I knew you were trouble when you walked in

The Two Best Dogs Ever, Spike and Peanut, have had birthdays recently, and are 13 and 11, respectively. Not puppies any more, they spend most of their days napping.  Spike's kidneys aren't doing so well (typical for an old dog), so the vet put him on the Hill's k/d special food which is much lower in protein.

This food is expensive, but that's fine. We're in "do whatever it takes" mode with these guys, since they're both fairly healthy and don't seem to be in pain. The problem, though, is that Spike HATES this food. To the point where he will leave it in the bowl and just not eat. 

This is a BEAGLE, y'all. You know, canine garbage disposal? Crumb vacuum? This is the dog that spent 15 minutes trying to get at a chickpea that rolled under the stove.  For him to refuse food is baffling. And sad. He actually got skinny, down to 21 measly pounds from his fighting weight of 25. 

So we caved and started giving him Peanut's food, which is a high quality dry Old Dog food.  Or maybe it was Fat Dog food.  It was the lowest protein content we could find, around 18%, but not as low as the vet-suggested food.

But Spike's latest bloodwork showed that his kidneys were still not working well, and we needed to reduce his protein intake to help. The vet asked me if I would consider home cooking for him. I looked at him like he was crazy. Then I said yes.

I still can't believe it. But Spike is my second baby. Despite all his annoying barking, refusal to do anything that HE doesn't want to do, and the tiny black and white hairs ALL OVER EVERYTHING, including BabyM, he's part of our family. And I'm willing to do what it takes to keep him healthy.

So here I am, cooking for the DOG every 3-4 days. Fortunately it's pretty easy.  I mix equal ratios by weight of meat, vegetables, and grains after cooking, and the doctor gave me a list of each to choose from.

Meat: beef, chicken, tofu, beans, turkey, cottage cheese

Vegetables: Pumpkin, squash, green beans, carrots  (no leafy greens or onions)

Grains: Brown rice (best), quinoa, amaranth, white rice (no wheat or corn)

Doesn't actually look too bad, right?

So far I've used ground beef because it's inexpensive and easy to cook, canned pumpkin because it's easy to open a pre-weighed can, and whatever grains are languishing in our pantry now that I haven't been cooking them (all of which I can just throw in the rice cooker).  So far he's had quinoa and wild rice and likes them both.

The size of my pans and bowls limits me to cooking about 6 lbs of food at a time, which is about 4 days' worth.  I've been trolling the "manager's special" meat section at the grocery store, because they mark down the meat with sell-by dates coming soon.  I cook the meat the day I buy it, so that works well.

Spike is also taking a bunch of supplements to help his kidneys, and fortunately we can just add the pills to his food, and he doesn't even notice.

Because Peanut is over 100lb, I decided not to cook for him. He'd require 4 cups of food a day which means I'd need to cook daily to make enough for both of them.  So he gets whatever is left over after portioning out Spike's food, and is happy about that, but seems a little sad the rest of the week when he's eating his regular food. I'm not THAT crazy yet.

In 6-8 weeks, we'll go back to the vet and see how Spike's kidneys are doing. I'll be disappointed if all this effort isn't helping.  Then again, I haven't seen him this excited about his food in a long time, so that's something.

If you need an ego boost, I recommend cooking for a dog. Never has anyone been so excited about my cooking skills!

So, would you cook for your pets?

Tuesday Lovin': Three of My Favorite Blog Posts EVER

Gratuitous BabyM photo,
 by Kristi Lloyd  Photography

In 8 years of blogging and Internet-time-wasting, I've read a lot of blog posts. Inspirational ones, funny ones, useful ones, not-so-useful ones. In the weird way that ideas converge, I was thinking about doing a post on my favorites, and a Facebook friend randomly mentioned one of them today, in a completely unrelated discussion. So I had to write this post - it was destiny, right?

I can't pinpoint exactly *why* these posts stuck with me over all these years. Two of these bloggers have consistently excellent posts, and the third is someone I don't read regularly, but his (?) post is just so ridiculously awesome that I have it bookmarked for when I want to laugh.

Tea & Cookies Kitchen Gift Guide

My friend S posted this link on Facebook a couple of years ago. I was home on maternity leave with BabyT so I had a lot of time to click links and read them. I now own and USE nearly every single item on her list - they are *that* useful. She hooked me with her lovely writing and all the stories that went with the gadgets. 

I think of it every time I use my fabulous green plastic spoon (and I'm thinking of buying another!).  I panicked in early 2010 when I was looking for the post, because I couldn't remember where I had seen it, and my fabulous friend S found it for me again. :)

AskMoxie: What Would Have Kept You in Your Job?

I knew once T was born that I would be happy to become a stay-at-home mama. Right as I was returning to work from maternity leave, I read this post (wistfully).  This post encapsulates the brilliance of Moxie's blog -  the comments are a goldmine of information from parents all over the world.  I read her regularly, but this particular post stuck with me, for its anecdata of what everyone would need to make their jobs more compatible with family life. A few commenters discussed why they still worked.  

A close second was the one describing the Newborn Witching Hour. I bookmarked it to try solutions for both of my babies. It didn't fix the problem, but made me feel a lot better about The Crazy that descended on our house for those few weeks each time. 

littera_abactor: I Has a Sweet Potato

This is the post that came up in discussion on Facebook today. I cannot articulate how much I love this. Anyone who has an always-hungry dog will understand. It makes me laugh out loud every single time I read it, so I keep it bookmarked. If you're not a dog person, you won't get it. Here are some cute baby photos instead.

Enjoy, and drop me links if you have a super favorite somewhere in Internet land.

We live our lives on a feeling

PaleoBaby

I think I've written this same post 5 or 6 times over the past 8 years I've been blogging.  (8 years!).  I read a post by Cathy Zielske that's been rolling around in my head.  She's struggled with the hard work of losing weight and getting healthier, and her therapist-type person told her that she:

simply keep(s) this a problem in my life because it allows me to act like a child and indulge every whim rather than do what is needed, which is to feed my body healthy, nutrient dense food in appropriate amounts and to exercise.

My first thought was "damn, she's paying someone to say mean things to her?!".  And then my second thought was "Huh, I think that applies to me too."

I'm smart.  I know what I need to do to lose weight (a staggering amount, after this second pregnancy).  I am lucky enough to even know *exactly* how I need to eat, and that I will feel *incredible* when I eat the right things and get just a little bit of exercise.  

For me and my PCOS, diabetes-family-history self, the Paleo diet works best.  Doing the Whole30 back in Oct 2011 was really transformative for me - I had a TON of energy, needed only 7-8 hours of sleep, and felt mentally clear and just *ready* for whatever life was going to bring.

So who wouldn't keep doing it, with those fabulous results? It would be stupid to stop, right?  But I did. It was a gradual process, and I've still kept some good habits, so it's not a total loss.  But it started with just one plate of French toast, and continued down the slippery slope of "I've got 2 little kids now and I'm starving and the Taco Time drive-through is easy."  

I was angry about having a restricted diet and felt that with all the transitions in my life lately, I "deserve" to eat what I want.  But I'm a grownup.  I'm in charge, and making the choices.  I shouldn't feel like "someone" is forcing me to eat healthy against my will.

I'm not a person for whom "everything in moderation" works.  I need ironclad rules.  I also HATE food journaling with a passion.  Whole30 and on a larger scale, Paleo, meets all these needs. No counting, no hunger, and all the (sustainably, humanely sourced) bacon a girl can eat.

I am starting fresh today with my second Whole30.  So if you see me in person, help a girl out.  Don't bring me cake or ask if I want to see the dessert menu.  And most definitely do not order me a diet Coke if we're meeting for lunch.  

I feel good about this.  I'm mentally ready to do what's right for me.  I know it's going to be hard, especially at weekend breakfasts out.  But I do not want to arrive at my 40th birthday (looming!) still fighting with myself about weight and wishing things were different.  So here's to DOING.

Some nights I call it a draw

One of my challenges for nearly my entire adult life has been cooking and eating at home.  I love eating out, but more than that, it's *easy* to eat out and fairly cheap.  Not as cheap as cooking at home, but when you come home to a fridge with soy milk, ketchup, and one shriveled up apple, cooking at home isn't going to happen without a giant grocery run and by then I'm so hungry I'm going to eat the next person who looks at me sideways.

So the real problem for me has been planning. Not coincidentally, this is where I go off the rails with any healthy eating plan, too. The first week after a grocery run is great.  Then I run out of stuff and start eating dry cereal out of the box and the leftover chocolate chips, because all the healthy snacks are gone. You feelin' me?

Now that we've essentially cut our income in half, it's not prudent to just grab takeout, or hit up the Claim Jumper when the fridge is empty.  Also, we have a 6 month old, who has not yet mastered the concept of "restaurant behavior" since she's JUSTABABY.  So eating out is often a *stressful* exercise, and one parent usually ends up eating their meal quickly with one hand while holding a fussy baby.  NOFUN.

So, meal planning.  It's been one of my goals this year to master this skill that eludes me. Luckily I know my way around the kitchen. I love to cook.  But for me, cooking is a multi-hour, multi-course *project*, something I did for fun once a month or so on a weekend day with no other obligations.  Not the daily grind of getting a meal on the table.

I found SimpleMom's brilliant meal planning technique using Google Calendar.  She advocates planning 2 weeks of dinners at a time, then repeating them, so you have a month done at once.

I made this even easier by picking a "theme" for each day of the week, and made the "theme" an All-Day appointment, recurring, on the Google Calendar.  I'll change it up when we get tired of this rotation, but it's general enough that it'll be a while before that happens.

Monday = Breakfast for Dinner

Tuesday = Dinner Out (since T has dance class in the late afternoon)

Wednesday = Dinner in Asia

Thursday = Beef. It's What's for Dinner

Friday = Chicken.Chicken.Chicken (based on this brilliant paper)

Saturday = Dinner in MexicItaly

Sunday = Dinner with Friends 

Here's the process I use.  Maybe it'll help someone out in Internet-land who finds meal-planning incredibly annoying/hard/exhausting.  (Click for a larger view of the calendar.)

1. I do a quick check of the fridge, freezer and pantry to see if there's anything I'd like to use up - meat, veggies, etc.

2. I grab 2 cookbooks and find main dish recipes that use those items, matching them to one of the themes above.

3.  For 2 weeks, I fill in the main dishes and sides on the Google Calendar in an appointment at 5pm (which is when I have to start cooking).  Sides are *extremely* simple, like steamed veggies, cut fruit, a baked potato, etc. unless the main dish is heat-and-serve.  I also put down the cookbook and page number so I can find the recipes easily when I'm ready to cook.  Each "appointment" is repeated in 2 weeks on the same day.  At least once a week we eat something very easy to "cook", like a frozen or pre-made item from Trader Joe's.

4. On Saturdays, I look at the coming week and write up a grocery list for these meals (plus anything else we need for breakfast and lunch).  If this is a "repeat" week, I remove anything we didn't like the first time and replace it with something else (and repeat it in 2 weeks to make planning easier).  I also check for other evening commitments in case things need to be moved.  For example, when I have a dinner with friends, I feed T something simple before I go, and TJ can fend for himself.

5. I'm keeping a running list of the things that were easy to make and well-liked so I can build up our own list of what we like to eat regularly instead of always picking out new things. 

I started this a month ago with skepticism. I've gone down this OMGBRILLIANT path before and fizzled out. But seriously, this just worked.  We've followed the plan most days of the month, and have reduced the random items languishing in our freezer.  Most nights we are all eating the same thing (except for BabyM, of course), which is brilliant.  No more kid meal + adult-fend-for-yourself.  We're definitely spending less money eating out, and are more organized about our grocery shopping since I have an actual list.

We're luckily not in a position where I have to clip coupons or figure out what meat is on sale before I buy it, so I don't stress too much about what to choose.  I do try to avoid the $18/lb filet mignon at Whole Foods unless it's a special occasion. Since we don't buy a ton of processed foods and snacky items, spending a little more on meat doesn't affect the grocery bill much. 

The nice thing about this plan is that I can tackle health at the same time.  I've mostly eliminated simple starches from our dinners, though we do love our potatoes. (TJ and T are definitely not into sweet potatoes as a substitute, yet.)  We were already dairy-free, and now I can make sure we're getting enough vegetables in too.  

Another awesome result of this is reducing my mental load.  I don't have to make decisions each night about what to do for dinner, then throw up my hands and decide we should just go to Five Guys and get burgers.  Now I just look at the calendar, make sure we have everything we need, and get to work at 5pm, usually with my 3yo helper.  My routine-oriented self LOVES this part.

So now maybe I can earn one of my SAHM merit badges. :)  My next goal is to tackle lunch, as we don't have as many leftovers as I thought, and then I skip lunch and then THECRANKY.

What about you?  Do you plan meals ahead?

Tuesday Lovin': Starbucks

by michelle | une-deux senses, on Flickr

I'm not a coffee drinker but I sure am buyin' what Starbucks is selling. The "experience", "treating myself", "affordable luxury", all of that is mine for a $4 cup of "chai".

And I use the word chai very, very loosely when it comes to Starbucks. Real chai in India is spicy, unexpectedly black pepper and cardamom spicy.

Starbucks chai, while delicious, is like drinking a gingerbread cookie. It's ridiculously sweet. And don't get me started about them calling it "chai tea latte":

1. "Chai" means tea. So no need to add 'tea' in there.

2. What on earth does this have to do with a latte? I guess because there's milk in it? This has confused a few new Starbucks employees, and I've gotten my share of chai with coffee mixed in. Yuck.

But when it's made correctly, ahhh. It's heavenly. My current (high-maintenance) order is a grande soy chai, with one pump of chai, at 130 degrees. Seriously. I'm *that* person, who tells them how hot to make my drink. So ridiculous, I know. But otherwise it's burning hot and I have to wait 10 or 15 minutes before I can drink my deliciousness. And in the land of Tiny Babies, a 10 or 15 minute delay means I'll probably forget about it, find it 2 days later, and just have to throw it out.

Many people lament the big business corporate-ness of Starbucks, but as a Seattleite, I'm "buying local" when I go there. They give their hourly employees health insurance. Everytime I've been to a Starbucks, every last employee has been unfailingly cheerful and friendly. Not to mention my customer service experience has been AMAZING.

My two favorite stories:

1. When I was enormously pregnant (8 months+) with T, I got a chai at my local Starbucks after waiting in line for a long time. As luck (and my clumsiness) would have it, I got out the door and immediately dropped it all over myself and the sidewalk. I went back in to figure out how to clean it up, and they remade my drink for FREE. *swoon*

2.  At one location, they tell me when I order my drink that I should order it as steamed milk with flavoring, so it's cheaper. They've "fixed" my order for me every time I go there.  Too bad it's not my regular shop!  Shout out to the Redmond Ridge QFC Starbucks.

Howard Schultz's books have been on my reading list for ages. Maybe it's time for me to download one now!

Dairy-free Ginger Snaps - Virtual Cookie Exchange

My friend Di hosts an annual "virtual cookie exchange" with a bunch of bloggers. She was awesome enough to include me even though I'm not a food blogger. I do enjoy baking occasionally as a project with T.

One of the things on our Holiday Fun List was to make and decorate Christmas cookies. Originally my plan was to make these awesome sugar cookies.  But when I woke up this morning I just wasn't feeling it - the whole "process" of making the dough, chilling it, rolling, cutting, making royal icing, and only THEN doing the fun decorating was more than we could do in a day.

So I turned to a recipe that has not failed me yet. I discovered it when looking for dairy-free cookies due to T's allergy. You'd never guess they don't have butter in them, and it's super easy to mix and make.  With minimal effort they look really nice, and we made them more festive by rolling them in colored natural sugar sprinkles.

As per the comments on the recipe online, we made a few changes so I've included the recipe below.

Mama's Ginger Snaps (adapted from Elaine at AllRecipes.com, makes about 3 dozen)

Ingredients

1c packed brown sugar

3/4c canola oil

1/4c blackstrap molasses

1 large organic egg

2c all purpose flour

2tsp baking soda

1/4 tsp salt

1 tsp ground cloves

2.5 tsp ground cinnamon

2.5 tsp ground ginger

various sugars (colored and white) for decoration

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

2. In stand mixer bowl, mix brown sugar, oil, molasses, and egg until the sugar is dissolved.

3. In separate large bowl, mix flour, baking soda, salt, cloves, ginger and cinnamon. Pour this into the molasses mixture.

4. Mix with the stand mixer until well-combined. The dough will look shiny and feel sticky.  

5. Cool mixer bowl with dough in fridge for about 30 minutes (or 15 minutes in the freezer) to make it easier to work with.

6. Using your fingers, make 1 inch balls and dip the tops into colored sugar.  Place them on an ungreased cookie sheet with 3-4 inches between each one (they spread out).

7.  Bake 11 minutes in preheated oven - they'll be a little soft when they come out.

8. Transfer to wire racks after a minute or two to cool further.

These are easy to make, but also easy to overcook. You may have to adjust based on your own oven, but it's better to undercook them as they'll get firmer when they cool. 

It's a great recipe to make with older toddlers - at age 3, T was able to dip the dough balls in the sugar and hand them to me to put on the cookie sheet without squishing them too much.  She also dumped all the ingredients into the bowls after I measured them out, and stirred the dry ingredients together.

if you look closely,
you'll see a dog nose next to the cookie.

They look very festive with the colored sugar. I wish we had done more with mixed colors - those look pretty cool, too. This recipe is definitely a keeper!

We may only have tonight

I wanted this weekend to be Big and Special, as it's T's last couple of days with us all to herself.  Instead it started out with the Great Oatmeal Standoff of 2012 which left more than one of us in tears and all of us a little out of sorts for a good portion of the day.

It was the same drama that plays itself out in every household at some point.  Parent serves a meal, kid refuses to eat it.  Kid makes a request (in this case, extra maple syrup), promising to eat it, then doesn't.  Power struggle ensues.  No one wants to "lose".

This hasn't happened before.  T is pretty easygoing about food - we give her a couple of choices and she picks one.  But today she pitched a fit, spit it out, and got everyone all riled up.  We found ourselves in a situation where we couldn't back down, or at least that's how it felt at the time.

After both of us took a long nap, I figured a way to disengage without giving in would be to present the oatmeal again at lunch, with something else to eat chosen by us.  (In our case, a hot dog.) No more choices would be offered today (we typically let her choose most things - what to wear, activities, etc.).  When she turned down our choices, we told her that if she ate the oatmeal like she promised in the morning, then she could make her own choices.  Apparently this wasn't worth it.  (I have to give her credit for her stubbornness, er commitment to her principles.) 

The oatmeal reappeared at dinner, along with shrimp, which she really likes.  She finally agreed to eat the oatmeal in order to get more shrimp so we alternated bites of oatmeal and shrimp.  She proceeded to eat the entire bowl of oatmeal without incident, much to my surprise.  She got her choices back - what to wear to bed, what to watch before bed, etc.  And even earned a star for her potty-training chart.  (She's 2 half-days away from getting a toy she's wanted for a couple of weeks.)

I don't feel very good about how this went down.  In general, it makes me very uneasy to "force" a particular food on someone.  I'm not willing to be a short order cook, for sure - we let her choose one of two or three options, typically, so that she'll eat something, but if she doesn't want it, she can choose to eat it or not eat it. There are no other options until the next meal or snacktime.  But I don't feel the need to "exert my authoritay" on her, certainly not on something this inconsequential.  But age 3 is a bit...difficult.

We got into the power struggle, and couldn't get out.  I was tired having barely slept last night (thank you heartburn and snoring).  She was tired from her messed up sleep schedule for 2 weeks, despite our best efforts to get her back on track.  TJ was annoyed about the spitting, my grouchiness, and the tantrum.  We found ourselves "stuck".

I'm still not sure what the right course of action would have been - maybe not even getting her to *try* the oatmeal would have preempted the spitting and tantrum.  Or perhaps this was an unavoidable train wreck given everyone's lack of sleep.

Sigh.  But like the old adage about never going to bed with unresolved issues in a relationship, I feel like we worked this out as best we could.  And tomorrow is another day.

Eating for Two Sucks Sometimes

One of the annoying things about pregnancy is the barrage of information about what I'm not supposed to be eating. I picked up a SELF magazine at the doctor's office yesterday and even they were telling me what I shouldn't eat. Then again, they're famous for telling everyone not to eat, period. I haven't read a women's magazine in ages, so it was pretty surprising how clear the messages are to young women that being skinny is the Most Important Thing Ever. Sigh.

Most of the pregnancy restrictions are no big deal - we're not big drinkers so I don't miss alcohol, though being at Canlis without a glass of wine just feels weird. I do admit a touch of envy yesterday when my fine colleagues were prepping a vodka-soaked watermelon for a late afternoon Happy Hour, but for the most part, I'm fine doing without.

Sushi is another story, though. We have a conveyor belt sushi place that we hit up weekly because it's perfect toddler food - fast, relatively clean, and a reliable way to get protein into BabyT. My choices are very limited now since I am begrudgingly staying away from the raw stuff. I miss salmon the most. Only 8 more weeks, though, and by the last few uncomfortable weeks, I'll probably get all crazy up in here and get a little sushi.

The other thing I realized I can't do any more is make my own mayonnaise. I use fresh eggs, but again, it's a risk/reward thing, and it's just not worth it to me that I *might* get sick. So we're back to storebought mayo for now. T is oddly fascinated by it, but won't try it even though it's non-dairy.

She was enraptured by the non-dairy whipped "cream" at breakfast today. Our waitress thought it was so sad that T couldn't get a whipped cream smiley face on her Mickey pancake so she took the initiative to check on it and then asked us if it was ok. How awesome is that?

This week I am dedicated to avoiding added sugar, in my attempt to S-L-O-W-L-Y get back to a Paleo diet. Giving up the wheat is going to be harder, so I started with something easier for me as I don't have much of a sweet tooth. I was sorely tempted by the cream puffs at the sushi place, but am proud to report I let them go by (many times!) without grabbing them.

But overall, I can't complain.  I passed the gestational diabetes test (by just a tiny bit), and Baby X' is growing well and bouncing around.  I can't believe she'll be here in less than 2 months (yikes!).

Know when to walk away, know when to run

I saw this amazing cake and was smitten.  Head over heels, completely in love.  I knew it would be the perfect thing to bake for T's upcoming birthday.  She had expressed the desire for a "real cake" instead of cupcakes after seeing her friend H's fabulous Cars-themed cake at a party a few weeks ago.



Purple Ombre Cake by raspberri cupcakes

I mean seriously, isn't it AMAZING? Rapturous? Beautiful? Dreamy? Perfect for a 3 year old's birthday party?

(Cue Richard Marx's crappy song from the 80s "Shoulda Known Better...")

I knew I'd need practice.  While I enjoy baking occasionally, I have never baked a layer cake and frosted it.  I figured I could practice a few times before September and figure out how to do this.  I'm a former chemist, and I'm good at following precise lab procedures, so this isn't much different, right?

The first indication of disaster up ahead was the fact that the only round cake pan I have is 10 inches, which is 2 inches bigger than the one the recipe recommends.  But since I was making fewer layers (only 3 instead of 5) I figured this might be ok.

But for each layer there wasn't enough batter to fill up the pan, so they ended up being lopsided flat pancakes once baked.  Sigh.  Also the second and third layers weren't different enough color-wise after baking (though the batters looked different going into the oven!).

I still figured I could practice on the layering and frosting parts so I kept going.  This took me all day.  And I chose the one day it hit 80 degrees.  Not very smart, huh? 

I bought a local brand of raspberry jam for spreading between the layers and that was pretty amazing - no big blobs of raspberries and easy to spread. 

The vegan chocolate "buttercream" frosting was off in texture, possibly because of the heat.  T is still allergic to dairy unless it's been baked, so frostings need to be made dairy-free for her.  I had great luck a few weeks ago with the plain vegan buttercream, but not so much with today's chocolate version which was sort of grainy and wouldn't get smooth or fluffy despite lots of mixing and playing around with the ingredients.

The end product looked, well, homemade.  Respectable for a first try, and the almost-ombre layers did look pretty cool when I cut into the cake.  But the cake was super-sweet and super-dense, probably due to the thin cake layers and all that jam and frosting.  (And I don't have much of a sweet tooth to start with.)

I think a birthday cake should look magical (like the original!).  I want my birthday girl's eyes to light up when she sees it, knowing that gorgeous cake was made just for her.  I get that when she's 30, she'll be grateful that her mama went to the trouble of making a homemade cake, but that's not how it works when you're 3.  You want the pretty one.

So without regrets, we'll go to Whole Foods and talk to them about cake options.  Sometimes it's better to leave important things to the professionals.

Hello, what?

As I was falling asleep last night, a thought popped into my head.  I'm really looking forward to nursing another baby.

What the heck??  When did that happen?  Before I got pregnant with T, I was thinking "you want me to do what?! And that's her only food source?  Who thought that was a good idea?"  I thought I'd have to sequester myself in a dark room somewhere and never leave the house. 

One of the first questions I asked our prospective pediatrician was her thoughts on breastfeeding because I wanted to gauge whether she was going to harangue me or guilt me if I wanted to quit.  (She did not, and she has been awesome in every way.  She said she asks new moms to try to give it a month, and that was a good answer in my book.)

It took us a long time to get the hang of it.  I didn't like it at first.   I set small goals for myself - make it through the first day, three days, a week.  Then 2 weeks, a month, and before I knew it, we got to that magical time when it was actually *easier* to nurse her than sort out a bottle.  And she got so efficient, we'd be done in less than 10 minutes and I lost my leisurely Facebook/NYT reading time.  Heh.  I was all set to quit at a year, but T got sick for the first time right around then, we had two trips planned, and we were still navigating her dairy allergy, so she nursed until just short of 14 months.  I never imagined making it for that long.  When we quit, we were both ready - not a single tear was shed and she never asked about it (ok, that made ME a little sad inside, I'll admit!).

I even got brave enough to nurse in public, sort of.  I could do it in the car, or at other gatherings with mamas and babies.  I never managed to get comfortable nursing in a random public place like a restaurant but I suspect Baby X' will be nursed wherever we happen to be, since we'll be out and about more.

So maybe I'm remembering those blissful, easy days of nursing in bed for 10 minutes and going about our business.  When it's 4 hours a day, it probably won't be so awesome.  But oddly, I'm still looking forward to it.

But there is nothing in this world that will make me look forward to pumping again.  Blech.

Cooking the Books: Mi Comida and Mexican Pasta Salad

My friend Di, who I met in college, is having a blog party where we post about a dish we cooked that was inspired by a book.  She gave us a heads up a few weeks ago and I racked my brain to think of something literary and cool.  I came up with ... nothing.

But T and I have been learning Spanish together and one of her first Spanish books was Mi Comida.  It's got a bunch of cute paper collages of food with the Spanish word for it.  Many of these words are ingredients in the Mexican Pasta Salad from the Moosewood Restaurant Low-Fat Favorites cookbook. Examples: los guisantes (peas) and los fideos (noodles).  Tenuous connection, I know :)

I've been trying to find something we can pack for T's lunch other than the sunflower seed butter on whole wheat sandwich we give her nearly every day and I thought this pasta salad might do the trick.  It's not "spicy" in the toddler sense, it has pasta and beans in it which she loves, and I figured I could sneak in a few veggies and some tofu as well. 

It also helped that I enlisted T in the cooking process, and she was a surprisingly good helper.  I had to stop her from eating the black beans and olives out of the bowl directly, but distracted her with a bunch of tofu cubes which she ate happily for the first time ever.

I modified the recipe to add peas, which I knew T would eat, and didn't add any tomatoes because I knew she wouldn't eat them.  I had to throw away the yellow bell pepper I planned to use because it was moldy (so sad!).  I added 4oz of extra firm high protein tofu cut into tiny cubes and a little extra olive oil because I'm not concerned about being low-fat.  I used the Barilla Plus higher protein pasta to sneak a little extra protein into all of us.

Best kitchen helper ever!

Mexican Pasta Salad
adapted from Moosewood Restaurant Low-Fat Favorites

7.5 oz Barilla Plus Farfalle pasta
1c frozen corn
1c frozen peas
2 green onions, minced
1 15-oz can black beans, rinsed and drained
1 4oz can sliced black olives, rinsed and drained
4-6 oz extra firm high protein tofu cut in tiny cubes
1/4c olive oil
juice of 1 small organic lime
juice of 1 organic lemon
3 tsp ground cumin
3 tbsp chopped fresh cilantro
1/8 tsp black pepper

1. Boil water in a large pot with some salt.  Cook the pasta for about 8 minutes, then add the frozen corn and peas, and cook for another minute or two after it comes back to a boil.
2. While the pasta is cooking, combine the green onions, black beans, tofu, olives, olive oil, lemon juice, lime juice, cumin, cilantro, and pepper in a bowl large enough to hold the finished salad. Mix well and let stand at room temperature so the flavors can mingle nicely.
3. Drain and rinse the pasta/veggies with cold water and let cool.
4. Add the pasta, corn and peas to the bowl with the beans and tofu and mix well.  Taste again and add more cilantro and cumin to taste.  If it seems too dry, add a bit more olive oil.
5. Chill in fridge and serve.  It tastes better after it has some time for the flavors to mix.

I bet this would also taste good with some fresh pico de gallo mixed in (either homemade or high quality store bought) but I can guarantee that my toddler won't eat it with tomatoes visible.

We eat this as a main course, but it would also work as a side dish for burgers or at a cookout.  It's great for packing in lunches because it tastes good at room temperature and doesn't require heating.

Thanks again to Di for hosting this blog event!

Eating like a grownup

TJ and I went to Canlis on Friday, and it was the perfect end to a rough week.  BabyT had been sick and both of us a little stir-crazy to be home.  I also got whatever ick she had, and I've gotten worse this weekend.  But I sure am glad we kept our dinner reservation.

We pretty much had an Early Bird Special reservation because that was all that was left for 2 weeks' notice.  A Canlis dinner is usually at least 3 hours for us, so it's not something we can attempt easily on a school night.  

Turns out the advantage of a before 6pm reservation is pretty great.  We got quite possibly the most awesome table in the entire place - right by the window, and we were facing each other, rather than sitting on the same side of the table which is typical for a lot of the 2 person tables.  It was a gorgeous clear day so we could look out over the city and also watch it get dark.   We weren't exhausted by the end of dinner (we've had a few 9pm reservations where we could barely stay awake by the end...).

I got the vegetarian tasting menu, which is always interesting.  This was a mango, avocado and cucumber salad.  With lime gel.  It reminded me of a Dr. Seuss drawing but it was YUMMY.

I'm much more willing to experiment with a veggie meal than a meat meal.  TJ got his usual favorites - the Canlis salad, and a couple more courses involving steak.  (What else?)

We didn't have to remind each other to use our "restaurant voice" or "sit facing forward please".  I didn't have to dig frantically for crayons to keep my dining partner amused until the food showed up.  It was blissful.  We decided we should do this more often. (We do every time, and then fail to keep the resolution of not eating crappy meals out at other places in order to keep Canlis money in the budget.)

And then we went back to our regularly scheduled normal life.

Something weird is going on with T's nap situation and if we weren't going on vacation to a completely different timezone in a week, I'd try to figure it out.  3 days this week (at home) she didn't nap at all.  But they say she does nap at preschool, though it's only about an hour or so.  It's probably related to being sick but I'm not sure.  On the nights she doesn't nap, we put her down for bed around 6 and she's out like a light until after 7 the next day, so clearly she still needs the sleep.  I guess the universe likes to keep us guessing.

I did get a giggle out of the fact that one non-napping day when I went in to get her after her not-so-Quiet-Time, she had taken off her socks and pants and was bouncing on the mattress.  Thankfully she did leave her diaper on. (Hooray for small blessings.)

Now I must leave you and get some sleep.  It's possible I'll fall asleep before BabyT, who is in her crib repeating the names of her preschool classmates.  I guess I should be glad she knows some of their names now, right?

Feeling a bit sensitive

Last night, as I was lying in bed trying to go to sleep, and really hungry but too tired to get up and contemplate making or eating anything, I decided I wanted to do a comparative survey of restaurant Macaroni N Cheese in the Seattle/Eastside area.  (Yes, I know, it's not Paleo.)

this is typically how restaurant meals go

So today I figured after our weekly Target run to pick up our Project Life photos (I'm trying to get caught up!), we'd head over to the Barking Frog in Woodinville to try their Bacon Mac N Cheese.

As long as BabyT isn't overly hungry or tired, she does well in restaurants.  Partly because of her mellow personality, and partly because we've been "practicing" since she was a baby.  We've only had to leave a restaurant due to behavior issues twice, and both were dangerously close to bedtime.  The last time we had to do that was nearly a year ago.

So I had no qualms about a Monday 11:30 lunch at a fairly nice restaurant.

It's been a rainy, miserable morning, so I was glad to finally get into the restaurant.  It was, as I expected, empty, 5 minutes after opening.  When I requested a table, the hostess told me they were all full for reservations and she suggested a different place down the street.

Let me repeat - the restaurant was EMPTY.   It's a Monday, in February, 11:30 am, in kind of an out-of-the-way location.

Maybe I'm being overly sensitive, but I felt like she was trying to bounce us out of there.  Part of my sensitivity is due to the fact that I've unsuccessfully tried to eat at this place a few times before. A couple of times, they had no reservations available (when I called).  Once, they hung up on me immediately after telling me they were full, though I was still talking.  They just seem a little... snotty.  And it's not that *fancy* a restaurant - it's a rural suburb of Seattle, and nothing here is formal.

So we made our way to the very excellent Purple Cafe down the street (which also, thankfully, has mac n cheese on the menu).  And our experience there made me wonder if the Barking Frog really did intend to keep us out.

Purple is running the same 3 courses for $25 promo that Barking Frog is (which is why BF claimed they were full), yet there were only about 6 or 7 full tables at Purple during our *entire* meal.  The food  and atmosphere are comparable.

Anyway, T and I had a delightful lunch.  She got to practice her "restaurant manners" and inhaled a GIANT plate of pasta.  I got my Lobster Mac N Cheese (more on that in a future post).  Our waitress complimented T on her language skills, and the hostess complimented her on her behavior (what mama doesn't love to hear that?!).  We got no dirty looks from other patrons.

But I think I'm done with trying to go to the Barking Frog.  Maybe it's inheriting Bad Juju from its next door neighbor, The Herbfarm.

What do you think?  Am I being overly sensitive?  I suppose it is possible that on Monday at 11:30 they were going to fill up with 100+ diners in the next few minutes...

Slump

For the past couple of weeks I haven't felt like doing ANYTHING.  Not blogging.  Not crafting.  Barely getting dressed in the morning, and if I do, it's mostly sweats, or jeans, if I have to work.  This is pretty typical for me at this time of the year.  It's February in Seattle - grey, raining, dreary, cold, dark.

I have a suspicion that this slump is directly related to my spectacular dive off the Paleo wagon.  First it started with one muffin, since we baked them at home.  Then a few crackers that my daughter didn't eat.  Then I bought bread to make her lunch, and started eating it myself.  The truffle mac 'n' cheese at The Keg. (OK, that was totally a worthy cheat. The rest, not so much.)

But I do best with rules.  Not "everything in moderation".  So I'm getting back to it.  No more sugar.  Lots of protein.  Fruits and veggies.  Wish me luck, and hopefully this will bring my mojo back!

In another observation, BabyT has been having trouble napping for the past couple of weeks.  She's very hyper in the afternoon, less attentive than usual, and talks literally nonstop for the entire time she's in her crib "trying to nap".  Part of me thinks she might be giving up her nap, or requires a bit less sleep (12 hours at night + 2 hour nap couldn't last forever, right?) 

But part of me wonders if this is due to her diet changes too.  Since we started the "baked milk" daily, she's been eating a lot more sugar and empty carbs - muffins, cupcakes, bread.   We've been interspersing chocolate and vanilla soy milk with the plain we usually buy.  Not sure why we started that, except that the vanilla makes damn good hot chocolate for the adults in the house, and T LOVES it.

It's not like she's *requesting* a change from her usual ultra-healthy diet, but somehow we've made our not-so-great habits her new ones.  And that's not good.  Sure we can brush everything off as "everyone needs a treat now and then" but as a country, look where that's gotten us, nutrition-wise.

No more flavored soy milk.  I'm going to take a break from the baking while I research other ways to get some baked milk into her diet.  More eggs for all of us.  Fewer trips to Starbucks.  (Did I mention she recognizes the logo everywhere?!) 

I'm optimistic about this.

Cooking Fail x2: Cucumber Agua Fresca and Cornmeal Carrot Biscuits

I had grand ambitions for cooking this weekend - no fewer than 6 dishes.  But I'm not feeling well, so I only made two, and unfortunately they both sucked.  Totally disappointing.

I get a biweekly produce delivery to encourage us to eat more fruits and vegetables, and so I can avoid a separate trip to Whole Foods to buy the organic stuff, since Trader Joe's produce section is not very predictable.  (Though I just discovered they have bagged cut kale  - OMG, it's like a Paleo dream come true.)

This week I got some cucumbers.  I found a neat-looking recipe for 'agua fresca' in my Bon Appetit fast, easy fresh cookbook.  It's sort of a Mexican limeade primarily made from cucumbers.  Since fancy spas are always putting cucumber slices in water, I figured it would probably be nice and refreshing.  So last night I blended up the peeled and seeded cucumbers, lime juice, sugar, salt and water.

I was also supposed to put ice in it to make it slushy, but our ice maker was off, so we didn't have any.  I figured I could serve it over ice later, or reblend as needed with ice. 

But ewwww.  Upon blending, the mixture was a not-unexpected bright green, with all that cucumber goo.  It tasted ok, but I just couldn't get past the texture.  I'm a "no pulp" girl when it comes to orange juice.  I dislike unfiltered juice.  I hate bubble tea, because drinks are not supposed to have chunks in them.  So this cucumber agua fresca?  No bueno.

do not make this agua fresca at home, for it is BAD.

I figured I'd try filtering out the cucumber pulp, which made it only a little better.  Some of it still managed to escape into the juice, enough to bother me texture-wise.  Oddly, the dogs ate up the filtered-out pulp like it was a special treat.  Who knew?  Also, Peanut loves raw cucumber.  So I guess all was not lost.

I put the filtered agua fresca in the fridge, and it turns out T LOVES it.  She drank an entire cup of it today.  So maybe the problem is just me.  But when I look at that bright green, I just can't bring myself to drink it.  Maybe I can convince her to drink the rest.  TJ won't go anywhere near it.

And if that weren't sad enough, our big biscuit adventure today fell flat as well.  I wanted to bake something savory for T's daily dose of baked milk, so I chose cornmeal-carrot biscuits from my Pillsbury Essential Baking cookbook.  We skipped the raisins and added 0.25c flaxseed, since you know how I love my flaxseed.  But that might have been a mistake.

The first challenge was "cutting" the butter into the dry ingredients to make it look like small crumbs.  I don't have a pastry blender so I tried both a fork and a potato ricer before I just gave up and used my hands.  The dough was pretty dry but the recipe seemed like it was supposed to be that way.

We baked them and they looked fine, but they taste like cornbread-flavored dirt.  They have that nice sweet corn taste, and held together reasonably well during baking, but they're really dry and crumbly.  They would only be tolerable with a LOT of warm honey and butter.  I can't figure out if all drop biscuits are supposed to be like this, or if I did something wrong.  But, yuck.  And T didn't even finish her whole biscuit.  I think it might be a hard sell this week.

I'm not even going to bother to leave you the recipes.  But I'd love your sympathy :)  It's so disheartening to spend a bunch of time cooking, only to find that the result is downright yucky.  Sad.

We Baked: Blueberry Orange Flaxseed Baked Milk Muffins

Each week I've been baking something with milk in it so we can desensitize T's immune system.  Her doctor recommended that she eat something baked with milk several times a week, and the study he cited called for eating baked milk every day.  So of course, being an overachiever, I decided we should aim for every day, too.

We had an abundance of blueberries in the fridge - in typical toddler fashion, she used to eat them by the pint, but now wants nothing to do with them.   We also had leftover butter from the sugar cookies we made last week and some milk, which worked perfectly for the Blueberry Muffin Recipe in The Bon Appetit Cookbook: Fast Easy Fresh.

Because I didn't want to stuff my toddler with sugar, I made the muffins smaller (20 muffins rather than 12) and substituted ground flaxseed for some of the sugar (evil mama, I know!).  Next time I might try subbing in some whole wheat flour as well.

BabyT was a huge help, as was her friend Tubby who is visiting us for the weekend from daycare.  She enjoyed lining the muffin tin, adding the dry ingredients and the first 30 seconds of sifting.  She also ate a bunch of fresh blueberries while we waited for the milk mixture to cool.  Tubby mostly sat around and tried not to get dirty.

I couldn't really taste much orange flavor after the muffins were baked.  I'm not sure why, since the batter did taste orange-y.  The muffins are also plenty sweet, even after reducing the sugar by 1/3.  You can't taste the flaxseeds at all (which was my goal).  I think I mixed the batter too vigorously because they are a little dense after cooling. 

They are divine when warmed up, or fresh from the oven.  We'll totally make these again, and bet that frozen blueberries will work well too.


Blueberry Orange Flaxseed Baked Milk Muffins
Recipe adapted from The Bon Appetit Cookbook: Fast Easy Fresh
(makes 20 smaller muffins or 12 big ones)

1c whole milk
0.5c unsalted organic butter
Grated orange peel from a YUMMY organic Cara Cara orange, about 3/4 of the surface
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 organic eggs

2c unbleached flour
0.5c sugar (we used superfine baker's sugar)
0.25c ground flaxseed meal (we used Bob's Red Mill)
2.5tsp baking powder
0.75tsp salt
1.25c fresh blueberries

1.  Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.  Line 2x12 regular sized muffin cups with paper liners (you'll probably only need about 20).

2.  Combine milk, butter, vanilla, and orange peel in a small saucepan over medium heat.  Stir until butter is melted.  Cool until just warm to the touch and whisk in the eggs. (I found it helpful to beat the eggs in a small bowl separately).

3.  Sift flour, sugar, baking powder, flaxseed meal, and salt into a BIG bowl.  Add milk mixture and stir gently until just blended.  Add blueberries and gently stir.

4.  Use a small ice-cream scoop to fill muffin cups a bit more than half full.  Bake each muffin tray separately, for about 20 minutes until the tops are golden brown.  Muster all your patience to let them cool enough to shove them in your mouth.  Note:  the blueberries get wicked hot.

Happy. Valentine's. Day. Daddy!

I normally HATE Valentine's Day.  Stupid holiday.  You should always be nice to the people you love.  Doing something sappy on Valentine's Day just makes you a sheep, blah blah blah.

And then I had a kid.  One whose little face lights up when we I suggest just about anything.  Wanna go help me sort laundry?  Sure, mama!  Want to put away the clean silverware from the dishwasher?  YES!!  So when she asked me a few weeks ago if we could decorate cookies again, what was a mama to do?

We made cookies for Valentine's Day.  Since she was cleared to have milk in baked goods, I made real sugar cookies and they were amazing.  The recipe made around 30 medium sized cookies, with perfect sharp edges.  The dough was delightful and easy to work with.

We invited our friends C and J over to decorate them with us and had a blast.

But wait!  There's more!  We also made Valentines!  Click to see a larger photo.

This was a great project for a 2 year old (with minimal work for Mama):

1.  Raided my scrap paper for pink patterned papers to match the pink envelopes I had, cut them all to approx 4x6" and rounded the corners.

2.  Cut a bunch of smaller rectangles from solid paper and asked T to stick them to the patterned paper (for that random look!)

3.  Cut many hearts from white cardstock with my Silhouette SD machine, and asked T to decorate them.  She used oil pastels, stickers, crayons, rubber stamps and colored pencils. 

4.  Asked her to pick hearts for each card and helped her adhere them to the cards (this was mama directed so that we didn't have any overhanging hearts).  When T got bored, I did the rest by myself :)  Wrote a short note on the back. I had fun using my "new" typewriter to address the envelopes.

We sent them to close relatives and a few friends.  She insisted on choosing one specifically for TJ, and I told her she should say "Happy Valentine's Day Daddy!" when she gave it to him.

I got a blank look.   She refused to try saying it.  So we broke it down, and practiced. 

Me: Happy
T: Happy Birthday!
Me: Valentine's
T: Happy Birthday Valentine!
Me: Day
T:  Happy Birthday Valentine's Day!
Me: Daddy
T, after several tries, sounding like a robot and trying very hard to get it right:
Happy (pause, thinking hard) Valentine's (pause) Day. (pause)  Daddy!!

TJ was suitably impressed and was surprised to learn that we practiced saying it.  Just like the pumpkin farm, I'm all in on Valentine's Day!

4 tenets of living with a toddler's dairy allergy

A few people at work with kids recently diagnosed with a milk allergy asked me how we deal with it, so I figured it would make a good blog post. 

BabyT, right around the time we discovered her dairy allergy

The simple summary, to borrow a phrase from Mad-Eye Moody in the Harry Potter series, is "constant vigilance".  There is food everywhere and we need to be extremely careful about reading labels and asking questions.  Here's the basic outline of what we do regularly:

1.  Pay attention.  Just yesterday we went to a new Spanish class, and the teacher tried to hand BabyT some cheese-flavored goldfish crackers, which we intercepted.   This has happened more than once at the playground, too - well-meaning parents offer cookies or goldfish crackers (what is it with the fish?) without asking first.  Good thing I was paying attention and not far away.  At 2, T is old enough to *say* she's allergic to dairy, but doesn't realize that means she needs to check the things she's given to eat.  This means I can't zone out and check my email, or get lost in conversation with other parents.  Food is everywhere.  On the bright side, most organized classes are good about asking and tracking food allergies, so if there is a regular snack, there's nearly always something for her to eat.

2.  Evangelize and speak up.  Food allergies are a lot more common now than when I was a kid but folks not living with one don't think about it.  I'm an introvert and it sucks for me to always have to speak up, but I think of it as developing my mama-bear skills.  At restaurants, we ask about *every dish* even when it seems like things shouldn't have dairy in them.  For example, sweet potato fries are sometimes covered in a batter containing milk.  An aioli sauce, which seems like it should be just mayo, actually had yogurt in it.  Even the pretzel-flavor goldfish crackers have dairy in them.  I also have to ask how things are prepared - do they add butter to the grill?  It takes us twice as long to order food, but I'd rather have that than hives and puking afterwards. 

This is especially true for daycare, where we're leaving our kid in the care of others all day.  Ours is a large corporate daycare so they have specific procedures and paperwork for allergies - they have Benadryl and epi-Pens on hand, detailed instructions from T's allergist, and a list of food allergies in the kitchen.  They have a lot of kids with different allergies, and they do a great job of feeding everyone.  But even with these precautions, we still need to be proactive.  Everytime T gets a new teacher, we make it a point of telling them directly about her dairy allergy.  We try to do the same thing with the "floater" teachers who come through the rooms to relieve the main teachers.  The daycare has lists in each classroom, with photos, but we want to make sure they understand what her allergy is and what it looks like when she has a reaction.

We've had two minor slip-ups at daycare - once where T grabbed food from another kid, and once where we think she was served cheese, but it was at the end of the day when her regular teachers had gone home and the "floaters" claimed they didn't know about her allergies, and weren't sure what she had eaten (yikes!).  In both cases we had a discussion with her teachers and the daycare director, and put plans in place so that T would eat at a table next to a teacher (to prevent grabbing) and reconfirmed that allergy lists and photos were in each classroom and re-reviewed with all the teachers.  I hated being confrontational about it, but if I was going to continue to leave my child there, I needed to be sure they had a plan in place for how to prevent these things in the future.  (And they did, so all is well.)

The same is true for going to others' houses for playdates.  I always ask to read the packaging for any snacks, and if they don't have it, I just don't feed her.  I'd rather be safe than sorry.  Which brings me to my next point.

3.  Always carry "safe" snacks.  I don't need to feed my child all day long.  We have a "no food in the car" rule.  I'm more a fan of 3 meals and 1-2 snacks and T is growing well, so I don't have to stress about "getting food into her".  But if we're at someone's house or at a class and a snack is served, I make sure I have alternate options for T in case there isn't a non-dairy choice.  Our diaper bag is always stocked with Trader Joe's fruit leather, Larabars, and granola bars.

Something else I plan to do once T starts getting invited to birthday parties, is bringing our own dairy-free cupcakes so she doesn't feel deprived.  Her new preschool alerts parents to the next months' birthdays so we can bring in alternate treats in case the one being served is not okay.

4.  Educate yourself about ingredients.  Especially for dairy, milk-based ingredients come with a variety of names.  Luckily, many American packaged foods have an "allergy statement" under the ingredient list that says something like "Contains: Milk, Soy, Wheat, etc..."  This makes it really easy for me to *discard* a food if it states milk, but isn't quite good enough for me to automatically include it if it doesn't mention milk.  Here's a list of ingredients I look for to disqualify an item:

milk, cream, butter, cheese, yogurt, lactose, lactate, casein, lactase, milk protein, nonfat dry milk, whey, dairy solids

Since T's reaction was not life-threatening (at least not the few times she's been exposed to milk), we were ok feeding her things that stated "Made in a facility with" or "Made on shared equipment" that also processes dairy.  Factories are required to follow Good Manufacturing Practices (GMP) that state they need to wash all equipment between runs.  And to be honest, we don't buy a ton of processed food anyway.  But for a life-threatening reaction, those would be ones to avoid as well, just to be safe.

And it's not just food that I need to look out for - it's also health and beauty items like soap, shampoo, and lotions.  A lot of them incorporate milk proteins, which irritate BabyT's sensitive skin.  I've bought a few baby lotions that I had to keep for myself because they contained milk.

It gets easier over time.  As a family, we eventually gave up dairy at home, so nearly everything we buy and cook is ok for BabyT to eat (but not quite, so I always check before feeding her something.)  Asking questions at restaurants got easier, and we found a few that we can rely on to have good choices for her and us.

As I mentioned earlier, we received the good news that T is now cleared to have milk in baked goods, so some storebought breads and cookies might be fine if I can confirm they were baked at least at 350 degrees for 30 min or more.  But we are still vigilant about dairy ingredients, especially when I'm not sure how the food was prepared.  In this case, it's actually easier for me to bake stuff like this at home.

Are you living with a kid's food allergies and have other tips to share?

The glory of homemade mayonnaise

There are two things I prepare weekly to plan ahead, now that I've committed to eating (more or less) Paleo regularly:  6 hardboiled eggs and homemade mayonnaise.  It sounds crazy, right?  I mean, grocery stores sell HUGE jars of mayo that will last months.

Whole30 advocated making your own mayo so you could use high quality oil and avoid all the mysterious ingredients you find in storebought mayo.  (Stabilizers, emulsifiers, preservatives, sugar, etc etc.)  At first it seemed like a lot of hassle, but once you get it down, it's pretty easy.

But the HUGE payoff was the taste.  *That's* why I continue to make it.  It's so much better - creamy, light, and fluffy.  It makes a mean tuna salad, and I'm usually not a tuna salad kind of person.  It tastes amazing by itself on a baked sweet potato.  In short, it makes eating Paleo a heck of a lot easier.

staring down the barrel of the blender

Shalini says brown people don't like mayo, and totally dissed homemade.  To that I say BOO!  I'm brown and I love me some homemade mayo.  :)

The recipe I use is from Melissa Joulwan's site (also included in her excellent Paleo cookbook Well Fed.)  So far I've made it four times, and only had it fail once.  But when it failed it was EPIC. Nasty looking and all separated.  She says you can still use it, if you stir vigorously, but it was just too gross, so I threw that batch out.  Life is too short and the ingredients too cheap.

Getting the egg-oil emulsion just right is a bit tricky but not as delicate as you might think.  Problem is, if the emulsion breaks, you can't go back, so it's both stressful and rewarding to get it right.

Here are some additional tips, besides the excellent ones on the recipe:

• I've made it successfully with light olive oil as recommended, grapeseed oil, and even canola oil from Costco (I know, a Whole30 no-no but we had a ton of it in the house)

• It's pretty lemony, so use less (or no) lemon juice if you prefer.  Also be careful with the salt - I find that using less works better for me.  **Note:  Melissa (Queen of Mayo, *squee*!) left me a comment indicating that you need some acid to help the emulsion along, so you can sub apple cider vinegar instead.

• Meyer lemons make it a nice bright yellow, and provide a slightly different taste (YUM!)

• If you have a crappy blender like mine ($30 Target Osterizer), the blender will have a hard time mixing it once the magic emulsion happens.  Have patience and DO NOT crank the blender to top speed - this is what ruined my last batch.   I use it on medium to medium high speed, but once the emulsion forms, I DO NOT change it.

• You may have a bit of oil that doesn't get incorporated.  That's fine.  Better to stop there than try to get it all in, and have it FAIL.  I find that just tipping the blender slightly will help the oil get down to the blades and get incorporated.  Don't shake vigorously or bad things will happen.

• This is good for more than the normal applications for mayo.  You can also use it as a base for salad dressings and sauces, too - Melissa's site has tons of options.

I know there are a bunch of you out there reading this skeptically, like it's way too much work for just *mayo*.  But if you typically like mayonnaise, try this just once, and experience the bliss.  You may never go back.

Let the baking begin!

When you read the title, what did you think of first?  Cookies and cake, or smoking something aromatic?  Just wondering ;)

Today BabyT had another oral challenge to baked milk at her allergist's office.  This required me to bake a bland coffee cake last night.  Which turned out to be a mad scramble at 9pm because we didn't actually *have* any fresh milk in the house. 

We feed it to her at the office while watching for signs of an allergic reaction.  She gets another "dose", aka cake snack, every 20 minutes.

I have no idea how parents of kids with anaphylactic reactions go through this - it must be nervewracking.  As far as we know, T's milk allergy is not life-threatening - she does react pretty strongly right away but we mostly see hives and itching, and sometimes puking.  Thankfully it doesn't affect her breathing.

This is the third time in 18 months that we've tried the challenge.  She failed the first two after the first tiny "dose" of cake.  This time she ate one piece (with great enthusiasm!) and was fine.  Then another.  Still fine.  Two more, and *still* fine.  So after a final 45 minute observation they sent us home with a "prescription" to feed her baked goods with milk (equivalent of 2 oz or less per serving) several times a week.  Who doesn't love that?

We went to Blue C Sushi to celebrate afterward.  I thought about buying a Trophy cupcake for her to eat tomorrow, but realized that:

1.  The buttercream frosting is definitely *not* approved - she still can't have any unbaked dairy.
2.  I have no idea how much dairy is actually in their cupcakes. 

by yvestown on Flickr

Which means for these first couple of months at least, I need to bake the goodies myself.  The first batch is easy - we are going to decorate heart-shaped cookies for Valentine's Day, so instead of making vegan sugar cookies, I'll just make regular ones.

But after that?  I need some suggestions!  I'd prefer not to stuff my 2 year old with sugar, so relatively healthy recipes would be great.  Savory recipes are also appreciated, like muffins or quick breads that aren't sweet. 

After about 6 months of eating a little bit of baked milk, they think her immune system will get used to it, and in the summer we'll try a challenge with uncooked dairy.  At this point, we've been living dairy-free with relative ease, and will probably continue for our own health, but it will be nice to free BabyT from having to carry Epi-Pens, and being so vigilant about whether there's some dairy ingredient lurking in whatever she eats. 

Today I'm still keeping an eye on her, and we've got our fingers crossed that we don't have a recurrence of the "8 hour Delayed Vomiting Incident" which we've seen on multiple occasions.  Her doctor said that's happened only once after a good challenge in the 20 years he's been practicing, so I'm hoping not to double his stats ;)

Bring on the yummy milk-containing cake-cookie-muffin-cupcake-bread recipes!