Freezing portions of baby food (+ Oatmeal Recipe)

So I was totally against buying baby food when I first had Paisley, little did I know being a mom got more and more demanding haha! When Paisley started crawling I discovered how hard it was to actually keep up with anything in the house, when she started eating food at 6 months it was easy at first because she was mostly dependent on breastmilk but at about a year I needed to feed her a lot more. Now, I am not against store bought baby food. I think they are great, especially when you are on the go or sick. I was trying to figure out a way to feed her more healthy foods that were actually healthy, I knew exactly what was in it and that was super convenient. TA-DA making large batches of food and freezing them in muffin tins and then transferring them to a freezer bag was the answer! Thank you Pinterest :D 

Here is Paisley eating a defrosted portion of pear, raison and apple oatmeal (Recipe below)

She loves it!

Pear, Raisin, Apple oatmeal

Ingredients: 

4 cups water

2 Pears ( diced)

1 1/3 cup rolled oats (NOT instant oats) 

2 Apples (peeled and diced)

1/2 cup raisins (chopped)

4 T brown sugar 

1/2 t vanilla

1/2 t nutmeg 

1 T cinnamon 

Directions: 

Bring water to a boil. 

Add all ingredients. 

Simmer for 15 minutes or until fruit is tender. 

You can serve as is or puree in a blender. 

This will store in the freezer for 3 months or the refrigerator for 3 days. 

Lactation Cookie Recipe

I really love these cookies! My husband and brother wont try them because of the name though haha! I don't really blame them, it makes it seem like they will start lactating haha! These seem to help me with increasing my breast milk supply. You can get a lot of information from the source of the recipe: Click for source  

Ingredients: 

• 1 cup self raising wholemeal flour (if you have plain flour, add 1/2 tsp baking powder)
• 1/2 cup low fat butter (for a healthier option, use organic, virgin coconut oil instead which is super good for you!)
• 3/4 cup brown sugar (if wanting to reduce sugar, you could try just 1/2 cup)
• 2 tablespoons flaxseed meal (can be found at any local health food store or on Amazon)
• 1 egg
• 2-3 tablespoons of water (depends if you prefer moister cookies)
• 1 tablespoon vanilla (optional, for flavour)
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon (optional, for flavour)
• 1-2 tablespoons of brewers yeast (do not substitute with bakers yeast or any other yeast).
• 1/2 teaspoon salt (use himalayan salt if possible)
• 1 & 1/2 cups oats (get the thicker cut oats if you can)

Directions:

• In a large mixing bowl, cream the butter and sugar then add the egg and vanilla. Mix well.
• In a separate bowl, combine the flaxseed and water, let sit for a few minutes before adding to mix.
• Add the dry ingredients (apart from the oats and your additional ingredients) and mix well again.
• Finally, stir in the oats and your additional ingredient.
• Make the biscuits (I use a desert spoon as a rough size guide) and place them onto a lightly greased or lined baking tray. Flatten them a little with your fingers or a spatula – if you like a soft centre, don’t squish them down too much. If you like you can just make them into balls – I do this and love the soft centre!
Bake for around 10-12 minutes depending on how well cooked/crunchy you like your biscuits – I prefer them a little soft and lightly cooked.

How to cook a whole frozen chicken in your crockpot

Uncooked

Cooked and shredded

Ummm so this method has basically just changed my entire life! You cant get any easier than plopping a whole frozen chicken into your crock pot and leaving for 5 hours! I found this method on a youtube video and was impressed https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KX4DjU43Bj4 , I heard people can get 5 meals out of a whole (small) chicken so I had to try it out. I used a different "recipe" than the lady in the video, here is what I used.....

*** I had a 5 pound chicken and left it in all night and it was amazing!


Ingredients: 
1 whole frozen chicken (3ish pounds)
1 cup water
2 teaspoons salt
1/2 teaspoon pepper
2 carrots sliced
1/2 onion diced
2 stalks celery cut
2 bay leaves


Directions:
Pour 1 cup water in your crockpot, lay chicken breast down in your crock pot, sprinkle salt and pepper on and around your chicken, stuff the cut carrots, onion, celery and bay leaves around chicken. Cover, set on high and go do something fun for 5 hours. To check if done you can stick a knife in a thick spot of the chicken and see if the meat is still pink, if it is still pink cook longer. When done, remove from crockpot and separate chicken as desired. If you want you can broil your chicken 5 minutes on each side for a more crispy chicken.

If you want to make chicken stock: 
Source: http://www.momskitchenhandbook.com/uncategorized/who-knew-crock-pot-chicken/

Remove the skin from the chicken and pull the meat off the bones.  Store the meat in the fridge until ready to use. Put the bones back into the crock pot.  Add two more whole carrots, 2 whole stalks celery, half an onion, and another bay leaf.  Add 5 more cups of water, turn the pot to low and cook an additional 4 hours. Strain the broth through a fine mesh sieve. Refrigerate or freeze until ready to use.

Freeze green smoothies for later!

So, I will start out by saying I HOPE YOU HAVE A GREAT BLENDER! I sure don't....I used my magic bullet and I am chewing my smoothie haha its alright though because it tastes really good. I am now researching the best blender in my price range. I would like to have a Blendtec or Vitamix but those are way out of my price range! Anyways, the original recipe called for parsley and then I found out after making 6 bags of smoothies that pregnant women are not allowed to have that much parsley, I ended up picking out the fruit and throwing the kale and parsley out because it was too evenly mixed together. Next time I am going to make it with spinach so that is who im going to write the recipe. Oh two more things...if you want to minimize the texture I would suggest peeling the apples and 1 bunch of kale equaled 4 cups when chopped up (for me at least).

Ingredients: 
1 cup of kale (remove the stem and chop up the kale)
1/2 spinach
1 banana (sliced)
1 apple (chopped)
2 1/2 cups water

Directions: 
Add everything EXCEPT THE WATER to a freezable ziplock bag and freeze. When ready to use you will want to put it in the blender (frozen) with the 2 1/2 cups of water and blend! :)

*try other variations, you can add avocado or yogurt for a creamier texture

Last minute crockpot oatmeal

I was laying in bed and couldn't sleep, so then I went on Pinterest on my phone and it told me to make crockpot oatmeal and I did...I will see how it turns out in the morning. My husband works two jobs and works his butt off! So tomorrow I am also going to make bacon for a morning snack....it means "I love you and appreciate you working all of those long hours" in man talk. (I am trying to make it seem like I'm not going to eat the bacon too, the truth is that it's my número uno craving haha)

See? Guys....

*about 8 hours later*
So, my husband is not a fan because of the texture but I love it! Its more mushy than your average oatmeal and Matts one of those texture people (he wont eat grits or cream of wheat because of the same thing). I poured some cream on mine and mixed it in.

Ingredients:

2 apples (chopped up)

1/3 cup brown sugar

1 Tablespoon cinnamon 

2 cups oatmeal

4 cups water 

Directions: 

Add chopped apples, brown sugar, cinnamon, oatmeal and water in crock pot, do not stir, cook on low for 8 to 9 hours.