I confess....

...I just love Dar!

And I love her suggestion to try growing your own food, but start with one thing that's hard to kill and go from there. I confess, if it weren't for Bix, we wouldn't have home grown food all summer long. I must have the blackest of black thumbs. I'm a good weeder though...I'll just stick with that!

living with Ed...I mean Bix.

Did you ever watch Living With Ed on Planet Green? That show cracks me up...kind of. The premise (in case you haven't seen it) is that eco-man Ed is full of ideas on how to implement green living into his life while his wife tries to run a normal-ish house. He would be happy as a clam installing a 50-gallon fluorescent chartreuse rain barrel at the entrance to their house, while she would rather find something that complements the decor.

I feel like i'm living with Ed sometimes.

Bix just installed a water saving something or other on our upstairs toilet. I had no problems with our toilet before, but he felt we could be saving more water. I'm all for saving resources, so...our toilet now saves water. Did I mention I had no problems with our toilet before?? Now, when I need to flush the toilet, I have to stand by the toilet, holding down the handle for a few minutes while it gathers the momentum to actually flush. If you take your hand off of the handle (because who has time to stand by the toilet waiting for it to flush?!) it stops the flushing process and you have to start all over again.

Oh, Bix, what have you done to me?!

the bounty of fall...in my kitchen

So back in the day, before our little man arrived, we were members of a local CSA. For those of you who don't know, a CSA (community supported agriculture) is a farm that members buy into and in exchange receive an allotment of (usually) organic and local produce. We enjoyed our membership, but we wanted more of a variety of the vegetables we really liked. For me, that meant tomatoes, corn, peppers, onions and sqush. For Bix it was kale, spinach and lettuce. So we decided for the next year we would support local produce stands. We found two great stands nearby and rarely had to buy produce at the store throughout the summer. Now that fall is here, I have been buying butternut squash like nobody's business! It is definitely a favorite in our house.

For the little man, we roast the squash with nutmeg until tender. Then we either puree with water until smooth or cube it and mix with tiny whole wheat pasta stars and organic tomato sauce.

For Bix and I, I like to add a bit of a kick to the squash. I roast it with nutmeg for about 35 minutes. I then add diced jalapenos and roast for another 10 minutes. I love pureed squash, so I put it in the blender with a little bit of water until it's creamy. Last night I made a vegetarian lasagna with thinly sliced carrots layered between spinach sauteed with garlic and onions, organic tomato sauce, mozzarella cheese and, of course, my butternut squash and jalapenos. Yum.

I have another squash sitting on the counter for dinner this weekend....any other good squash recipes out there?

I should have written this 8 months ago.

My confession today isn't as much a confession as it is something I've been putting off doing for 8 months now.

Our little man is 8 months old as of this week...wow! He had his first almost crawl last night! Anyway, when I was pregnant almost this exact time last year, we found out that he had a 2 vessel umbilical cord. I had never heard of this, and we soon came to find out that it happens in about 2% of pregnancies. Bix and I soon began to drive ourselves crazy reading information online about 2 vessel cords. From personal blogs to medical websites....he had to ban me from researching it because I couldn't stop thinking and worrying about it. We went through extensive ultrasounds, and although we decided against any genetic testing, we were told that there was a strong likelihood that our little man would have Down Syndrome. As you can imagine, the worry we had as first time parents was beyond belief. We knew we would have incredible love for our baby, no matter what, but the fear of the unknown was what we thought about on a daily basis. We spent the next few months preparing a nursery, taking natural childbirth classes and trying to stay off of medical websites!

Just months after that first appointment with the midwife, our healthy little man was born (via emergency c-section, but that's another story!) Weighing in at 6lbs, 12 oz, we thought we were in the clear as far as his health was concerned. When we left the hospital, his weight was below 6lbs, but we were told it was normal for a baby to lose weight shortly after being born. When the nurse came to our house a few days later, he had lost more weight. We didn't see it then, but looking back at pictures, he was just skinny arms, legs and ribs. After another 2 months of struggling to keep weight on him, I learned that he didn't have the breastfeeding skills that I had so hoped he would have. His cries were cries for food and it broke my heart that I couldn't give that to him. Again, reading blogs and message boards helped at times and other times it was just too discouraging.

I sit here now, watching my little man shovel in whole grain toast, avocados and bananas for breakfast and the first few months seem like forever ago. Around 4 months old, he got breastfeeding. It was like a switch turned on one day and he discovered he could get food from me! Nothing can stop him now...he will eat anything that I send his way. He's still a skinny little guy, but the day we noticed he had a tiny little belly, was one of the greatest days!

So back to my confession....when this was going on, there were a number of blogs that chronicled the story of people who had been in the same boat that we were. We were able to extract glimmers of hope that all would turn out alright. When our little man was born, we wanted to add our story to those that had comfort for us. So here it is. Yes, it was a struggle in the beginning, to keep a positive attitude both when we were first given this medical news and when we were struggling to feed our little guy, but things turned out okay. More than okay, actually. Take from this story Hope. If you are going through the same thing, I learned firsthand that doctors can be wrong...ultrasounds can be misleading...and things can turn out good in the end.

There...it feels good to have that off of my chest and out there where it will hopefully help someone else.

Bob's Red Mill

Before I get to my favorite food themed post this week, i'm going to show off my organized (and moth/worm free!) pantry. It's just so neat and tidy that I couldn't help but take a picture of it...quick, before Bix comes looking for a snack!

So on the second from the bottom shelf, you'll notice (in air tight containers) my favorite brand of grains, Bob's Red Mill. Bob's Red Mill makes "whole grain foods for every meal of the day." Don't you just love the idea of eating whole foods for every meal? I really try to do this and this company makes just what I need to incorporate whole foods into our diet. I am a huge fan of steel cut oats (yes, Nicci, it's on my list of top cereals!) and now little Leo is becoming a fan of them too. Guess what...Bob's Red Mill makes them! Oh, by the way, i'm not getting paid for product promotion....hmm,, I wish I were though....Anyway, what I really love are the selection of gluten-free flours, mixes, etc that are now available. Back in the day, when I was a young-in', I led an allergic life. My nutritionist had me on a restricted diet of soy, meat and veggies. I drank soy milk before it was the cool thing to put in a latte. My soy milk was downed in the school office, during recess, with a handful of vitamins...but that's another story for another time...(you sure are curious though, aren't you?) About a year and a half ago, I was gluten free for a few months, and Bob's Red Mill got me through that with things like Garbanzo Bean Flour, Quinoa Flour and Sorghum Flour. I'm not gluten free now and so I can make use of a fascinating array of other flours. I am fortunate to have a Wegmans nearby...if you are not on the East Coast and have never been to a Wegmans, I truly feel for you...Wegman's stocks almost the entire line of Bob's Red Mill....no online ordering for this foodie! Speaking of Wegmans...did you ever notice the Wegmans brand groceries on top of the refrigerator in the breakroom on The Office? Now there's a bit of trivia for you! So there you have it, my fabulous food find for the week. Enjoy!

I am a killer. And a food waster.

Whew, it feels good to have that off my chest. Now for the sordid details...

Yesterday morning, bright and early, I am standing in my kitchen drinking my coffee before the little one wakes up. Bix (the hubs) was packing his lunch and getting ready to head out the door for school. I notice coffee drips on the counter and so I wipe them up and decide to give the coffeemaker a quick wipe down....for an appliance that gets used so heavily, I have no idea how it gets dusty so quickly. I move the coffeemaker and grab the rag to wipe the counter and it is then that I notice little white worms on the counter. Now, I need to say at this point, before you think I am a disgusto who doesn't clean my kitchen and just lets bugs gather to feed off of the crumbs that I let sit around, I am a clean freak. I seriously am. I am always disinfecting, dusting, vacuuming, picking up, etc., so to find a pile of squirmy worms on my kitchen counter behind my coffeemaker was almost more than I could handle that early in the morning. Actually, I probably wouldn't have handled it well later in the day either....

"Bix, handle the worms," I say handing him the rag, backing up in disgust. Dear hubs that he is, didn't complain, but got right to it. It is then that I notice, there are not just worms on the counter, but they are on the pantry doors and, oh my stinkin' nerves, are even in my pantry!

This might explain the moth problem we had a few months ago. I think I narrowed it down to contaminated red pepper flakes. I was so freaked out then, that I bought plastic, air tight containers that could house all of my flours, rices and grains. The dual benefit of these containers (besides keeping out bugs) was they made my pantry look super organzied. There is nothing better than a super organized pantry. (Did I mention i'm an organization freak too?!)

So, back to yesterday morning, Bix saw I was coming close to a meltdown and decided it might be smart to leave for work and let me handle the worms. And handle them I did. I first cloroxed (yes, bleached) my counter to get rid of any moth/worm eggies. Then I proceeded to empty out my entire pantry onto the counter. This actually took me the better part of the day, because the little man wanted me to hold him and not clean the pantry out. When I reasoned with him and explained that I didn't want to eat worms for dinner, he let me get down to cloroxing (yes, bleaching) the pantry, removing the shelves and examining every nook and cranny for worms/moths. And oh did I find worms. Just when I thought I had gotten rid (read, killed) every last worm, another one would appear. And the cherry on top of this little tirade? Opening a can of salt and vinegar almonds and having a moth fly into my face. Salt and vinegar almonds...are you kidding me? What would a moth even want with salt and vinegar almonds? That made me mad. So mad that I started tossing food. Out went the almonds...and the honey/flax cluster cereal...and pretty much anything that was opened and not in an air tight container. Did you know moths liked spices? Neither did I...that is, until I opened a container of chile powder and found webs.

So there you have it....I am a bug killer and a food waster.

Although, can you blame me?

my semi crunchy life...by Nichole

the good me...

• uses cloth napkins & paper towels
• uses cloth diapers & wipes
• has been a vegetarian for 13 years
• has two rescue pups
• regularly recycles (even though there is no curbside pickup)
• buys organic (most of the time) & tries to shop local
• loves to cook for my hubby and son

the bad me...

• is a sucker for a cute baby toy....aargh, plastic!
• sometimes throws away a plastic bag (w/o reusing it!)
• uses Clorox Clean-up instead of homemade vinegar cleaner
• sometimes cracks open a jar of (non=homemade) baby food
• likes Taco Bell...aargh, fast food!
• is obsessed with OPI nailpolish...aargh, toxins!