Mommy FTW

Over the winter months I do a lot of cooking in the oven.  It’s so much easier and less messy than on the stove, and I don’t mind that it makes my apartment nice and toasty either!  I recently discovered that Cameron enjoyed the roast chicken breast I was making.  It’s so easy I thought I would share the method.  For those less inclined cooks out there – don’t worry, it’s super easy!  This uses chicken breast on the bone, with the skin on.  I don’t give Cameron the skin, but it helps keep the chicken moist during cooking.

Set your oven to 400

Spray a baking sheet with cooking spray (or you can use a dutch oven or casserole type dish)

Place the chicken bone side down / skin side up on the baking sheet

When the oven is up to temperature, bake for 45 minutes, or until the internal temperature is 165.

That’s it!  If you want to make this for yourself – I would add some salt and pepper to the chicken before baking it.

Of course Cameron can’t eat all this at once, so I take off a few bits at meal time and leave the rest wrapped up in the fridge.

Earth’s Best certainly isn’t the cheapest baby food on the block, but the quality is good, and their food is organic, so I try and buy it for Cameron when I can.  I found that on their website they have several coupons you can print to save yourself a few bucks.  Here’s a few of the offers:

Check the Earth’s Best site for more coupons and offers!

Cameron and I had such a great time in DC over Christmas that we are going back down today.  We’re taking the train together – so I will be sure to report on how that goes once we return!

I’ll try to post while I’m gone, but in case I don’t – have a great week everyone!

Check out some great posts you might have missed to keep yourself busy:

Free Infant CPR at the Brooklyn Hospital

Reading for Babies at the Clinton Hill Library – a great winter activity

My Pediatrician’s remedy for pesky Diaper Rash

My sleep training bible – Healthy Sleep Habits Happy Baby

Dealing with a leaky diaper?  Maybe it’s time to go up a size

And check out my posts about What Cameron is Eating

At Cameron’s 12 month check up I was talking to our pediatrician about how to get him to eat eggs.  Sometimes he goes for scrambled eggs, and sometimes not….  She suggested trying french toast.  For Cameron, it was love at first bite!  A mom asked me the other day for my recipe.  I don’t really have one (I never measure) but here is a rough estimate:

1 egg

1/2 cup whole milk

dash of cinnamon

pat of butter for in the pan

4 pieces of whole wheat bread

French toast and strawberries!

I whisk up the egg, milk, and cinnamon and then dunk the bread in for a few seconds on each side.  Then cook in the pan with the butter until nice and brown on both sides.  I always make extra (Cam usually only eats 1/2 – 1 piece per serving) and keep it in the fridge.  It reheats well in the microwave.  Serve the toast with fruit and a touch of maple syrup if you like.

This Christmas when we were driving down to DC to visit my family we stopped at Chick Fil A.  My trusty Skip Hop plate was packed away in the trunk, but it didn’t matter!   They gave us a great table topper that stuck to the table – it kept the germs away from Cameron, and made his mess fairly easy to clean up.

Cameron enjoys his Chick Fil A

I checked out Amazon to see if I could find something like this to keep in my diaper bag, and indeed I was able to!

This one comes with a pop up travel case

These toppers (above) have a sesame street theme and come with a pop up travel case – great for diaper bags!  There are other themes too, if your little one isn’t into Sesame Street.

Cameron loves eating organic YoBaby yogurt, and I love giving it to him – although I’m not crazy about all the sugar.  The other day I was over at a friend’s house with Cameron and she told me that Fresh Direct now has YoBaby plain yogurt!  I didn’t think that Cameron would go for the non-sweetened version, but he didn’t even bat an eyelash.  So from now on at this house it’s YoBaby Plain from Fresh Direct, maybe with a little apple sauce or bananas stirred in.

YoBaby goodness without the sugar!

Brrr!  It certainly feels like winter out – which makes me want to eat something nice and warm for breakfast.  I posted awhile back about the Oatmeal that Cameron likes to eat that I make with Bananas.  Now that he is drinking cow’s milk I make it with whole milk instead of water and we share it (he ends up eating most of it though!)  I just thought I would highlight the post for my newer visitors in case you might have missed it.  Stay warm out there!

Check it out : What’s Cameron Eating? – Oatmeal with Bananas and Cinnamon!

If you want to try something different, add applesauce, pureed pears, or pureed pumpkin to the oatmeal.  It’s a great way to get some extra fruits or veggies in there.  Also, oatmeal is an excellent source of protein – so this really makes a great breakfast!

I’ve been struggling to get Cameron to eat his vegtables lately, and I had a nice butternut squash my mom had brought me from her garden, so I thought I might as well use it and make some soup – I hoped Cameron would eat it.  But at least I knew I would enjoy it, if he didn’t. Well, it turned out to be a hit, so I thought I would share my recipe:

Tasty Butternut Squash Soup

1 butternut squash cubed

1 apple (I didn’t bother to peel it) cubed

3 carrots cut in big chunks

2 onions cut in big chunks

2 cloves of garlic

Butter, Olive Oil

Low Sodium Chicken Stock

nutmeg, salt, and pepper to taste

Here’s what it looked like before I pureed it

Saute the onions and garlic in 1 TB of olive oil and 1TB of butter on medium heat until translucent. Add the rest of the veggies and fruit, stir around and let cook another minute or so. Add enough chicken stock to cover all the veggies. Bring to a boil, cover and simmer untill everything is tender – 30 minutes or so.

Puree or use a food mill. Add nutmeg, salt, and pepper to taste. I didn’t really add any salt to the soup, but instead added it to my portion as I heated that up. Also to mine I added some hot sauce.

I served Cameron his soup over some rice yesterday, and today I am going to serve it over some orzo (little pasta that looks like rice).

I’m pretty sure you could make this soup with any squash, and just throw in any veggies you have in the fridge!

I got this idea for a breakfast treat from another mom who was feeding it to her 14 month old daughter:

Whole wheat toast with a little butter, and then some peanut butter.  The butter helps it not be quite so thick and sticky.  The warm toast melts the peanut butter nicely.

Cameron really enjoys it – and it’s a nice break from the morning waffle rut we had fallen into.

Lately Cameron has really been digging Applegate Farms Chicken Nuggets that I have been ordering from Fresh Direct.  I know it’s not the healthiest thing on the planet, but at least the chicken has no Antibiotics, so I can feel a little bit good about that.  Plus he is getting some protein!  They are easy for him to mash up in his mouth, and easy for me to make.  I throw a few in the microwave to defrost for a couple seconds (usually with some sweet potato fries) and then finish them off in the toaster oven.

Yummy Chicken Nuggets