D is for Donut!

This week we have been working on letter D.  We have read books about, dogs, dress up, Daisy Duck, driving a bus, dinosaurs, dog food, and dancing!  We have sorted dinosaurs by size, matched dinosaurs by color, looked for big D and little d, and decorated our own donuts.  If Gonzo had not gone to work before the donut shop was open we would have also eat a few donuts!  Oh well, maybe next week!  And yes, Gonzo does go to work that early!  Especially this morning so he can get home to trick or treat with us.

  Here is a picture of their d-d-d-decorated d-d-d-donuts!

Adda told me "Oh no, we forgot about our donut hole!"  I guess she thought we were also decorating the hole and it also needed sprinkles!

   

Chicken Pot Pie

If your looking for a really good and easy recipe for a chicken pot pie, this is a good one.  My friend Kristen made this for us when Adda was born and I have been making it ever since.  Most of the time I don't even look at the recipe while I'm making it.  It's that easy!

Chicken Pot Pie

1 can drained green beans

1 carrot- chopped and steamed

1 1/2 cups broccoli -chopped and steamed

5 small new potatoes - chopped and steamed

3 chicken breasts - boiled and chopped 

(Kristen uses a rotissere chicken)

1 can cream of chicken soup

2/3 cup milk

1 cup cheddar cheese

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp pepper

2 pie crusts

Combine all ingredients in a bowl.  Add to bottom pie crust and top with second pie crust.  Pinch edges together and cut slits in the top.  Bake at 425 for 30 minutes or until crust is golden brown and the inside is bubbly.  

I have only used green bean a few times.  Only because I can't seem to remember they are in the recipe when I am at the grocery store.  I have also chopped my vegetables, drizzled them with EVOO, and roasted them in the oven before adding them to the other ingredients.  Last year during the fall I made it with carrots, sweet potatoes and butternut squash.  It was delish as well!  The possibilities are endless.  I always add way more vegetables than it calls for.  

The day I was at the store they did not have any rotisserie chickens ready so I bought these chicken pieces because they were on sale.  I rubbed them with EVOO and seasoned them with salt and pepper and baked them for an hour on 350. 

I always add a little more milk and cheese because I add extra vegetables. 

When Kristen made it for us to eat when we brought Adda home from the hospital she cut hearts out of the top!  How cute is that! 

  I love this meal!  It is one of my very favorites!

Acorn Squash!

We finished our green peas and have started a new vegetable this week.  Ella's favorite so far is acorn squash!  She ate two the first night and could have sucked them with a straw if I had let her. 

Cut the squash in half and scrape the seeds out.

 Put the two halves in a baking dish and add a little water to create steam under the foil while it bakes.  

 I baked them for an hour on 350.  Scrape the cooked pulp out of the skin and put it in the blender with breast milk, formula, or water.

 Blend until you get the consistency you want.

 That one squash made 11-2 ounce containers of baby food. 

 I hardly cleaned her mouth with the spoon as she ate it because she literally sucked it off the spoon.  

 It was the first time she ate two containers at once!

1 acorn squash from Trader Joe's $1.29

I did not buy organic because acorn squash is a vegetable that does not have to be organic.  If it has a peel it is not exposed to chemicals on the inside.  Just make sure you wash the outside well before cooking.

It made 16 total ounces (actually a little more each container had a little more than 2 oz.)

That's $0.08 per ounce.

Walmart-Earths Best brand winter squash (a mixture of butternut and acorn squash)

12 pack of 4 oz. jars $19.08

That's approximately $0.40 per jar 

It would have cost me a total of $3.87 to make 48oz.

If I had bought this from Walmart it would have cost me $19.08 to get 48oz.

That is a HUGE difference.  I think I'll keep making the baby food!  This one blew me away!  

Pumpkin Patch!

After we voted I took the girls to the pumpkin patch.  It was a day of catching up.  I have been meaning to take them to the pumpkin patch for a while now and it had not happened yet.  I also knew we might get rain over the weekend and I didn't want to go to the pumpkin patch after a rain!  Yuck!  Doing that by myself with Gonzo at work did not sound like a fun activity at all!  They had fun and I managed to get a few good pictures of them both.  We left with two baby pumpkins and a big pumpkin for Daddy and I!

 She's really good at saying cheese and not looking at the camera!

 Again!

 Really interested in the hay!

 And, it's in her mouth!

 All those teeth make a really cute smile!

 I love these two girls!

We had a really good win that night at the football game!  The cold front hit and we were bundled up big time!  Two games left in district!  This season has been a whirlwind so far and I can only remember a few plays from all the games combined!  All I care about is a W! 

Tackling Daddy after the game! 

 Singing the school song!

 All bundled up! 

We voted!

On Friday, the girls and I voted.  We talked about it with Adda the night before and so she knew exactly what we were doing that morning including who I was going to vote for, and what I was voting for him for.  She asks so many questions these days!  So...I got in there with them both and as I was standing at my little machine casting my vote Adda announced who I was voting for to everyone in the room.  Her exact words were, "Mom, you voting for Mitt?!!"  Luckily we live in a country where we can go vote and not worry about our safety based on who we vote for.  Everyone laughed  and then a lady came up to me that was working the polls and said, "Let me know if I can help you!"  I laughed and said, "I know it looks like I need help, doesn't it!"  We all got stickers on our way out!  A sticker mean sooooo much to Adda B!

 

Green Peas, Green Peas, I Love Grean Peas!

When Adda was a baby we would sing this little jig to her every time she had green peas.  She loved them pureed and she loved them whole.  It was one of the first foods we started giving her to eat by herself.  I made green peas for Ella on Sunday afternoon while the girls were napping.  I timed myself to prove again that making your own baby food is not what most people think.  It's fast, easy, and super economical!  From start to finish with cleaning up it took 26 minutes.  That is including steaming the peas.

What you need: frozen peas, pot, steaming basket, breast milk or formula, food processor/blender.

 I steamed them for about 9 minutes.  I wanted to make sure they were good and hot as to kill any bacteria that might be on them.  The package said 6 to 7 minutes.

 Unsure what to think at first!

 Smiled and pushed some of it out!

 Grabbing for the camera!

 Success!

 She loved them!  I can't feed them to her fast enough!  So, as a family we sing as she eats!  Green peas, green peas, I love green peas!

   Frozen Organic Peas at Kroger $2.99 for 10oz. bag

Approximately $0.29 per oz.

I made 6 - 2 oz. containers (one was a little shy of 2)

On average the homemade was a savings of about $0.25 per oz. compared to store bought brands.  The part that takes the longest is actually scraping out the blender and putting it in the containers.  

I had someone ask if I would compare the color of homemade versus store bought.

 

Here is the difference!