Daddy and Baby too: Bananas

  Even as a stay at home mom my time is consumed by baby needs. It's an accomplishment to get dinner on the table and a miracle if I can add a dessert in the mix. My grandmother also had a busy household with three boys and a farm to run. She has passed on her super quick and easy banana pudding recipe, a staple here in the south. Bananas are also great for babies too! As we start to enter into the teething stage I have been having flashbacks to when Ben was a new a newborn.

Sleepless nights, check.
Fussy baby, check.
Grumpy mommy, check.

Poor Price has had to deal with it for the most part. While in the process of making banana baby food I had an idea to save us both. Frozen banana ice cubes!
So lets get started. Daddy's up first.

                                                  Banana Pudding

My grandmother was always a busy lady so she found a way to make her family favorites in an easy, yet tasty way. I bought 6 bananas but you only need two for this recipe. (I saved the remaining four for the baby food.) 

Ingredients: 

• 2 ripe bananas 
• 1 package of instant vanilla pudding
• Nilla wafers 
• cool whip or your favorite whip cream topping 

                               Line your dish with Nilla wafers, kind of like you would a crust.
                                            Peel the bananas, and slice into bite size pieces. 

Place banana over the Nilla wafers.

Mix instant pudding as directed on box.

(This generally means just add milk)

Then add the pudding over the Nilla wafers and bananas.

To finish spread cool whip over the top and place in the fridge.

It takes about 5 minutes for the pudding to set.

                                                 Bananas for Baby

            If you thought the banana pudding was easy, then get ready to put in no effort at all! 

I simply peeled and sliced my 4 remaining bananas and,

placed the slices into my blender. 

Feel free to add a bit of water to help thin the bananas out.

Also the blender isn't necessary, you can easily mash the bananas with a fork or spoon.

After mixing I put the banana mash into my ice trays and let it freeze.

                                                        Teething Help

You can always simply defrost and serve the bananas to baby as needed but, if you're in a teething nightmare as I am there is a helpful trick. All I did was place one of the banana ice cubes into a clean baby wash cloth (the holes are smaller than a regular wash cloth). Secured it with a rubber band (very tightly so that baby could not unwind it), and then let baby enjoy the icy treat on his sore gums. I would also recommend never letting baby have this while unsupervised. There are just too many things that can happen when your back is turned. 

                                               All in all super easy and stress free! Enjoy!

Daddy and Baby too: Sweet Potatoes

 As a single income family we are on a pretty tight budget. So to cut cost a bit I decided to find recipes that I can use for Price and I as well as Ben. Since both of my men are huge fans of sweet potatoes I decided to begin with those. To start off I washed 4 large sweet potatoes and then rubbed a little olive oil on the outside. I then placed them on a try and into the oven they went at 400 degrees for about an hour to an hour-and-a-half. No peeling is necessary. You'll know they are done when the skin begins to pull away. All you have to do is let them cool a bit and then pinch the skin and pull it away. After removing the skin the sweet potatoes should be soft enough to mash with a large fork.

                                                       For Daddy

 Price is a huge fan of sweet potato casserole and normally only gets it on holidays like Thanksgiving or Christmas. As a special treat I thought I'd make it for him on a regular everyday night. 

                                                                    The Recipe

Ingredients:

• 3 cups of mashed sweet potatoes (keep the remaining separate for baby food)
• 1 cup brown sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1 tsp. vanilla
• 1/2 cup milk
• 1/2 cup (one stick) melted butter

Topping:

• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 1/3 cup of flour 
• 1/3 cup melted butter
• 1 to 1.5 cups of mini marshmallows (you could also use walnuts) 

                                       Mix the first 6 ingredients together in a medium bowl.

Place into your favorite baking dish.

In a separate bowl mix together the topping ingredients.

Place topping over the sweet potato mixture. 

Bake at 350degrees for about 35 minuets. The casserole will be hot and the topping browned.

Recipe found here: Southern Food

                                                            For Baby:

Sweet potatoes are a great first food for baby. They are rich in vitamins as well as potassium and calcium. I seriously believe that Ben could eat his weight in this vegetable and still want more. You can learn more about sweet potatoes and other recipes for older babies right here. 

For the baby food I simply blended the remaining mashed sweet potatoes with 2/3 cup of baby rice cereal. 

This obviously makes quite a bit of food. So that nothing goes to waste, I placed the mix into an ice cube tray to store. I then wrapped the ice cube tray in wax paper, then covered in cling wrap.

This makes it supper easy to defrost only as much as you need, when you need it. 

Now you have dinner for the whole family!! Enjoy!