Homemade Milk

Yesterday marked the two year anniversary of a healthy nursing relationship with my little guy. I thought that I would post today in honor of all the mom's that are making milk at home daily.

Did you know that the World Health Organization and UNICEF recommend exclusive breastfeeding for the first 6 months of a baby's life and 2 or more years of breastfeeding in addition to receiving other healthy food?

The American Association of Pediatrics says: Increased duration of breastfeeding confers significant health and developmental benefits for the child and the mother, especially in delaying return of fertility (thereby promoting optimal intervals between births). There is no upper limit to the duration of breastfeeding and no evidence of psychologic or developmental harm from breastfeeding into the third year of life or longer.

For more information on breastfeeding and extended breastfeeding, visit:
http://www.kellymom.com/

Other interesting information about breastmilk:
Breastmilk can be used to heal: eye infections, cracked nipples, scratches, bug bites, ear infections, sinus infections....it's also great for anyone with low immunity. Check it out!

Homemade Playfood - Bag Lunch

More Playfood Pics - this was last year's Christmas gift for my kids (I made one for my niece and nephew, too)... a sandwich with roast beef, tomato, lettuce, cheese and whole wheat bread...carrots and sugar snap peas...and a yogurt. The grilled cheese sandwich was a piece of bread that didn't turn out as well...so I made it into grilled cheese. I bought some soft wool felt for the lunch bags, and for the rest I was able to use my left over fabric from other projects and old clothes.


The inside pieces of the sandwich are all one or two layers of fabric...nice and thin. The lettuce needs to be a stretchy fabric so that you can pull it (stretch it) while zig-zag stitching over the edge...this makes the crinkle effect on the edging.

The bread is stuffed with automobile microfiber towels (I use these for so many things - cloth diaper stuffing, nursing pads, mama pads...and bread). This makes the bread light and fluffy. The grilled cheese bread was stuffed with two layers of washcloth. This worked, but it was stiff...so I changed my plans for the sandwich bread and used this stiff piece for grilled cheese after I finished the rest of the project.


The carrots and snap peas are stuffed with the fleece scraps I made while cutting them out. For the snap peas, I cut scraps of fleece into strips, tied them in knots (little balls), then put four or so of them in each snap pea...the finished result is that you can feel the "peas" inside each one...and see them, too.


The yogurt was a pain to make., and didn't turn out as well as I had hoped...I didn't include it in the gift, and I only made one...so my kids got it (just like the grilled cheese, they kind of get the parts of the project that are functional, but never quite worked out). I did add one thing to the yogurt that I have always been happy I did...the lid is attached to the bottom piece with a 3 inch piece of ribbon. This way I'm not always trying to figure out where in our house the lid is hiding.

All it needs now is something like chips (like these) or cookies (like these)...there is always next Christmas, I guess.

Homemade Mixes

Here in Costa Rica, I can't always find some of the things I grew up with...for example, no one seems to sell Aunt Jemima's Whole Wheat pancake mix. This is not really too much of a shock, I had a hard time finding it in the States at times. Since, to me, whole wheat pancakes do really taste so much better than regular ones (even if I don't buy the >$4 bag of chocolate chips that the Walmart-owned store wants to sell me down here), I've resorted to putting together my own mix with a little help from Better Homes and Gardens. I'll put the recipe below, but my main point for this post is how surprising it always is to me at how few ingredients some of the mixes on store shelves have. How much extra time does it take to add 7 ingredients instead of just 4. Some mixes save us a lot of time; some can be whipped up at home in less than a few minutes. Keep them in tubs, give them as gifts in little bags or in jars, or just make a single batch.

On the other hand, there are some things that we have tried to replicate with a mix down here, that just don't cut it. Josh tried a spice mix he found online for chili powder (a rare sighting down here), and it just didn't make it. I was going to include it when I got around to writing this post, but I don't want you trying it. It's not worth ruining a good batch of chili. And Josh found the one store that sells overpriced imported chili powder; so we're past the chili powder emergency.

Do you have any good mixes that you would like to share? Put them in the comments; I would love to try them.


Whole Wheat Pancake Mix

For each cup of whole wheat flour, add:
1 tablespoon sugar
2 tablespoons baking powder
1/4 salt

Store in an airtight container/bag in the refrigerator or freezer (don't forget: whole wheat flour will go bad over time if it is not kept refrigerated or frozen ... so, this mix will, too).

To make the pancakes:
1 cup of pancake mix
1 egg
1 cup milk
2 tablespoons oil

This makes about 8 pancakes (or if you don't have a griddle because you left it in the States because of airline bag-weight limits, it makes about 4 huge pancakes, one by one, in a medium sized skillet).

Yummy Add-ins (anything dry can be added directly into your mix...this is especially nice if you use it as a gift...anything moist should wait until you make the pancakes)

• chocolate chips (of course) or any flavored chip
  
• apple bits
• nuts
• blueberries (mmm....blueberries...I can't buy these anywhere down here) fresh or dried
• craisins
• m & m 's (my daughter's personal favorite and one she talks about having when Grandpa makes her pancakes) - best added to the pancake after pouring it into the pan, otherwise the color runs away and the pancakes look scary

Playdough Update

I've updated my earlier homemade playdough post with pictures and fun add-ins. Check it out!

Homemade Playfood - Pancake Breakfast

This project was one of my first attempt at homemade toys…I made a playfood breakfast set for my daughter’s third birthday.

If you do much sewing, you probably have a small collection of fabric scraps that are too small to be of little use for other projects. I have many, and now, most of them find their way into playfood or other toys (either on the outside or as stuffing).

This playfood breakfast includes three pancakes, two sausages, two eggs and a slice of watermelon. I also made a griddle (that is a grill on the opposite side) so that my kids would have somewhere to cook the food.

Pancakes – any tan colored fabric would work, just serge or zigzag over the edge. I believe these pancakes have a circle of an old washcloth in the middle as stuffing…any fabric would work to stuff them, though. You could also add a darker sploitch of fabric and a little square of white or yellow on top of one of the circles prior to finishing the edges to represent syrup and a butter pat.

Eggs – for this one you need white and yellow fabric scraps. The yolk is zigzag sewn on the white (I used a tiny amount of stuffing under the yolk), then the white fabric is shaped, then serge or zigzag over the edge.

Sausage – use a long rectangle of brown fabric, sew the long edges together, then turn inside out to create the cylinder. Hand-sew one end closed, stuff and then finish off sewing the other end of the cylinder.

Griddle/Grill – For this I used two rectangles of gray flannel (old pajama pants, I think). After backing one with two layers of an old washcloth (the size of the inside rectangle), I zigzagged on the black lines for the grill. Then I put the gray pieces faces in and sewed around the outside, leaving four inch gaps on both ends for the handles. The four-inch holes give you a place to turn it inside out as well. After turning it right-side-out, I zigzagged two lines around the interior of the grill/griddle. This left a tube around the outside. I used a pencil to stuff this tube with fabric scraps around both sides of the grill. Finally, I made the handles (two semi-circles each, sewn together, turned inside out and stuffed), tucked them into the holes at each end and secured them with a straight stitch, then a decorative zigzag stitch.

Watermelon – this one was the hardest for me, since it isn’t flat or a tube. I sewed the red semi-circle to each white semi-circle, then I zigzagged the black seeds on. Next I put the two semi-circles red side in, and sewed along the straight edge. Lastly, I sewed the green “skin” on with the watermelon inside out, leaving an inch or sew to turn it right side out. After stuffing it with random fabric scraps, I hand sewed the inch closed. This similar method could also be used for cantaloupe or honeydew melon, apple slices, oranges, or pear wedges.

(One general tip – when I was stuffing this watermelon, I just used an assortment of fabric scraps. The day after giving it to my daughter, my then 13-month-old son dropped it in the toilet. I had no choice but to wash it…very, very well. When I did this, some of the colors from the stuffing fabric bled out on to the white portion of the watermelon. I now know that I need to stuff with fabric that won’t bleed any darker than my outside fabric. It’s fabric playfood…I should have expected that it would need to be washed at some point.)

I didn’t have any patterns for these, so I just made my own out of paper, then transferred to the fabric. When it comes to playfood, most of the shapes are so simple that you can just sketch them out yourself. I will have plenty more playfood posts in the future...my kids are really into it right now.

Here are some of my favorite playfood links (Some are for purchasing playfood, but I just use them for ideas. Many of them are made with wool felt, which is great for playfood…but I still use my scraps most of the time, because it’s free.):

http://www.lillybeanmarket.com/

http://softiescentral.typepad.com/blog/cupcake_wars/index.html

http://www.flickr.com/groups/handmadefeltfood/pool/

http://www.etsy.com/shop_sold.php?user_id=73939

http://www.etsy.com/shop_sold.php?user_id=33973&order=&page=7

http://www.feltcuisine.com/

Have fun!

Homemade Stain Remover

Ok…this one doesn't truly have "homemade" status…but I was just reminded of it today, so I thought I would share. One of the best stain removal methods is 100% natural, readily available, very effective, and completely free…the SUN!

My kids are experts at getting stains on their clothes. Sammy (almost 2) excels at getting things like orange juice and tomato sauce on his nice light colored shirts.

Well, as it would happen, both my kids had some quality staining in the last load of laundry. After a round through the washer, each child had a shirt with a very visible stain on the front. They went into the soaking tub with detergent with color-safe bleach…nothing. They sat overnight for maximum soaking potential…NOTHING. They went into the next load of laundry to see if that would help…STILL NOTHING. I mean, not even a little dent in the visibility of the stain.

Then, I laid them out in the sun when I was hanging up the laundry (we just moved to Costa Rica and our apartment has no drier…yet). I came back an hour later and the stains were GONE! Not just lighter, but gone.

God sure made an awesome stain remover. AND it’s UV rays serve as a disinfectant at the same time (which is great since I have no hot water and no drier to do this for me).

Homemade Crayon Muffins

This is a craft that makes a great homemade gift for kids. It reuses broken crayon bits and makes them usable again. I’ve also collected crayola crayons that restaurants give away to the kids…that’s why most of the crayon muffins I’ve made are only red/yellow/green/blue combinations. If you had a preschool or church nursery with a boatload of broken crayons to get rid of, it would be a dream come true. Or…if you just want to get extra life out of a bunch of crayon bits, you could make single-color crayon muffins.

Here is my source for this one…

http://tentenspot.blogspot.com/2006/07/crayon-cookies.html

Basic instructions:

Remove all paper from crayons (I once read that it helps to soak them in water…but that didn’t work at all for me; it made it even harder. My suggestion is to use a knife to score a single line down the length of the crayon; then hand them over to your toddler to peel. J Mine spent an hour quietly at the table peeling crayons one time.)

(2) Preheat the oven to 300 degrees

(3) Break the crayons into little bits if they aren’t already

(4) Place them in a mini-muffin tin; fill the cups, but don’t overfill them. (I’ve tried 2-4 colors per cup and they’ve turned out nicely)

(5) Place them inside the oven and TURN THE OVEN OFF!

(6) Wait for them to melt.

(7) Remove them from the oven and let them cool for a while on the counter.

(8) After the tops have solidified, stick the whole pan in the freezer for 10-15 minutes. This will complete the solidification and make it so they just lift right out of the muffin tin without sticking.

Hand them to the kids to use or wrap them in cellophane to use as gifts, party favors, or anything else. I’ve given sets of them along with drawing paper as gifts. They tend to break in half after some use, but that actually makes them a little easier to use.