Is it really fall already? The leaves are turning, the hot apple cider is brewing. What a beautiful season! Here are great deals to help you save more in October:

Amazon Deals for October

• For our readers that are gluten free, you are going to love this special! Amazon is offering up to an additional 30% off select gluten free products. Score these Pamela’s Chocolate Chip Mini-Cookies (gluten and dairy free) for 39% off of the list price you enter code PAMCOOKI at checkout + use the Subscribe & Save option.  Save up to 31% off the list price for various Chebe Gluten Free Bread Mixes you enter code CHEBEGFI at checkout  + use the Subscribe & Save option.  See all the gluten free specials .

• Save up to 40% the list price on Kashi cereals, crackers and  bars when you use the Subscribe & Save option.

Daily Deal Sites

• If you are struggling with menu planning, here’s a deal for you. For less than the cost of a drive through meal, get 13 weeks of meal planning from Meals By The Week for $8 at  Plum District . If you are new to Plum District, you can get a $5 credit towards your first order. Deal expires 10/6.

• Save money on Thermos brand over at Zulily. These products keep food or beverages hot for up to 12 hours which is great for packing lunches. Plus Thermos are BPA-free. This deal ends today (10/4)!  Save up to 40% off Rockin’ Baby Slings (sale ends 10/7). Rockin’ Baby will donate a sling to a Haitian mother for each sling that is bought. Plus try the code: GA4756 to save an additional $5 off a purchase of $50 or more.

Organic & Natural Printable Coupons

• It’s a new month so be sure to print off the reset Whole Foods store coupons, Stonyfield Organic Dairy coupons and Earth’s Best Organic Baby Food Coupons.

• Over at Coupons.com, print $1/off Lactaid Yogurt (good at Walmart), 75 cents/off Smart Balance Milk (which also offers lactose free at a great price),  $1/off Disney Renewal Naturals Baby Care Items, $1/off Peace Cereals, 75 cents off Truvia Natural Sweetener,  $1/off The Natural Dentist products , and more!

• At Mambro Sprouts, there are several new organic coupons as well including 75 cents/off YoBaby yogurt, 75 cents/off Organic Valley Milk with Omega-3, 75 cents/off Santa Cruz Organic Juices.

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Amazon Deals for August

• Amazon is offering up to 35% off select items for their Back to School Promotion. They are offering deals on several organic products. Save 25% on Annie’s Homegrown Products with the code: Y7RBIXY3 + use the Subscribe and Save option.We love their all-natural mac’n cheese mixes! They make one with whole grain noodles as well. With the discount, these mixes run at $1.34/each box.

• Save an additional 25% on all Roland Products including this 100% Pure Maple Syrup with the code: ROLANBTS + use the Subscribe & Save option.

• Great Northern Premium Yellow Gourmet Popcorn is 84% off. A 12.5# bag is $7.99 (normally $48.95).  This would be great for making all-natural microwave popcorn!

• Save 30% on Revolution Foods Organic baby food when you use the code:  REVFOO23 at checkout + using the Subscribe & Save option. Some types are already 30% off making them 60% off with the instant rebate + Subscribe & Save.

• Save an extra 25% off Bare Fruit Snacks with the code: YTVYSTSY + using the Subscribe & Save option. They feature 100% organic dried fruit.

• Save an extra 20% off Back to Nature Nuts with the code: KRAFTAUG + using the Subscribe & Save option.

Daily Deal Sites

• Over at Zulily, they are offering a ton of deals on nursing clothes & other breastfeeding accessories. Save 45% on all Skinies nursing tanks (expires tomorrow  8/3 at noon EST), save up to 50% off My Brest Friend nursing pillows (expires Friday 8/5) and save up to 70% off nursing wear from La Leache League (expires  Thursday 8/4). Try the code FAMILY10 for a possible additional 10% off!

• Get $50 worth of Organic shirts from Pure Blankz for only $20 at DealPulp. Expires Thursday 8/4.

Organic & Natural Printable Coupons

• It’s a new month so be sure to print off the reset Whole Foods store coupons, Stonyfield Organic Dairy coupons and Earth’s Best Organic Baby Food Coupons.

• Over at Coupons.com, print off $2/OFF Aveeno Smart Essentials, $1.50/OFF Starbucks All Natural Fusions,  $0.75/OFF Kashi Frozen Entree,  $1.00 OFF 1 McCann’s Irish Oatmeal product and more!

• At Mambro Sprouts, there are several new organic coupons as well including two Organic Valley Dairy Coupons, $1/off Late July snacks.

I am so excited for summer! Long days at the pool, nature walks and trips to Grandma’s house. I can’t wait. Here are the great deals for natural and organic products to help you have a healthy start to summer!

Amazon Deals for June

• Save up to 30% off Plum Organic Baby foods with the code: PLUMPUF2 at checkout+ use the Subscribe and Save option.

• Save 30% off Skippy’s Natural Peanut Butter when you enter the code: code SKIPPY45 at checkout+ use the Subscribe and Save option.

• Save 30% off Earth’s Best organic formulas when you enter the code EBFORM33 at checkout + use the Subscribe and Save option.

• Save up to 25% for Happy Baby Organic Baby food when you enter the code HAPPYBA3 at checkout + use the Subscribe and Save option.

Daily Deal Sites

• Over at Zulily, there is a *HOT* deal on FuzziBunz cloth diapers. The diapers are 50% off (one the the best deals that I have ever seen on these!) Go quick; these are bound to sell out quick. Also save up to 70% on Kate Quinn Organic clothing for boys and girls! Shipping is additional. Deals expires on 6/10.

• A subscription to Women’s Health is only $8 for an entire year (vs. $49.99 for the cover price) over at Eversave. Deal expires midnight tonight (6/7).

Organic & Natural Printable Coupons

• It’s a new month so be sure to print off the reset Whole Foods store coupons, Stonyfield Organic Dairy coupons and Earth’s Best Organic Baby Food Coupons.

• Over at Coupons.com, print off $1.00 off 2 Boulder Canyon All Natural Chips, $1/off McCann’s Irish Oatmeal, $1/off Dr. Sears Cool Fuel Nutritional Shakes, $1/off Instead Softcup (an eco-friendly feminine product) and more!

• At Mambro Sprouts, there are several new coupons including : $1/off Organic Valley Milk and other products, $1/1 Izze Sparkling Juice (4pk), $.50/1 Luna Bar, $.75/1 Lundberg Farms Rice Blends, $.75/1 Santa Cruz Organic Product as well as more! (Thanks Organic Deals!)

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Tyler loves sweet potatoes.  He would eat them at every meal if I let him. He went through a beans phase, and now it’s sweet potatoes.  I’d prefer to “steam bake” them, but I often don’t remember in time, so I just microwave them for a few minutes after slitting them.  I intentionally choose longer, skinnier ones that will cook faster and feed him for two meals.

I also add a dairy-free and soy-free margarine on them to give him a few extra calories.  (Quick update…he had a weight check on Friday and he only gained 1/2 pound from his 12 month appointment in November, and lost several ounces from his check in January.  Not the 1 lb/month gain we were hoping for, but he did gain some…and is growing in height, so the ped is not terribly concerned. We press on…)

To prep the sweet potato…

Slit. Microwave or steam bake.

Slice crosswise.

Slice lengthwise.

Slather on a little butter or margarine (if you need the extra calories.)

Scoop.

And set in front of the little fingers.

(But be prepared to pick up a few pieces from the floor!)

A simple, frugal, toddler friendly snack or side dish to a finger food meal!

(And please do not feed these to a baby that is not ready for bite size foods.)

About a year ago, I was introduced to “chocomole” by Katie from Kitchen Stewardship. She included a link to a recipe in one of her e-books, “Healthy Snacks To Go” and I was intrigued.

So intrigued that I made in the next week.

I could not believe it.  I still can’t believe it.

It’s a dairy-free pudding.  (I can’t remember the last time I had pudding.)

This chocomole is made from avocados. Yes, my dearly beloved avocados.

(I know!)

I have started making this again to help fatten up Tyler.  When I make it…they all ask for more. And more. And more.

And we end up licking the blender clean!

Tricks to Make Chocomole for Less

• Buy both ripe and hard avocados when they are on sale.  Use the ripe avocados right away, and let the hard ones ripen and use the following week
• Be on the lookout for coupons for A Taste of Thai…the coconut milk brand that tends to be cheapest
• Use Swagbucks credit to get maple syrup, agave or honey for free from Amazon
• Use coupons for the pistachios…I’ve seen them on Kroger.com digital coupons, and have printed them from the internet, and seen them in the newspaper.

This is the first of a few “Food Allergies on a Budget” recipe ideas that I’ll be sharing as part of the series! The recipe is dairy-free, gluten-free, grain-free and tree nut-free if you omit the pistachios.

Hello $5 Dinners readers! My name is Dana Strohmaier and I am a registered dietitian who loves a great deal! I will be posting deals on organic & natural products once a month here at $5 Dinners. Please let me know what kinds of products that you want deals on. I promise to search to see if I can find them!

*HOT*

• Whole Foods is having a GREAT sale on whole chickens for only $1.69/# this Friday (Feb 18th) only. Limit 10 chickens per person. You may want to call your local store ahead of time to see if they are participating.

Amazon is a great place to score deals on organic and allergy friendly food items. There are a ton of deals on organic baby food currently! You can use the Subscibe & Save option to save an additional 15% and then discontinue it after your item has shipped if you don’t want to continue to receive the item.

Here are the latest deals over at Amazon:

Amazon

• Earth’s Best Organic 2nd Fruit 12 pack is only $7.85  (.65cents/jar), Earth’s Best Organic 2nd Turkey and Vegetable 12 pack is only $8.04 (.67cents/jar) with the Subscribe & Save option.  Even without Subscribe & Save, it is ~45% off with free 2-day shipping.

• Earth’s Best Organic Infant Formula is $23.25 (normally $45.04) with the Subscribe & Save option.

• Gerber Organic 1st Prunes is $6.32 for a 8 double pack (.39 per 2.5oz container) with the Subscribe & Save option.

• Pacific Organic Free Range Chicken Broth is only 55cents per 8oz pouch when you purchase a 24 pack with the coupon code PACIFIC7 and the Subscribe & Save option.

• Coombs Family Farms Organic Maple Syrup is $17.32 (normally $26.50) with the Subscribe & Save option. (Erin here…this is one of our favorite organic Amazon deals!)

• Annie’s Homegrown Gluten-Free Rice Pasta & Cheese 12 Pack is $24.44 (only $2.04/box!) with the Subscribe & Save option.

Daily Deal Site

• This deal on Mamapedia sounds like a great one! For $10, get a S2H REPLAY Activity Tracker ($20 value) that tracks how long you or your child is active. Then you can redeem reward points for being active for giftcards to Target, Best Buy and more. Flat shipping rate of $4.99. This deal expires on Friday, Feb 19th.

• Over at Gilt, get discounted Green Toys. Prices range from $10-$28. Deal expires Friday 2/19 at 11am CT.

Coupons

• Mothers of little ones, you are gonna LOVE this one…Print off a BOGO Stonyfield Multipack of YoBaby Organic Yogurt! OUT OF PRINTS
• $1/off Arrowhead Mills. Arrowhead Mills offers whole grain baking mixes, speciality flours (great for gluten free readers) and more whole grain options.
• Mambo Sprouts (a organic/natural focused coupons.com) has several great coupons including: $.55/1 Frontera products, $1/ 2 Lifeway Kefir, $1/1 off Organic Valley Soy Milk and more.
• $1/1 Wolfgang Puck Organic Soup. Our favorite is the Chicken Tortilla!
• $1/ 2 Larabars
• Join Eat Better America (it is free) to get coupons for Muir Glen Tomatoes, Larabars,  Cascadin Farms and more.

Happy Saving!

A while back we discovered Cream of Rice cereal when Ryan was on a gluten-free diet. (We have since learned he is only sensitive to rye, but not other wheat products.)  When cleaning out the pantry and stockpile recently, I discovered a box of Cream of Rice cereal behind some cans.

Charlie about jumped out of his skin, he was so excited!  We used to “bury” frozen blueberries and drizzle honey over the top, before stirring in some milk. The frozen blueberry treasure hunt was perfect because the boys would be so impatient to eat their breakfast…and the frozen blueberries would cool down the hot rice cereal in less than a minute!

Simple mix-ins after you make the cream of rice…

• canned pumpkin
• brown sugar
• cinnamon
• ground ginger
• ground nutmeg
• touch vanilla

I’m not going to give exact measurements…as it will depend on how much cream of rice you make, and how much you put into each bowl.  I will give you a visual below. A normal size cereal bowl.

Thankfully, they both enjoyed the pumpkin version, as much as they like their blueberry treasure hunt version! (Baby enjoyed it too!)

Have you ever tried Cream of Rice cereal?!

I think I’ve accidentally started an After School Snack series for Wednesdays.

• Pretzel Pops and Pretzel-wiches

• Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies

And again…more pumpkin. We just can’t get enough of it!

This Pumpkin Applesauce has always been one of Ryan and Charlie’s favorite snacks. And it’s fast becoming one of Tyler’s favorites too!  The boys love to take the Cinnamon Grinder (which was free after $1 sale price and coupon!) and crack their own cinnamon on top.  And the most adorable part is that they now ask to go crack some cinnamon onto Tyler’s applesauce.  So after doing their own, one of them will go and add some to Tyler’s bowl. Such a sweet gesture.

(I treasure these adorable moments of brotherly kindness.  They are so busy grunting, squealing, jumping off things, riding things, wrestling with each other or their giant bean bags, and other “little man”-ly things…I just love it when they settle just enough to serve and care for each other!)

So it’s been awhile since we’ve had this favorite snack because of the Canned Pumpkin Shortages…I love being able to add canned pumpkin to naturally sweetened applesauce. It’s the perfect no-sugar treat…and I get to pump the kids full of Vitamin A…and they don’t even know it!

Sneaky mom chef!

Plus, this takes just seconds to prepare.

This Pumpkin Applesauce is a total winner in my snack book!

(If you’ve got a favorite snack (or other sneaky mom chef ideas) to share in this accidental new series on snacks and you want me to feature it…feel free to submit your ideas here.)

(If you’d like to know how to cook a pumpkin in your slow cooker, Toni has a great tutorial)

Because you asked.

(And sadly I do not have a photo of his first bites of food. That’s just what happens when you are a third child.)



Tyler’s got that look on his face when we all gather around the table.  He knows what’s happening at the dinner table.  And he gets *loud* when we don’t include him in the festivities.  Of course, I oblige and sit him on my lap while I finish my dinner.

While on my lap he KICKS his fat chubby legs. And kicks. And kicks.

And his eyes get WIDE as he stares at the food on my plate.

And he GRABS at my plate, trying desperately to get his fat chubby little hands on some food.

It’s time.  It’s time for him to get a little taste of non-milk food.

He’s just over 5 months old.  A *smidge* on the early side, compared to his older brothers.  But it’s time.

I  made baby food for the big fellows, and I plan to do the same for Tyler.  Not only is there great savings, but there is such satisfaction in giving him the very best foods…made with love…by me!

So…I’ve put together a few resources…a few of my favorite websites and books that will inspire and encourage you to make your own baby food (if you are in the baby stage of life, of course!).  Also, if you’ve written a blog post about your baby food making experience, or favorite recipe, by all means, come LINK IT UP!

Resources and link up can be found on The $5 Dinners Homemade Baby Food Page!