I have not forgotten you, dear blog! 😉
Bren is doing great! He is almost halfway through his Kindergarten Hooked on Phonics and is 30% done with the clicknkids phonics online game! We start a new FIAR unit on “Mike Mulligan and his Steam Shovel”/steam power on Wednesday. We’re going to experiment with the states of water- frozen solid, liquid and steam gas and see how steam from a teapot turns a pinwheel. Then we’ll read about steam engines and steamboats and then read about fiction with steam power too- such as Thomas the Tank Engine and John Henry who has the famous contest with the steam powered logging drill.
I can’t wait to buy his Math-U-See program but for now he’s doing the math included in the FIAR manual- which is great too.
Andy has sprouted 2 more teeth and is starting to understand not to screech when he wants something but to use words. “More” and “bite” are effective and I’m working on “up”. He still loves to eat anything with a spoon. He is much better at eating off of a plate or from a bowl than Bren. Bren would fling his to the floor.
We are loving DH’s 4 day weekend and I am happy that we get to go to Park Day tomorrow. Yesterday we attacked the Sego palm in our front yard and it looks much better. Our broccoli in the garden looks great too. They love cold weather but grow slowly.


Ruh Roh! We got caught!
I’ve learned that you can hide a can of creamed corn in cornbread! And that you can cook that cornbread on top of chili in a crockpot! LOL.
I just bought a book called Deceptively Delicious by Jessica Seinfeld. It’s all about hiding pureed fruits and veggies in things. The cornbread wasn’t from the book but I’m going to try some of them out this week. The weirdest by far is pureed steamed spinach in brownies. The tip was that you can’t eat them hot. The flavor of the spinach only goes away when it is cold. I dunno…lol… I hate cooked spinach but some day I’ll try it. This week I am going to try sweet potatoes in spaghetti and pureed cherries mixed with strawberry jelly for a topping for oatmeal bars. The recipe called for blueberry jelly and spinach but Bren eats strawberry jelly so I thought I’d better try adding something red that he won’t eat. And it seems best to start with a fruit here. LOL
Also in the line-up are oatmeal raisin cookies with zucchini (makes sense- I love zucchini bread) but the zucchini at the store looked awful! Carrot muffins make sense too but she also puts cauliflower in hers. Haha.
The author uses these purees in her recipes:
avocado
beets
broccoli
butternut squash
carrots
cauliflower
peas
red bell pepper
spinach
sweet potato
zucchini/ summer squash
apples
bananas
different berries
cantaloupe
cherries
pineapple
prunes
She advises you to start off making large batches and them freezing them in 1/2 cup portions. Me? I just buy babyfood where I can. Why go to all the work? My time is worth more than 25 to 44 cents, lol.
She also uses flax seed and whole grains here and there which is good. And I spotted pureed navy beans and canned pumpkin. She also has a couple recipes for pureed meat for kids who don’t like meat. No baby food meat for me! :yuck:
Anyway, that’s my current food experimentation- along with new crockpot recipes because that works WONDERFULLY with homeschooling. I have much more free time in the morning than trying to school and make dinner both while Andy naps.