Homemade Baby Food: One More Reason I Love My Mom

My parents adopted me when I was 5 weeks old.  They are my real parents in every sense of the meaning (except genetically).  The woman who gave birth to me was only 17 when I was born, and did not breastfeed me. 

I can understand how breastfeeding a child that you are relinquishing could be heartbreaking.  Though, I wish I could have had the benefit of the customized nutrients and immunities that only she could give me.  My mom tried to breastfeed when they got me, but was unsuccessful.  Breastfeeding resources for adoptive moms were limited if not non-existent in the late 70s.  But at least she tried!!

Despite the fact that I was never breastfed, my parents say that I was a very healthy baby.  I believe that my good health was primarily due to the fact that my mom made all of my baby food in our kitchen at home. 

I recently asked her what led her to the decision to make my baby food.  She said the main reason was that it was better for me than store-bought baby food.  She didn't base this decision on any scientific studies or professional opinions, just the common sense that whole foods were better than processed ones. 

The secondary reason was the high price of jarred baby food. She said,  "You ate A LOT and it would have gotten really expensive if we had bought baby food from the store.  You really ate A LOT.  I'm sorry.  Let's just say you were a good eater."  Oh, my funny mommy.



I wasn't starving!  That's for sure!


She explained that every Saturday, while Dad was doing yard work, she would set up my playpen in the kitchen and crank up the radio while she made my meals for the week.  She cooked a variety of fruits, vegetables and meat and then put them through a food mill which she cranked MANUALLY, thank you very much.  She put my food in ice cube trays, which she then froze.  Later, she would put all of the frozen baby food cubes into a freezer-safe tupperware container.  When it came time to feed me, which sounds like it was a fairly frequent occurrence, she would simply defrost a cube or two.

The idea of Natural Parenting is moving outside the crunchy granola circles and gaining momentum in the mainstream.  Combine that with the state of our economy during recent years and it is easy to see why more and more parents are choosing to make their babies' food at home.

Not surprisingly, this increase in the popularity of homemade baby food has been met by a myriad of products designed to make the process easier.  Here is a run down of some of the baby food products on the market right now.  They all have the same function, that is to turn whole foods into mush so your baby can consume them.  Some of the more expensive ones claim to have options for different textures (blend, puree, chop).

• Manual Food Mills ($8-50) -  These are operated by hand, but when you consider the fact that most of the food you will be milling is soft, it won't take too much muscle.

• Electric Baby Food Processors ($25-$90) - These work much faster than manual mills and require little to no effort on your part.

• All-In-One Steamer/Processor Combo ($60-210) - These electric units have a steamer to cook the food and a processor to mush the food, further simplifying the process of making baby food.  Most units also have the added feature of being able to defrost and reheat the baby food.  Some have the ability to sterilize pacifiers or anything else that fits and needs to be sterilized.  Also, most are dishwasher safe.  Some are sold as a package that also include a rubber scraper, portion freezers (like ice cube trays), and storage containers.

While the all-in-one products can seem to make things easier, there are more cost-efficient alternatives.  Chances are, you already have everything you need to start making baby food.  But if you don't, I believe that you can get started for less than $20.  Visit your local thrift store or 99 cent store.  You will easily find a basic steamer (the metal kind that fans out), ice cube trays, and freezer-safe containers or freezer bags.  If you don't already own a food processor or blender, you can purchase a small single serve blender for less than $15. MooDeals.com has the Hamilton Beach blender (seen below) for less than $12.

There are several benefits to making your own baby food, including saving money, saving the environment and giving your babe the most nutrient-rich food available besides breastmilk.  As I have already mentioned, the cost of store-bought baby food is ridiculous.  It's just food that has been pureed, but somehow it costs up to 4 times more than "adult food".  There is nothing special or better about baby food from the grocery store.

In fact, store-bought baby food has added water and starchy fillers.  My mom never added chemically modified food starch to my applesauce, but Gerber adds it to theirs so they can charge you more money for less nutrients.  Makes a lot of sense, right?  When you make your own baby food, you can be assured that your baby is getting the most out of every bite she takes.

And then there's the planet.  By the time a baby is 12 months, she will have consumed an average of 600 jars of baby food.  Multiply that by the 4 million+ babies born in the United States every year.  Where the heck do all of those jars go?  Food packaging in general is a huge source of waste in this country, but you can make a tiny dent in the waste, by avoiding those thousands of jars and making baby's food at home.

Read this awesome article by the Center for Science in the Public Interest about baby food.  It's long, but the Intro summarizes it pretty well.

When I told my mom about some of the all-in-one baby food makers on the market, she was impressed at the fact that they existed, and even admitted that they could make the process easier.  But she said that even if they had been available when I was a baby, she still would have done it the way she did.

There is one ingredient that my mother included in every batch of food she made for me, and it cannot be found in any jar of store-bought baby food:  LOVE!!

Why I Stopped Shaving

Call me a hippie.  Call me gross.  I am a mammal.  And mammals are supposed to have hair.  So, I guess the question is: Why did I ever START shaving in the first place?

I stopped shaving more than a decade ago, and have saved thousands of dollars in the process.  When you consider the cost of water, shaving gels, razors, razor burn creams, and the like, hair removal is clearly an extremely costly practice with few benefits.

When I was a young teenager, I could hardly wait to start shaving my legs.  Not necessarily because I wanted smoother, prettier legs, but more because it was something that grown up ladies did.  At first, I did not mind shaving, and I certainly enjoyed the benefits.  One of my favorite things about shaving was the way it felt when I got into bed.  My legs felt so smooth and silky against the soft linens.

It wasn't long before I realized that these so-called benefits of shaving were extremely short lived.  As soon as I got cold and got goosebumps on my legs, there would be stubble.  All of the careful work of shaving my very long legs was made pointless in mere seconds if the bathroom was too chilly when I got out of the shower.  And even without any external environmental stimuli, my legs didn't stay smooth for very long before the hair grew out enough to make stubble.

And then there was the issue of ingrown hairs.  As a person with naturally curly hair, I am constantly dealing with ingrown hairs.  Shaving only makes it worse. 

It was sometime toward the end of high school when I cut my shaving down to once a week, usually a day when my legs would be seen by the general public.  I was a cheerleader and played varsity softball, so I had to wear a short skirt or short shorts at least once a week for most of the school year.  But when I went to college, shaving became an even rarer occurrence.  This can be directly attributed to two things.  First, I was suddenly financially responsible for myself and everything I needed, including razors.  Second, my wardrobe changed drastically when I went to college; I stopped wearing short skirts and shorts, except on rare occasions.

I suppose there was a certain amount of laziness involved when making the decision not to shave.  I am almost 5'11"  That's 71 inches.  My legs are 35 inches long.  They are like tree trunks and it takes at least 40 minutes to shave them completely (and carefully).  A simple cost/benefit analysis easily concluded that shaving was not a necessity in my life.

My husband has never had a problem with my hairiness.  And I trust him, because he is always very honest about things he doesn't like.  Unfortunately, he is a minority in this respect.  Most men would be shocked and disgusted if their partners did not engage in regular hair removal.  Though, if body hair on a woman had been a sexual deal-breaker for men throughout history, we wouldn't exist as a species.

I hate to say it, but men expecting women to shave is completely sexist!  UNLESS, the man is willing to shave the same things he expects a woman to shave.  I understand that a shaved leg or armpit looks better and feels better, but the same would be true of a smooth man, right?!? 

Regarding the removal of body hair around your pubic area, I refer you back to my opening statement.  We are mammals.  We are supposed to have hair.  The hair down there is part of a beautifully designed self-cleaning system.  Please read the monologue Hair from Eve Ensler's The Vagina Monologues. 





















I will admit that shaving one's pits does help control odor, but if that was reason enough to shave, why don't men do it?  I will tell you why!  I have often wondered when and why women began shaving their legs and pits.  Recently, I did some research and found a few answers.  The jazz age ushered in new fashions that included sleeveless dresses.  In 1915 an ad in Harper's Bazaar featured a woman with her arms over her head revealing shaved armpits.  The ad claimed that new fashions combined with modern dancing made it necessary to remove underarm hair.  Later, as skirts got shorter, women were told by fashion magazines that they now needed to remove their leg hair as well.

Don't get me wrong, I shave on occasion.  My legs get shaved 4-6 times a year and my pits get shaved 1-4 times a month depending on how hot it is.  Every time I shave my legs, I put my best sheet set on my bed and enjoy that fabulous feeling of freshly shaved legs against 800 count Egyptian Cotton.  I'm not advocating for everyone to stop all hair removal.  But for those of you ladies out their who think they HAVE to shave, maybe this will make you think again.

I want to hear from you!  Are there other non-shavers out there?  Are you completely disgusted at the idea of NOT shaving?  Feel free to comment anonymously!  I want to know what you think!

Living Simply Magic: Making Something Out Of Virtually Nothing

Sundays at the Living Simply home are the one day when we can spend an entire uninterrupted day together.  We love going to the farmers market in the village and then Fresh & Easy to do our grocery shopping for the week.  I usually try to plan our meals for the week, so we know what groceries to get.  But I never plan for Sundays.  Sunday is the day when we make sure we have finished all of our food from the previous week, so nothing gets wasted.

This morning, I looked to see what we had left.  I was greeted by slim pickings:  no leftovers, just 1lb ground beef, carrot & celery sticks, an onion, eggs, bacon, a small piece of angel food cake and 4 slices of stale bread.  We always keep staples in the pantry, like rice, pasta, pasta sauce, flour, sugar, cereal, etc.  But we were still left with very limited resources.  I momentarily ignored the need to plan our meals for the day, french-pressed my morning coffee, and turned on PBS for our Sunday morning cooking shows!

Lidia was in the middle of making something when I tuned in.  She was putting carrots, celery and onions in a food processor.  Then she added pancetta, and I thought, I wonder if she's making bolognese?  Bolognese!!!  Of course!!!  It turns out she was making stuffing, but the seed had been planted.  I had almost all the ingredients I need to make a kick-ass bolognese sauce! 

I have never attempted to make bolognese, but I know what the basic ingredients are, and decided I would take on the challenge.  We picked up the few remaining necessary ingredients (basil, garlic, cream) when we went shopping.  We found artisan rosemary bread & organic berries on clearance at Fresh & Easy.  (FYI-  Fresh & Easy reduces the price on food items that are about to expire.  If you are planning on using the item the same day, it can be a wonderful way to save money.)

When we returned home from shopping we made a simple yet tasty brunch of eggs and bacon.  Then we started to prepare dinner!  As usual we used bread leftover from the previous week, to make croutons for the next week.  If you have never made your own croutons, you are missing out.  They are so easy and delicious.  Just cut bread into small cubes, pour about 1 tablespoon of melted butter per slice of bread over the cubes and toss.  Sprinkle salt and garlic powder to taste and toss again.  Put the bread cubes on a cookie sheet and place in oven preheated to 400.  You will know when they are done, usually 10-15 minutes.  They get darker and your house starts to smell wonderful.


Homemade Croutons, Before & After Baking

 The base of the sauce is pretty easy and can be made in bulk, so you can freeze some for those busy days when you just don't feel like cooking.

Bolognese Base

1 lb ground beef (crumbled, browned & drained)

4oz Italian sausage (crumbled, browned & drained)

4-6 strips of regular bacon or 4 oz of Pancetta (crumbled & cooked, SAVE THE FAT)

1 cup diced carrots

1 cup diced celery (peel strings off for best results)

1 cup diced onion (sauteed til soft in 1-2 tablespoons of bacon fat)

3-5 cloves of garlic, crushed or finely diced

6-10 basil leaves, finely chopped

salt & pepper to taste

1/2 cup heavy cream (DO NOT SUBSTITUTE, the cream is the glue that holds the sauce together)

All of the above ingredients (except cream) need to be put through a food processor or blender.  I processed the meat first, set it aside, then processed the veg.  Then I mixed them together.  You can process the ingredients however you want, but I found the way I did it to be ideal.  After you have mixed the meat & veg in a large bowl, add the cream and stir it in.  The base is now complete!  It is not the most visually appealing concoction (Mr. LS lovingly called it meat paste), but it is a necessary part of the journey to an amazing bolognese. 



Bolognese Base

Once you have the base completed, you may freeze it and use it at a later date.  Or you can finish making this sauce and enjoy it right away!  To complete this sauce, all you need to do is dump the base in a large skillet and add some basic pasta sauce (pomodoro or marinara). 

I used about half of a 25oz. jar, but you could use more or less, depending on your tastes.  Stir over medium high heat until it bubbles.  At this point, I added more cream, but you don't have to.  Once the sauce is heated through and bubbling, remove it from the heat.  There is very little water left in this sauce and it will reduce down to a very thick mix, too thick to be a good pasta sauce.  It's finished!  toss with your favorite pasta and then spoon a little more on top for good measure!  If you want to get fancy you can garnish with fresh basil and parmesan.

If you have any room left in your tummy after this delicious meal, I suggest something light for dessert.  We shared a fresh and cheery springtime treat thanks to those berries that were on clearance. 

Spaghetti Bolognese has been a favorite of ours for many years, and I am so upset that I waited so long to try to make it myself at home.  Don't make the same mistake I did, try it this week!