The Secret to Camping with a One Year Old

The secret to camping with a one year old...is being okay with dirt.  Everywhere.  

A few things changed between camping without a kid to camping with a kid.  But like all other things, it was worth it.  Plus, he slept better than we did.   Maybe we should camp out every night!

Birthday bells and other traditions

My husband celebrated a birthday recently, and even though I had a huge hoopla for my son's first birthday, we didn't really focus on any traditions.  Although we did make him a bunny cake since his birthday was in the same week as Easter which my mom has done for all her kids and grandkids who have Easter birthdays.  I digress.

My husband celebrated a birthday recently, and I realized the importance of birthday traditions.  I read that traditions help make your kids feel apart of something and make them want to keep you around when they start their own families.  Or, something like that.

For my hubby's birthday we started a few new and old traditions.  We took one from my family, one from his, and made up our own.

Rob's family always had a birthday bell.  The birthday honoree had full privileges of the birthday bell on their big day.  Every time they rang the bell, everyone else had to run to do their beckoning: get them a piece of cake, tie their shoes, etc.  A few years back Rob's mom gave me the sacred birthday bell.

I dug that magical piece of silver out of my hope chest for Rob's special day.  His first, and only, ring of the day: morning coffee in bed.  I wonder how many times he must of rang the bell in his life and how lucky I was to only have heard it once that day.  Mason, on the other hand, rang the bell plenty of times, but we did not do his bidding!  We just laughed as he rang it all over the house.

My family's tradition was to let the birthday boy or girl choose their cake or dessert, plus my mom made our favorite food for the day.  Rob choose angel food cake with fresh strawberries and whip cream.  Yummy and easy!

I downgraded to one candle on the cake.  Too many candles are depressing.  Maybe we will put the same number of candles on our cakes as our kids have on theirs, and then we won't feel so old.

We changed up the favorite food to let the birthday person choose whatever food they want to eat for the day...this could get very interesting in the near future.  What will two-year-old Mason want to eat?!

My hubs choose to go out to one of our favorite breakfast spots at the beach for his first meal, second meal I packed him a delicious lunch (it was a work day), and third meal I picked up a pizza from his favorite pizza joint.  No cooking for momma!  A win-win situation.

Also, we decided the birthday person also gets to pick the activity for the day.  Rob picked to keep working on our bathroom remodel.  My, how things change when you pass through your twenties.

And last, but not least. We read Happy Birthday To You by Dr. Suess.  A tradition borrowed from a dear friend.

What are your birthday traditions?  I'd love to hear about them.  We are always looking for more!

Melt-In-Your-Mouth Zucchini Goodness

To all my friends who have been asking for vegetarian recipes...here is a winner!  It is easy, yummy and takes advantage of zucchini coming into season (at least here in SoCal).   Plus, this recipe is great to feed babies who are eating solids since it is easy to mash, or it makes great finger food for your toddler.

For lack of a better name, my family calls it Zucchini Casserole, but I also think it could also be called Melt-In-Your-Mouth Zucchini Goodness.  The recipe originates from my mom who probably got it from one of her million kazillion cookbooks and tweaked it to perfection.  Feel free to tweak it for your family.

Ingredients:
1/2 cup uncooked brown rice
1/4-1/2 cup chopped onion
3-4 cups cubed zucchini
1 cup cubed Colby jack cheese
1 can mushroom soup
1 cup water
Herbed bread crumbs (I keep stale bread pieces in my freezer.  I cut up and add Italian bread crumbs to have a homemade casserole topping in seconds.)
Salt to taste

Directions:
Mix rice, onion, zucchini and cheese.  Mix soup, water and salt.  Add liquid mixture to rice mixture in an oiled casserole dish.  Top with herbed bread crumbs.  Bake 50-60 minutes at 350 degrees (30 minutes covered, 30 minutes uncovered).

 To make the dinner complete, I steamed some green beans in the microwave.  Another color vegetable would have been more fun but this is what I had on hand. 

 Since the oven was still hot, I threw in some frozen rolls and had fresh bread to accompany the meal.

  Hope you enjoy it as much as my family did!  

How to make Oreo pops

I saw a photo of these yummy Oreo pops on Pinterest but the link was gone by the time I got around to researching how to make them.  Through trial and error I figured out how to make these delicious treats.  My colors did not turn out nearly as cute as I had hoped, but lesson learned:  don't mix food coloring into white candy chips.  Just buy the colored candy chips.  Maybe it was because I used natural food coloring instead of the typical dye food coloring.  Who knows!

First, I used a double boiler to melt the candy or chocolate chips (found at Michael's).  A double boiler is just a half pot of boiling water with a small pot with the chips in it sitting in the large pot with water.  It melts more evenly than in the microwave, so you don't have to worry about burning the sugar.  It was super easy and stayed hot a long time. 

Next I careful took off the tops of the Oreos (like in the commercials!). 

 I used chocolate and vanilla wafers, although only chocolate are pictured.  

 Then I carefully pushed the sticks (I used the thinnest lollipop sticks from Michael's) into the cookie frosting.  [BOTTOM ROW]  Sometimes the cookies cracked.  I used them anyway because they would get covered with yummy goodness.  Then I put a layer of the warm candy or chocolate coating over the cookie frosting and sticks.  [MIDDLE ROW]  I put the cookie top back on to seal the stick inside. [TOP ROW]  If you don't do this, then the stick will either break the cookie or fall out.

Lastly, I took a knife and covered the tops and sides of the cookie with warm chocolate or the candy coating.  I didn't frost the backs of the cookies so they would dry on the parchment paper.  I used short and long sticks because I wanted them to display at different heights.  Like I said earlier, I wish I had used the colored candy instead of trying to dye it myself.  I did this the night before the party so it was a too late to re-do the Oreo pops.  

 Here is the finished product! 

Not only are they easy to make, but they are super cute and YUMMY!!!

Mason's First Birthday Party

Our little man turned one!  We went all out and had a Hungry Little Caterpillar themed party.  It was a blast.  Here are a few pics from Mason's special day:  

The birthday boy!

 My mom helped me make regular and small sized cupcakes for the caterpillars body.  A round cake made his head.  We used colored frosting, jelly beans and pipe cleaners to fashion his eyes and antennas.

 I made chocolate covered Oreos to put in a terra cotta pot.  I put the green foam for floral arrangements in the bottom and topped that with paper grass.  I just stuck the pops in.  A how-to on making Oreo pops on another post.

 To highlight each day of the week and what the caterpillar ate, I purchased the appropriate flavor Jelly Belly's and made little signs to put into the jelly bean containers (i.e. Wednesday had plum Jelly Belly's).

 Another fun way to highlight the days of the week was to put little caterpillars in mason jars with construction paper fruit.  It made fun toys for the kids.

 Of course, I had to have a hanging caterpillar!

 I displayed my first birthday cards. Hurray for my  mom who saved them all these years!

 The birthday sign and also a framed photo for each month of Mason's life.  The largest frame was his one year old photo.

 Juice boxes and fruit packs for the kids along with some bug catchers.

The food table!

Strawberries

As Mason's first birthday quickly approaches, I am trying out all the "careful" foods: eggs, berries, whole milk, fish, nuts.  He has eggs and dairy down.  Now to try strawberries.  He is a blueberry fanatic.  Raspberries and blackberries have also made it down the hatch without a problem.

I use the three day rule.  Try a new food three days in a row to see if there are any allergenic effects.   I also use organic where I can.  The first day I gave Mason cut up strawberries.  He chewed on it briefly but didn't seem too impressed.  Day two I pureed blackberries and strawberries with vanilla whole yogurt in a food processor.

The previous night I made cornbread to go with some turkey chili, so I spread this yummy paste on the leftover cornbread.  I also gave him some with butter on a couple other pieces for variety.  Butter is good for babies.  They actually need the saturated fats for their growing bodies.  We, on the other hand, should stay away from saturated fats.  

The result: success!  Mason gobbled up the cornbread slices.  Later I found him standing in the fridge grabbing the blackberries and strawberries out for an afternoon snack.   Tomorrow, day three, I will use the left over puree on either toast or just spoon feed the thick, yummy mixture to him.  Or, just feed him cut up strawberries since now he seems to love them almost as much as blueberries.  

A well used cookbook

I guess you know when you have found a good cookbook because stains magically appear and pages mysteriously start to ripple.  I have a couple of cookbooks that show signs of use.  But the one I am most excited about is my Cooking for Baby cookbook by Lisa Barnes.

When Mason turned six months I decided to make most of his baby food.  Better for his tummy and better for my wallet.  I found lots of discrepancies about how to make food online, and I wanted something to just tell me how to do it without having to weed through a million websites and blogs.

So I found this cookbook.  It has been amazing.  It lists what foods to start when and how to make them. From making pureed peas to tabbouleh.  This manuel has something for everybody.  It showcases  wholesome, homemade, delicious foods for six to 18 months.

Water has been spilled, butter melted and pages ripped of this handy, easy to follow guide.  I simply love it and every battle scar it holds.  So if you need some know-how or inspiration on what to make your child, this is the cookbook to buy.