Success x2

A whoo hoo! That is how I am feeling about the whole pureed veggie mission that I have been on. I will admit that while I was proud of myself for actually taking the time to do all the prep I was anticipating a major let down when I actually fed it to my kids.

The first meal was meatloaf (with carrots) and mashed potatoes (with cauliflower). Now here is what I had to laugh about...both of those things are items of food my children normally hate...self sabotage much. Really what was I thinking? BUT they loved it. Jack actually ate meat that was not hiding in a crescent roll AND he took several bites of the mashed potatoes...pretty sure that is a first. Cole tried it, I knew he would because he always tries something once...BUT he kept eating. YEAH! I was glowing with happiness and pride at the dinner table as I watched in amazement my children inhaling nutritional food. Both Spencer and I were very pleasantly surprised (Spencer more so because this might be the first time I had made meatloaf since we got married).

So with one success under my belt I decided to attempt another recipe a couple of nights later. This time it was Aloha Chicken (Cole immediately said, "Hello Chicken, that is funny"). This time the purees used were, both sweet potato and pineapple. It was a fairly simple recipe and I just paired it up with brown rice. I had everything on the plates and on the table and kids firmly seated. I again was questioning if this would work. Did I just get lucky the first time? Would I even like it? As I headed to the table I noticed that where the chicken had been on Jack's plate, it was no more. At first I figured he had thrown it on the floor, but his bulging cheeks and exaggerated chewing confirmed a victory! Woohoo! It had worked again. Cole even insisted on eating his right off the skewer, not even letting us cut it up. Again I was feeling pretty happy.

So, yes this concept works, and no nothing was too difficult. I don't plan on making every dinner with my purees (in fact last night I am pretty sure I put meat back into a crescent roll), but it is doable several times a week. Hey why wouldn't I...the kids scarf it down, I am getting veggies into them, AND I get a beaming smile of appreciation and admiration from my hubby at each new recipe (okay not just then, but it is nice!). Next on the list...meatball soup!

Deceptively Difficult?

Months ago I randomly ran across the Oprah show talking about this book called Deceptively Delicious with the sole intent on pureeing up veggies and fruit and hiding them in different dishes to fool our wee ones into eating healthily. Right away I was intrigued. Could this work, is it worth all the steaming, pureeing, freezing, hiding hassle? So yes, I was intrigued, but honestly not intrigued enough to buy the book.

Well fast forward to Christmas and "Merry Christmas" Spencer got me that book for a Christmas present. I casually flipped through it and was aghast at the pages upon pages of...kitchen tools you need to steam,kitchen tools you need to puree, kitchen tools you need to prepare, storage things you need, how to's on getting fresh fruits and veggies, pantry items to always have on stock (which there seemed to be an inordinate amount of whole wheat bread crumbs, flaxseed meal, etc). AHHH! This is never going to happen. I was sure I would have to take out a 2nd mortgage to pay for the luxury of making sure my kids were nutritionally balanced. So a flip switched and I decided maybe it could wait a couple more years and hundreds of more pay checks.

Soon enough the dark clouds parted and my mood improved. So this week during our grocery shopping trip I grabbed some "preferred" veggies and fruits for steaming. I even made out a recipe list to include these specific pureed foods. After a couple more days of doubting I could actually do this...I finally took a morning and just buckled down.Much to my surprise, it was really EASY. I cleaned, cut up, steamed, pureed, stored, and froze my variety of fresh and yes canned and frozen (don't tell the author) fruits and veggies. I steamed fresh cauliflower and carrots. I roasted sweet potatoes. I opened a can of pineapple and a bag of frozen spinach. Then I pulled out the handy dandy magic bullet and proceed to pulverize every single thing. Each one got nicely dumped into a labeled freezer bag and then put in the chest freezer. THEN I was done...really? I was done. Yes Ma'am!

So I had let myself believe that preparing this stuff was going to be difficult, but it was anything but. Now I can proudly pat myself on the back for heading one step in the right direction to proper nutrition. Now all I have to do is use this stuff in an actual recipe and pray that my kids are not taste bud astute enough to recognize my trickery. Update on that later!

Our GQ'n It Little Man

Cole has been a little lack luster at church recently. Probably because we haven't really been able to get him anything new since Easter. Now the fact that he is wearing festive spring church wear in the winter doesn't bother me, but the fact that he has grown, which causes him to constantly look to be on flood alert, does bother me.

So we hit a couple of sales, but came on the mother load with this WalMart special. Who says they can't make some cute things? Cole was so excited to put on the whole suit. He promised that he wouldn't be too rowdy when he wore it to church. So watch out this Sunday all you little ladies, here comes our studly boy.

Cole enjoying a daddy joke (only way we can get him to smile for a picture)

Thanks to Spence for the model like posing! So handsome!

Blustery Day and a New Camera

We had a blustery "snowy" day a couple of days ago. We didn't get tons of snow, but nevertheless the boys wanted to play in the snow. We bundled them all up and headed out. They were super cute to watch and it gave me time to try out our new camera...I am still pretty much just using auto function so nothing fancy, but you don't really need fancy with boys as cute as we have.

Feeling Extra Domestic

During the last month or so, I have had a hankerin' to do tons of "redecorating" around the house. Since there is a lack of funds to really do an HGTV type makeover, I have had to do with my sub par crafting skills and the help of Walmart, Jo Ann's, and some spray paint to accomplish some little face lift stuff for the house.

Personally, I don't think that my cheap makeover alternatives turned out too bad. Of course there are quite a few things left to do.

Here is what I did:

Slip covered sofa (ok that has been done awhile)

Paper crafted pictures for bathroom

Made throw pillows

Spray-painted plates for kitchen

Made curtain for kitchen window

and the finale...the picture wall!!!

What I still want to do (before baby born):

Paint baskets black for storage of all the toys

Make white slip cover for old blue chair

Redo boys room with Marvel superhero theme

Paint baby room

Paint boys dresser

Paint crib and changing table

Make upholstered head board for our bed

I can get all that done, right??? Probably not, but I will attempt. One major glitch is that most of the stuff I have to paint requires primer first and that is a big no-no when you are preggers. So I will have to enlist the help of a certain hunky hubby (hope you are reading this wink...wink)

Some Jack Devotion

Just thought I would send a little blog love to Jack. He has really gotten big lately. His vocabulary is insane. I love hearing him talk. Sometimes I forget he is just two. He has the greatest smile, and of course those eyes.


He is a daddy's boy, which doesn't make me jealous at all. It is really endearing. He loves cars, dinosaurs, Blue's Clue's, oranges, yogurt, and play fighting. Hence this hilarious picture of him holding up Cole. Thank you Santa for the Nerf gun.

He loves to play with Cole and really loves trying to do whatever Cole does...he said that included going to the potty like Cole. Well, after many weeks hesitation I finally started the "training" today. We got the candy jar ready, the potty seat ready, all the pull-ups you think you would need, and then forfeited the pants all day. Let's just say this is one thing I am not sure Jack really wants to do just like Cole yet. This may have been a one day try and bomb. He pooped three separate times in the pull up, and we have not had one minuscule success yet...but hey it is only 4:30 pm.

That's okay, he has plenty of time...and it wouldn't be fair if he was a genius at everything, right?

I love you Jack.