Baby Food

As you all know I am all about saving money and doing what is healthiest for my family. Well, as we are getting to new stages with our little one I now get to explore a little bit more in my money saving tactics.

We started baby food! Of course I have decided to make it all myself which really isn't complicated at all! You simply puree the fruit or veggies in a blender and store for either the day or for the next week depending on how much you want to make at once.

Fresh of course is always best. With vegetables you will just need to cook them and remember steaming them will keep more of the nutrients. Also, you will want to keep the water you cooked/steamed the vegetables in to help thin out the veggies (except for those high nitrate veggies such as carrots). Place the veggies in the blender and add the water until it is to a good consistency for your child. The fruits usually have enought natural juice to make it easy for your baby to eat.

To store you can pour the food into ice cube trays then covering it with foil and placing in the freezer. With that process you are able to take out and thaw only what you need. I have been using those small rubbermaid containers that are so small you really don't know what they are suppose to be used for. Well apparently I figured out what they are to be used for because these are perfect for if you are on the go.

We had baby food given to use which we will still use so that I can reuse the containers to store new food. We were also given a lot of baby cereal but it is also possible to make this yourself too! Maybe next time around I'll try it out!

Paper or Plastic?

So, we all get this question everytime we go grocery shopping, paper or plastic? Which is best for the environment? This is actually a trick question. Plastic can kill wildlife from it blowing around and animals eating or suffocating on the bag. Paper uses more energy to make. They both take about the same amount of time to break down in a landfill. Both can be recycled but it takes more energy to recycle plastic than paper. We use 12 million barrels of oil to make plastic bags in one year but we use 14 million trees for paper bags.

Now that you know a few facts its really up to you on how you want to impact the environment. The best option is obviously reusable bags and you can watch for sales on these and the price keeps going down. Also, some stores give you a discount or money for bringing back the plastic bags from their store.

What to do when you have those random plastic bags that end up at your house? Reuse if at all possible! I use them for trash can liners and always keep an extra in the diaper bag in case the wet bag gets full from the cloth diapers.

Organic Grocery List

While trying to stay healthy and away from pesticides many people are going organic. The prices however are sometimes stopping many other people! How can you decide what is worth the money and what you can go without? I have talked about the dirty dozen before but you should also keep in mind the clean fifteen. Write them down on a note card and keep it with you when you do your grocery shopping to keep your family healthy but still following your budget!

Dirty Dozen (keep in mind that they do update this list every year so it can be different then what you have seen before)

1. celery
2. peaches
3. strawberries
4. apples
5. blueberries
6. nectarines
7. bell peppers
8. spinich
9. kale
10. cherries
11. potatoes
12. grapes

Clean Fifteen

1. onion
2. avocado
3. sweet corn
4. pineapple
5. mango
6. asparagus
7. sweet peas
8. kiwi
9. cabbage
10. eggplant
11. papaya
12. watermelon
13. broccoli
14. tomato
15. sweet potato