I wonder why people find a marked difference in their mood getting up and at ‘em on a Friday morning compared to any other day of the week?

If you’re a nine to fiver, essentially you’re in for the same music (because the buzz is just too startling) wake up call, same morning grooming routine, same drive in to the office and same workload to accomplish while there.

Can it really just be the dress down Friday blue jeans causing the extra skip in our step?

I suppose the obvious answer is that the work week is almost over and we’ll be presented with a get out of jail free card, or better known as a weekend.

And by weekend I mean 2 work free days, or 2 days filled with grocery shopping, house cleaning, laundry, hockey practices, blog writing, dog walking, or…work.

And still our days are laced with feelings of joy on Friday.

Baffling.

Imagine how happy everyone could be if we played a little psychological game on ourselves of “today is Friday” every day of the week?

We could trick ourselves in to thinking that every day is Friday and suddenly the abominable daily work task requests and mind numbing stints in traffic would roll off us like something that rolls off something else really fast.

“You need these 53 things in the next hour?

Sure, why not.”

It’s FRIDAY!!!!!

“Cars, you can stop and go in front of me hindering any hope of movement over 20 km/hr. all you want because I’m cool as a cucumber sitting here listening to my “ready, set, weekend”(Eddie Rabbit) mix.

I have nothin’ but time.”

Ya, I think it’s a good idea.

Let’s pretend every day is Friday.

Now if you’re a mom or dad at home with a baby 24/7, you should play a game of “let’s pretend that every day I’ve gotten 8 hrs. of un-interrupted sleep”.

Not sure if your sleep deprived souls would allow for that kind of trickery though.

Even sleep deprived souls can thrive in the master chef baby food kitchen.

If you really want to try your hand at making your baby’s food at home, here are a few tools of the trade to help you get started…

Steaming is the best way to cook veggies and retain as many of their nutrients as possible so you will definitely want to have a steamer.

I use a steamer pot that sits on top of a pot of boiling water on the stove with a lid.

It’s as simple as boiling water.

You will want to have a couple of standard pans including a medium and small size so that you have options depending on what you need them for.

You don’t want to have to lug out a massive pan every time you want to scramble an egg yolk for your little one.

A large sauté pan with a lid is a great tool to have on hand to make baby some hearty chicken and beef stews.

Surprisingly enough, standard stirring utensils and measuring cups and spoons are required. I’m sure you could have guessed that one.

A strainer is helpful to press berry or pea purees through in order to remove skins and/or seeds for younger babies.

You will need an appliance to puree baby’s food. Whether you use a hand held blender, food processor, food mill or blender, they all work well to puree baby’s food to the desired consistency.

When working with large batches I find the food processor is the most useful, but I also love the convenience of putting the food into a deep bowl and using a hand held blender instead.

The clean up after using a hand held blender is quicker than the other methods, but really whatever you’re most comfortable with is the way to go.

Baby food freezing trays, or ice cube trays, to freeze baby food and store in the freezer for up to 3 months is something you will definitely need.

The benefit of purchasing freezing trays specifically designed for baby food storage is that they are typically produced to store the perfect serving sizes for baby, approximately 2 tbsps. each cube.

Ice cube trays work well also but most standard sized ice cubes would represent ½ a serving size for baby so you would have to use 2 cubes per serving.

Freezer bags are good to have.

Once your baby food cubes are frozen, you can pop them out of the tray and put them into a labeled freezer bag with the food and date noted so you can free up the tray for new purees that need freezing.

By noting the date on the bag you can make sure you use up the food before the 3 month mark in which you will want to throw it out to be safe.

Small food storage containers are also good to have so you can store baby food in the fridge you intend to use within 48 hours.

You don’t need to spend a ton of money on kitchen gadgets and high end culinary equipment to cook healthy meals for a happy baby.

The basics noted above should get you well on your way to becoming a baby food making expert!

I challenge all of you to walk into work on Monday morning and say “Happy Friday”.

I bet you’ll get a lot of smiles.