Cooking for the masses

I have a friend who makes spaghetti sauce twice a year. He cooks HUGE portions and then freezes them in those reusable Glad/Ziploc containers with the blue lids. We eat spaghetti once a week and I need to make a habit of cooking bigger portions so I am not repeating what could of have been done once instead of four times a month. Even if I could enough for one month that would be a huge win on time for me.

My Friends Tips - Food

Pancakes - I take out the griddle and make a huge batch of pancakes for the week. I put three pancakes in each zip lock bag and store in the refrigerator. Every morning I grab a bag and throw it in the microwave.

Trail Mix - We use cold cereal (honeycomb, cheerios, honey wheat rice chex…something crunchy), sweet raisins, peanuts or honey roasted peanuts, chocolate chips or peanut butter chips, goldfish crackers, coconut, banana chips. We make a huge batch and stick in little snack baggies. She eats it all the time.

Smoothies - We make fruit smoothies and freeze them in red keg cups. When our little one wants one we just nuke it for a few seconds, stir and we are good to go. I add protein powder on occasion.

Tag your it

I have this really good friend, her name is Sharpie. You know how on flickr.com and even this blog site, you can tag your pictures or blogs with keywords. Well, I have moved this latest rage to my house. For instance, I just bought a new case of wipeys, took the sharpie out and tagged each container with the name where it will reside. The key thing here is to keep the container in the tagged room. The one labeled bathroom stays in the basket in the bathroom on top of the toilet and the one in the bedroom stays in the basket with the diapers next to the bed. I also tag my big ziploc bags with "Belle''s Diapers" and "Janae's clothes". Do not underestimate the sharpie. The sharpie is your friend. Embrace your sharpie.

My Friends Kiddie Tips - Coming Home

Some advice my mother always gave me was as a working
mom, as soon as you arrive home at the end of your
work day, give your children 15-30 minutes of your
full attention before starting dinner or your other
mommy chores and they seem to be much more content
playing and not so klingy for your attention!

Ikea

Ikea had their twice yearly sale and the girls and I went yesterday. I bought some great deals to decorate their room and organize. My favorite were these little boxes with lids http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/80098583 I bought six of them and placed puzzle pieces, game pieces, crayons in them. I want more boxes. Like now. I could use them in the kitchen, bathroom...

Ikea is so kid friendly. In the restaurant area they have a little area for kids to play, family friendly bathrooms with nursing and diaper changing rooms, and a little daycare to drop off the wee-ones. Lunch was $6.27 for three of us and their meatballs and gravy are delicious!

My Friends Kiddie Tips - cloth diapers

I use old school white cloth diapers for everything...I have at least 20 burp cloths if any of the girls get a cold, as they are softer on the nose than tissue and great to use as a changing pad for poopies – cozier than portable plastic pads. Use as a cover up when nursing. You can then bleach them to sanitize them for the next time and they are pristine clean!

Kiddie Clutter

As some of you know, I am on a journey to clear my home of kiddie clutter. Easier said than done. The other day, I removed their bin of toys from our living room and our bedroom. I am officially reclaiming our adult space. I also "retired" a bin of their toys and placed them in my closet and will exchange them out in a month. Less toys, less mess for mommy to clean up. Less mess, and a happier mommy? Sure...