Better Than Campbell's Crockpot Condensed Cream of Mushroom Soup

Cream of mushroom soup is in many holiday dishes, but the canned stuff is full of preservatives. Make your own in the crockpot for a healthy, cost effective holiday season!

Green bean casserole. Gravies and sauces. Specialty side dishes. Cream of mushroom soup is in lots of food served during the holiday season, isn't it? And those creamy dishes are soooo good too! However, the stuff that's in Campbell's cream of mushroom soup is disgusting. Did you know it has over a five year shelf life - for a product that contains dairy? At least, I think there's dairy in it, I can barely pronounce the derivatives and preserved versions of the whole food products. It comes as a surprise to nobody that I'm not into that. And I've devised my own recipe, that's super easy to make (it's done in the Crockpot so the work is done for you!) that tastes even BETTER than Campbell's, minus all the preservative crap.

The extra bonus is that this all organic, homemade, better tasting cream of mushroom soup is almost as cost effective as Campbell's. In Dallas, canned soup is $1.19 a can. I bought all these ingredients at Whole Foods and dollar cost averaged the price per mason jar out to $1.88. So for an extra 69 cents and the time it takes you to throw this stuff into a Crockpot, you can have fresh, homemade, preservative free, REAL food cream of mushroom soup for your holiday dishes. 

And the best part is that you can make it right now and freeze it. I bought 8 and 16oz mason jars to store it in my freezer. Then you can take them out as you need them for recipes. This soup is condensed, so no need to change grandma's recipe - just use this soup as a trade in for Campbell's! You're going to be amazed at how much better your food tastes when you use whole foods and real ingredients. Why cook from a can when it's so easy to make your own?

Better Than Campbell's Crockpot Condensed Cream of Mushroom Soup

- 1 pkg white button mushrooms, chopped*

- 1/2 pkg mini portabella mushrooms, chopped*

- half a white onion, finely chopped

- 2 sticks celery, finely chopped

- 1 stick of butter

- 3/4 C flour

- 1T salt

- 1 32oz container chicken stock

- 1 can evaporated milk

*I chopped my mushrooms to slightly larger than the chunks you'd see in a can of Campbell's. They cook down, too. 

Plug your Crockpot and turn it on high. Add half the chicken stock to begin warming. In a large skillet, take 2 tablespoons of butter and brown the mushrooms. Add them to the Crockpot and chicken stock. Use the same skillet to saute the onions and celery. Add the rest of the butter once the veggies are soft. Add the flour and cook for 2-3 minutes to cook the "flour" taste out of the super thick roux. 

Whisk the flour-butter-veggie mixture in to the Crockpot. Let everything come to temperature, then add the remaining stock. Add the salt. Let simmer on high while covered for about 2 hours. The soup should be thick and simmering. Then remove the lid and cook on high for another 2 hours to allow some of the moisture to evaporate. This is what "condenses" the soup! 

Finally, after the soup has been on high for 4 hours, it should be really thick and chunky with the mushrooms. Add the evaporated milk and stir. Turn off the Crockpot and let cool for an hour or so before ladling into your desired storage containers.  This makes exactly 64oz of condensed soup. 

Use as you would Campbell's condensed cream of mushroom soup in any recipe! This one is so much better, you'll even want to eat it as a bowl of soup this fall and winter. Just remember to dilute it with water or milk. Enjoy your more flavorful, healthier and less sodium laden holiday season!

How Ditching All Mommy Facebook Groups Made Me A Happier Mom

Mom groups on Facebook are abundant and an active social scene. But these Facebook mommy groups can also be destructive.

I'm sitting down to write this at 5:25am. I've been up since a quarter past 4am, looked at the clock and immediately began to anticipate my husband's annoying alarm going off at 5:30. If he were gone for business, I'd have had no trouble going back to sleep until 6am, but today, I get the joy of being up at 4am just because of that dang impending alarm. Anyone else like that?! Long way to say, I'm already annoyed. But not nearly as annoyed, not even CLOSE to the level of annoyance, I got from a few Facebook mommy groups. Recently, I clicked "unjoin group" on all of them. Every single one. Sounds extreme, but lo and behold, I became a happier mom after I did it.

"But, um, weren't those groups started to HELP moms?" You're probably {not} asking. Yes, I think so. I don't think anyone says, "Hey, I'mma start this group so that we all have a place to complain and whine and commiserate!" Well, actually, I'm not sure about that one entirely... People are pretty weird. And mommy groups? They're especially weird.

Let me rewind to a few weeks ago, before I joyfully hit "unjoin group" again and again until there were no more mommy Facebook groups to unjoin. I rarely scroll my personal Facebook page. After dealing with my blog's social medial all day, I rarely care to do anything personal on it. I'm over-saturated with the social medias, you know? Anyway, this one day I decided to check things out. Bad move, Paige. This is what I saw:

One mom in one group wrote a 2000 word manifesto on a night she had with her daughter. Her almost two year old still gets up at least once a night to eat (yeah, hold the eff on, what?! Why are you allowing that to happen at nearly 2?!) and this time, she couldn't get her back down. The manifesto went on and on about how she gave her daughter whatever she wanted, including sugary snacks, but she couldn't get her daughter to listen to her. A 2000 word manuscript on the play by play that lasted until normal people are well out of bed and up for the day. And friends, I'm not an early riser... So we're talking almost 9am! Did she end it with, "Help me, this can't go on, what are some tips you have to getting a toddler back in bed in the night?" Nope. She didn't want to hear any of that. She wasn't using the group for what the group was intended for. She hijacked that group's purpose for her own dysfunctional gain.

The comments on her post were many. All were commiserating comments. Other parents who not only have been there, no - moms who deal with the same thing regularly! And wonder why. "My Sarah is the same way. I give her whatever she wants from midnight to 7am, and she still won't go back to sleep! It's a nightly struggle. You're doing a good job mama!" Then there were other, "Stay strong mama, you can do this! You're being a great mom! Coffee, stat!"

Ummm, hold on. Nope. She's NOT doing a good job. Her toddler is an a$$hole and the mom is enabling her. Her daughter isn't listening to her not because she doesn't want to, but because the toddler is smarter than her mom and she knows she doesn't have to. Why is that getting congratulated in a mommy Facebook group? If this mom dealt with that and didn't blast it on social media for all to commiserate with her, THEN she'd be a good mom, because she'd be dealing with the monster she created (both literally and figuratively) and managing it quietly. Not begging for attention or praise or desperately seeking validation on her terrible parenting choices publicly.

Ahhhh, there! I said it. No, not all moms do a good job. I don't always do a good job. But seeking praise for when you air your dirty laundry in a Facebook mommy group is just a bizarre way to behave.

I wanted to respond, "You're wondering why your daughter won't listen to you, but your answer is in your own manuscript. If she's up in the middle of the night, you make it a quick affair - water/Tylenol/whatever the immediate need is gets done quickly. Then it's back to bed. You don't offer her choices and you don't take her downstairs for a snack and you sure as hell don't give her sugar and expect her to go back to bed! She has no boundaries. She doesn't listen to you because she knows she going to get what she wants anyway. How can you not see this?!" But did I say that? No, I know better. This mom, and the other commiserating moms, would have jumped down my throat with that common sense, obvious, smack you upside the head with some truth comment. So I eye rolled, didn't feel even a tad sorry this woman hasn't slept in nearly two years, and scrolled on.

Another group I was in I had to pay to be in. It was a local group. They had events and elected leadership, thus the fee to join. This group was a real piece of work, because the SAHM scene in Dallas is insane. Competitive, braggy, elitest... some other adjectives come to mind but I'll keep those to myself. Anyway, some women just commented to comment. Like, "Hey, is there still a dry cleaners on Walnut and Skillman? I should know this but with the construction of the new Sprouts and my sleep deprivation, my mind escapes me! Thanks ladies." What, you couldn't pull up Safari on your phone and google that in less than the amount of time it took you to write the post in the group?! Did you comment just to make sure we all knew you were still around, or what? Perhaps you felt the need to participate in a non-offensive way to get your annual membership fees worth?!

Then there were the real intense people who would respond to questions: I remember one woman wanted to know how much a medical procedure would cost for her kid at a local clinic given her insurance company. I used to work in insurance so I commented with general rules about in network/out of network, copays and coinsurance. Then a particular woman (who had commented previously lashing out at a woman for CIO and was a breastfeeding martyr in the Dallas La Leche League too, so you already know I don't like her) comments, "No, that's now how it worked for me and my insurance!" Ok lady. That's YOU and YOUR insurance. Not helpful to the commenter or her question. You piped up just to be an a$$hole. One more piped up that I was wrong too. She had military insurance - not even related to what the original commenter was asking about! But she had to put her two cents in to create controversy.

(If you're wondering how that comment thread ended, I held my tongue on the idiots and told the original commenter to call the number on the back of her insurance card for a specific quote. I tried to exit that scene as quickly as I {mistakenly} entered it.)

Here's the thing: Mommy Facebook groups have become a place to commiserate. To dump all the ways your toddler isn't behaving the way the mom wants, and not get tips on how to correct it - just to bitch about it. I'm sorry, I just don't find motherhood to be that awful! My kids aren't perfect, but they're pretty kicka$$. We have fun together. If my toddler misbehaves, I discipline him. Trust me, not all of my nights as a mom have been good, but when I did have a bad night, I wouldn't put it in a group and expect to be told I was doing a great job! I don't need validation on my parenting from women I don't know.

I left mommy Facebook groups because all the nonstop complaining of their children was exhausting. If anyone attempted to provide some insight or tips, even in the most encouraging way, she was lashed out against by the moms who wanted to keep it a bitch-fest. If you didn't go there to complain about something, you asked a stupid question that was better answered by google. Like I said, I don't spend much personal time on Facebook anymore. I finally got my act together and decided that when I do, I don't want to see these ridiculous groups with their ridiculous comments. If I have a bad day, I'm texting a girlfriend who will say, "Ohhhhh nooooo! I can be over after nap time. Rose or Pinot and one bottle or two?" And while I don't go to dry cleaners anymore, if I didn't know where one was, I'd pull up my phone and have a quick chat with Siri.

Since ditching these groups I'm happier and more confident in my own parenting. I don't have to worry about what overzealous moms think about CIO ("cry it out" if you're wondering) and my feed isn't clogged with other mom's negative experiences with their toddlers. I no longer spend my time rolling my eyes at the moms so desperate for validation from others. I simply do what I think is best given the personalities of my children. Ditching mommy Facebook groups has made my feed (and my general overall mood) so much more positive! If you're sick of the martyrdom, I suggest you do the same. It's freeing!

Helping Your Infant Sleep Better At Night

 This shop has been compensated by Collective Bias, Inc. and its advertiser. All opinions are mine alone. #FormulaForHappiness #CollectiveBias

So many friends have had babies recently, am I right? It was like Otto was the beginning of a wave of babies that were born between December and March. There's another wave of my friends right now who are due between October and December. I think this generation of kids is going to outnumber the Baby Boomers for sure! Anyway, I've had so many discussions with friends on infant sleep. After Otto was born, I had the privilege of hiring a sleep consultant and night nanny for 6 weeks, and have been relaying her advice to my friends with sleepless infants since.

Otto was the typical infant who was up all night and slept all day the first two weeks he was home. I wanted to die from the lack of sleep! Thus, how we hired a sleep consultant. I also called the FREE sleep consultant offered by Gerber for her help before the night nurse's start date, I was so desperate. Both women had wonderful advice that worked wonders (seriously - WONDERS!) on Otto. By nine weeks, he was sleeping through the night. I've learned that it's not so much that you "get a good sleeper or a bad sleeper" - there  are many things that you as the caregiver can do (or not do) that affects how the nights will go. With Henry, I was clueless and did none of these things; low and behold, he was a terrible sleeper. With Otto, we did them as soon as we learned about them; go figure, he's a great sleeper! Thanks for Gerber® Good Start® for sponsoring these sleep tips and ticks.

You're wondering what those things are, huh? Well here's my short list on how to help your infant sleep better at night:

1) Establish a routine.
Babies are creatures of habit, and starting a routine as early as possible is essential to setting their circadian rhythm. Put them down for a nap(s) at the same time everyday, and start a bedtime routine that's the same and done at the same time everyday. Consistency really pays off here! My sleep consultant recommended 7pm-7am for all babies and toddlers. I know that's early, but it results in my children getting enough sleep! Also, personal time for me in the evenings, which is a plus.

2) Put the baby down for naps the same way you do at night.
For us, that meant Otto was swaddled in his bassinet for all naps and night time sleeping. This way, he learns that when he's swaddled and in his "space" it's time for sleep. This was a HUGE mistake I made with Henry - I let him nap on me, on the couch, in a swing - where ever! No wonder he was such a terrible sleeper at night. He didn't know that the crib meant sleepy time. Now Otto is just in a sleep sack in his crib, but I still put him down for naps the same way I put him down at night. Dark room, sleep sack, and sound machine on.

 4) Place them in light during the day.
This was some of the best advice I got from my Gerber sleep consultant! She told me babies are in a dark womb for 9 months, so when they come into the world, it's very common for them to be up all night and sleeping all day. To help set their clocks to the real world schedule, put their bassinet/have them do tummy time/playtime in the light of a window or outside. Then when you put them down for naps, make sure their room is dark. This will help them learn that light is for awake time and dark is for sleeping. This did wonders for Otto! Within the first week of trying it, he started to actually sleep at night instead of being awake/coo'ing/talking/crying all night.

5) Watch for environmental allergies.

This was a huge lesson learned with Otto! Henry can wear any diaper, use any wipe and rarely ever has a diaper rash. Tough skin on that one! But Otto? Even diapers labeled "sensitive" were too much for him. For those first dreadful two weeks home, he would fuss all night long. He had what I just thought was a diaper rash... That never went away. My hired sleep consultant said a diaper rash lasting as long as Otto's did wasn't normal, and to try switching out his diapers and wipes to an all organic, chemical free brand. The second we did that, his "rash" cleared up! He was likely extra fussy at night with it because he was lying on it and irritating it further. So make sure your baby is good to go with the diapers, wipes and even things like laundry detergent, bath washes, etc you're using. Even a little irritation can keep baby up from discomfort all night! This is also true of infant formulas. Gerber® Good Start® Soothe has Comfort Proteins® for babies like Otto who have excessive fussiness and gas. This formula is great for tiny tummies, birth to 12 months! In fact, even if you don’t have a particularly gassy baby (lucky you!) Gerber® has a range of infant formulas to suit your needs, from supplementing your breastmilk to Stage 2 formula (for babies 6-12 months) all the way through Stage 3, which includes probiotics and is designed for your toddler. Check out Target's Cartwheel app for deals on the formula, too! 

Thanks to Gerber® for providing me samples of their Good Start® Soothe formula!

Lack of sleep is tough to handle, and only gets worse the more children you have! With the first baby, you can "sleep when the baby sleeps." But after that, you're on your own because you have to be up with your other children! We hired a sleep consultant and I spoke with the sleep consultants at Gerber for Otto, and I learned some great information. Even if you think you have a "bad sleeper" you can implement these tips and right the ship - trust me! Helping your infant sleep better at night is directly correlated to what YOU do during the day. With a little consistency, you can do it mamas! Comfort for babies means happiness for all. When my baby is happy and well rested, I'm happy and well rested and the whole family is happy and well rested!

Gerber sent us some samples to have on hand, but you can also find Gerber® Good Start® at your local Target.