Tasty Tuesday- Time saving tips

Now that I have started back to work, getting dinner ready and on the table when I get home quickly is key.

Having certain ingredients prepared ahead  a good idea.  Bell Peppers cut up freeze really well.

Quick and Easy Fajitas
Frozen chicken ( cooked or uncooked) cut into strips
1-2 Bell Peppers cut up
1/2 onion cup up in strips.

Have it all frozen together and dump into a frying pan on low heat.  In about 20 minutes everything should be unfrozen and chicken if  it wasn't cooked, it will be cooked.  Add  Fajita seasoning and dinner is done.

Frozen grated cheese also freezes well.  Frozen cheese isn't great to just eat, but it works great in lasagnas and casseroles.Bricks of cheese also freeze well, but they are very crumbly so again they are only good for use in casseroles.

The crockpot is a very handy tool.  I love being able to throw in a bunch of ingredients in the morning and coming home to a warm yummy smelly meal at night.

First week

Although I do not start back to work till Monday, Benjy started at dayhome this past week.  I am so glad that I did this so we could figure out how to get our morning routine done.  It is very different having two adults getting ready then having two adults and a baby getting ready.

The goal is for me to up by 6 am so I can start to get ready.  Benjy has decided 5 am is a better time.  I have not had an issue with us both being ready to go out the door at 8.

Somethings that makes our morning go smoother are that I just need to get Benjy dressed.  All his diapers, food, and extra clothing are already at the sitters in a plastic storage shelf.  I have also started to freeze my breast milk so I can bring several frozen bags over and she can thaw them out as he needs it.  I also bring over the clean wetbags and diapers every few days after I have done laundry.

When I drop him off, he cries, but each day it has gotten less and less each day.  He is comfortable with the sitter so I am glad that we slowly introduced him over a course of a few weeks.  I would go to her house and play with him for an hour or two.  Then after a few days of that, I started to slowly leave for a little while.  Then we did two morning of 8-12.  He has not always had great days, but overall things are going well.

He refuses to drink BM while at the sitters.  She mixes the milk with his cereal and he will take it that way.  He will drink a bit of water during the day.  He does nurse well before he goes, and then nurses when I pick him up.  He does eat solids well.  He will have cereal, fruit, and a mixed veggie with meat at lunch.

I was most worried about naptime as with me he nurses to sleep.  Thankfully, she has an old stroller and will rock him back and forth and he will fall asleep for a while in it.  I did bring a playpen over as well, but he is not quite ready to sleep in that.

When I pick him up at the end of the day, I grab his wetbag with dirty diapers.  I dump the diapers into the pail when I get home.  I also get lots of kisses and hugs.  He is very happy to see him mommy.

First Years Newborn to Toddler Reclining Chair Review

Benjy has started to eat solid food with gusto.  It took a while, but he finally eats regularly so we have been getting a lot of use out of our highchair.  There are lots of highchairs on the market.  Some are freestanding, clip right to the table, or attach to a chair.  When we went out to purchase a highchair we looked at all the different options.

For price and convenience we opted for one that attaches to a chair.  We bought a First Years one.  It has many features including being able to recline and two different high levels.  It has a 3 point harness and is very easy to clean.

I have used highchairs with a 5 point harness and honestly I don't see the need for it.  It seems like another thing that will just get dirty.

The First Years chair comes with a cloth cover that is very easy to throw into the machine and no matter what is stuck to it or smeared on it has come out clean.  Benjy is a messy eater though so lately I have been leaving the cloth cover off of it.  There are no sharp pieces on the chair so it does not look funny without the cover.  It is solid plastic underneath so it makes it much easier to clean.

One feature I like about the chair is that is has a little bump between his legs which helps to keep him in the chair more securely.  I have another chair for the babysitters house that does not have that bump and he tends to slide down in that one.

It attaches very easily to the chair.  We were not able to use one of our kitchen chairs though as the back of ours curves and the back of the highchair is straight.  We had another chair I have in my sewing room with a straight back and attached the high chair to that one.  It has straps that attach to the back and bottom of the chair.

1.5 months old in the reclined position

Another great thing about this chair is that it is easily portable.  It does not fold down though, but it is still small enough it could be easily taken over to grandma's or a friends house.

Overall I really like this chair that we purchased.  It has a great price point as well.  I think we paid $39.99 at Walmart for it.  It is a solid well made chair and it has lasted well so far.  I would definitely recommend it to others.


These are my own opinions and I have not been paid to say this.  I bought this chair with my own money.

Tasty Tuesday- Tuna Casserole

This casserole is really easy to make and really good.

2-3 cups of cooked noodles
1 can of tuna
1 can of creme of mushroom soup ( look at last weeks recipe if you want to make your own)
butter
1 onion diced up
Salt and Vinegar potato chips.

Cook noodles in large pot of salted water.

While the noodles are cooking, take a tbsp of butter and melt it in saucepan.  Add onions and cook till soft.  Mix in 1 can of creme of mushroom soup and 1 can of tuna.

When the noodles are done cooking, drain.  Add to the mushroom tuna mixture.  Put into a greased casserole dish.  Put crushed potatoes chips over top and cook in the oven for 30 mins at 350F.

Serves 2-3

I usually make a double batch of this as it makes great leftovers for lunch the next day.

Wash Routine

There are lots of ways that people wash their cloth diapers. I use my top loading machine.  It is not HE.  It is a plain regular top loader made by Kenmore.

I put no more than 20 diapers in the machine esp if they are poopy.  I run a cold rinse to get the poop and pee out them. Then I run a hot wash cycle with the regular amount of Purex Free and Clear with a cold rinse.  Then another cold rinse.  This gets my diapers clean and I have had no issue doing this.

For a time I tried Nellies to clean my diapers.  While it did a great job on clothing, I found that my diapers were not clean enough and I was starting to get stinkies in my microfibre.

There are lots of debate on how much soap you should use.  A lot of people use a limited amount of soap as they don't want build up, however only a little soap doesn't really clean your diapers well.  I prefer to use a bit more soap and have clean diapers.

When the wash is done, I hang up all my PUL covers and throw everything else- microfibre inserts, fitteds, prefolds, and wipes into the dryer for 30-40 minutes.

Diapers hanging out in the sun this summer

Some people prefer to hang dry fitteds, but I don't have too many of them and prefer for them to dry faster.  PUL covers can also be put into the dryer on low for 20-30 minutes.  It allows them to dry, but not ruin the PUL.  When I had less diapers I did that from time to time.

When the weather is nice, I like to hang my diapers outside.  The sun is a great natural bleaching agent.  Sunning diapers can get all the poop stains out of your diapers and leave the insides white and clean looking again.

I have only put bleach into my machine once.  Benjy had a case of the stomach flu and his diapers came out smelling not so fresh.  This was from not rinsing the diapers enough before I washed them as there was lots of poop residue.  The bleach helped slightly and did make the interior of my diapers white again ( as it is not a great time to sun diapers when it is -10 to -20C) .  Most of my diapers are now back to their smell free state with only 1 or 2 having a faint smell.

To get rid of poop on my diapers not that he is no longer EBF and is eating solids, I use a poop spatula.  It gets the poop into the toilet and then I rinse the diaper in the sink.  I had bought a diaper sprayer, but unfortunately my plumbing is old and my husband could install it without a pipe possibly breaking.  His poop is getting even more solid so sometimes it just rolls off the diaper straight into the toilet.

gDiapers

Inside of gDiaper

I kept seeing gDiaper ads everywhere.  I imagine as I search cloth diapers a lot on google that most of my ads are for cloth diapers.  I was curious about gDiapers so I bought two used from a fellow member on a cloth diaper group.  gDiapers have a cotton outer and an inner waterproof pouch.  They have disposable inserts or reusable insert.

This is known as a hybrid diaper as it combines both disposable inserts with a reusable cover.  I never used the diaper with the disposable option although I do have some.  I find them huge.  I also don't have one of their reusable inserts so I used a newborn prefold inside.  It works great.

medium on mr Monkey

Large cover, front view

gDiapers also look backwards.  The velcro does up in the back which is handy for a kid that likes to rip off their diaper.   The gDiaper is also a sized diaper coming in tiny ( for newborn), small, medium, and large.  It comes in a variety of colours and stripes.

While I don't hate the gDiapers, they are not my favourite diaper.  I think they would be good for a skinny baby.  I found Benjy even though he is slimming out to be too chunky for it.  The top elastic part would dig into him.  Also the sizing did not even go close.  The medium says 13-28lbs.  He is tipping the scales at 22lbs and I can't get the medium to do up on him anymore.  I have a large one as well.  It still fits him.

A plus side to the gDiapers is that they are very slim and fit well under lots of clothes.  I don't mind them for pees only, but poops are a scary thing and get all over the place.  The gPouch can be switched out as the outside of the diaper doesn't always get dirty.

I don't have a picture of Benjy in the gDiaper as he has been moving all over the place and getting any diaper and a picture of him in has not been easy.

Large Cover, back view

Inside of the diaper without gPant Pouch

gPant Pouch that snaps into cotton shell

Double Gusset Alvas

Alva diapers are diapers that come right from the manufacturer.  Many people resell these diapers as this is a diaper manufacturer.  The double gusset diaper is known by them as colour snap. There are several double gusset diapers on the market.   Alva diapers are pocket diapers that have a PUL outer with a suede cloth or fleece liner with a microfibre insert.


The double gusset helps to keep poops, esp messy ones contained.  It has been very effective in preventing any excess poop from escaping the diaper.

It has openings on either end of the diaper.  This allows the insert to agitate out in the wash.

The diaper comes with one snap in microfibre insert.  This is very convenient.  Just be sure to unsnap as I have had an insert pull a snap out of the main part of the diaper.  You don't have to unstuff it though.

The Double Gusset ones also have a hip snap to prevent wing drop.

It is also called the colour snap as it has very colourful snaps.  It also has 4 rise snaps for great adjustment of fit.

I really like the fit of these diapers.  I own 4 of them in different colours.  They fit nicely, are very trim, and very easy to put on.


The diapers come in a very limited number of colours and prints, but they are a great price of $6.99 USD with free shipping from alvababy.com.