Chicken noodle soup

I have been making a great effort to cook foods that the whole family will eat. I don't give my girls enough credit, they are excellent eaters. I sometimes get stuck in a rut with what I offer them and tend to turn to our go to items. Recently, I have come to realize that they are eat better when they get something totally new and full of flavor. So I decided to try one of mine and Josh's winter favorites, homemade chicken noodle soup. 

They loved it. 

Ate it like champs!

They even enjoyed left-overs for lunch a couple of days later. 

Toddlers are just like adults. They like things that taste good.

Once your child has teeth and is eating solid foods well, soups are a great thing to offer them.

I literally eye everything and don't follow a recipe but thought I'd share. 

Here is what I do:

I boil a whole organic chicken in just enough water to cover it for a few hours on low-medium. 

Chop and sauté three whole organic carrots and one medium onion in separate pan.

Strain chicken out of broth. Let the chicken cool and then de-bone it. 

Add the sautéed veggies to the broth. 

Add additional chicken stock if needed.

Boil kluski noodles in broth until tender.

Add deboned shredded chicken back into pot.

Salt and pepper. 

Serve. 

Next time I'll measure things more specifically. 

Zabie?

What in the world does Zabie mean?

When we were expecting our girls, dear friends of ours started referring to them as the Zabies since we did not find out the genders. 

Zabek + Babies=  Zabies 

Zabies= Zabek Babies

We fell in love instantly with the nickname. 

Most people now refer to the girls as the Zabies.

 Not the twins or the girls. Their twin name is Zabies. 

Interestingly enough, a few days ago my husband Googled my blog name to get to it instead of using the URL. 

My blog is hit #2. Why not #1 you ask? Urban Dictionary beat us on that one. 

Urban Dictionary: Zabie

Click here to see it.

The first sentence of the description is:

"The most gorgeous girls in the entire world. Zabie tends to be blue eyed and strong."

It was added to the urban dictionary on August 11th, 2013. 

Just 10 days before the Zabies were born. It's kind of neat.

 It has many other descriptive terms about a Zabie. 

Just thought I would share! Enjoy!

Here are my most gorgeous girls in this world, covered in tonight's dinner!! 

Quinn thinks that tomatoes are diamond rings in the rough. 

Kensington clapping with her sticky, ketchup covered hands. 

Winner, Winner Spaghetti Dinner

This week has been operation Zabies Eat What We Do.  My guy usually gets home a half hour after the Zabies finish their supper so eating as a family has been no existent except on the weekends. I have been working with getting the Zabies to eat a 5:30 supper instead of 5:00 and also only offering them what I have cooked for Josh and myself each night. 

Monday night we had Pot Roast with carrots and potatoes. It wasn't a huge success but they did eat it. They just didn't over indulge like they so often do. I'm okay with that... baby steps!

Last night, however, was a winner in the supper department. I cooked spaghetti and meat sauce for the first time since I stopped breastfeeding. We have been cutting carbs as of late but I quickly realized that our high protein diet isn't working with eating as a family and not being a short order cook. Everyone needs to eat the SAME meal each night. Mama and Daddy just have to figure out portion control... I digress. 

The girls LOVED this meal! I did cook penne pasta for them since we are fork training. They did GREAT! I mean even I have problems getting pasta on my fork and they completed the task like champs! I was so proud! Then I was shocked by them wanting to try my salad. I didn't offer them salad with their meal thinking they wouldn't like it. WRONG! They loved it and I got all of maybe five bites of my side salad, maybe. I guess nothing is off limits with these two little ladies!

First Quinn practiced poking her food

The she practiced taking bites 

Then she "double fisted" Sometimes using your hands just works better

Kensington practicing poking her food

Practicing taking bites

Then she agreed with Quinn that her hands were faster!

They seriously did such a great job and I had to refill both of their plates twice!!  They are definitely growing. I can't wait to see their stats on Friday at their 15 month appointment!

Must Have Monday: Exclusively Pumping for Twins

Boppy Lounger, Pumping Bra (I used this one), Medela Pump-in- Style double electric pump, Dr. Brown's Bottles, Bibs and Burp Cloths.

A feeding, for us, looked something like this.
I would have pre-made bottle of breast milk usually pumped the previous pump or within 24 hours prior. I heated it in a cup of hot water. So the entire bottle stuck down into a cup of really hot water. I checked it regularly until it was the desired temperature needed to feed the Zabies. I started doing this about 15 minutes prior to when they should eat. They did so every 3 hours or whatever your doctor recommends for your baby or babies.
Once the bottles were ready I would go to whatever location I was planning to feed the Zabies, my king sized bed in the wee hours of the night and early morning, my couch during the day or the floor as they became more mobile. I would put the Zabies on their boppy loungers (never leave a baby unattended on the lounger) and quickly put on my Medela hands free pumping bra. Then I would "hook up" to my pre-assembled pump parts. I always had multiple sets of clean parts assembled on every floor of the house to help with quickly "hooking up". I turned on the pump and then put the Zabies' warmed bottles in their mouths. I bottle fed while pumping, always. They always wore bibs in case of a messy feeding. I would then flip each baby at the necessary times and burp them both at the same time. Usually they were laying on their bellies on the lounger once they could hold their heads up. I burped them separately over my shoulder before they could hold up their heads or if they were difficult to burp during that specific feeding. Once they finished eating I burped them one last time and then diapered them. I always had a diaper changing caddy nearby making it easy to diaper them while continuing to pump. By the time I was finished feeding, burping and diapering them I was done pumping. This all usually took 30-45 minutes in the early days. I would then un-hook, put the Zabies in their rock and play sleepers, clean-up pumping parts and put away milk for the next feeding.

As I write this I remember how exhausting the schedule was between feeding them and keeping up with cleaning  pump parts and bottles. This was our routine until 12 months. I always had an over supply and never had to supplement with formula. Not that there is anything wrong with formula feeding because we all have to do what is best for our families but I was proud to give my twins only breastmilk until they turned 1 year old. It is my greatest accomplishment as a mother aside from growing two healthy, beautiful, and thriving babies. They only thing that ever changed about our routine was the frequency in which they took their bottles as they got older but ate every three hours for most of their first year.  If you have any questions or need support with this please email me! Exclusively nursing just didn't work for us (we tried it for about 8 weeks) but it is possible to still only give your children breast milk by exclusively pumping.