying and I love it.

And it’s a natural forced diet because I can no longer eat anything that I wouldn’t want her to eat. Lame. Mmmm. Please pass more roasted veggies. (Ok, yum, but COME ON CAN I GET SOME POTATO CHIPS?! Nope.)

Organic eggs + strawberries for days + ten percent of most of my meals for the last week + tiny cans of diced veggies for when I’m lazy + diced tomatoes for her pasta because she doesn’t know about sauce yet + all of the Cheerios = let’s call it $25. Conservatively. So, $25.65, I guess.

*Babystar doesn’t like ‘big girl’ sweet potatoes. She only ~~likes~~ loves the sweet potatoes I roast and puree for her. Are the regular ones too stringy? Does anyone else’s weirdo kid do this?

RAISING BABYSTAR: $7,823.04

Frozen Food.

Published on June 5, 2016May 30, 2016 by Darlene DeeLeave a comment

More Food Math = Bananas + Cherries + Strawberries + Tangelos + Apples + Green Beans + Broccoli + Pears + Sweet Potatoes + Peaches + Spinach + Peppers + Brussels Sprouts + Avocado + Watermelon + Oatmeal + Quinoa + Mango = $57.55.

RAISING BABYSTAR: $7,647.75