homemade baby food

Hi there! Hope you are doing well.

We are knee deep in getting ready to move into our new house over here. We closed on our home last Friday and have been moving things over, cleaning the carpets, painting color samples and getting ready for the movers on Saturday. So super excited. It feels good to own a home again and be able to do anything you want with it to make it our own. :)



In the midst of all this, we all still need to eat good and so does baby Luc, so I thought I would share with you how I make his homemade baby food. I really feel strongly about giving the boys this fresh, full of flavor, healthy food. My philosophy is, if I wouldn’t eat it, why would I serve it to my children? Its such a great foundation for them to appreciate what really good food tastes like.  For Reed, I did it the old fashioned way with a pot & steamer, food processor or blender and a fine sieve {when he was just starting out eating solids}. In the beginning there was a bit of a learning curve in the process, but the more I did it, the more efficient I got and would do a bi-monthly baby food making blitz and just freeze everything to have at a moments notice.
Now with Luc, I happen to have a really fabulous blender that makes making baby food so unbelievably easy…I can whip it up at a moments notice and vary the texture as he can handle more. In this instance, one night while dinner was cooking, I made some peas. I often use frozen organic fruits and veggies for more variety and ease when I can’t get organic seasonal versions.


I just steamed up the peas, put them in the blender until they were smooth and then portioned them out into my beaba freezer containers. You can use ice cube trays too but I love that these have a lid.









This was his first dinner with peas…I’d say they were a hit! :)

Have a great week!

take control of your health

When another year rolls around {as in a year older}, I find myself striving for ways to age gracefully and want to continually improve my health. Not to mention after going through  a long period of time where I was dealing with several medical issues, I find I am drawn to detoxify to get off to a fresh start with my body & health.

So, here are a couple new books I got for my birthday that I am loving.


I just love Gwyneth’s previous cookbooks, so when I saw that she had this one out which is all about recipes dedicated to an elimination or vegan diet {as you can see I have a couple pages tagged for this week’s recipes}. Right where I want to be right now and of course Martha’s new book on living the good, long life.

Once we get settled after the move, my next project is finding a naturopathic doctor for our family. Our general practitioner we had in IL was a gem because even though he practiced traditional western medicine, his heart was in alternative, natural medicine so he treated his patients from both directions. Most doctors just want to treat symptoms with drugs, not get to the root cause. That’s not the lifestyle Jeff and I want for ourselves or the boys. There is a time and place for traditional medicine, but it’s not always the best course of treatment for some issues. I like that we now have choices to take control of our health and research other options, not just do what the doctor says as if they are the end all, be all. It’s great for a control-freak like myself, ha ha.

Here’s to healthy living. Have a great day!

dirt, mud or whatever it’s called…

Hope all of you mothers had a beautiful day, yesterday. I stayed in bed until almost 10am and was spoiled, as usual. Jeff doesn’t ever let me to lift a finger. :) I feel so recharged to be the best mom I can...

I thought I would share a fun idea for a treat for the kids, dirt, mud or something like that…. That is, what I am told they call, chocolate pudding, crushed chocolate cookies, and gummy worms layered in a cup. Sounds awful, but the kids LOVED it!

Reed has a July birthday, so his preschool teacher suggested sending in a treat before the end of school {which is next week…I can’t believe it} to celebrate his birthday early. I try to find fun desserts for the kids and when I came across these on one of my favorite blogs, Clover Lane I thought it would be perfect! {Plus, these 3 ingredients would allow me to substitute easily so I could make them all the same, even with Reed’s food allergies, and I cannot even tell you how refreshing that is.}

Super easy. I made the chocolate pudding from scratch using almond milk and just spooned into nine individual cups, crumbled one chocolate Lucy’s {allergy-free} cookies on top and added the two neon gummy worms!

Let me know if you would like the dairy-free pudding recipe {although you could probably use regular milk if you wanted}. It’s easy to make, and way more delicious and all natural than any store bought mix!

life, lately

{a hint on what we’ve been up to…}

I know it’s literally been a month since I was last here. When life gets crazy, it really gets crazy…is there any other way?

The last time I posted, we had just been asked that week by our landlord if we wanted to move out early since the Atlanta home market had really heated up (and they were itching to sell this house). I was sick about it. I just love our neighborhood, and even with the quirks of this house, it feels like home. And frankly I just wasn't in the mindset to leave or even think about packing up again still being in a fog with having a little one. Yes, it makes sense to buy now before the prices rise more, but I will tell you, my heart was not fully in it.

So, after I succumed to the pressure from the hubby to move, we did find a beautiful house in a town I just love {and where I practically live these days anyway…}. I know it will be great, it’s a home we can stay in forever (or until Luc is off to college and we can downsize to our little cottage we dream of in Buckhead). I really thought we were going to have to all out renovate any home we bought since we were looking at older homes, but this one has mostly been done to similar tastes of mine so mostly just tweaks and some improvements here and there will be needed. The best part about it is we do plan on being here a long, long time so I love the feeling of permanence I have when I think about this move. I so need that and really have always wanted that for the boys to grow up in. :)

Then to make things a bit crazier…I started having alot of health issues around the same time we started looking for a house, could it of been some stress-related? Undoubtedly. But, now that we have some resolution with those and most of the house stuff is behind us…all we have to do is move, things are looking a little more peaceful. It was just recently my birthday and I find every year that it always gives me a fresh perspective on another year older. So, now I am looking forward to a new start in our forever home.

BTW, the kitchen picture above is from he home we are buying, if you didn’t already guess that. :)

I hope you will bear with me as I sporadically pop in with updates, I hope to have some great posts lined up once we get settled.

I am off to start picking paint colors and dive into packing!

Have a great week.