Fox and Broom

A mom's adventures in keeping healthy, keeping her sanity, and making stuff.

Archive for the month “September, 2010”

20 Sep 2010

Frustrations

I love my little boy with all my heart, but there are days when he wears my patience down to almost nothing. I know I did the same to my folks, but that knowledge doesn’t help with dealing with some of his crap. Somewhere he got the idea that he can just tell me that he isn’t going to speak to me to me again. I am guessing it is from friends. I’ve heard his friend C~ tell another friend of his that on a pretty regular basis. It just doesn’t fly with me and he will lose privileges over that kind of attitude. Tonight it was because I would not let him sleep on the papasan. He would never actually go to sleep if I let him do that.

I do worry that I am overreacting to some of his antics, but I think back on it later and I do not think so. I should not have to ask him to get his shoes on 5 times, so I think I am allowed to raise my voice to him by the 6th time. That kind of thing. I know pregnancy can really affect emotions, so I try to think it out when I am dealing with things my boy does that start to tick me off.

Posted in Parenting | Leave a comment
20 Sep 2010
1 Comment

A Note on the Pumpkin Soup Recipe

If you use acorn squash, 2 medium-sized squashes = the perfect amount to put into the mix. I had almost exactly 4 cups of squash. I was afraid I would have too much and would need to freeze some, but nope. I had the perfect amount. It was a nice change to the soup, too. I think I will put in a little more onion next time…

Posted in Pumpkin Recipes, Recipes and tagged ,
19 Sep 2010
1 Comment

Cream of Pumpkin Soup w/ Curry

I LOVE this recipe. I make it every fall. I will actually try to use fresh pumpkin rather than canned. I discovered that if you cut a pumpkin in half, scoop out the innards, and roast it in the oven for about 30 minutes at 350/375, it scoops out of the shell very easily. As a bonus, you will then get to roast pumpkin seeds that can garnish your soup.

This year, I am going to experiment a little and use acorn squash. I love the flavor acorn squash has, and my husband prefers it over pumpkin. Acorn squash seeds are also quite yummy roasted up.

Cream of Pumpkin Soup with Curry


Ingredients

4 Tbs. Butter

1/2 Cup Chopped Onions

3 tsp. Curry Powder

5 Cups Chicken Broth

1 Cup Gewurztraminer wine

32 oz (4 Cups) Pumpkin purée

1/4 Cup packed Brown Sugar

Salt, Pepper (white/black), Nutmeg to taste

2 Cups Heavy Cream

Chopped fresh chives or parsley for garnish

Procedure

 

In a 6 to 8 quart pan, melt the butter over medium-high heat. Add the onions and saute until translucent. Add the curry powder ad cook, stirring, for 2 minutes.

Reduce the heat to medium and stir in the wine, chicken broth, pumpkin, brown sugar, salt, pepper, and nutmeg (I also added ginger). Cook for 10 minutes. Stir in the heavy cream and cook for an additional 5 minutes.

Cook 10 minutes longer for a thick soup, or add more broth or wine if you prefer it thinner. Adjust the seasoning.

Pour the soup into a blender or food processor and purée until smooth and creamy.

Ladle into bowls and garnish with chives or parsley.

Posted in Pumpkin Recipes, Recipes and tagged ,
16 Sep 2010

Bleh. Bleh I say!

So, I have been diagnosed with gestational diabetes. Not sure what that means entirely at this moment, as I will be talking with my doctor next week and a dietician the week after that. In the meantime, I have been given a blood tester and am keeping track of my food intake. I am hoping that I will be able to skip medication by eating well. I am already starting to hate my blood tester.

So far, my blood has not been too high. I am also starting to learn to listen to myself a little better when I need a little pick me up snack. The hard part is that people seem to constantly throw junk food at pregnant women: “you MUST be craving this, right?” or “just have a little, it can’t hurt anything.”

No, I do not need to be craving that. Yes, it can hurt. Mostly what I crave when pregnant is beef. I know this, because I do not eat a lot of beef when I am not pregnant, and now I always want it. Ice cream is something I do not crave, but always want. I love ice cream. I haven’t had ice cream in weeks. I will be eating it when it is safe for me to do so again. Hopefully I can control myself with that same ice cream as I hope to do a better job of losing the baby weight this time around.

As my blood tests have shown me, in the day that I have done them, a little bad thing can do harm. I tried very hard to portion out my dinner so that I could enjoy a little desert. I haven’t had desert in over a week, when I found out I may be either borderline or over the border for gestational diabetes. I tested 2 hours after eating and my blood sugar was still high. Not high enough to be concerned, but it still concerned me. I have learned my lesson.

It is sometimes funny how we learn about things. I knew practically nothing about diabetes, now I am trying to live with it, even if only for a few more months. I very much hope that I will not come down with diabetes later in life. It is a pain in the ass (and finger). I will definitely be doing my best to stick to a healthy diet and exercise plan as soon as the bump is born. Well, as soon as I can start to exercise. I have already committed myself to restarting the C25K program by February. I figure that will give me the cold months of December and January to recover from labor. I will also probably start doing small things in those months such as yoga and some cardio that will help me to prep for jogging.

Posted in C25K, excercise, Gestational Diabetes, Pregnancy and tagged , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment
09 Sep 2010

Peas, Corn, Greenbeans

Note: if you use the frozen vegetables, be sure not to refreeze them! If you think you may be cooking up a large batch to use over time, be sure to use fresh vegetables. I used frozen vegetables because they stay longer and take only a few minutes to prepare.

The peas, green beans, and corn can all be cooked up together or separately, then blended. Very easy. Steaming them is recommended as this helps to keep all the nutrients from washing away.

Posted in Parenting, Recipes Infant Foods and tagged , , | Leave a comment
09 Sep 2010

Butternut Squash

This recipe takes a bit of prep time, but will feed baby for about a week. I first saw this recipe on the Martha Stewart show and added my own flair to it. This recipe is good like that – you can add in or take away ingredients and it will still be very tasty.

Ingredients:

Butternut Squash

Sweet Potato (optional)

Herbs (I liked to use garlic, basil, and oregano)

Dash of pepper

Olive Oil

Preheat oven to 350.

Prepare squash: slice in half lengthwise, use a spoon to take out all of the seeds.

Prepare sweet potatoes: peel and wrap in foil

Place squash in a casserole/cake pan (any container that will hold it laying flat). Place approximately 1/2 to 1 inch of water in pan. Sprinkle herbs and pepper over squash. Drizzle lightly with olive oil.

Place sweet potatoes in pan with squash.

Bake for 1 hour.

Cut up sweet potatoes. Cut up squash (be sure to get all of the shell off). Blend. Yummy!

Some variations I have used: no sweet potatoes, adding a bit of milk, adding some egg yolk. I think carrots would also work well with this.

Posted in Parenting, Recipes Infant Foods and tagged , , | Leave a comment
09 Sep 2010

Avocado

One of my son’s (and my own) favorites is the avocado cooked up with frozen corn. Avocados are magickal. They have sooooo much good stuff in them. They really don’t even need to be cooked up. You can serve them raw – they are very soft and easy to mash. This is a good thing to remember as most restaurants also serve guacamole – you can feed your baby guacamole as part of his/her meal!

Posted in Parenting, Recipes Infant Foods and tagged , , | Leave a comment
09 Sep 2010

Couscous and Rice

Couscous and rice are perfect for little mouths with almost no teeth. There are a variety of both available and they are a really nice change of pace. They do not have a lot of nutritional value, but do offer some whole grain goodness.

I’ve been using the Far East couscous. I love the flavors they have and Sol just gobbles it up. It also takes just a little over 5 minutes to prepare (boil the water with the olive oil and flavoring, take pot off water, add couscous, cover, wait 5 minutes, fluff with fork, serve).

With plain white rice, you can add in a variety of seasonings to make it interesting. Or you can leave it alone. I’ve done both with Sol and he seems to enjoy rice no matter what.

Posted in Parenting, Recipes Infant Foods and tagged , , | Leave a comment
09 Sep 2010

Legumes

Beans are very good for baby. High in protein and other stuff lol. I use mainly black beans, but have also given Sol garbonzo beans (aka chick peas), butter beans, navy beans, etc. Chick peas seem to be a favorite, just be careful as they do have a rather hard outer layer.

My favorite bean recipe:

A sort of Paella

Ingredients:

rice
chicken/vegetable broth
green beans
chick peas
butter beans
1 can diced tomatoes

Measure out how much broth you need for cooking the rice (look for the amount on the rice instructions). Pour broth into a pan along with the other ingredients. Cook according to the rice instructions.

This recipe is very flexible. You can add in as many ingredients as you want and whatever ingredients you want. For feeding the little one though, be sure to blend it up before feeding him/her.

Posted in Parenting, Recipes Infant Foods and tagged , | Leave a comment
09 Sep 2010

Frozen Fruits and Other Teething Ideas

I used frozen fruit when Sol was teething. You should be able to find a mesh pacifier looking thing at most baby supply stores. These little things are perfect for putting fruit and ice cubes into. Sol used to suck that fruit until it was nothing more than a pulpy mess lol. I believe there are pics of his first raspberry experience somewhere on here. I think it was during his first teething session – 4th month.

I had also heard that frozen bagels were a good teething tool, but Sol never really took to that one. I tried it when he was about 6 or 8 months. The bread of the bagels will pretty much melt as baby chews and sucks on it, so there is little risk of a choking hazard.

Pretty much for teething – I used frozen fruit, ice cubes, and orajel.

Posted in Parenting, Recipes Infant Foods, Teething and tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Post Navigation

← Older Entries