Day 20: Graham Cracker Ice Cream Sandwiches & Pureeing Day

Okay okay, so I went away for the weekend, and took a long break. Actually, we were watching Brian's cousins (ages 15, 13, and 10 - all boys), along with our own 2 kids. I wasn't going to subject them to my experiment, so I just stuck to the plan and made the dinners their mom had planned. So I didn't really take a break from cooking, just from the experiment.
It was a nice break, but by now, I was just itching to start again. It has been 6 days since I had made anything from the book. Last night, after we got home, I made the cauliflower eggs, for dinner. Let's just say I finished what the kids didn't eat (which was quite a bit), plus my own - - Not a big hit.

Today, I made Ice Cream Sandwiches with Graham Crackers. The Ice Cream was the homemade part. I'm not quite sure why this was included in the book, because there were no fruits or veggies in it. The Ice Cream was plain yogurt, Sugar, milk, and it called for lemon juice & lemon zest, but I don't like lemon flavored things, so I left those out, and added vanilla extract instead. Basically, you just mix them all together, and let it freeze for a few hours. Then scoop it into the middle of 2 graham crackers, wrap in wax paper, and freeze for 30 more minutes. Let's face it - the ice cream was bitter! But even though the recipe calls for Graham Crackers, the picture in the book is Cinnamon Graham Crackers. That's the kind I had anyway, so that's what I used. The sweetness of the Cinnamon, counteracted the bitterness of the ice cream - - if you ate them together. My kids both love Cinn. Graham Crackers but neither of them could get over the bitterness of the ice cream. My in-laws liked it, and so did my husband (he had 2).  I thought it was pretty good too. Here is a picture:

I have made so much stuff from the book,  was starting to run low on some of the purees. So today, I bought and pureed, a whole 2 lb butternut squash, 1 2lb cauliflower, a bag of frozen spinach, and a banana. I pureed more carrots about a week ago. Boy was that a lot of work!! It took at least 2 hours. My food processor that I use is actually just a 1 1/2 cup capacity food chopper, That doesn't chop so well. It takes forever, but it makes a nice puree. 

Baby Shower Gift: I have the BEST idea for the next Baby shower Gift I need to get! 1- A food chopper ($10 @ Target), 2- a pack of Zip lock Microwave Steam Bags (That's what I use to steam all my veggies), and 3 - some Ice Cube Trays. Most standard Ice Cubes Spaces in Trays are 1 oz. So if you freeze the purees, you automatically have 1 oz increments.  Then you can freeze any purees you have made (and they stay good for months) in a zip lock bag! It is always cheaper to buy the veggies/fruits and puree them yourself, and they are easy to defrost. Even if you are going somewhere, just stick however many pureed cubes you need, and put it in a zip lock food container! Once it defrosts. you are good to go! It's a BABY FOOD MAKER! This is how I save my purees and freeze them. Since they are each 1 oz already, I just follow the recipe by grabbing however many cubes I need (8 cubes = 1 cup)!

Sorry this post is so long. I will be making 3 things on Thursday and several people in our community will be my taste testers. Will see how it goes - Thanks for sticking with me!