Out of all those colorful booties, soft blankets, and various contraptions, what baby gift was the most thoughtful or useful?  What gifts do you now give expectant families?

Among our favorite presents was a bag full of carefully selected, gently used baby garments.  Many people may shirk at receiving or giving hand-me-downs, but my sister-in-law knew that I ardently love recycled goods and bought me a huge bunch of clothes for the same price that she would have paid for one new outfit.   Another favorite gift was a copy of Shel Silverstein’s The Giving Tree that was presented along with an young apple tree.  (It died later, but it’s the thought that counts!)  We were also gifted with items to borrow which included two slings and an Ergo carrier.  Being able to just use these items temporarily worked out perfectly!

My husband and I are still especially appreciative for the gifts of support we received.  Friends volunteered to baby sit for our eldest son, prepared meals and refinished our table for us. Those acts of service were incredibly helpful and low cost.

What gifts do I give?  While I truly believe that our book, The Eco-nomical Baby Guide: Down-to-Earth Ways for Parents to Save Money and the Planet is a great shower gift, it’s pretty presumptuous for me to foist it upon others without giving them some other goodies.  Baby baskets are always good bets and the one in the picture features tools for making homemade baby food.  I also love buying practical stuff that will be used many times like cloth diapers, crib sheets or eco-friendly baby toiletries.

Please share your gift ideas with the rest of us!

Perhaps you’ve already read our new book, The Eco-nomical Baby Guide: Down-to-Earth Ways for Parents to Save Money and the Planet.   Maybe you’ve discovered the homemade baby food recipes included in the book and have spend hours whirling up delicious concoctions.  With minimal effort you’ve saved money, packaging, and carbon emissions by preparing healthy purees for your little one.  Now you deserve some brownies!

Steal a few frozen cubes of whirled up nutrition and slip them into this yummy recipe!  I’ve tried this on family and friends always with great results.  No one realizes that these are healthier than your standard brownie because the coffee and cocoa make them just as decadent.

Baby Food Brownies

Ingredients

• 1/4 Cup melted butter or margarine
• 2/3  Cup baking cocoa
• 1/2  Cup whole wheat flour
• 1/4 tsp baking powder
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1/2  Cup sugar
• 1/4 Cup brown sugar
• 2/3 cup baby food puree (pumpkin, sweet potato, squash, or yam)
• 1 egg
• 1 1/2 tsp vanilla
• 1/4 tsp instant coffee powder

Directions

Melt butter and cool. Then simply mix all ingredients together thoroughly. Spread mixture into a greased eight inch square pan.  Bake in a 350 degree oven for about 20 minutes or until brownies are slightly firm.  Enjoy!

We’re so proud of our new book that we’d like to get it in everyone’s hands.  The information stuffed between the bindings saved us about six thousand dollars in our babies’ first year alone so it’s worth shelling out a few bucks for a copy—but card carrying tightwads might want to know how to get the book for FREE.

• Check it out! What?! Your library doesn’t have it? Most libraries have online forms where you can recommend books for purchase.  Once your library gets it make sure you put it on hold for yourself!
• Enter our March giveaways. We’ll be hosting several giveaways in the month of March, all of which will involve wonderful green gear and a copy of our book.
• Put it on your baby shower registry. Several sites such as Mygiftlist.com allow you to create an online gift registry that includes cloth diapers, eco-friendly baby soaps and a copy of our book. Hey, it’s free for you!
• Review it on your blog. We’re looking for bloggers who post at least a few times a week and have some connection to the content of our book.  If it looks like your blog will be a good fit, we’ll email you back for your mailing address and get a review copy to you as soon as possible. You can even use it as a giveaway on your site after you read it!
• Share a copy with friends. O.K. This isn’t quite free but if you have pregnant pals a group of you can purchase one book and share it amongst yourselves.  Then maybe you can stick together to problem solve the challenges of green parenting when your babies arrive.

If you don’t have a blog, a library, pregnant friends, or anyone willing to throw you a baby shower we should tell you that the book is available for pre-order in the next few weeks at 25% off. It would be nice if all of you were so inspired by that temporary sale that you bought several thousand copies of our books I suppose, but as thrifty souls ourselves, it brings us even more happiness to find ways for you to score a copy of our little gem for free.  Thanks for all your support!

After months of interrupted sleep, my husband and I were longing to having full REM cycles, dreams, and several hours of slumber.  Our baby is nearly eight months old.  Shouldn’t she be sleeping through the night by now?  Never mind that our son didn’t snooze a full night until he was nine months old.  Never mind that our parenting peers were having the same problem.  We were determined to find out how we could possibly get her to let us rest.

First we tried the food.  We loaded her up with pumpkin and pears right before bed, resolute in our determination to slumber.  Her response?  She woke up three times that night with diapers encrusted with orange-tinged poo.  Ugh.

Then we tried a different meal schedule and longer spans between her feedings during the day.  Our wise pediatrician reminded us that if she couldn’t last more than three hours during the day, how could she make it through the night?

Right!  We tried the new routine with some success but Jovi was still up every night at exactly 1am.  Why was she so precise?

We tried warmer pajamas, a fan for background noise, a slightly later bedtime… All of it in vain.  At 1am on the dot we were greeted by her desperate screams. Every. Single. Night.

Until last night.  My husband was up late and went in to watch her sleep before he hit the sack.  It was 12:55 and as he watched her snooze in perfect slumber, he heard a sudden loud beeping.  Yes.  The travel alarm clock we keep in her room has been set to go off at 1am for months.  It only beeps five times so it was never going off when we went in to get her.

Our poor, pumpkin stuffed babe!  We’ll see how it goes tonight…

One of the first natural baby food cookbooks to hit the mainstream, Super Baby Food, is still enjoying relative fame.  I was thrilled to find the first edition in its purple cover in a pile of garage sale books and happily paid a quarter to make it mine.

I eagerly rushed home and began reading, but found myself disappointed.  The book is loosely organized, full of anecdotes and often difficult to follow.  Although it’s over 500 pages long, there are really only about thirty critically important pages of information to read.

To be fair, I do love those thirty pages. Ruth Yaron challenges our ideas of traditional baby food by offering up other ingredients for home-blended meals.  She explains how to whirl up vegetables and fruits in your blender and then dump it into ice cube trays to freeze and store.  As baby gets older, she has tips for including egg yolk, beans, kale, and a variety of other healthy foods into a “super porridge” that can be inexpensively prepared.

Yager also has some fun recipes for toddler foods including tofu McNuggets, nutty millet pancakes and peanut butter pudding.   The creativity in food presentation and delivery are pretty remarkable as well.  For example, she recommends spreading a slice of bread with peanut butter and then wrapping it around a whole banana as a creative vegan hot dog.

It’s also fascinating that Yager’s children have been quite healthy based on their rich diet of whole grains, greens, and hearty proteins.  She insists that while most children are sick between six to twelve times a year, her family faces illness once or twice at most.

As a working mom with limited time, I found the book to be heavily layered with irrelevant details and tough to weed through. For example, in the middle of the arts and crafts section she goes into great detail about using zip lock bags, adult sized socks and duct tape to avoid purchasing snow boots.  On the same page she gives directions for shining patent leather shoes with petroleum jelly. I’m not sure either of those things even needs to be in a baby food book.  To be fair, I haven’t read the second edition which may have edited some of the cumbersome tidbits out.

Is it worth buying?  If you’re interested in making your own baby food for economic, health and environmental reasons it’s a good resource, but I would recommend checking it out from the library or picking it up secondhand.  I’ll be sending my copy out to a lucky reader who will be able to read the book for herself and develop her own opinion.  Simply comment by February 12th to be entered in our giveaway!

Have you read Super Baby Food?  Did you find it be a valuable resource?  Do you make your own food at home?

Now some of you have children who will willingly eat the family meal, spinach and all.  Well done!  I would love to know how you did it.  My three year old won’t be receiving specialized cuisine for the rest of his life but for now it makes mealtime infinitely easier.  Simply listing out a few ideas for breakfasts, lunches and dinners and then posting it has made life so much easier.   It means that we don’t have to think in the morning after a horrid night with the baby and that we can be sure to have items on hand for kid-friendly meals.

Before we tried this simple tip, we spent a lot of time standing before an open fridge trying to think of healthy combinations for our son.  Also, we made the mistake of listing several choices for him each meal as if we were catering to a very demanding customer.  Now we put his meal before him and find that he’s far more willing to try it.

Our son helped us come up with the list and buy some of the items that we needed to have on hand.  It helps him be involved in mealtime beforehand so that he’s less likely to balk when the meal is placed before him.

Breakfast

• Homemade cocoa-oatmeal, peanut butter and banana
• Cereal and milk, soft boiled egg
• Toasted bagel with peanut butter and raisins, frozen blueberries
• Cottage cheese, apple slices and peanut butter

Lunch

• Peanut butter and honey sandwich, carrot sticks, raisins
• Tortilla roll up with cream cheese and ham, cut into slices, edamame
• Cheese slices, crackers, garbanzo beans with dipping sauce
• Cheese sandwich, dried mango slices, dried seaweed (nori)

Dinner

• English muffin cheese pizza, frozen peas, blueberry smoothie
• Whole wheat pasta with tomato sauce, garbanzo beans
• Yumm bowl, apple slices
• Cheese quesadilla, lima beans, dipping sauce

I know this isn’t gourmet fare, but it’s nice to have a list of a few meal ideas to get us going. Do you have other favorite meal choices that your child loves?  Please share!

Today marks our final in a series of posts dedicated to saving cash while keeping the environment in mind.  (Check here, here, and here for some great frugal blog resources to support your money saving efforts.)  Over the past two years we’ve written dozens of posts on budget friendly, earth friendly practices, but we’ve picked our favorites to help you save money in 2010.

• Did you know that there’s one brand of high quality, name brand green laundry soap that’s far cheaper than even generics? Check this post to see how you can save money and the planet while tossing those yam-encrusted baby bibs into the wash.
• You can save hundreds of dollars by making homemade organic baby food, cloth diapering and breastfeeding.  All of these options are better for baby,  the environment and your budget.
• Should you register for brand new baby duds or hit yard sales for gently used garments?  You can probably guess which one we recommend!
• Why take the time and energy to cut back on family spending anyway?  Is it worth it?  Absolutely!  We explore the long term rewards of under indulgence for your family (and your child!) here.
• If you’d like to save over a thousand dollars to tuck into the college fund, you might want to start before your baby ever arrives.  Opt for secondhand duds for your maternity months and postpartum transition wardrobe.
• Does shopping organic mean that you’ll need to shell out hundreds of dollars on a weekly basis?  Not necessarily.  In fact, Rebecca feeds her entire family eat wholesome organic foods on a shoestring budget without too much effort.  Learn how she does it here.
• Those of us living without dishwashers use far more water and soap than our Maytag-owning peers.  What are some simple ways to save water and conserve suds?  Rebecca takes a careful look at the problem here.

Does all that penny pinching add up?  You’ll be happy to know that because of all that careful thrift, Rebecca just graduated into the dishwasher-owner category after an arduous kitchen remodel.  I am still dreaming of slipping my peanut butter covered spoons into the silverware slot of my newfangled Maytag someday, but for now I shall make good use of Rebecca’s dishwashing research!

For the last four years I’ve been slurping my beverages from a well worn plastic bottle.  Yes, it’s made from a “safer” plastic–but it still didn’t exactly feel safe.  Still, I was loathe to toss it in the trash in the name of environmentalism.  Luckily, it failed on its own and I was free embrace stainless steel.  Still, I was convinced that the options were limited.  After all I wanted a water bottle that:

• Fit in my car beverage slot

• Had a wide mouth that could easily be filled with ice.

• Held at least 20 ounces of water.
• Had a flip top straw top so that I could drink safely while driving to work without having to unscrew a lid or tip my head back.

My husband found just what I was looking for in the Nathan Stainless Steel  Flip Straw Bottle.  (Many models are currently on sale right now).  I love this little bottle!  In addition to meeting all my criteria, mine is green and marked with a “reduce, reuse, recycle” label.  It also comes with a handy clip that can be fastened onto backpacks or bags when on the go.

What’s your favorite water bottle?  Do you stick with glass, plastic or stainless steel?  Thanks for sharing your tips with our readers!

My sister never buys toothpaste.  Or shampoo. Or deodorant.  Don’t worry—she doesn’t smell bad, but she is a wickedly talented couponer.  She insists that if you play  your cards right, you can get many of your household goods at absolutely no cost.  Many shoppers refer to the coupon phenomenon as “the grocery game.”

Pulling it off can involve lots of time, newspapers, and trips to the store, but it may save you enough money to buy more organic produce or join a CSA.   Is it a perfectly green solution?  No.  Another detractor is that several coupons are for highly processed food. Still, if you’re desperately searching for space in your budget and you can bike or walk to shopping, it may work for you.

Here are a few blogs devoted to the art of coupon clipping:

Frugal Living NW is based in Portland and has a wide variety of deals including coupon formulas for getting free goods at drug stores, grocery stores, and online.  They’ll post all the coupon combinations for you so that you don’t need to do any complex problem solving before you arrive at the store.  You’ll even get insider tips on occasional organic product specials.

I love that Organic Grocery Deals is a small online community that shares a vision for green living and finding the best prices on organic products.  You can register for free and use the site to access online coupons and receive a regular newsletter.  Readers are from across the country so you’ll find all sorts of offers through a variety of stores.  (Also, check out our vintage post on Organic Deals, which also specializes in eco-friendly  products.)

Fabulessly Frugal is loaded with tips about sales and coupons with careful formulas for getting the best prices  The sales aren’t necessarily on organic food, but the stores she features such as Fred Meyer and Safeway do carry organic produce.  You could load up on a few deals and use the saved money to buy healthy produce for homemade baby food or toddler snacks.

Have you found any sites that feature coupons for healthy products? Are you a scissor carrying coupon clipper?  Is it worth the effort with a baby in tow?  I have to admit that I haven’t yet been able to cut coupons and then have them with me while grocery shopping.  It is a goal I shall aspire to in 2010!…

Imagine getting paid to save the planet.  Sound enticing?  Sustainable living, in the ideal, should be about saving money, saving resources, and saving your sanity. The extra cash is like an environmental merit badge!  We’ve selected a few more blogs that focus on simple living this week to provide daily doses of thrifty motivation.  (Look at last Monday’s post for another three frugal blogs.)

For those who are just beginning to cut back, Almost Frugal is a really nice site that emphasizes living with less while improving our quality of life.  The posts offer a friendly, non-judgmental exploration of thrifty life and tips on how to evaluate where our money goes.

Frugal for Life’s focus on wasting less and saving more is a welcome read.  It’s packed with DIY ideas for frugal living and avoiding consumer traps, plus it has a nice homemade quality that we also embrace at Green Baby Guide.

Another great spot for the skinflint crowd is Frugal Village.  Instead of feeling like a cheapskate, you can learn from penny-pinching peers that share your vision for simpler living.

Reading any of these blogs for a few minutes a week helps reinforce my resolve to cut back and create more budgetary freedom.  It still feels as though my ability to save money is closely tied to available time.  Since I’m currently teaching full time, maintaining this blog and gearing up for the book release date in March, it feels like I need to budget my time as well as my money.  Still, the message these blogs keep coming back to is one that actually saves me precious moments–buy less, be resourceful, and skip a trip to the store.  I can handle that!