Crock Pot Cooking

Now that Fall is slowly making its way to Houston and since I've been trying to build our cadre of easy-peasy recipes before the baby arrives, I decided to break out the crock pot.

Last week, we ended up eating out on Tuesday and Wednesday instead of cooking the meals we bought (mainly because I was uninspired by the meals we chose, and I kept napping longer than usual). Thursday morning, I woke up with new resolve. I put our sheets in the laundry when I woke up at 5:30am (it's part of my weekly chores, and I've been trying to do more stuff during the week so I free up more time on the weekend) and decided to throw together our crock pot meal.

By "throw together," I mean that I simply chopped up an onion and dumped it, two cans of white beans (I didn't even have to drain them!), a can of chilies, a bag of frozen corn, some vegetable broth, and some spices into the crock pot--following this recipe from A Year of Slow Cooking.

Sadly, I forgot to turn it on before I left for work and ended up staying late for a team meeting, so we ate out again(!). But then we decided to stay in on Friday night. We made grilled cheese and salad and ate the white bean chili. It was tasty! I'm definitely going to add it to the collection of recipes that I started in Springpad (thank you for the suggestion, kc!). I'm enamored with the Springpad system. I can collect online recipes and generate a shopping list from the ingredients. It's exactly what I was looking for--and it's free!

I'm also eager to try this Cheesy Baked Pasta with Spinach and Artichokes (which I found thanks to another one of your comments).

And I need to find more vegetarian recipes to cook in the crock pot. I can't wait!

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Book Review: The Womanly Art of Breastfeeding

I finished reading The Womanly Art of Breastfeeding by La Leche League International, and I definitely recommend it. Although it left me feeling like I still need to take a class or watch some videos in order to truly understand how to achieve a proper latch, I appreciated the comprehensiveness of the book, in terms of its attention to the emotional aspects of raising children.

Here are some of the small details I learned and want to remember:

• Rinsing nipples with plain water is less drying than using soap.
• Going braless for a part of every day will allow the nipples to benefit from the air and light friction of the outer clothing.
• When purchasing nursing bras, be sure to make sure you can open it with one hand.
• It's a good idea to vary breastfeeding positions to put pressure on different parts of the nipples.
• In the early days, it is best to offer both breasts to the baby at each feeding in order to stimulate milk production and keep the breasts from becoming overfull.
• Wash your hands before nursing, especially in the hospital.
• Six to eight wet cloth diapers a day (5-6 disposable) means the baby is getting plenty of milk.
  
• For the first six weeks or so, a breastfed baby will usually have 2-5 bowel movements a day.
• When using the cradle hold, baby's head should be in the crook of your arm with your hand holding his/her buttocks or thigh. Baby's body should be turned on his/her side, with his/her whole body facing you, and your nipple directly in front of his/her mouth so that s/he doesn't have to turn his/her head to reach it. Your other hand should support the breast with your thumb on top, behind the outer edge of the areola and your index and second fingers below the breast, behind the outer edge of the areola. Tickle your baby's lower lip gently with your nipple so that s/he opens his/her mouth very wide. Center the nipple quickly in the portion of his mouth above his tongue and pull baby in very close. His mouth should be positioned as far back on the areola as possible before he beings to suck. Check to make sure the baby has not pulled in its lower lip along with the nipple. Also check to make sure the baby is taking a large portion of the areola under the nipple.
• When removing him/her from the breast, always break the suction first.
• Be sure that your baby is opening his/her mouth very wide.
• Dealing with sore breasts: apply heat, get plenty of rest, and frequently nurse.
• Make sure your nursing bra doesn't put unnecessary pressure on your breasts.
• In the first three to four months, the average weight gain should be about 1-2 pounds per month.

Next Steps:

• Attend a La Leche League meeting to start building a support network.
• Start reading breastfeeding message boards to read about common issues and solutions.
• Develop a system to help me remember which breast I last fed on.
• Figure out what I'm going to do with the baby when I'm in the shower.
• Plan healthy snacks to eat while I'm breastfeeding.
• Get drain plugs for our bathtub and our kitchen sink.

As a side note, I added this information to my ongoing list of "infant care" notes here, if you're interested...

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Birthday Bunting

Hooray! I'm having so much fun making things that are likely to be in our family for a long, long time. Once I finished the holiday decorations, I decided to move onto the Happy Birthday bunting for our little boy due in February.

I followed the same pattern and process I used to make the "Cherish" bunting. It was even simpler the second time. Having a cutting mat and a rotary cutter really makes the process quicker.

I regret that I went with a polka dot pattern for the letters, since it's kind of overwhelming and difficult to read. A solid pattern would have looked better (Matt jokes--in a loving way--that it looks like a colorblind test). I might make new letters and iron them on to the back or I might just settle for less than ideal and start another project instead.

Let me go back to my List O' Handmade Goodness to see what I need to work on next:

1. Pillows for the sleeper sofa in the baby's room
2. A quilt for the baby
   
3. A diaper bag (that's really just a bag with lots of compartments)
4. An ottoman cushion for the baby's room
5. Tags to label the baby's book baskets (fiction, non-fiction, and books from the public library)
6. A stuffed animal for the baby's bookshelf
7. Little bean bags
   
8. Felt balls
9. Pillows in cool shapes to decorate the baby's bed
10. A knitted hat (with bloodhound ears)
    

I think I need to start on the ottoman cushion, since it's going to take center stage in the room. Whatever fabric I pick for it is likely to set the tone for other fabrics (no pressure or anything). I wish I were a better home decorator!

At first I thought I was going to make a poof like the one featured here, but now I'm wondering if I should make two squares to stack on each other like the one featured in this post (it's next to the description of the Echino booth).

Have you seen any other good ottoman patterns floating around out there? Please share!

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Halloweeeeeeeeeeeen!

I hope your Halloween was fun and festive! I was pretty happy with the way my crystal ball reader costume turned out. I will say that Coconut handled his first Halloween very well. He was an excellent crystal ball. I would ask people if they wanted me to read my crystal ball, rub my belly, and then pull out a fortune and hand it to them. (As a side note, I downloaded, printed, and cut the fortunes from this fortune cookie site.)

Matt had fun carving a pumpkin with our dremel. Hoss was happy that we didn't attempt to dress him up...

In terms of ideas for next year, I was inspired by a cute flamingo costume, a "Devil is in the details" costume, a french woman, and a family of garden gnomes.

By the way, if you have pumpkin seeds that you still need to cook up, I recommend this recipe:

Ingredients:
1 medium pumpkin (5 to 7 pound size), reserve seeds
5 tablespoons sugar
1/4 teaspoon coarse salt
1/4 teaspoon ground cumin
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
1 pinch cayenne pepper, or to taste
1 1/2 tablespoon peanut oil

Directions:

Heat oven to 250F.

Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Cut pumpkin open from the bottom, removing seeds with a long-handled spoon. Separate flesh from seeds and discard. Spread seeds on parchment in an even layer. Bake until dry, stirring occasionally, about 1 hour. Let cool.

In a medium bowl combine 3 tablespoons sugar, salt, cumin, cinnamon, ginger, and cayenne. Heat peanut oil in a large nonstick skillet over high heat. Add pumpkin seeds and 2 tablespoons sugar. Cook until sugar melts and the pumpkin seeds begin to caramelize, about 45 to 60 seconds.

Transfer to bowl with spices and stir well to coat. Let cool. These may be stored in an airtight container for up to 1 week.

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Meal Planning Made Easy

My current meal-planning system is pretty inefficient. I have a binder of recipes that I flip through to select our four meals for the week. Then I make our grocery list. If I find a recipe off the internet that I really like, I print it and add it to our binder.

I love that we have a centralized place to store our tried-and-true recipes, but it's a bit inefficient to write and rewrite all the ingredients every week for the grocery list. It would be more efficient to have a computerized system that would automatically import the ingredients I needed for whatever recipes I selected for the week.

The trouble is, the only website I can find that seems to do what I want it to do is Plan to Eat, which charges $40 a year. As Matt and I gear up to drop down to one income for three months, I can't bring myself to enroll in something that requires a yearly fee of $40. We already have yearly expenditures related to our flickr pro account, our various websites, and our yearly charity donations. Now is not a good time to add yet another line item in our budget.

Does anyone know of good free resources for personal meal planning? I found a few interesting sites, but they come with pre-created calendars. I want to collect and store my own recipes and then plan my meals from there. If I can't find anything, I might end up creating my own bootleg version in google docs, which will have none of the bells and whistles of the pay versions.

I'm hoping you have some recommendations!

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November: Reflection & Rejuvenation

From the Nikki McClure Calendar

The months are flying by! But it's good. I'm simultaneously excited that we're getting closer and closer to the birth (we're due in mid-February) and I'm satisfied that I'm dutifully preparing for it. I think I can attribute my joyful attitude to the fact that I'm consciously making space in my life for pregnancy. I work ten hours a day on school stuff, but then I come home and take an hour-long nap and then take Hoss on an hour-long walk. Matt and I cook together about four times a week and enjoy meals out approximately three times a week. Then I usually have a good hour and a half to relax before bed (and I religiously get 7-8 hours of sleep).

Ironically, it takes a ton of work to prioritize resting, exercising, and preparing healthy foods, but I feel like it's making all the difference in my pregnancy. I'm continuing to take my other commitments seriously and meet all of my obligations, but I'm also honoring the work that my body is doing and giving my mind and heart the space they need to do their important work. These foundational years in our child's life are so important. I want to tend to them with the steadfastness and dedication they deserve.

I hope to continue along the same path once the baby arrives and I'm on maternity leave. I'm trying to set up tons of support systems to ease the transition. I'm also making plans to clear my obligations and responsibilities, so that I can prioritize our changing life and its new demands.

In terms of my to-do list for this month, I've been falling a little behind. I'm okay with it because I've also been working ahead on tasks that are coming up in later months. I think it will balance out in the end. Specifically, here's what I've accomplished this month off my list:

• Learn about infancy
• Complete holiday decorations
• Travel to Dallas to make a presentation about Montessori
• Travel to the Austin area to watch Matt run a marathon
• Hire a doula
• Keep adding to baby registry
• Execute the second Purposeful Conception Course
  
• Buy a new desk (we just moved the desk/end table out of our bedroom and into the baby's room)
• Work on the baby's room
• Make birthday banner
• Travel to Austin to support Matt in a race
  
• Relax and rest

Here are my intentions for the month of November:

• Organize the bedroom
• Organize the kitchen
  
• Pull together Matt's birthday present
• Invite a friend over for a dinner party
• Attend a La Leche meeting
• Spend Thanksgiving vacation engaged in a two-person writing retreat (with my best friend)
  
• Help Matt plan his birthday party
• Spruce up our front porch
• Buy holiday presents
• Organize the living room
• Keep working on baby's room
• Learn about infancy
• Relax and rest

Some things to keep in mind for December:

• Create our birth binder
• Advertise for the last Purposeful Conception course before the baby arrives

I just spent a few minutes transferring things from this list to my calendar. If I don't transfer it, I'm like to "set it and forget it." I'll only have two weekends at home next month, so I'm likely to be a bit busy!

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Nursery Artwork

Charley Harper: An Illustrated Life

For a while, I was trying to look for an art print to serve as the inspiration for our entire nursery. I wanted the print to set the colors for our decor palette and set the direction for many of our other design decisions.

I did a lot of wading through Etsy in pursuit of the perfect print, but I lost patience pretty quickly. I kept coming back to the artwork inside the cover of our ABC book, illustrated by Charley Harper. I searched for the print on his website but couldn't find it. Finally, I found a book of all his prints on Amazon. Fortunately, someone had created a video review of themselves flipping through the entire book. It looks like there's a lot of great stuff in there that we can cut out and frame, including the original print I wanted.

I found lots of great art created specifically for kids in mind on Etsy, but I ended up not wanting to create a room with a narrow age range. I think I'm going to let the crafts that I make for the room dictate its design. This means the fabrics will have to be chosen very strategically...

I love the way this mom designed her own fabrics. I will not be doing that, but I will be making an ottoman very similar to hers, and our room will have an element of gray (via the slip cover that's on the sleeper sofa). I'll be adding color through the quilt that will go over the couch, the rug, the ottoman, pillows on the couch, and handmade stuffed animals. I think we might also copy her idea of turning an IKEA bookshelf on its side to use as a kid-sized shelf.

I also love this artist's work. If we have space leftover on our walls, I might have to add one of her pieces to Coconut's collection...

Image courtesy of sugarloop

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