(From Brazil) DIY Rice Pack

It's cold here, so I made a rice bag and used the other sisters' cameras to take pics.

I bought some flannel and cut out the size I wanted. I then went on to sew the seams. It would be super fast with a machine, but hey, you have to adjust when you live in Brazil :)

I sewed all the seams, then turned it right side out, leaving a small hole to put in all the rice.

After sewing the seams, I filled it with rice. The small bag I bought was not enough, so we used some food storage rice from our ward mission leader. We then realized, after putting it in the bag, that the food storage rice smelled very strongly of garlic! We had to take out all the rice, wash it multiple times, let it dry in a pan for a couple of days, and then put it back in. It only smells like a little garlic now, but the rest smells like coconut flavored soap :)

And here is the finished product. Pretty cute, and now all the girls I live with want to make one... Good thing I have extra material for them :)

Baby Food

I'm sure all you moms already know about this, but I just found out and I think it's totally neat! We all know that it is far less expensive to make your own baby food than to buy it. It is also better when you know exactly what Baby is eating. Let me share an easy-"peasy" way to make and store baby food. All it takes is a couple hours and you can have tons of baby food all frozen and ready to eat! I think I may actually start buying produce in bulk now that I know I can freeze this stuff for Vince!

Homemade Baby Food

Ingredients:

• Fresh fruit and/or vegetables
• Water
• Ice cube tray(s)
• Ziplock baggies

I haven't tried many types of food yet. I've only frozen peas and carrots. But I hear it works just fine with just about anything else. All you do is boil the vegetables with water until they are nice and soft. Then simply blend them up with some or all of the cooking water, depending on the consistency you want...and you have yourself some baby food. 

After it is made and pureed, all that is left to do is fill up the ice cube trays with the food and freeze them until the pureed food is solid. 

When it is ready to be removed, place the ice cube tray in 1/4 inch of warm water to loosen the food. Then just dump the food "cubes" into gallon-sized ziplock baggies and freeze! That is it! I think it's great. If you already knew about it, cool. If not, give it a try!

Please ignore the freezer ice. I forgot to take an 'after' picture when they were freshly frozen. 

(From the Phillippines) Fruit Roulade

Fruit Roulade

Roulade - from French word "roller" meaning to 'role.'  A dish made into a roll.

Preheat oven 150 c / 300 F or with gas; 130 c / @ 270 F
Line 33x 23 cm pan / 13 x 9"  with non-stick parchment paper.

Whip 3 eggs whites till thickened.
Add 3/4 cup sugar...slight
Beat till shiny.
Mix 1 tsp. flour, 1 tsp. vinegar, 1 tsp. vanilla and whisk into whites.
Spoon into pan and level surface so as to not push out air.

Bake 30 minutes or until surface is firm.
Remove from oven and cover with sheet non-stick parchment paper for 10 min.

Dust another sheet parchment paper with sugar, throw away paper on meringue and turn it onto the sugared paper.
Peel off paper.

Scatter cubed up fruit center of meringue and using paper, roll up fruit with seam under it.
Dust with sugar. Serve with Raspberry sauce.

Palawan version - mango, papaya, pineapple, banana
USA - strawberries, raspberries, blueberries, bananas

Raspberry sauce
Whiz 8 oz. slightly frozen raspberries with 2 T. Sugar until sugar is dissolved (sugar is optional)
Spoon over slices of Roulade.

Substitute for Palawan:
Tropical fruit Sauce
Blend 8 oz partially frozen fruit (probably won't need sugar)

Substitutes for parchment paper: wax paper, foil or best - silicone mat.