What do you do with your ratty old yoga mat? Recycle it! This month only, there is a little incentive to recycle that mat. Send in five or more used mats from your yoga studio, and you’ll get one recycled wool blanket in return. Follow these steps:

1) Collect 5 or more used yoga mats at your studio.
2) Send them to Recycle Your Mat* and include a note mentioning this offer.
3) When the mats are received, Manduka will send you a FREE Recycled Wool
Blanket.

Celebrate Earth Day by spreading the word about Recycle Your Mat. Visit www.recycleyourmat.com for more information.

*Legal Beagle says: “Please wipe down the yoga mats before sending. Yoga mats must be received by 4/30/10 to redeem free giveaway, otherwise we’ll still take them but you won’t get the awesome new recycled wool blanket.”

I should have remembered, but I didn’t. During Jovi’s nine month checkup our pediatrician informed us that she’s ready for table food. Table food? Really? Wasn’t she just born last week?

Somehow I had forgotten that babies eat pureed food for a matter of three months or even less! That makes our small appliance duel less exciting, but it’s true. (If you’re looking for some tips on making your own purees check here, or find some fabulous recipes in our book, The Eco-nomical Baby Guide: Down-to-Earth Ways for Parents to Save Money and the Planet.)

When Jovi reached nine months, we did buy her some Happy Baby organic puffs and she seemed to enjoy them, but I wanted a simpler, thriftier option. Now that we’ve been experimenting for awhile we’ve found all sorts of table food options including:

• steamed carrots
• pears
• apples
• noodles
• avocados
• banana
• bread
• rice
• mashed potatoes
• puffed grains
• and just about anything we eat!

It’s also important to note that the idea of pureed baby food is a western one. In many parts of the world babies nurse and then are carefully fed small portions of “table food” when they seem interested. When I was eating a banana a few days ago, Jovi simply leaned over and took a bite—that’s definitely a sign that she’s ready for more!  Of course tots can easily misjudge the size of their bites or how long food should be chewed, so I’m sure to keep a close eye on her during mealtimes so that she doesn’t choke on her grown-up grub.

What are your favorite table foods for baby? Was it an easy transition to make?

Constrained by a dearth of kitchen cabinets, Joy has never owned a food processor. How, then, did she manage to blend up her own baby food? Did she smash yams with her bare hands, pulverize zucchini with a potato masher, or run over a bag of ripe bananas with her bicycle? No. She used her blender.

The Kitchenaid 5-speed Blender

Now, when Joy told me this, I had to laugh: this was the only kitchen gadget—and I confess to owning many, many kitchen gadgets—that I didn’t get much use of when making baby food. Blenders are more suited to blending liquid concoctions than pureeing fruits and veggies. You’ll find yourself adding a lot of water and making good use of a spatula when you make baby food in a blender. Because of this, we (well, I) recommend using a food processor or a food mill for your baby food making adventures.

If you do have a blender or want to buy a blender, it does have a place in the baby food kitchen. Once your little one learns to drink from a straw, you can pack fruits, vegetables, and “extras” such as brown rice protein powder into smoothies and popsicles. (Here’s my recipe for spinach-strawberry popsicles. Here are Joy’s popsicle recipes, including a delicious tofu-chocolate one.  And don’t forget another great blender recipe: Yumm sauce, the sauce that gets your kids to beg for beans, rice, and vegetables.)

So what blender is best? I recommend a glass blender with a wide base (click on that link for several affordable options). Cheap plastic blenders tend to change shape over time, and depending on the type of plastic used, it can leach chemicals into your food. A wide base makes the blender much easier to clean. I have the KitchenAid KSB5 5-Speed Blender, which costs $150. I bought mine over ten years ago, and I have been very happy with it.

Do you use a blender for making baby food? I promise not to chastise you for it. Come back for my reviews of immersion blenders!

Rebecca likes to cruelly taunt me about the use of my blender for making homemade baby food. Honestly, I could care less. I proudly stand behind my little Osterizer and its amazing ability to whip up heaps of sweet potatoes, baby spinach, and pureed pears. (By the way, Rebecca and I are playing up the blender drama just for show. Our nearly twenty year friendship hasn’t been damaged by this small appliance duel.)

Due to limited storage in my kitchen, I have to limit my gadgets. Nothing earns the right to live in my cupboards unless it can prove that it has many functions on a regular basis. My blender is a standby for summer smoothies, popsicles, and, of course, baby food. I simply steam or boil the food, dump it in, and add some of the liquid used to cook it. Then I whirl it up and dump it in ice cube trays for storage. When it’s frozen, the cubes go into labeled freezer bags where they wait to be microwaved for dinner. If you’re looking for some elegant and healthy recipes, along with cloth diapering tips and heaps of ways to save money on raising baby, check out our book, The Eco-nomical Baby Guide.

Do I find the blender difficult to use? Hardly! I will say that when I’m making a big batch I occasionally have to turn the blender off and stir the contents a bit with a wooden spoon before I start pureeing again. I can’t really say that it’s any hardship…  And, to validate my choice of appliance, there is actually a book entitled Blender Baby Food!”  I haven’t read it and can’t comment on whether it’s worth a purchase, but it certainly goes to show that I’m not the only one putting my Osterizer to good use!

Do you use a blender for baby food? What is your appliance of choice? Let’s get this debate going!

Every other week, a huge box of organic vegetables lands on my doorstep. I take everything out, put it in large Ziploc bags, and store most of it in the fridge. Then, like the good little tightwad environmentalist that I am, I wash the bags out and use them over and over again.

The thing is, I hate washing out Ziploc bags! Now that I have a dishwasher, my hatred has grown stronger, because obviously I cannot run the bags through the dishwasher.  This has prompted me to wonder: Is there a better way to store vegetables? Could I use clear glass containers or BPA-free Tupperware? What about awkwardly-sized veggies, like huge heads of broccoli or two-foot long leeks? How do you store produce?

If you don’t already own a food mill, don’t necessarily rush out and buy one. In The Eco-nomical Baby Guide, we warn against buying something that you’ll use just a few short months—and really, babies graduate from pureed mush to bite-sized chunks relatively quickly. However, if you think you might get some use out of a food mill once your baby food days are over, then now is the time to get one. It’s one of the best tools for baby food cookery you can find. Why? A food mill saves a lot of work. No peeling and seeding—just steam some apples or sweet potatoes or green beans and run them through the mill. All the seeds, peels, and stringy bits get filtered right out–and it doesn’t even need any electricity to work!

RSVP International food mill

What else can you use a food mill for? I needed one to make gnocchi several years ago. The recipe warned that any other contraption would render the potato dough gluey and unworkable. Now I use it all summer to make gazpacho. (Here’s a recipe from the Gluten-Free Gourmand. Notice I plug the food mill throughout the comments!) No need to seed and peel those tomatoes and cucumbers—just feed them through the mill and they come out silky smooth. Ever try to press berries through a strainer with a spatula to make a coulis? I use a food mill for this task now.

Cuisipro Deluxe food mill

I have something similar to this RSVP International Veg-3 Rotary food mill—though I remember paying just $12 instead of $25 for it! (Mine is a Moulinex, which I did not find online.) If you’d prefer a stainless steel device, try the Oxo Good Grips food mill ($44.99) or the RSVP Endurance Stainless Steel food mill for $34.95. There’s also the Cuisipro Deluxe food mill for $104.95, but I’m not sure what makes it so much more expensive than the other brands.

Some parents buy a mini food mill for making baby food on the go. Theoretically you could take it with you to restaurants and blend up what you’re having for baby. I think this would be a waste of money; you already know how I feel about limited-use baby gear. Of course, I’m really not one to talk considering the number of gizmos that reside in my kitchen.

For the last six days, I, Joy Hatch, co-author of The Eco-nomical Baby Guide, swaddled my babe in plastic and petroleum instead of cotton.

What can possibly be my defense for this environmental atrocity?  Honestly, it’s a little flimsy.  We’re in the middle of a kitchen remodel so I fled to my mom’s house with the kids.  Since she was having several groups of company during our stay including a whole flock of grandchildren, it seemed more helpful to just bring disposables.

The weird thing was that there was a microscopically thin slice of me that was excited about not having to wash cloth diapers—like that inner glutton that occasionally thinks it might be fun to eat an entire bag of Cheetos rather than virtuously dining on sautéed kale.

But the disposable diaper experience left me a bit sick and guilty—much like those junk food moments.  And the bad feelings weren’t nearly as shocking as the fact that I think cloth diapering is actually easier!  With cloth I would  have had to dunk a couple of diapers and do a load or two of laundry.  I resented disposables from the moment that I had to shlep my baby to the store to buy them. After that, I had to constantly deal with the trash they generated.  Plus the expense of the diapers was an utter waste! At the end of all that money and garbage, Jovi and I had nothing to show for it except a bright red diaper rash.

In short, my environmental slip led to a renewed belief that cloth is such a better option—not just for the planet but for you and your child!  Still, cloth diapering can seem really formidable at first in the same way that disposables seem convenient. Wouldn’t it be great if every parent got the chance to cloth diaper just for six days to see how it works?  After we achieve that, we’ll get right to work on world peace.

Have you had a chance to try cloth?  Did it work for you?  Do you use cloth while traveling?  If you’re  going on an extended visit to a friends’ house that may not be enthusiastic about laundering dirty cloth diapers, what do you do?   Do you buy a special stash of G-diapers, or opt to go to the Laundromat just to stick to your diapering ethics?

You’ll be happy to know that pulverizing steamed vegetables is an easy culinary skill to master, whether you use a fork, food mill, or your own mouth (as one reader suggested). We went over the various tools in this vintage post, and we still recommend making your own baby food if you want to save money. In The Eco-nomical Baby Guide, we show you just how much you can save by cutting back on jarred foods.

Kara over at Just Simply Live was kind enough to review our book. She loved the whole thing but walked away wishing we’d reviewed some food processors. Great idea! We didn’t do it in the book for a reason: We didn’t want new parents to feel like they had to rush out and buy something before they could make their pureed delights. Now, what I’m about to say may be shocking, but I’ll go ahead and say it: Joy does not even own a food processor! That’s right. Yet she managed to make a lot of her own baby food in something she did own—a blender. A blender is the worst appliance for this task, in my opinion, but that’s a topic for a future post.

A food processor is your greatest ally in the art of whirring mushy food into even mushier food. Why? Unlike a blender, you don’t have to add water to blend everything up. You’ll also get a smoother consistency more quickly than you would with other tools. You can also use it to blend dry goods; for example, I blended rolled oats into a powder so I could make my own baby cereal. I never bought boxes of rice or oat cereal, which can cost $5 a pound or more. The best thing about the food processor, though, is that it does much, much more than make baby food. It kneads, it mixes, it slices, it dices, it grates—it does everything but babysit.

So what food processors do I recommend? I have the Cuisinart DLC-10S Pro Classic 7-Cup Food Processor, which costs just under $100. It comes with everything you see in the photo. I use almost all of the attachments regularly, though it’s been years since I’ve needed to make baby food with it. The Cuisinart Prep Plus costs $133 and offers a larger (9 cup) capacity. Or, if you don’t think you’ll use it for much other than small projects, you could get the Cuisinart Mini Prep Plus for just $32.99.

Kitchenaid food processors may appeal to you if you do a lot of cooking and want special features, a variety of bowl sizes (from 3-12 cups) to choose from, and a lot of color options. The KitchenAid 7-cup food processor costs just under $100 and appears to be the equivalent of my Cuisinart.

Have you used a food processor to make your own baby food? Stay tuned for reviews of food mills, immersion blenders, and more!

We’re ending our series of giveaways with a bang!  You could win a Naturepedic No-Compromise Organic Cotton crib mattress in this week’s giveaway.  That’s a $359 value!  You’ll also get a copy of our new book, The Eco-nomical Baby Guide: Down-to-Earth Ways for Parents to Save Money and the Planet.  (Although it’s far less expensive, we think you’ll find it just as helpful.)

Since most mainstream crib mattresses contain vinyl and polyurethane foam which off-gas some nasty chemicals, buying organic is a comforting option.  Naturepedic’s No Compromise Organic Cotton crib mattress has a waterproof surface and is certified to meet GREENGUARD’s high standards for child safety.  The mattress also happens to be hypoallergenic and  is covered with a non-toxic fire protection system. How reassuring to lay your sleeping babe down on this gem and know that she’s safe and comfortable!

This is our very last in the series of large giveaways, and we hope that you are our winner.  See below to find out all the ways you can enter!

Nine Ways to Enter the Giveaway

How do you enter?  Guess what?  You can enter more than once! Each way listed below gets you one entry.  All comments have to be posted BEFORE Tuesday the 18th of April to win.

Remember, leave a separate comment on this post for each entry you want.  If applicable, please leave the link to your Facebook/Twitter/Blog in the comment you leave here.

1. Leave us a comment on this post.
2. Visit Naturepedic’s web site and then post a comment telling us what caught your eye!
3. Email a friend about this giveaway.
4. Join our Facebook fan club
5. Link to this giveaway post on Facebook or Twitter–tell all your friends to stop by!
6. Link to this post on your blog!
7. Add The Eco-nomical Baby Guide to your “to read” shelf on Goodreads
8. Go read our post on Five Ways to Score a Free Copy of  The Eco-nomical Baby Guide and leave a comment there if you’d like to review our book on your blog.  (Make sure to read the post for more details!) Leave a comment here as well to make sure we can keep track of your entries.
9. Does your library have copies of the Eco-nomical Baby Guide? If not, request a purchase! (Then come back and post your comment to let us know!)

***The contest ends on Monday, April 19th, 2010***

Winner will be randomly selected.

We will notify the winner via email and will get you in touch with these companies who will ship your products directly to you. Please Note: This contest is open only to U.S. readers.

Have fun everyone!

Somehow I wound up with a dozen little plastic bottles for storing expressed breast milk—I think I got them free at the hospital where I gave birth. I preferred them over those little breast milk baggies that leaked all over the place. At the time I wasn’t concerned about BPA and other toxins found in plastic; I just didn’t know much about it. Years later, new mothers are concerned about using plastic for storing breast milk—but what’s a better option? Are there glass bottles that work well for freezing milk? What do you do?

This Evenflo classic glass bottle pack costs just $11.99 for six glass bottles!