It's the Baby Bump Giveaway!

Are you a new mommy or mom-to be? These awesome brands have created products just for you, to make welcoming your little one into the world a little easier. We are excited to partner with Green Scene Mom to be able to offer this wonderful gift collection as a fabulous giveaway!

Bundle OrganicsVariety pack of Bundle Organics prenatal juices - Kale Apple Lemon Ginger, Orange Carrot Berry Ginger, Dark Berry & Veggies

Bundle Organics is a line of pasteurized juices designed especially for expecting and new moms. The juices are made with USDA organic fruits and veggies, and fortified with OB/GYN-recommended nutrients that complement prenatal vitamins. bundleorganics.com

Peek-a-boo Maternity$65 gift card

Peek-a-boo provides a total wardrobe solution, starting from early pregnancy throughout nursing. We offer moms around the world a budget friendly solution. There is no need to buy maternity clothes in addition to nursing wear! Peek-a-boo's designs enable mothers to breastfeed discreetly and keep mother-baby eye contact while still looking stylish. Our items are made with the highest quality, hand-picked materials and designed to fit a woman's changing body during pregnancy and while nursing, emphasizing both comfort and style. studio-peekaboo.com

Philips AVENT9oz Natural Bottles

Our new bottle helps to make bottle feeding more natural for your baby and you. The nipple features an innovative petal design for natural latch on similar to the breast, making it easy for your baby to combine breast and bottle feeding. philips.com

Philips AVENTNight Time Pacifiers

Philips AVENT orthodontic, collapsible and symmetrical nipples respect the natural development of baby's palate, teeth and gums. All Philips AVENT pacifiers are made of silicone and are taste and odor-free. Colors are subject to change. philips.com

Yummi PouchYummi Pouch Minis - set of 6 reusable food pouches

Yummi Pouch reusable food pouches encourage healthy snacks for active kids. They are perfect for taking homemade baby food on the go, no spoon required. Yummi Pouch Minis are easily filled through their resealable zipper opening, they're freezer & dishwasher safe, and they easily fit in a diaper bag. yummipouch.com

It's The BalmPregnancy Pamper Kit: Belly Balm, Cooling Foot Scrub, Whipped Foot Balm and Peppermint Lip Balm

It's The Balm is an eco-friendly company that handcrafts premium natural and organic bath and beauty products. Each ingredient is selected for its genuine soothing and healing properties. Any ingredient not found in our garden is purchased from the best organic, fair-trade and environmentally-friendly distributors to protect your skin and the environment. etsy.com/shop/itsthebalm

Baby Jack Blankets14x18 sensory baby blanket

Babies adore the different textures and colors of Baby Jack sensory tab blankets, featuring a unique design of sewn shut ribbon tabs that keeps tiny fingers from getting intertwined in ribbon loops. Baby Jack Blankets are baby's first and favorite blanket. babyjackblankets.com

Spray PalDiaper cleaning accessory

The Spray Pal was invented by a cloth diapering mom and dad who were tired of cleaning up the mess caused by the diaper sprayer. It makes spraying dirty diapers easy and eliminates dirty splatter on your walls and floor. Use full water pressure on your sprayer without worry and get cloth diapers really clean. spray-pal.com

Gentle GoodnightStep-by-step sleep guide

Gentle Goodnight is a simple step-by-step guide that allows you to realistically apply the Dancing Sleep Method to improve your life and achieve an enjoyable way to get your baby to sleep. The Dancing Sleep Method is the process of matching your babies energy so that you can help them bring down their energy to relax into sleep. Babies need to be shown how to relax for sleep. Gentle Goodnight is a quick, loving way to get babies to sleep. amazon.com

Pacidoodle2 Pacidoodle personalized pacifiers

Pacidoodle is keeping pacifiers personal! A cute, high quality solution to accidental paci-swapping! Pacidoodle features AVENT pacifiers permanently engraved with baby's name, monogram or cute saying. pacidoodle.com

Prize Gift Collection

Open to the US - Ends 11:59PM 8/27/2014

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Clipping Nails

Clipping nails has always been a pain with Squiggle. I get it, I get it... no kid likes being held down or held still for anything. Yes, it's not fun for them. For Bobble, however, I was able to do this with much more ease than Squiggle. I would swaddle him up (as an infant) and just pull out one arm or leg at a time, or I'd nurse while my husband did the nails. As he aged, I would put on a Signing Time or a Baby Signing Time, watch with him for a few songs, then start trimming while he watched on my lap. Easy peasy.

Squiggle, however, is a different story. She doesn't care what show is on, what you are doing to entertain, who is doing it, if she has milk.. NOTHING. She just wants you to NOT hold her still.

Finally, about 2 weeks ago, I found my perfect weapon. Weird Al.



Not just any Weird Al, but his music video of TACKY. For some reason she loves it. He has many videos, and many animated ones. She doesn't care... she just wants to see them dancing at the camera to TACKY. Not only does she sit still and let me move and hold her fingers/hands any which way, but it is the PERFECT amount of time for me to trim all the nails on both hands! I'm finishing up the last nail just as the video ends.

I don't mind, of course, as I love Weird Al. His new album, Mandatory Fun, is only $10 on Amazon right now, and that includes a digital MP3 copy, as well. If that wasn't a good enough reason to get it, the fact that Bobble starts trying to dance like the people in the (above) video is! Every time he hears "Tacky", he starts dancing like mad. Love it!

What weird things have you done to trim your kids' nails?

Disclaimer: Thoughts of Fluff was not compensated for this post. All opinions are my own and may differ from your own. Post contains affiliate links.

Zapped

This past week has been pretty rough in this house, thus the lack of posting after the scheduled posts were done. Bobble has childhood asthma, and that acted up while we were visiting family, resulting in a 3am ER visit for a breathing treatment. He caught what Squiggle had.

Squiggle has been super needy, crying at everything. She cries if I hold her, she cries if I put her down. If I wear her, if I don't wear her. If I nurse her, if I don't nurse her. Everything makes her cry. She had bronchitis, an ear infection, a stomach bug, and is cutting 3 molars. I'd cry, too. She won't nap unless I lie with her or I hold her right now, and that makes doing anything very difficult... especially blog writing. Since she cries for everything right now, babywearing is the ONLY way I have gotten ANYTHING done. Unfortunately, she only is content while babywearing if I'm moving. Sorry, readers, but I'm not going to try and walk around holding a laptop in one hand and typing with the other. I'm sure you understand!

Sooooo, I've barely gotten sleep in the last week, but I'm here. I just am lacking the ability to write much since I have the above going on.

I hope you've enjoyed the recipe posts as of late. I think I'm going to start doing a new recipe on a weekly basis instead of the near daily frequency I have for the last couple of weeks.

Are there any particular types of foods you would like recipes for? Leave a comment at let me know!

Disclaimer: Thoughts of Fluff is responsible for the content of this post. Post contains affiliate links.

Chocolate Avocado Pudding

My children love chocolate. Okay, that's an understatement. They are OBSESSED with chocolate. If they can have it they eat as much as humanly possible (...or at least what is allowed). When I found the MOMables Chocolate Avocado Pudding recipe, I had to try this out. At least they would get some fruit and veggies with their chocolate!

The recipe is super simple and the kids devoured it. If your bananas are not super ripe (thus, not super sweet), you might have to add in some stevia, powdered sugar, or whatever you use to sweeten items in your house.

Chocolate Avocado Pudding

Author: MOMables.com

Serves: 4

Ingredients

• 3 ripe bananas
• 2 avocados
• 6 Tablespoons of unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1 teaspoon of vanilla

Instructions

1. Place avocados (peeled and pitted) and peeled bananas into the food processor or blend.
2. Blend until smooth.
3. Add unsweetened cocoa powder & vanilla, Blend until thoroughly combined.
4. Divide pudding into 4 single serve cups.
5. Refrigerate for at least two hours before serving.

See? Super easy! Also super delicious....

Disclaimer: Thoughts of Fluff is responsible for all content in this post and was not reimbursed in any way. These opinions are my own and may differ from those of your own. Post contains affiliate links.

Savoury Whole Crockpot Chicken

Looking for a delicious chicken recipe that doesn't take much time? This recipe is for you! It's very simple and only takes minutes to throw together, but your whole house will smell fabulous, and you'll have  juicy, fall-off-the-bone chicken for dinner! As you've probably noticed, I really get a lot of use out of my 6qt. Crock Pot!

You can add more or less of anything in the recipe to taste, and I never actually measure out the herbs, but this is a guesstimate. :)

Savoury Whole Chicken [Crock Pot]

Ingredients:

• 1 Whole Chicken
• 5 ribs celery
• 1 onion
• 1T dried thyme
• 1t dried oregano

Directions:

1. Slice the onion in half, an then into long strips. Separate the onion and place half of it across the bottom of the crock pot bowl.
2. Chop 3 ribs of up celery into small pieces. Cut the other 2 into snack-sized sticks. Spread chopped celery across the bottom of the bowl with the onion. 
3. Place spices in spice grinder or quickly grind with a mortar and pestle.
4. Get chicken out and remove innards and neck. Stuff with the other half  of the onion and celery and place top the chopped onion and celery in the crock pot.
5. Take dried spices and rub all over the body of the chicken. Cover and cook on low for 6-8 hours depending on size of chicken.

   

   Ready to cook!

Not only do you have some delicious chicken this way, but you have some cooked veggies to eat (if you choose) or throw into some other dish the next day.

Ready to eat!

Disclaimer: Thoughts of Fluff is responsible for all content in this post. These opinions are my own and may differ from those of your own. Post contains affiliate links.

Pumpkin Pie Overnight Oats (original recipe)

(The price below is for a 4 pack of these steel cut oats!)

I fell in love with the ease of overnight refrigerator oats. I love the fact you can have a delicious, nutritious breakfast just by opening the refrigerator in the morning. I decided to try something different from the bananas foster one I had been making, so I threw together a pumpkin pie overnight oats.

My first version wasn't very good because it's very easy to over do nutmeg. After a few trial and error batches, I've come up with what works great for our family. It's very simple to do, so I hope you try it out and love it as much as we do!

We prefer to use fresh pumpkin puree, but I know that's not always available for everyone. The recipe is for one serving/jar of overnight oats but if you buy a large (29oz, I believe) can of pumpkin puree, it should make roughly 8 batches total. If you want this sweet like a pie and don't want to add whipped cream, I'd recommend adding a bit more syrup to sweeten it since there won't been any whipped cream to sweeten it.

Pumpkin Pie Overnight Refrigerator Oats
Serves 1, shown made in a 16oz. mason jar
Ingredients:

• 1/4c steel-cut oats
• 1/4c pumpkin puree
• 1T pure maple syrup
• 1t chia seeds
• 1/2c milk
• 1/2t cinnamon 
• A sprinkle of ginger
• A sprinkle of nutmeg
• Whipped Cream to top (optional)
• Crumbled Graham Cracker to top (optional)

Directions:

1. Measure dry ingredients (oats, seeds, spices) and put in jar. Add pumpkin.
   
   
   
2. Add syrup, and milk.
   
3. Stir well. 
   
4. Cover and place in fridge.
5. Enjoy in the morning hot or cold. Add whipped cream and/or graham cracker if desired. 
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   Disclaimer: Thoughts of Fluff is responsible for all content in this post. These opinions are my own and may differ from those of your own. Post contains affiliate links.

Pea and Barley Soup

I mentioned that I made bread bowls the other day, but I didn't share what was IN them! With our unseasonably cool weather, I opted to try a Pea and Barley Soup recipe based off of one out of my favourite cookbook (Russian, German & Polish Food & Cooking), but altered to suit our taste and our product availability.

Pea and Barley Soup
Ingredients:

• 1 1/4c yellow split peas
• 1/4c pearl barley
• 7 1/2c vegetable stock or ham stock
• 6oz. bacon, cubed (or just cut the strips width-wise)
• 2T butter
• 1 onion, finely chopped
• 1c. chopped celery
• 2 garlic cloves, crushed
• Salt and Freshly Ground Black Pepper
• Bread to serve

Directions:

1. Rinse the peas and barley in a sieve under cold running water. Put in a large pan (the one you are going to cook it in -- I used my 6qt. sauce pot from Cuisinart) and cover with plenty of water. Place lid on pan and set on the stove (stove off) to soak overnight.
   
2. The next day, drain and rinse the peas and barley. Put them back in the large pan, pour in stock, and bring to a boil. Turn down the heat and simmer gently for 40 minutes.
3. Dry-fry the bacon cubes in a frying pan for 5 minutes or until well browned and crispy. Remove with a slotted spoon, leaving the fat behind, and set bacon aside.
4. Add the butter to the frying pan with the bacon grease, then the onion, celery, and garlic. Cook for 5 minutes, or until the onion is just starting to colour.
   
5. Add the softened vegetables and bacon to the pan of stock, peas, and barley. Season lightly with salt and pepper, then cover and simmer for 20 minutes or until soup is thick. Add extra black pepper to taste and serve with bread.
   

The original recipe called for celeriac instead of celery. Since I didn't have celeriac available, I opted for celery for taste, though I'm sure it would have thickened up more with cooked celeriac (in cubes). Either way, it tasted great, and it didn't matter that it was a bit more soupy than thick because the bread bowls I served them in absorbed the little bit of extra liquid and made them that much more delicious!

Disclaimer: Thoughts of Fluff was not compensated for this post. All opinions are my own and may differ from those of your own. Post contains affiliate links.