I've been moving back to an old way of eating recently.
At one point in time, I was completely paleo. I was excessively ill a few years ago, would up in the hospital, couldn't walk right, had terrible headaches, etc.
None of the doctors could figure out what was wrong. It was frustrating, exhausting and the medical bills were ridiculous. (Thankfully I had good insurance at the time and had no out of pocket expenses, but still. The strain I put on the system was crazy.)
So I tried something radical. I went paleo.
I felt great. But it was crazy to keep up with that kind of lifestyle when I was out and about so much, and I was also a student and could barely afford rent in super-expensive Boston, let alone the grocery bills the diet racked up.
I've had a love/hate relationship with paleo/Primal for the past few years. I feel amazing. I love the way I feel. I HATE how expensive the diet is. I didn't exactly like how much cooking I had to do.
But things have changed now. I'm tethered to my home because I have a baby who needs her naps, so if we leave the house, it's only for a few hours here and there. I am now obsessed with my crockpots, which is actually a very easy way to make great paleo meals. My husband works full time and I consult for my firm, so we have the means to make a diet like this work.
I didn't really "mean" to go paleo. I just sort of only ate paleo foods for a day as a fluke, and I couldn't believe how great I felt that night. ESPECIALLY because the baby was teething and sick and we weren't getting any sleep --- I just couldn't believe that I felt energized and I wasn't achy -- something that usually happens to me when I don't get enough sleep or when I am stressed out.
It was a fluke, but I knew it was because I hadn't had any non-paleo foods in the last 48 hours. I've "gone paleo" enough times over the last few years to know that, for me, the benefits are almost immediate. (I've read blogs and accounts from others who say it takes them upwards of two weeks to actually start to feel good eating paleo.) I was happier. I was nicer, according to my husband. I was able to multi-task better. When the baby woke up in the middle of the night, I was immediately alert, as opposed to other times, when I'm groggy for at least the first 15 minutes or so.
Will BEGGED me to stay paleo last week. I hemmed and hawed, saying it's just SO EXPENSIVE and some quinoa or gluten free bread every now and then wouldn't be too hard on me. And lentils were okay, too.
Will informed me that I am not the easiest to be around after I eat legumes. I'm cranky, I don't feel as great and I'm more tired.
Guilty as charged. I try to not be cranky, but I know I am.
And then Will said something that I couldn't really disagree with:
"We don't go out to eat hardly ever. We don't stop at Starbucks and get coffee every day. We don't take crazy expensive trips. You get the baby's clothing on Craigslist or freecycle or from friends. You MAKE your own baby food. You coupon for free paper towels and shaving cream. There is enough extra because of this to afford large amounts of high-quality grass-fed meat and mostly organic produce. And even if there wasn't, YOU FEEL BETTER THIS WAY AND YOU HAVE MORE ENERGY FOR YOUR FAMILY. We can't afford for you NOT to eat this way."
Can't argue with that. It's true.
So I've gone back to paleo, and it's been a week since then. And I feel great, and feel more energized and am thinking more clearly every day. (This is actually odd, since we haven't been sleeping well since the little lady has been cutting something like four teeth. Teething has been BRUTAL with her.)
But what about the husband and baby?
They are not going paleo.
Will is still going to eat basically what I do, but he has asked that I make batches of beans and rice, or quinoa or something "starchy and carby" for him to eat so he can fill up on those foods. With the amount of food that he eats, it really would be tough on us if he went full paleo. And he says he just really doesn't need that - he feels great on more of a Zone-food diet, anyways.
The baby will eat lots of meat and veggies, as she always has. But she will still have plenty of organic dairy products, and I will still have her eating some grains (mostly the multigrain Trader Joe's O's) and lots of sweet potatoes.
I'm stuck at home a lot, anyways. I was making most of our food from scratch to begin with. I have a Meat CSA that I LOVE, and we get a huge box of produce every week from our produce CSA and have a great farmer's market nearby. Trader Joe's is less than two miles away from our house. I DON'T WORK FULL TIME ANYMORE - probably the biggest reason WHY we can do this.
It's going to be tough for me to swallow my couponing pride and do this, but I just can't argue with Will's logic here. I do feel better this way. I understand that in the long run (and short run) it is the right thing for me. I've been a vegan, and that lasted four days. I've tried to be a vegetarian, and that lasted a few months, and I've never felt worse. I've done Zone-diet foods, and I've done gluten free, and while I certainly didn't feel terribly, I didn't feel great, either.
What works for me is Paleo.
So today:
Breakfast:
Pork sausage patty (courtesy of Meat CSA goodness)
Hardboiled Egg
The half of a banana the baby didn't eat
Snack:
Apple
Lunch:
Leftover Thai Chicken Soup
One leftover Omega 3-enriched meatball (dinner last night)
HUGE SALAD
Snack:
Almond milk and frozen fruit smoothie
Dinner:
Eggplant Lasagna
Sauteed Green Beans
Tuesday, August 9, 2011
Sunday, August 7, 2011
THE. BEST. PANCAKES..... EVER!
Yes, that pretty much sums it up.
I was hungry and wanted a snack tonight, but wasn't sure what to make. After all, we pretty much have lettuce left from the CSA haul last week, and since I've already had a salad AND steamed kale, I'm pretty much greened-out for the day.
So I took to the Googler for some inspiration.
And I found these.
And I can't believe how easy they are to make, and I can't believe they taste so amazingly delicious and I can't believe how they are actually totally Paleo/Primal.
1 banana
1 tablespoon almond butter
1 egg
Whip them together, and carefully!! fry them up like pancakes. (They are much more delicate than a regular pancake, so be careful when flipping.)
And then snack and smile and go to bed happy.
I was hungry and wanted a snack tonight, but wasn't sure what to make. After all, we pretty much have lettuce left from the CSA haul last week, and since I've already had a salad AND steamed kale, I'm pretty much greened-out for the day.
So I took to the Googler for some inspiration.
And I found these.
And I can't believe how easy they are to make, and I can't believe they taste so amazingly delicious and I can't believe how they are actually totally Paleo/Primal.
1 banana
1 tablespoon almond butter
1 egg
Whip them together, and carefully!! fry them up like pancakes. (They are much more delicate than a regular pancake, so be careful when flipping.)
And then snack and smile and go to bed happy.
Wednesday, August 3, 2011
...am I getting dumber?
It was my greatest fear with quitting my job and staying home.
I would get dumber.
My job kept me pretty sharp. My boss was actually very intelligent (something I can't say about all bosses I've ever had) and the people I worked with were, for the most part, some of the most intelligent people I've ever known.
And the work itself was challenging. New accounts, forensic accounting, piles of data, huge projects to structure, infrastructure development, etc.
So I was worried when I quit that I would get dumber, because I wouldn't have those same mental exercises every day. Don't use it - lose it, right?
And to a certain extent, it's been true. I'm mixing up words. I'm making up new words. I'm using fewer words on a daily basis. It's somewhat tougher for me to speak in complex sentences.
I have a feeling some of this could be explained by just being with a baby for most of my time now. I speak in simple sentences for much of the day. I use simpler words. And I'm (mostly) always distracted by the baby, so I don't have my full attention on speaking to my husband, the friend that's over, etc.
I checked out a book on hyperconsumerism to read at the library today, and I'll admit, it was tough reading that first chapter this afternoon during nap time. I used to breeze through dense reading like that. But two months of not reading contracts every day, and suddenly it's tough again.
The flip side of things is that since I'm not spending all of my energy on being sharp and smart at work, I'm enjoying my daughter more, and noticing things I never noticed before.
... and that's something I'm okay with being a little dumb for. :-)
I would get dumber.
My job kept me pretty sharp. My boss was actually very intelligent (something I can't say about all bosses I've ever had) and the people I worked with were, for the most part, some of the most intelligent people I've ever known.
And the work itself was challenging. New accounts, forensic accounting, piles of data, huge projects to structure, infrastructure development, etc.
So I was worried when I quit that I would get dumber, because I wouldn't have those same mental exercises every day. Don't use it - lose it, right?
And to a certain extent, it's been true. I'm mixing up words. I'm making up new words. I'm using fewer words on a daily basis. It's somewhat tougher for me to speak in complex sentences.
I have a feeling some of this could be explained by just being with a baby for most of my time now. I speak in simple sentences for much of the day. I use simpler words. And I'm (mostly) always distracted by the baby, so I don't have my full attention on speaking to my husband, the friend that's over, etc.
I checked out a book on hyperconsumerism to read at the library today, and I'll admit, it was tough reading that first chapter this afternoon during nap time. I used to breeze through dense reading like that. But two months of not reading contracts every day, and suddenly it's tough again.
The flip side of things is that since I'm not spending all of my energy on being sharp and smart at work, I'm enjoying my daughter more, and noticing things I never noticed before.
... and that's something I'm okay with being a little dumb for. :-)
Monday, August 1, 2011
... and we have a diagnosis!
The baby has had these little bumps and rash around her mouth off and on for the last month or so.
It gets worse, then it gets better.
And then it gets worse again.
And then it gets better.
No tweaking of diet, changing detergent, or using different shampoo has worked. After a bad reaction to some frozen yogurt, we pulled her off dairy for five days, only to give her a big bottle of cow's milk last night and to see NO REACTION whatsoever. Same with gluten. And eggs. And so on.
It was very frustrating.
Two different primary care doctors weren't able to help us. "Sometimes babies just get rashes. I wouldn't worry about it." Well, I was worrying about it, and so I didn't listen to them.
Thankfully our insurance doesn't require these primary care doctors to refer us to a specialist; we just went ahead and made an appointment with a pediatric dermatologist ourselves.
And after visiting with two specialists today, we now know that the baby has Perioral Dermatitis.
It's not alarming, and it's not terribly uncommon (though the specialists weren't surprised that the primary care doctors weren't able to diagnose it correctly) and we can treat it with topical antibiotics for six weeks and see how she responds to them. We're not crazy about giving her low doses of antibiotics for extended periods of time, but since it's the standard of care for this condition, we're okay trying it for six weeks and re-evaluating in the fall. She may have problems off and on for a few years, and we may have to periodically use the topical antibiotics to correct it again. But the specialists assured me that it wasn't anything that would scar or lead to other problems, and it would likely be gone in a few years.
It's odd she has it: we done use flouride toothpaste for her, and that can trigger this. And we don't use steroid creams for her either, which can also trigger it. It's also especially common in children with darker skin, and our baby is about as white as they come. So you can't blame the average doctor for not thinking of it. But the specialists said they had seen cases where a baby had been very sick with something else (like the roseola we had back in June) and when their immune system is compromised (like with the strep we had last week) sometimes it just happens.
Saliva and food getting on her face can make it worse almost instantly, which is why we thought that perhaps the oatmeal/yogurt/anything else she was eating and getting on her face was causing the problem. It makes it worse, yes. But thankfully it's not the root of the problem.
I can stop freaking out about food allergies, because they said that it would be freakishly bizarre if what the baby had turned out to be a food allergy and NOT Perioral Dermatitis. They didn't say "freakishly bizarre" -- I think they said something like "extraordinarily unlikely" -- but in any case, the Google calendar for all the foods she was eating can be safely ignored now.
We're still learning and reading about this, and I suspect we will have a LOT of follow-up questions for our follow-up visit with the specialists. But for right now, we're just happy to have an answer from two rock-star, top of their field specialists.
Living in the Boston area certainly has some perks, and solid medical care is definitely one of them. We have some of the highest concentrations of some of the best trained doctors in the world, and seeing specialists like the ones I saw today really is reassuring.
We're all going to be okay. If anything, when things like this happen, I just remind myself that we're ever so blessed that our biggest concern right now is a slight skin rash.
It gets worse, then it gets better.
And then it gets worse again.
And then it gets better.
No tweaking of diet, changing detergent, or using different shampoo has worked. After a bad reaction to some frozen yogurt, we pulled her off dairy for five days, only to give her a big bottle of cow's milk last night and to see NO REACTION whatsoever. Same with gluten. And eggs. And so on.
It was very frustrating.
Two different primary care doctors weren't able to help us. "Sometimes babies just get rashes. I wouldn't worry about it." Well, I was worrying about it, and so I didn't listen to them.
Thankfully our insurance doesn't require these primary care doctors to refer us to a specialist; we just went ahead and made an appointment with a pediatric dermatologist ourselves.
And after visiting with two specialists today, we now know that the baby has Perioral Dermatitis.
It's not alarming, and it's not terribly uncommon (though the specialists weren't surprised that the primary care doctors weren't able to diagnose it correctly) and we can treat it with topical antibiotics for six weeks and see how she responds to them. We're not crazy about giving her low doses of antibiotics for extended periods of time, but since it's the standard of care for this condition, we're okay trying it for six weeks and re-evaluating in the fall. She may have problems off and on for a few years, and we may have to periodically use the topical antibiotics to correct it again. But the specialists assured me that it wasn't anything that would scar or lead to other problems, and it would likely be gone in a few years.
It's odd she has it: we done use flouride toothpaste for her, and that can trigger this. And we don't use steroid creams for her either, which can also trigger it. It's also especially common in children with darker skin, and our baby is about as white as they come. So you can't blame the average doctor for not thinking of it. But the specialists said they had seen cases where a baby had been very sick with something else (like the roseola we had back in June) and when their immune system is compromised (like with the strep we had last week) sometimes it just happens.
Saliva and food getting on her face can make it worse almost instantly, which is why we thought that perhaps the oatmeal/yogurt/anything else she was eating and getting on her face was causing the problem. It makes it worse, yes. But thankfully it's not the root of the problem.
I can stop freaking out about food allergies, because they said that it would be freakishly bizarre if what the baby had turned out to be a food allergy and NOT Perioral Dermatitis. They didn't say "freakishly bizarre" -- I think they said something like "extraordinarily unlikely" -- but in any case, the Google calendar for all the foods she was eating can be safely ignored now.
We're still learning and reading about this, and I suspect we will have a LOT of follow-up questions for our follow-up visit with the specialists. But for right now, we're just happy to have an answer from two rock-star, top of their field specialists.
Living in the Boston area certainly has some perks, and solid medical care is definitely one of them. We have some of the highest concentrations of some of the best trained doctors in the world, and seeing specialists like the ones I saw today really is reassuring.
We're all going to be okay. If anything, when things like this happen, I just remind myself that we're ever so blessed that our biggest concern right now is a slight skin rash.
Friday, July 29, 2011
A quiet day, a new priority
We have had visitors in town for the last three days. It was wonderful. The baby had a playmate, and I got to have an adult conversation during the day.
But we're back to a normal, slow day of lots of books, peek-a-boo and simple meals.
Excessively simple meals. Because we're trying to figure out if we have food allergies on our hands now.
The baby has had break-outs around her mouth off and on for the last month or so. Two doctors have already said that it doesn't look like a food allergy to them, but we're taking her to a specialist on Monday. She has no other symptoms. BUT we figured it couldn't hurt to try to limit certain things - gluten, eggs, dairy - and use goat milk instead, etc.
So the Month of The Chicken is postponed. At least for now. It's not the time for us to be trying all sorts of new dishes, introducing new ingredients. And I don't make completely separate dishes for the baby; we basically eat this same foods. It's too complicated to do otherwise for a sustained period of time.
I'm sad. It was going to be fun. I had a ton of recipes planned out.
But it's for the best - we really should get to the bottom of this. And whether or not it's food related, having a simple diet will at least help when the doctors start to ask us a bunch of questions.
We'll just have A Month of The Super Simple Crockpot meals. :-) It will be August, after all. Best to not turn the oven on.
But we're back to a normal, slow day of lots of books, peek-a-boo and simple meals.
Excessively simple meals. Because we're trying to figure out if we have food allergies on our hands now.
The baby has had break-outs around her mouth off and on for the last month or so. Two doctors have already said that it doesn't look like a food allergy to them, but we're taking her to a specialist on Monday. She has no other symptoms. BUT we figured it couldn't hurt to try to limit certain things - gluten, eggs, dairy - and use goat milk instead, etc.
So the Month of The Chicken is postponed. At least for now. It's not the time for us to be trying all sorts of new dishes, introducing new ingredients. And I don't make completely separate dishes for the baby; we basically eat this same foods. It's too complicated to do otherwise for a sustained period of time.
I'm sad. It was going to be fun. I had a ton of recipes planned out.
But it's for the best - we really should get to the bottom of this. And whether or not it's food related, having a simple diet will at least help when the doctors start to ask us a bunch of questions.
We'll just have A Month of The Super Simple Crockpot meals. :-) It will be August, after all. Best to not turn the oven on.
Monday, July 25, 2011
Well, it was not just teething...
This time it actually was something else: strep throat.
Thankfully, Will and I have dodged it so far. And she's doing better on an antibiotic.
But WHEW! Thank goodness for simple chickpea curries in the crockpot. This mother has been quite tired; even when she sleeps, I find myself not being able to relax because I worry.
Thankfully, Will and I have dodged it so far. And she's doing better on an antibiotic.
But WHEW! Thank goodness for simple chickpea curries in the crockpot. This mother has been quite tired; even when she sleeps, I find myself not being able to relax because I worry.
Friday, July 22, 2011
Poor little lady...
The baby just doesn't do so well with teething. She gets these awful fevers (103 at times!!) and we've taken her in to the doctor (and the ER) before only to be told that it's nothing but the teething, and if she doesn't have other symptoms and we can manage the fever at home, keep her at home.
It doesn't help that today is well over a hundred degrees outside. Thank goodness for central A/C!
But we had another tough night. She woke up very early this morning and was crying, so we immediately gave her medicine to help with the fever... and then she proceeded to shake in my arms until the medicine finally kicked in and the chills went away as the fever went down. It's just awful watching her like that, but once the fever goes down, she's happy, giggling, playing, etc.
I hear of some babies that hardly have any problems with teething, but that's certainly not our baby. It really is tough on her.
And again, I'm thankful today that we didn't have the song and dance of "who stays home, can we send her to daycare, oh crap I have a meeting, can you postpone that, no I can't, shoot I need to work late and I have a deadline, can I have the car, no I need it, what if she needs to come home from daycare, i can't pick her up, well but you're closer, but i always have to do it and my boss is getting upset even though he's not saying anything, maybe I can take the conference call from the car on the drive home if she's not crying?"
I don't know how people do it. Especially people like us - who have no extended family in the area that they can just call up and have watch a sick kid on a last minute's notice. We have several people that we can call in an emergency that would take the baby for as long as needed, but nobody who we could call to take her on just a day when she's a little under the weather.
What do you do when the baby is sick? And then what do you do to get caught up on work (especially difficult as a breastfeeding mom who has to figure out when/where to pump and constantly make sure the babies has enough bottled milk where ever she is!) And how do you BOTH not fall behind at work and subsequently get cranky with one another because BOTH of you feel as if you are compromising your job performance... which is ultimately NOT good for the family. (someone needs to be gainfully employed, after all!)
I don't know what you do, which is why I quit my job. I never did figure it out, even though we tried SO GOSH DARN HARD.
But I know what we do now: we focus on getting the baby better and there's no discussion anymore - I have the car because Will walks to work, and I drop whatever else I had planned for the day (that wasn't really important anyways) and take care of the baby.
Poor thing. These molars will eventually be done coming in, right?
It doesn't help that today is well over a hundred degrees outside. Thank goodness for central A/C!
But we had another tough night. She woke up very early this morning and was crying, so we immediately gave her medicine to help with the fever... and then she proceeded to shake in my arms until the medicine finally kicked in and the chills went away as the fever went down. It's just awful watching her like that, but once the fever goes down, she's happy, giggling, playing, etc.
I hear of some babies that hardly have any problems with teething, but that's certainly not our baby. It really is tough on her.
And again, I'm thankful today that we didn't have the song and dance of "who stays home, can we send her to daycare, oh crap I have a meeting, can you postpone that, no I can't, shoot I need to work late and I have a deadline, can I have the car, no I need it, what if she needs to come home from daycare, i can't pick her up, well but you're closer, but i always have to do it and my boss is getting upset even though he's not saying anything, maybe I can take the conference call from the car on the drive home if she's not crying?"
I don't know how people do it. Especially people like us - who have no extended family in the area that they can just call up and have watch a sick kid on a last minute's notice. We have several people that we can call in an emergency that would take the baby for as long as needed, but nobody who we could call to take her on just a day when she's a little under the weather.
What do you do when the baby is sick? And then what do you do to get caught up on work (especially difficult as a breastfeeding mom who has to figure out when/where to pump and constantly make sure the babies has enough bottled milk where ever she is!) And how do you BOTH not fall behind at work and subsequently get cranky with one another because BOTH of you feel as if you are compromising your job performance... which is ultimately NOT good for the family. (someone needs to be gainfully employed, after all!)
I don't know what you do, which is why I quit my job. I never did figure it out, even though we tried SO GOSH DARN HARD.
But I know what we do now: we focus on getting the baby better and there's no discussion anymore - I have the car because Will walks to work, and I drop whatever else I had planned for the day (that wasn't really important anyways) and take care of the baby.
Poor thing. These molars will eventually be done coming in, right?
Thursday, July 21, 2011
Heatwave + Crabby Baby = leftover night
Nothing cooking tonight. And that's probably for the best, since all of my Pyrex is currently housing leftovers from the many meals of the past week.
The Thai Curry last night was tasty! Very, very tasty! I doubled the amount of chili paste in the recipe, because I live dangerously like that. It was spicy and that was probably good, because it made us drink a lot of water. The baby had none of it - it was just too spicy for her.
Overall, we probably liked the Indian Curry better, though we still very much enjoyed the Thai Curry. I think the Indian Curry will end up being a staple in my meal rotations, and I think it would also be good if you left the chicken out and plopped an extra sweet potato in there - so I have a another gluten and soy free vegan standby for when our vegan friends come over for dinner that Will and I can also enjoy.
And it is HOT here. Like dangerously so. The news keeps telling us about it. So we are inside for the rest of the afternoon (when we're not picking up our new - hopefully not wilted - CSA veggies) because I am A HUGE WUSS when it comes to the heat.
or the cold. or too much sun. or too much rain.
i know. i am difficult.
ANYWAYS, the baby is cutting yet another molar. Or maybe it's the same one. In any case, we're fussy and crabby and FINALLY down for our nap. Beyond searching for a few more chicken recipes for my upcoming challenge or contemplating the meal plan for next week, I'm just milling about the house and trying hard not to snack out of boredom.
...which is actually easier to do at home because my darn overly-thoughtful co-workers were oh-so-good at bringing in doughnuts or cookies or ice cream or all sorts of snacks and leaving them dangerously close to my desk...
Happy Thursday to you all!
The Thai Curry last night was tasty! Very, very tasty! I doubled the amount of chili paste in the recipe, because I live dangerously like that. It was spicy and that was probably good, because it made us drink a lot of water. The baby had none of it - it was just too spicy for her.
Overall, we probably liked the Indian Curry better, though we still very much enjoyed the Thai Curry. I think the Indian Curry will end up being a staple in my meal rotations, and I think it would also be good if you left the chicken out and plopped an extra sweet potato in there - so I have a another gluten and soy free vegan standby for when our vegan friends come over for dinner that Will and I can also enjoy.
And it is HOT here. Like dangerously so. The news keeps telling us about it. So we are inside for the rest of the afternoon (when we're not picking up our new - hopefully not wilted - CSA veggies) because I am A HUGE WUSS when it comes to the heat.
or the cold. or too much sun. or too much rain.
i know. i am difficult.
ANYWAYS, the baby is cutting yet another molar. Or maybe it's the same one. In any case, we're fussy and crabby and FINALLY down for our nap. Beyond searching for a few more chicken recipes for my upcoming challenge or contemplating the meal plan for next week, I'm just milling about the house and trying hard not to snack out of boredom.
...which is actually easier to do at home because my darn overly-thoughtful co-workers were oh-so-good at bringing in doughnuts or cookies or ice cream or all sorts of snacks and leaving them dangerously close to my desk...
Happy Thursday to you all!
Wednesday, July 20, 2011
Recipe round-up!
I tried a bunch of new things this week. And another new thing is in the crockpot right now.
So here's the recap:
Monday:
I made this recipe from the crockpot blog that I really like.
And here's the verdict: it's decent.
And I hate beans. Like, really really really hate beans. There aren't many foods I hate as much as beans.
But I can't get over how cheap they are (even organic beans are cheap!) and how much fiber they have and how much nutrition they pack. And Will needs a lot of food to feel full every day, and he's always bugging me to make stuff like this for him so he doesn't feel badly for eating so much expensive meat and fruits/veggies/etc.
So I made it. And I even willingly ate it. (The baby also had about a dozen bites. She doesn't appear to love beans, but she will eat them.)
It's best with some hot sauce, as the actual recipe isn't too spicy, but I think I shall make this again. Will loved it.
I also made chicken legs with yogurt and vindaloo curry sauce that night, which was, of course, beyond delicious. And another apple-sort-of-dessert-but-not-really (mostly just spiced apples).
And Tuesday (yesterday):
Chicken curry in the crockpot! It's a Rachael Ray recipe that she gave to the crockpot Mom.
This was DELICIOUS. The baby even ate it - mostly the sweet potato, but also a decent amount of "organzo garbonic" (my exhausted, two glasses of wine-induced pronunciation of organic garbanzo beans that will never, ever be forgotten by my husband) and she even ate some green bell pepper!
Tonight we're having company, and I made the Thai crockpot curry recipe that Rachael Ray gave to the crockpot Mom. It smells delicious. (And I've always been interested in learning how to make more Thai foods - I even bought the fish sauce so I'm prepared to try more now!)
And anyways, beyond that, we're just settling into a nice routine here. I am making yogurt in my yogurt maker right now (actually, I dumped the ingredients in the yogurt maker. The yogurt maker is now making yogurt, not me.) and the baby and I will probably play outside in the shade when she wakes up from her nap.
Will continues to work way too many hours (went to bed at midnight and got up at 4 AM - who DOES that, anyways?!?) but our daily life is much less hectic, so it's allowing him the opportunity to really focus on work, which he needs to do right now. I try to just pack his bag full of good food every morning, which is fairly easy because I keep cramming my crockpots full of yummy goodness.
.... dinner smells AMAZING.
So here's the recap:
Monday:
I made this recipe from the crockpot blog that I really like.
And here's the verdict: it's decent.
And I hate beans. Like, really really really hate beans. There aren't many foods I hate as much as beans.
But I can't get over how cheap they are (even organic beans are cheap!) and how much fiber they have and how much nutrition they pack. And Will needs a lot of food to feel full every day, and he's always bugging me to make stuff like this for him so he doesn't feel badly for eating so much expensive meat and fruits/veggies/etc.
So I made it. And I even willingly ate it. (The baby also had about a dozen bites. She doesn't appear to love beans, but she will eat them.)
It's best with some hot sauce, as the actual recipe isn't too spicy, but I think I shall make this again. Will loved it.
I also made chicken legs with yogurt and vindaloo curry sauce that night, which was, of course, beyond delicious. And another apple-sort-of-dessert-but-not-really (mostly just spiced apples).
And Tuesday (yesterday):
Chicken curry in the crockpot! It's a Rachael Ray recipe that she gave to the crockpot Mom.
This was DELICIOUS. The baby even ate it - mostly the sweet potato, but also a decent amount of "organzo garbonic" (my exhausted, two glasses of wine-induced pronunciation of organic garbanzo beans that will never, ever be forgotten by my husband) and she even ate some green bell pepper!
Tonight we're having company, and I made the Thai crockpot curry recipe that Rachael Ray gave to the crockpot Mom. It smells delicious. (And I've always been interested in learning how to make more Thai foods - I even bought the fish sauce so I'm prepared to try more now!)
And anyways, beyond that, we're just settling into a nice routine here. I am making yogurt in my yogurt maker right now (actually, I dumped the ingredients in the yogurt maker. The yogurt maker is now making yogurt, not me.) and the baby and I will probably play outside in the shade when she wakes up from her nap.
Will continues to work way too many hours (went to bed at midnight and got up at 4 AM - who DOES that, anyways?!?) but our daily life is much less hectic, so it's allowing him the opportunity to really focus on work, which he needs to do right now. I try to just pack his bag full of good food every morning, which is fairly easy because I keep cramming my crockpots full of yummy goodness.
.... dinner smells AMAZING.
Tuesday, July 19, 2011
The Month of the Chicken!
Well, we have less than two weeks left in July. Which means I'm hard at work (well, not really. but I am talking about it a lot) on my August 2011 challenge: make a chicken dish every day.
A year seemed like a bit much. (We like chicken, but not that much. And I can't expect to take over my sister-in-law's kitchen come the holidays. So a month seemed just right.)
Now, I'm not just going to do standard crockpot recipes or take the easy way out.
I really want to learn how to cook chicken. Like, really cook it. (Spoiler alert: there may or may not be some Julia Child recipes in the mix already.) And we'll be using all different parts of the chicken.
This should be fun. I'm excited about this. Will is excited, too, even though I told him I probably won't be cooking any other time of the day, and he might have to eat cold cereal or chicken leftovers for breakfast. He was okay with that.
I fully expect some flops or some mistakes in the kitchen. That's okay. I'll be brutally honest about the recipes and the mistakes that I made that sent us to the phone to call for delivery. I promise to take pictures and post them daily, but only if you promise not to mock my photography skills.
(please. no mocking.)
August 1, here we come!
A year seemed like a bit much. (We like chicken, but not that much. And I can't expect to take over my sister-in-law's kitchen come the holidays. So a month seemed just right.)
Now, I'm not just going to do standard crockpot recipes or take the easy way out.
I really want to learn how to cook chicken. Like, really cook it. (Spoiler alert: there may or may not be some Julia Child recipes in the mix already.) And we'll be using all different parts of the chicken.
This should be fun. I'm excited about this. Will is excited, too, even though I told him I probably won't be cooking any other time of the day, and he might have to eat cold cereal or chicken leftovers for breakfast. He was okay with that.
I fully expect some flops or some mistakes in the kitchen. That's okay. I'll be brutally honest about the recipes and the mistakes that I made that sent us to the phone to call for delivery. I promise to take pictures and post them daily, but only if you promise not to mock my photography skills.
(please. no mocking.)
August 1, here we come!
Monday, July 18, 2011
Shhhhhhh......
All three crackpots are full, bubbling away with dinner. Will post tomorrow with the results.
The baby is napping.
Shhhh...... instead of cleaning and paying bills, I'm napping today, too.
The baby is napping.
Shhhh...... instead of cleaning and paying bills, I'm napping today, too.
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Sunday, July 17, 2011
Oh, my. MORE rules.
Another cooking/food no-no in the house, courtesy of the "I know way too much about obscure medical things" husband.
I was getting super excited about cooking fish in the crockpot, because it's super easy, doesn't require any oil and I can do one packet of fish with some sort of spicy and sweet rub for the adults and another packet of plain fish for the baby. I have some salmon in the crockpot for tonight with a dry rub I made that's similar to the like I posted here.
...which made me realize I use a lot of spices, and I need to buy more because for some reason, I'm out of paprika. Who runs out of paprika, anyways?
Anywho, I was telling Will how much I love cooking fish this way, but he asked me to not do it very much, because there's inconclusive but intriguing evidence to suggest that cooking with aluminum foil is linked to certain neurological disorders. It's nothing the FDA would warn against, but it joins the list of no soy, no non-organic dairy, etc. that my husband keeps for our kitchen.
Argh.
Foiled again! (zing!! but a sad zing this time.)
I was getting super excited about cooking fish in the crockpot, because it's super easy, doesn't require any oil and I can do one packet of fish with some sort of spicy and sweet rub for the adults and another packet of plain fish for the baby. I have some salmon in the crockpot for tonight with a dry rub I made that's similar to the like I posted here.
...which made me realize I use a lot of spices, and I need to buy more because for some reason, I'm out of paprika. Who runs out of paprika, anyways?
Anywho, I was telling Will how much I love cooking fish this way, but he asked me to not do it very much, because there's inconclusive but intriguing evidence to suggest that cooking with aluminum foil is linked to certain neurological disorders. It's nothing the FDA would warn against, but it joins the list of no soy, no non-organic dairy, etc. that my husband keeps for our kitchen.
Argh.
Foiled again! (zing!! but a sad zing this time.)
Saturday, July 16, 2011
Beet and Fennel Soup?
I had some beets, which I would normally roast and put in a salad. But I also had some fennel, which I had no idea what to do with.
So what did I do?
I found the boldest and most bizarre recipe for both ingredients I possibly could and decided to make it.
It was okay. Bold. Different. Very fennel-ish.
I put some crumbled goat cheese on top of it and I couldn't decide if it made it better or worse.
But I did eat all of it. And so did Will. (He actually drank it.)
I don't think I will make it again, though I did save the leftovers and I do plan on eating them.
I am, however, very interested in making more soups with beets.... stay tuned!
Thursday, July 14, 2011
On Veganism.
Nope, no recipes or food posts today. Thursday afternoon is our produce CSA pickup, and the baby has her one year appointment today (because her mom is a dope and got the time mixed up on Monday when she SHOULD have had her appointment. and they drove 45 minutes to get there. and the nurse politely said "the doctor can't see you." and the baby cried the whole way home.)
or something like that that doesn't make me look as dumb.
Anyways, a friend posted this awesome link on Facebook last night, and I got a solid laugh out of it.
We eat meat. Quite a bit of it, actually.
So you may be surprised to know that at one point in time, I actually tried to be a vegan. And at several points in time, I tried to be a vegetarian.
Why did I do this?
because most teenage girls at one point in time decide that being a vegetarian is better for unsubstantiated reasons?
probably.
It didn't last. I felt like crap when I was a vegetarian. I really hate beans, and I can eat lentils, but they don't like me so well. (and my husband doesn't like me so well when I eat them, either... but that's another story for another day.) I HATE tofu, and the genetics-researcher clinical trial following medical researcher junkie husband who knows way more about soy than I do has asked me to PLEASE please PLEASE not eat soy as long as I'm still breastfeeding our daughter, which I am because I am a closeted hippie.
And he's also asked me to PLEASE please PLEASE never feed our daughter soy. At least not until she's much, much older.
like maybe when she's a teenager and decides that she needs to be a vegetarian/vegan for a month, too.
From what I understand of my husband's rants on this subject, soy emulates estrogen, which is not so great for developing kiddos. It's downright bad. And there's not a lot of conclusive research on this yet, but just as he forbade me to microwave in plastic or drink non-organic milk... he's convinced that soy is a no-no and has forbidden that as well.
SO. Icky icky icky beans, light on the lentils to preserve my marriage and the good spirits of the husband and no soy?
Yup, we eat meat.
So Will and I had this roommate at one point in time, who was awesome and reminded us of Kramer from Seinfeld, and he was also a vegetarian. While I would be roasting a chicken with some fresh herbs and whipping up some brown rice with some broccoli for our dinner, he would be eating a cheese calzone, drinking a beer, and trying to convince us that being a vegetarian was healthier than eating meat.
BAH. LONE. EEEEEEEEYYY.
(no pun intended. or maybe just a little pun.)
I don't buy this argument. If your standard meat comes from a fast food chain or is super fatty, then yes, it's probably not the best. Or if you're consuming more than a few ounces of meat per meal. THEN I would believe that vegetarianism/veganism is better for you.
But we don't eat that stuff. We eat grass-fed, organic meat, and we eat a small amount per meal. I get it every month from my meat CSA and it's awesome stuff. Expensive, but awesome and totally worth it.
Then there is the argument that killing animals for food is awful.
Which I just don't believe. I think animals should be treated well while they are alive. I don't like factory farmed meat.
Which is why I don't buy it. Again, the meat that we eat is more expensive. (Substantially more expensive.) But it's worth it to me to know that the animals were treated well when they were alive. I don't think they have souls, or feel badly for eating them. But I do want to know that they weren't treated poorly.
There's a sub-argument here that I was especially interested in. Vegans don't eat honey, which I thought was bizarre. (Why not?) Apparently it's an animal by-product, and bees are smashed up when it's harvested?
At least that's the best information the interwebs could give me.
Do vegans not understand that many, many bugs, animals, rodents, snakes, etc. are all killed during vegetable and grain harvests?
What about those animals?
Doesn't quite make sense to me.
And then there's the sustainability argument.
I get this one; it's the only argument for veganism or vegetarianism that I think is reasonable. Once we entered the Agricultural Revolution about 10,000 years ago, our population skyrocketed. And now we can't go back.
Again, this is why I feel so strongly about our Meat CSA, or finding local farmers and buying directly from them (which is what we would do before we finally got a share from Chestnut Farms - we would drive over an hour each way to get grass fed meat directly from the rancher.) It's more expensive meat, but that extra expense also allows these farmers to raise the animals in a sustainable manner.
(But even if everyone bought this kind of meat, there's just not the resources available for the entire world to have it. I get it.)
But really - I'm not arguing AGAINST vegetarianism or veganism. I believe in pluralism when it comes to nutrition: there are many paths that lead to the right place for different people. I do not think that there's "one healthy diet" and that everyone should follow it.
I DO think there are people out there who feel their best while on a strict vegan, raw diet.
I DO think there are people out there (myself included) who really need some meat in the diet to feel their best.
I have vegan and vegetarian friends. They know me and know that I love meat, and don't try to change me. I don't try to change them, though I will get defensive if they try to pull the "we're healthier than the rest of you" card on me.
Really - we have no beef (zing! they just keep coming to me!) with each other.
But this nonsense about vegetarians and vegans being "healthier" than the rest of us who eat GOOD meat with lots of other good-for-you foods, or these sob stories about animals being used for food... it's just either not true, or not relevant (at least to me).
or something like that that doesn't make me look as dumb.
Anyways, a friend posted this awesome link on Facebook last night, and I got a solid laugh out of it.
We eat meat. Quite a bit of it, actually.
So you may be surprised to know that at one point in time, I actually tried to be a vegan. And at several points in time, I tried to be a vegetarian.
Why did I do this?
because most teenage girls at one point in time decide that being a vegetarian is better for unsubstantiated reasons?
probably.
It didn't last. I felt like crap when I was a vegetarian. I really hate beans, and I can eat lentils, but they don't like me so well. (and my husband doesn't like me so well when I eat them, either... but that's another story for another day.) I HATE tofu, and the genetics-researcher clinical trial following medical researcher junkie husband who knows way more about soy than I do has asked me to PLEASE please PLEASE not eat soy as long as I'm still breastfeeding our daughter, which I am because I am a closeted hippie.
And he's also asked me to PLEASE please PLEASE never feed our daughter soy. At least not until she's much, much older.
like maybe when she's a teenager and decides that she needs to be a vegetarian/vegan for a month, too.
From what I understand of my husband's rants on this subject, soy emulates estrogen, which is not so great for developing kiddos. It's downright bad. And there's not a lot of conclusive research on this yet, but just as he forbade me to microwave in plastic or drink non-organic milk... he's convinced that soy is a no-no and has forbidden that as well.
SO. Icky icky icky beans, light on the lentils to preserve my marriage and the good spirits of the husband and no soy?
Yup, we eat meat.
So Will and I had this roommate at one point in time, who was awesome and reminded us of Kramer from Seinfeld, and he was also a vegetarian. While I would be roasting a chicken with some fresh herbs and whipping up some brown rice with some broccoli for our dinner, he would be eating a cheese calzone, drinking a beer, and trying to convince us that being a vegetarian was healthier than eating meat.
BAH. LONE. EEEEEEEEYYY.
(no pun intended. or maybe just a little pun.)
I don't buy this argument. If your standard meat comes from a fast food chain or is super fatty, then yes, it's probably not the best. Or if you're consuming more than a few ounces of meat per meal. THEN I would believe that vegetarianism/veganism is better for you.
But we don't eat that stuff. We eat grass-fed, organic meat, and we eat a small amount per meal. I get it every month from my meat CSA and it's awesome stuff. Expensive, but awesome and totally worth it.
Then there is the argument that killing animals for food is awful.
Which I just don't believe. I think animals should be treated well while they are alive. I don't like factory farmed meat.
Which is why I don't buy it. Again, the meat that we eat is more expensive. (Substantially more expensive.) But it's worth it to me to know that the animals were treated well when they were alive. I don't think they have souls, or feel badly for eating them. But I do want to know that they weren't treated poorly.
There's a sub-argument here that I was especially interested in. Vegans don't eat honey, which I thought was bizarre. (Why not?) Apparently it's an animal by-product, and bees are smashed up when it's harvested?
At least that's the best information the interwebs could give me.
Do vegans not understand that many, many bugs, animals, rodents, snakes, etc. are all killed during vegetable and grain harvests?
What about those animals?
Doesn't quite make sense to me.
And then there's the sustainability argument.
I get this one; it's the only argument for veganism or vegetarianism that I think is reasonable. Once we entered the Agricultural Revolution about 10,000 years ago, our population skyrocketed. And now we can't go back.
Again, this is why I feel so strongly about our Meat CSA, or finding local farmers and buying directly from them (which is what we would do before we finally got a share from Chestnut Farms - we would drive over an hour each way to get grass fed meat directly from the rancher.) It's more expensive meat, but that extra expense also allows these farmers to raise the animals in a sustainable manner.
(But even if everyone bought this kind of meat, there's just not the resources available for the entire world to have it. I get it.)
But really - I'm not arguing AGAINST vegetarianism or veganism. I believe in pluralism when it comes to nutrition: there are many paths that lead to the right place for different people. I do not think that there's "one healthy diet" and that everyone should follow it.
I DO think there are people out there who feel their best while on a strict vegan, raw diet.
I DO think there are people out there (myself included) who really need some meat in the diet to feel their best.
I have vegan and vegetarian friends. They know me and know that I love meat, and don't try to change me. I don't try to change them, though I will get defensive if they try to pull the "we're healthier than the rest of you" card on me.
Really - we have no beef (zing! they just keep coming to me!) with each other.
But this nonsense about vegetarians and vegans being "healthier" than the rest of us who eat GOOD meat with lots of other good-for-you foods, or these sob stories about animals being used for food... it's just either not true, or not relevant (at least to me).
Wednesday, July 13, 2011
Yumm!!
Well, dinner last night was a success!
The Honey and Wine Lamb Ribs really turned out well. I basically followed the recipe, but I had it on low on the crockpot for about 5 hours.
DELICIOUS.
I get what some of the reviewers mean when they complain about lamb ribs. Lamb ribs are a fatty cut of meat, which is why I was glad that there was only the little slab of it (the picture has half of it on there, since Will and I split it.) It's not a cut I would have chosen myself, but I'm happy that I was "forced" to try them out by getting some from my meat CSA. Would I run out and buy them every week? Nope. But would I be annoyed if we got more from the meat CSA? Nope!
As for the honey/wine/soy sauce combination, I think i will be trying it out again. Methinks it would be good with lots of things: pork, lentils, beans....
::does a happy dance remembering the lamb ribs and how good they were::
Crockpot apple crisp also turned out great. We each had a bowl of it, and shared some with the baby. I told Will that there was only enough for a little bit for each of us since I made it in my tiny crockpot, and he was quite sad.
I suppose that means I'll have to make it again. Soon.
And I lied about my oatmeal recipes. I said I would make them last night, but then I looked in the fridge and saw that Will still had several Pyrex containers of steel cut oats left to eat. (I generally make a huge batch on the weekends and he has lots of leftovers for the week.) SO we'll be waiting a few more days to try it out...
BUT for now.... I got to thinking about chicken. I saw one of those commercials for the Philadelphia cooking creme where the lady was like: "there are thousands of ways to cook chicken and I only know two of them" and I thought to myself "how true."
What if I tried to cook chicken every single day, in some different way, for a month? And then what if I tried to do that with other ingredients, too? Like, apples during the fall? And then pumpkin? Turkey? Lentils? Beans? My husband suggested pineapple month, which seemed a bit much, but you get the idea. A month seemed reasonable. I don't think I could do a year of chicken every day, though I think my husband could easily do a year of pineapple every day.
I'm sure there would be major flops. But I also think that I would really learn something in the mean time. I don't pretend to really know how to cook. I don't pretend that I don't have to Google simple, simple things.
Like how to braise meat.
Or how to roast beets. (seriously, I didn't know how. but it's super easy and they are VERY tasty.)
So I'd likely learn a lot, and we'd likely have a few nights of questionably palatable dinners.
Seems like I should go for it. Let the menu planning begin!
Tuesday, July 12, 2011
Hottest day of the year, and husband took the car...
SO we're stuck at home. We ventured outside to push the little push-cart around in the courtyard a bit when it was still reasonably cool out this morning, but we're officially inside for the rest of the day. The A/C is working hard enough, so it was another slow cooker day.
Which is fine with me, because I kind of am a dunder-head when it comes to real cooking. Like the other night, when I managed to forget about my eggs boiling on the stove for about 20 extra minutes.
Apparently over-boiled egg whites turn into that plastic stuff they make fences out of. Ewww....
SO....
TWO items for dinner tonight are in the crockpot!!
Lamb Ribs with Honey and Wine - I got a slab of lamb ribs from my meat CSA, and this recipe looked like it could be easily adapted to fit in my 4 qt. slow cooker. I marinated it this morning, and tossed it in the slow cooker when the baby went down for her (early?? maybe a growth spurt??) nap today.
And I reduced the quantity of everything, since I only have the one little slab. It'll stay on low for somewhere between 5-7 hours.
It. Smells. Amazing. I never knew the combination of honey and soy sauce could work so well.
I know you're not supposed to take the lid of the slow cooker while it's cooking, but I haven't been able to resist taking this off to catch a whiff of it a few times already.
I will try to be better this afternoon.
AND! Dessert!!! (The husband will be so happy - I rarely make dessert.) When we moved, I found two bags of brown sugar in the back of my pantry that had been there for at least a year. Being a cheapskate and also someone who hates throwing food away, I actually packed them up and moved them to our new place. (My husband didn't even try to challenge this decision. He just sighs and tapes up the box and moves it for me.)
BUT!!! I think he will be happy this time.
I thought a crumble of some sort would be great for the super hard and crusty brown sugar. And I knew that if I gave it long enough in the slow cooker with some butter and apples, it would soften and be just fine.
I found this recipe (on yet another vegetarian/vegan site like the one that I found my oatmeal recipes on! how ironic!) and thought I could make do with what I had in the house (again, since the husband took the car and the grocery store is a bit of a long walk for this kind of heat).
I admit, I didn't measure anything. I don't like measuring things. It just makes more dishes, and I always find myself tasting and adding more of something else, anyways.
And the baby has all of my measuring cups and spoons scattered amongst her toys, anyways.
I used my (NEW!) 2 qt. slow cooker for this one.
-2 apples, peeled and sliced
-the stones of brown sugar I had (a bit of light and a bit of dark) - probably about a half cup
-cinnamon
-cloves
-nutmeg
-a packet of my gluten-free oatmeal, which just happened to be an apple cinnamon flavor
-maybe 1/3 of a stick of butter, but some of that was used to coat the crockpot, and I didn't really pay attention to the quantity of the rest - I just added it until it looked reasonable
Just dump the apples in the crockpot, after you've done a quick coat with some butter on the stoneware. Mix up all the other ingredients and then dump the mixture on top of the apples and sort of mix, but not totally.
We'll see how this turns out. It smelled yummy. I plan on leaving it on low for 3-5 hours.
I should probably take some pictures of these things and start posting them, so we can all laugh at my photography skills together.
Which is fine with me, because I kind of am a dunder-head when it comes to real cooking. Like the other night, when I managed to forget about my eggs boiling on the stove for about 20 extra minutes.
Apparently over-boiled egg whites turn into that plastic stuff they make fences out of. Ewww....
SO....
TWO items for dinner tonight are in the crockpot!!
Lamb Ribs with Honey and Wine - I got a slab of lamb ribs from my meat CSA, and this recipe looked like it could be easily adapted to fit in my 4 qt. slow cooker. I marinated it this morning, and tossed it in the slow cooker when the baby went down for her (early?? maybe a growth spurt??) nap today.
And I reduced the quantity of everything, since I only have the one little slab. It'll stay on low for somewhere between 5-7 hours.
It. Smells. Amazing. I never knew the combination of honey and soy sauce could work so well.
I know you're not supposed to take the lid of the slow cooker while it's cooking, but I haven't been able to resist taking this off to catch a whiff of it a few times already.
I will try to be better this afternoon.
AND! Dessert!!! (The husband will be so happy - I rarely make dessert.) When we moved, I found two bags of brown sugar in the back of my pantry that had been there for at least a year. Being a cheapskate and also someone who hates throwing food away, I actually packed them up and moved them to our new place. (My husband didn't even try to challenge this decision. He just sighs and tapes up the box and moves it for me.)
BUT!!! I think he will be happy this time.
I thought a crumble of some sort would be great for the super hard and crusty brown sugar. And I knew that if I gave it long enough in the slow cooker with some butter and apples, it would soften and be just fine.
I found this recipe (on yet another vegetarian/vegan site like the one that I found my oatmeal recipes on! how ironic!) and thought I could make do with what I had in the house (again, since the husband took the car and the grocery store is a bit of a long walk for this kind of heat).
I admit, I didn't measure anything. I don't like measuring things. It just makes more dishes, and I always find myself tasting and adding more of something else, anyways.
And the baby has all of my measuring cups and spoons scattered amongst her toys, anyways.
I used my (NEW!) 2 qt. slow cooker for this one.
-2 apples, peeled and sliced
-the stones of brown sugar I had (a bit of light and a bit of dark) - probably about a half cup
-cinnamon
-cloves
-nutmeg
-a packet of my gluten-free oatmeal, which just happened to be an apple cinnamon flavor
-maybe 1/3 of a stick of butter, but some of that was used to coat the crockpot, and I didn't really pay attention to the quantity of the rest - I just added it until it looked reasonable
Just dump the apples in the crockpot, after you've done a quick coat with some butter on the stoneware. Mix up all the other ingredients and then dump the mixture on top of the apples and sort of mix, but not totally.
We'll see how this turns out. It smelled yummy. I plan on leaving it on low for 3-5 hours.
I should probably take some pictures of these things and start posting them, so we can all laugh at my photography skills together.
Monday, July 11, 2011
Dinner is in the crockpot! .
By 9 AM this morning, dinner was thrown in the crockpot and it was cooking away. I'm making this wonderful chicken lentil dish that I have made before, and THANKFULLY I had just enough lentils to make it work.
::whew::
(It's like a crime to run out of lentils in our house. Now that we're settled in at our new place, I need to hit up one of my oh-so-wonderful new neighborhood Indian grocery stores and buy a massive bag so my husband can call me a "torando-fearing Midwesterner who likes to stockpile food" again.
He calls me this a lot.)
Anywho, I'm a big believer in using the whole chicken. Like, not just buying the chicken breasts. Or not just eating the chicken and throwing away the organ packet in the middle. And making stock out of the completely-picked (my husband thinks I'm nuts for picking so much at the bones) chicken bones. I honestly believe that if you're going to eat meat, you need to use the whole thing. (Keep in mind that when I say the "whole chicken" I mean the chicken that you can buy at Trader Joe's - not the kind with feet and eyes. I am still trying to find a Jamaican/Vietnamese chicken feet soup recipe that looks like something I can get my husband to eat.)
And try to stretch it out. Meat is great for you (well, the meat that we usually eat is great for you) but so are a lot of other foods - like lentils!! So I've been picking at the whole chicken I made the other day when I made Chicken Vindaloo (not in a crockpot) and decided that the lentil dish was just the perfect use for some more of the meat... and some more of that delish Patak's curry sauce.
::whew::
(It's like a crime to run out of lentils in our house. Now that we're settled in at our new place, I need to hit up one of my oh-so-wonderful new neighborhood Indian grocery stores and buy a massive bag so my husband can call me a "torando-fearing Midwesterner who likes to stockpile food" again.
He calls me this a lot.)
Anywho, I'm a big believer in using the whole chicken. Like, not just buying the chicken breasts. Or not just eating the chicken and throwing away the organ packet in the middle. And making stock out of the completely-picked (my husband thinks I'm nuts for picking so much at the bones) chicken bones. I honestly believe that if you're going to eat meat, you need to use the whole thing. (Keep in mind that when I say the "whole chicken" I mean the chicken that you can buy at Trader Joe's - not the kind with feet and eyes. I am still trying to find a Jamaican/Vietnamese chicken feet soup recipe that looks like something I can get my husband to eat.)
And try to stretch it out. Meat is great for you (well, the meat that we usually eat is great for you) but so are a lot of other foods - like lentils!! So I've been picking at the whole chicken I made the other day when I made Chicken Vindaloo (not in a crockpot) and decided that the lentil dish was just the perfect use for some more of the meat... and some more of that delish Patak's curry sauce.
Sunday, July 10, 2011
Ah, the beauty of a napping baby.
Another tough night last night. More teething.
But she's finally taking a decent nap this afternoon - going on two hours. Long enough for Will and I to straighten up the house, both get in a decent workout and have a snack together. (Have I mentioned how much I love having a fitness center - and a decent fitness center at that (most apartment complexes have a broken treadmill and some crummy free weights) - just six floors down?
::smiles::
Anywho, this meat CSA is awesome. Like, beyond awesome. We had some amazing sweet Italian sausage for breakfast this morning, and we'll have some leftover chicken from the dinner I made last night - Chicken Vindaloo. We have about eleventy million ethnic grocery stores near our new home, and I'm enjoying being the tall white woman wandering around them, looking bewildered. But I figure if real Indian people shop there, I must be getting the authentic stuff.
It was also the perfect recipe for using up the fresh mint I got with our produce CSA and some cilantro I picked from my balcony garden.
I got this specific brand of curry paste - Patak's.
http://www.pataks.co.uk/
It's what my recipe and Googling told me to buy.
And it was delicious. The baby even had a few bites to eat, though we had to give her the "inside" pieces of the chicken so there wasn't too much spice on it.
But what to do with the leftovers?
Ah, more CSA items to be used up. For lunch today, I took some summer squash, some kind of turnip that's apparently usually grown in southeastern Asia and a half of an onion and tossed it in a pan with some chicken broth. I added two heaping (yes, heaping. I like things spicy) spoonfuls of the Vindaloo paste to the pan, and about ten minutes later, we had lunch. (The baby did NOT eat any of this. Will coughed a bit when he ate it, but said it was very tasty, so I took the hint: not everyone enjoys the amount of spice that I do!)
Overall, these CSA's are forcing me to learn how to cook different cuts of meats and use different vegetables. And our money is going to local farmers. And I can feed my kiddo organic, grass-fed meat and organic veggies. I like it, and thankfully my husband is a good sport about some odd meal combinations here and there.
Tomorrow, I plan to try a honey and wine braised lamb rib recipe. The recipe tells me to do it in the oven, but I, being the rebel I am, will use my NEW crockpot for it.
NEW CROCKPOT, you say?!?!?
Why, yes!
TWO new crockpots, actually!!
I had been looking for a small crockpot for awhile at garage sales, on craigslist, etc. But everything was either just too darn far away to drive or too expensive. ($15 for a used, super old crockpot? really??) But Target had them on sale today, so I splurged and spent a whopping $27 on TWO new crockpots - a 4 qt. and a 2 qt. My 6 qt. is still going strong, but considering that crockpots do best when they are 2/3 of the way full, sometimes I want to make things that, well... I don't WANT 4 quarts of!
I also plan on trying to make steel cut oats in the crockpot for Will to eat in the mornings. Sometimes, when he gets up for work super early and is all hungry and stuff, I feel like a bad wife for not getting up and making breakfast for him.
(But I never feel badly enough to actually get up and make him breakfast.)
SO that's where the new little crockpot comes in. I can make a tiny single-serve portion of all of these different kinds of oatmeals I found on this website. Some of them look absolutely amazing! And when Will gets up in the mornings and I want to burrow under my soft, soft comforter, I can rest assured that he isn't eating gravel for breakfast.
Unless I've made it wrong. Which is entirely possible.
But she's finally taking a decent nap this afternoon - going on two hours. Long enough for Will and I to straighten up the house, both get in a decent workout and have a snack together. (Have I mentioned how much I love having a fitness center - and a decent fitness center at that (most apartment complexes have a broken treadmill and some crummy free weights) - just six floors down?
::smiles::
Anywho, this meat CSA is awesome. Like, beyond awesome. We had some amazing sweet Italian sausage for breakfast this morning, and we'll have some leftover chicken from the dinner I made last night - Chicken Vindaloo. We have about eleventy million ethnic grocery stores near our new home, and I'm enjoying being the tall white woman wandering around them, looking bewildered. But I figure if real Indian people shop there, I must be getting the authentic stuff.
It was also the perfect recipe for using up the fresh mint I got with our produce CSA and some cilantro I picked from my balcony garden.
I got this specific brand of curry paste - Patak's.
http://www.pataks.co.uk/
It's what my recipe and Googling told me to buy.
And it was delicious. The baby even had a few bites to eat, though we had to give her the "inside" pieces of the chicken so there wasn't too much spice on it.
But what to do with the leftovers?
Ah, more CSA items to be used up. For lunch today, I took some summer squash, some kind of turnip that's apparently usually grown in southeastern Asia and a half of an onion and tossed it in a pan with some chicken broth. I added two heaping (yes, heaping. I like things spicy) spoonfuls of the Vindaloo paste to the pan, and about ten minutes later, we had lunch. (The baby did NOT eat any of this. Will coughed a bit when he ate it, but said it was very tasty, so I took the hint: not everyone enjoys the amount of spice that I do!)
Overall, these CSA's are forcing me to learn how to cook different cuts of meats and use different vegetables. And our money is going to local farmers. And I can feed my kiddo organic, grass-fed meat and organic veggies. I like it, and thankfully my husband is a good sport about some odd meal combinations here and there.
Tomorrow, I plan to try a honey and wine braised lamb rib recipe. The recipe tells me to do it in the oven, but I, being the rebel I am, will use my NEW crockpot for it.
NEW CROCKPOT, you say?!?!?
Why, yes!
TWO new crockpots, actually!!
I had been looking for a small crockpot for awhile at garage sales, on craigslist, etc. But everything was either just too darn far away to drive or too expensive. ($15 for a used, super old crockpot? really??) But Target had them on sale today, so I splurged and spent a whopping $27 on TWO new crockpots - a 4 qt. and a 2 qt. My 6 qt. is still going strong, but considering that crockpots do best when they are 2/3 of the way full, sometimes I want to make things that, well... I don't WANT 4 quarts of!
I also plan on trying to make steel cut oats in the crockpot for Will to eat in the mornings. Sometimes, when he gets up for work super early and is all hungry and stuff, I feel like a bad wife for not getting up and making breakfast for him.
(But I never feel badly enough to actually get up and make him breakfast.)
SO that's where the new little crockpot comes in. I can make a tiny single-serve portion of all of these different kinds of oatmeals I found on this website. Some of them look absolutely amazing! And when Will gets up in the mornings and I want to burrow under my soft, soft comforter, I can rest assured that he isn't eating gravel for breakfast.
Unless I've made it wrong. Which is entirely possible.
Saturday, July 9, 2011
Ah, Saturday.
Naps on the weekend are the best. It's really the best time Will and I have together anymore, considering we're pretty tired during the week when she goes to sleep at night. (Or when she doesn't go to sleep at night - like last night - fever and molars yet again - but we think she's finally turned the corner today....)
We walked along the Charles River this morning to the farmer's market this morning, where I bought a cucumber, some tomatoes and some blueberries (I love berry season!) and then we hit up a coffee shop that we had never been to before, and sat on a blanket in the shade outside. It was wonderful.
We moved out of the city so we could have more time together in many ways: less time Will is driving to and from work (he now walks to the office!), less time trying to run errands because roads are wider and traffic is easier, and more conveniences to our new home. But even though we thought we were trading the amenities of the city up for other conveniences... we still have plenty to do around here. And now we have more time to enjoy it!
I still cannot believe we lived without a dishwasher with a baby for a whole year.
We walked along the Charles River this morning to the farmer's market this morning, where I bought a cucumber, some tomatoes and some blueberries (I love berry season!) and then we hit up a coffee shop that we had never been to before, and sat on a blanket in the shade outside. It was wonderful.
We moved out of the city so we could have more time together in many ways: less time Will is driving to and from work (he now walks to the office!), less time trying to run errands because roads are wider and traffic is easier, and more conveniences to our new home. But even though we thought we were trading the amenities of the city up for other conveniences... we still have plenty to do around here. And now we have more time to enjoy it!
I still cannot believe we lived without a dishwasher with a baby for a whole year.
Friday, July 8, 2011
Holy molars!
Those teeth are really taking their toll on us.
We were supposed to drive into the city (a rare event these days) and go to a restaurant near Fenway for an early dinner tonight. Will has a friend from Oxford in town and neither the baby nor I have ever met her, but I told him to go ahead without us. The baby has been running a fever all day and fighting me to stay hydrated; the last thing we need to do to her is drag her out in traffic and hope that she is in a decent mood at a restaurant when she's been having trouble sleeping.
She's 12.25 months old now, and she has just over half of her baby teeth. The molars are popping through now. We should be done soon, right?
But let me get to the real battle of today: we're off our schedule. She's been fussy and not sleeping well, which has made me tired and emotionally exhausted. I had a second cup of coffee this morning for an extra perk, but now my stomach doesn't feel super awesome. It's been raining outside, and the hourly forecast doesn't look great so we'll likely be inside for the rest of the day.
So this is the brutal part of staying at home. Certainly, I knew every day would not be filled with giggles in the wildflowers and perfectly timed naps so I can make a perfect salmon bake. But the days where everything is off, where you are fighting - not to eat vegetables - but to just keep them hydrated because drinking hurts their teeth, where the husband is nowhere to be found until late in the evening -- these are the days that make me wonder if staying at home is really the best thing for me.
And then I remember my job. And even on the worst days at home with our daughter, staying at home is still way easier than even my easiest days at the office. She's teething and off her schedule, but I now have the flexibility to deal with it. I'm not trying to answer emails while I nurse her to sleep. I can let her sleep in after a tough evening when she was up too late. I loved my job, yes, but I didn't love what the logistics did to our baby (and our marriage) on the easiest days, let alone on days like today.
So we'll read that Goodnight Moon book a few dozen more times and I'll probably cave and give her ice cream for dinner to help with her teething. We'll get back to our schedule some other day.
We were supposed to drive into the city (a rare event these days) and go to a restaurant near Fenway for an early dinner tonight. Will has a friend from Oxford in town and neither the baby nor I have ever met her, but I told him to go ahead without us. The baby has been running a fever all day and fighting me to stay hydrated; the last thing we need to do to her is drag her out in traffic and hope that she is in a decent mood at a restaurant when she's been having trouble sleeping.
She's 12.25 months old now, and she has just over half of her baby teeth. The molars are popping through now. We should be done soon, right?
But let me get to the real battle of today: we're off our schedule. She's been fussy and not sleeping well, which has made me tired and emotionally exhausted. I had a second cup of coffee this morning for an extra perk, but now my stomach doesn't feel super awesome. It's been raining outside, and the hourly forecast doesn't look great so we'll likely be inside for the rest of the day.
So this is the brutal part of staying at home. Certainly, I knew every day would not be filled with giggles in the wildflowers and perfectly timed naps so I can make a perfect salmon bake. But the days where everything is off, where you are fighting - not to eat vegetables - but to just keep them hydrated because drinking hurts their teeth, where the husband is nowhere to be found until late in the evening -- these are the days that make me wonder if staying at home is really the best thing for me.
And then I remember my job. And even on the worst days at home with our daughter, staying at home is still way easier than even my easiest days at the office. She's teething and off her schedule, but I now have the flexibility to deal with it. I'm not trying to answer emails while I nurse her to sleep. I can let her sleep in after a tough evening when she was up too late. I loved my job, yes, but I didn't love what the logistics did to our baby (and our marriage) on the easiest days, let alone on days like today.
So we'll read that Goodnight Moon book a few dozen more times and I'll probably cave and give her ice cream for dinner to help with her teething. We'll get back to our schedule some other day.
Thursday, July 7, 2011
We are totally "those neighbors"
We don't have a motorcycle or loud parties.
We do, however, have a loud baby. And tonight she's cutting (we think) three teeth. She's miserable. And we've given her Tylenol and Motrin and even used Orajel, though I don't like to use it if we don't have to. And we've given her ice cream. And frozen teethie thingees to chew on. And I even let her nurse to help calm her down, which was incredibly painful and didn't last for very long because I shrieked when she bit me and that just made her even more hysterical.
We really, honestly, did everything that we could to help her out. She was exhausted, rubbing her eyes and yawning, but still crying and fussing. So we just put her in her crib and let her cry it out, turned on the washing machine and dishwasher and tried to tune it out. We even stuffed a towel under the crack of the front door to try to contain the noise.
She's our kid, so we don't mind the 10-20 minutes of hysterical crying. But I don't think our new neighbors feel the same way.
We live in an apartment building. It's a new construction; it's only six years old. It's a "luxury complex" so it was built with some extras in mind - decent insulation being one of them. It's actually rather nice to live in a real apartment building in the Boston area; most "apartments" are houses that have been chopped up or super old buildings that don't have the greatest sound muffling. So we think we're pretty spiffy here in our "new" place.
When we decided to move in here, I confessed to Will that I was worried about having noisy neighbors. He told me that WE would be the noisy neighbors. And he was right.
Will let me go down to the fitness center for 20 minutes earlier this evening so I could escape the crying and clear my head. As I was coming back up through our hallway, I heard one of our neighbors in front of me, entering his apartment. As the baby let out a scream inside our apartment, he definitely said "******* baby!" and slammed his door shut. He didn't see me; I was just behind him in the hallway.
I get it. You are paying thousands of dollars every month to live in a nice apartment complex, and then the couple with the loud baby moves in next door. It sucks.
But what are we supposed to do? Until Massachusetts stops being stupid about housing regulations and zoning and home prices become reasonable OR until we can save a few more years to afford the massive down payment we need to buy a single family home without compromising IRA contributions and the like... we're stuck renting. Will's job is here; his industry is really only in a few cities in the US (all of which have ridiculous housing prices, I might add.)
So here we are in our tiny little apartment: baby screaming, husband stressed out, me escaping by blogging and our neighbors turning up their televisions and swearing at us under their breath in the hallways.
Yikes. Welcome home?
We do, however, have a loud baby. And tonight she's cutting (we think) three teeth. She's miserable. And we've given her Tylenol and Motrin and even used Orajel, though I don't like to use it if we don't have to. And we've given her ice cream. And frozen teethie thingees to chew on. And I even let her nurse to help calm her down, which was incredibly painful and didn't last for very long because I shrieked when she bit me and that just made her even more hysterical.
We really, honestly, did everything that we could to help her out. She was exhausted, rubbing her eyes and yawning, but still crying and fussing. So we just put her in her crib and let her cry it out, turned on the washing machine and dishwasher and tried to tune it out. We even stuffed a towel under the crack of the front door to try to contain the noise.
She's our kid, so we don't mind the 10-20 minutes of hysterical crying. But I don't think our new neighbors feel the same way.
We live in an apartment building. It's a new construction; it's only six years old. It's a "luxury complex" so it was built with some extras in mind - decent insulation being one of them. It's actually rather nice to live in a real apartment building in the Boston area; most "apartments" are houses that have been chopped up or super old buildings that don't have the greatest sound muffling. So we think we're pretty spiffy here in our "new" place.
When we decided to move in here, I confessed to Will that I was worried about having noisy neighbors. He told me that WE would be the noisy neighbors. And he was right.
Will let me go down to the fitness center for 20 minutes earlier this evening so I could escape the crying and clear my head. As I was coming back up through our hallway, I heard one of our neighbors in front of me, entering his apartment. As the baby let out a scream inside our apartment, he definitely said "******* baby!" and slammed his door shut. He didn't see me; I was just behind him in the hallway.
I get it. You are paying thousands of dollars every month to live in a nice apartment complex, and then the couple with the loud baby moves in next door. It sucks.
But what are we supposed to do? Until Massachusetts stops being stupid about housing regulations and zoning and home prices become reasonable OR until we can save a few more years to afford the massive down payment we need to buy a single family home without compromising IRA contributions and the like... we're stuck renting. Will's job is here; his industry is really only in a few cities in the US (all of which have ridiculous housing prices, I might add.)
So here we are in our tiny little apartment: baby screaming, husband stressed out, me escaping by blogging and our neighbors turning up their televisions and swearing at us under their breath in the hallways.
Yikes. Welcome home?
... and the saga begins!
If I had more programming skills (well, let's be honest... if I had ANY programming skills...) I would do one of those Star Wars scrolling things that tells the story of my blogging past.
A crummy blogging past.
There was my paleolithic woman blog, where I documented the few months that I was a hard core paleo-eater, and also spent every spare cent I had at Whole Foods.
There was some lofty "ideas" blog I tried to start at one point, only to realize I'm really not that profound. And I like to watch Desperate Housewives at night instead of reading some ancient philosopher, which is awesome, but doesn't give me a lot of good profound "ideas" to write about.
But after (finally) graduating from college and working way too many hours at a consulting firm for the past year and a half, I've found myself at home with our one year old. And a nice home at that - we *finally* have a dishwasher and an in-unit washer/dryer (essential for the cloth diapering nutso I've become) so I find myself having spare time during the day.
Specifically during naptime.
There's only so many searches I can do for ways to cook chicken or how to grow basil without killing it (which I'm fairly good at - killing it - but I'm trying. Really trying.) And the husband is overwhelmed when I don't deposit these thoughts elsewhere during the day and bombard him with a million words a second when he walks through the door at night.
So I embark on another blog journey today, hoping that I can make this one a little less crummy than the blogs-of-Sarah-past.
A crummy blogging past.
There was my paleolithic woman blog, where I documented the few months that I was a hard core paleo-eater, and also spent every spare cent I had at Whole Foods.
There was some lofty "ideas" blog I tried to start at one point, only to realize I'm really not that profound. And I like to watch Desperate Housewives at night instead of reading some ancient philosopher, which is awesome, but doesn't give me a lot of good profound "ideas" to write about.
But after (finally) graduating from college and working way too many hours at a consulting firm for the past year and a half, I've found myself at home with our one year old. And a nice home at that - we *finally* have a dishwasher and an in-unit washer/dryer (essential for the cloth diapering nutso I've become) so I find myself having spare time during the day.
Specifically during naptime.
There's only so many searches I can do for ways to cook chicken or how to grow basil without killing it (which I'm fairly good at - killing it - but I'm trying. Really trying.) And the husband is overwhelmed when I don't deposit these thoughts elsewhere during the day and bombard him with a million words a second when he walks through the door at night.
So I embark on another blog journey today, hoping that I can make this one a little less crummy than the blogs-of-Sarah-past.
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