"Mommy, that must have happened before we were born when we were dead."
Mommy, I have something very serious to tell you . . . I'm changing my name to Pam."
(almost a week after arriving in Africa) Wait a minute!! Where is our TV here?? (We don't have a TV here, honey.) What about the Wonder Pets? It's three o'clock!
Guess how much I paid for all of this food? About 8 dollars! For 12 freshly baked english muffins, a pineapple, about a dozen bananas, 3 zucchini, 6 tomatoes, 1 green pepper, 1 cucumber, 12 passion fruit and 2 dozen eggs. Oh, and all the fruits and vegetables are organic (the farmers here can't afford fertilizers or pesticides). I know those bananas look kind of scroungy but let me tell you those are the real deal! We are getting jipped on bananas in the U.S. It's a shame. We sacrifice taste for beauty. My kids ate all those bananas in two days. Ford has been asking for more "namas" every since. I will make at least weekly visits to the "vegetable ladies" where I will buy all of our produce plus english muffins and tortillas just up the road from our house.
Speaking of food . . .
Gus started eating it this week. So far the jury is still out on the rice cereal. I think he wants to jump straight to the real stuff . I made my first two batches of baby food this week and froze it - carrots and butternut squash. I bought the veggies fresh, boiled them and then put them through my baby food mill. Is that right? I just kind of guessed. It was a little time consuming and very messy but not too bad. I bought a blender so hopefully that will help the process go smoother. I also need a better way to freeze it. All I could come up with were my breastmilk bags that I brought just in case I needed to put some milk away. And now I've used all of them. The only other option I have is gallon freezer bags. Our ice tray only holds about ten small cubes so that wouldn't be very efficient for freezing. Any other suggestions?
Here is Ford downing half a dozen passion fruit - his new favorite treat! I'm pretty sure if we weren't living in Kenya he wouldn't be eating passion fruit!
I know I jumped ahead on this blog post but I'm going to go back and tell you a little more about our arrival at Kijabe, our apartment and or first few days here as soon as I can! I know several of you are anxious to hear from us so this is for you :)
2 comments:
Can you get Dixie cups? That's what I used to freeze baby food in, but I'm guessing you want something reusable. I would probably just use ice cube trays and after they're frozen pop them out and put them all in a gallon size freezer bag to store long-term.
I'm glad y'all are doing well and am relieved to know that those bananas actually taste good. I was afraid to try them when I was there because they looked so bad.
I love that the eggs are in a plastic bag. No styrofoam egg cartons there! :) I used ice cube trays for C's baby food. I would make up a batch and fill anywhere from 2-4 trays, and then pop them out and store in freezer bags. The butternut squash I found was easier to bake. Just slice in half, place face down in a pan with about an inch of water, and bake till done (30-45 minutes maybe?). The peel would wrinkle when it was done, and then come right off. Much easier than peeling and dicing raw. The only thing about carrots is that you are supposed to use fresh water when pureeing them and not the water you boiled them in. Something about nitrates in the soil. This may be a fertilizer issue; I'm not sure. Any other fruit or veggie you use the cooking water (or breastmilk) to dilute in order to retain the most nutrients. Check out wholesomebabyfood.com. It's great! (Sorry such a long comment!)
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