Make-your-own Baby Wipes!

I was so excited when i found this "recipe" to make my own baby wipes. Great for babies with extra sensitive skin. Those little wet paper towels can get spendy!! Especially with little tiny babies that.. well, need them every 2 hours. All you need is a roll of paper towels (cut the roll in half using kitchen shears or a really sharp knife.) Make sure its the JUMBO rolls of paper towels, or the recipe needs to be reduced. Then using a tupperware or airtight container,

MIX

2 cups of water
2 TBS of baby oil or mineral oil (FINALLY found a use for that HUGE bottle of baby oil)
1 TBS of baby wash (optional but it smells so nice)
3 drops of tea tree oil (This is an antifungal which helps with diaper rash, and runs about $10 a bottle, but c'mon 3 drops? it will last you a lifetime)
Fred Meyer carries this in natural care, burt's bees section. Also this keeps any mold from growing on your wipes..store bought wipes have alcohol in them which dries your baby's skin, but kills mold! who knew?


Mix all the ingredients gently in your tupperware then place the half roll of paper towels inside. Seal the lid and tip the container upside down. After all the liquid is absorbed open the container and take out the little cardboard roll in the center. Start your wipes from the center. Ta-da! Home made cheap and perfectly functional baby wipes!!! no more overwhelming baby powder smell. YAY!!! Good luck and enjoy!

Blackberry Season

Its tough to beat the taste of fresh produce... with one exception... FREE fresh produce... it just has better flavor ;)

I put Ethan down for a nap at my mom's yesterday and took advantage of Oregon's most bountiful weeds.. the blackberries. I dont know what it is but the berries were HUGE this year. Handfuls and handfuls of them.

Anyways, I washed and crushed my berries, and put most of them through a strainer, and made the most amazing seedless(mostly) blackberry freezer jam. It was so easy!

Just buy a box of Surejell pectin and follow the instructions on the box. And this works with pretty much any fruit. Just make sure you measure your fruit and sugar very carefully, or the jam wont thicken properly. (Had this unfortanate experience with raspberries last month. We have LOTS of raspberry syrup.)

Hope you get a chance to get out there and pick!

Yogurt you just can't finish?

Vanilla and Blueberry Yogurt (I threw some raspberries in there)


Have you ever bought yogurt on sale, and see it in the fridge and think, "there is no way im going to finish that before it expires?"

Well I read some where that you can freeze yogurt, and freezing dairy sounded strange to me. However I came accross an awesome deal on some clearance yogurt and decided to give it a try. I took the containers home (they had 4 days left an i got thm for 15 cents a pop!) I spread the yogurt onto cookie sheets that were lined with parchment paper (wax paper would also work, just dont use plastic wrap) and stuck them in the freezer for a few hours. I took them out later an broke the yogurt into little peices and put them in ziplock baggies. Last night I had some bananas and pineapple that needed to be eaten, so i blended them up with some ice and apple juice and threw in a handful of "frozen yogurt." It was DELICIOUS! Watch out Jamba Juice...

So if there's ever any yogurt hanging around. Dont toss it! Freeze it!

And on that note, if you ever have any fruit that you cant finish before it goes completly bad, freeze it! lay berries on a pan, slice banana (or squish it) onto a pan, after freezing you can break i apart into peices for easier access later. store in ziplock or tupperware in your freezer for smoothies later! Trick your hubby into thinking he's getting dessert for breakfast! :)