Baby Food

Baby food has been a fun adventure for our family! I started by making all of our daughter's food from scratch using organic and non-GMO grains. We then got some of these nurturemeals to see how they worked. As you can see Naomi wanted to eat it right out of the package:

 It comes out as a powder. This meal is sweet potatoes and bananas.

I mixed it with water, but you could also mix it with breast milk or formula. Naomi really enjoyed it and ate very quickly!

While I was feeding this to her I had a great idea! This would be a perfect meal for a night out. There have been several times that Jeff and I wanted to go out for dinner, but we couldn't figure out the logistics of heating up Naomi's food while we are at a restaurant. But, every restaurant has hot water! This would be great to have with us if we want to go out for dinner as a family of 3! Next time we go out I'm definitely packing one of these in Naomi's diaper bag!

Easy Lunch

I'm a big fan of easy lunches! I got some of these gopicnic ready-to-eat meals:

Because I'm a teacher, mother, and wife sometimes life gets a little busy and I run out of time to actually pack a healthy and yummy lunches. Usually if I'm short on time my lunch consists of an apple and a granola bar...not too good to keep my tummy satisfied throughout the day. I had a stack of these lunches and they saved my lunches during the week of parent-teacher-conferences!

The best part about these meals is that there is SO much food in them and such a great variety! My favorite meal was the salami and cheese lunch. It came with crackers, salami, soft cheese, trail mix, and chocolate pillows. I like these meals too because everything is prepackaged. So, if you don't eat everything you can save it for later. I did this several days so that I could have a pick-me-up snack in the afternoon.

Someone in the lunch room made the comment, "Wow! There's so much food in there! I didn't know when you were going to stop pulling out food." 

I thought of some other great ideas of times you could use these other than everyday lunches:

-Boy Scout outings (thanks to a friend for this idea)

-Car trips

-Sporting events

-Busy Saturday when you're running errands

-Picnics with the family

Coconut Oil

"What is coconut oil?" you say. It is a fantastic oil that has so many uses; so many in fact that it's hard to keep track of all of them! Its benefits range from cooking to healing wounds! Here are my top ten uses for coconut oil:

10. Bug Repellent: Since my daughter was born I've been much more aware of chemicals that are in different items. Bug spray normally has a lot of chemicals (like DEET) that I don't want to introduce my daughter to. Solution to my problem- make some natural bug repellent out of coconut oil! It isn't bug season yet, but I plan on trying this when the spring comes!
9. Sweetener: You can mix coconut oil into your tea or coffee to add some sweetness. This has better fat in it than regular sugar! 
8. Cooking/Baking: Coconut oil can be used to replace vegetable oil in any recipe! It is much healthier than some other oils you could use. Just make sure that if you need liquid oil you melt the coconut oil first! This site has some great tips for cooking with coconut oil.
7. Conditioner: Coconut oil can be used as a deep conditioner. Just lather some on your hair, cover with a shower cap, and let it sit for about 20-30 minutes. Then rinse! Coconut oil will help with frizz, dandruff, and overall hair health! This is a great site to learn more about how coconut oil can help your hair. 
6. Homemade Deodorant and Lip Gloss: If you are interested in making your own deodorant and lip gloss that have no added chemicals, coconut oil can help! Here is a recipe for deodorant and here is one for lip gloss.
5.Aromatherapy: Here is a great site explaining how to use coconut oil and essential oils for aromatherapy purposes. Who doesn't like a little aromatherapy after a long day?
4.Skin Care: Coconut oil can be used for a variety of skin care options. It can be used for dry skin, as a make-up remover, or a sugar scrub. I found this great recipe to make a skin scrub (there are also several variations on this site as well!)
3. Diaper Rash: I use cloth diapers and you have to be careful with diaper rash cream that you use because some can ruin the cloth. Thankfully we have not had to deal with this yet, but I have it on my back burner just in case! The best parts about using coconut oil are that it is natural and not full of chemicals! It is also an anti-fungal and it's antibacterial! Even if you use disposable diapers you could still use coconut oil to help get rid of diaper rash.
2. Cooking Oil: I have a very good friend who introduced this idea to me. We were on a women's retreat and she made pancakes for us in the morning. Instead of using cooking spray to oil the pan she used coconut oil. I thought that this might affect the taste of the pancakes and make them taste different, but it didn't! So the next time you need a small amount of oil while cooking give coconut oil a chance!
1. Nursing help: OK moms, this one is for you! Those of you who nurse know that in the beginning nursing can REALLY hurt. Not necessarily because you're doing anything wrong, but because your body just isn't use to feeding a baby yet. You can use Coconut oil to help with cracks and soreness from nursing!

So give coconut oil a chance! You might just find that you join me in the coconut oil revolution!

Do you have any other ideas for great ways to use coconut oil in your every day lives?

If you'd like to buy some coconut oil go here for ebay, here for amazon, and here for Nature Quick.