Valentines Day

Happy Valentine's Day! Albeit one day late, I say we spread the love and stretch out the red/white/pink celebration for an entire week. <-- Is she making excuses for posting late? or truly 'spreading the love'? You'll never know..

I didn't actually intend for this message to be late, but .. well.. I'll explain in a minute... so although the mister and I tend to avoid extravagantly celebrating the holiday, we have had fun the past two years with the LittleOne making crafty-but-simple homemade valentines to send to family members and her favorite little baby friends.

Though I will admit to helping with a few aesthetic touches, the stamps and stickers were almost entirely positioned by my 13 month old -- and she had a blast! Once she realized that the stickers would stay where she pressed them, we were on a roll. And here I was thinking that it would be a year or so before "craft time" could be a family event!

This year's valentines were extra special, as she had some big news to share -- hence the postponed postage of this message -- call me considerate, but I wanted to make sure that the grandparents were all alerted to the latest in the event they stumbled online and came across a blog post about it. Scratch that, I'm actually laughing outloud to myself about the prospect of that because my dear parents are still clicking on pop-ups that tell them they just won a $100 Target giftcard. I wish I were kidding. But, you know, just in case they found out what a blog was and decided to scour google.com to see if their daughter had one.

In any respect, I was thinking of you all yesterday and hoping that you had a warm and wonderful Valentine's Day! XOXO

February.

Well, since I started the year with the plan of short-term monthly goals, I figured it best to hold myself accountable with an update from the previous month. January was a bit less successful than I had hoped when it came to accomplishing my objectives, however you may have heard me mention that we've been 'busy' with some unexpected time-consuming business that we can all discuss at a later date. The point is not to beat yourself up over the things you didn't do, but to realize that without writing them down ahead of time, the likelihood that these things would have been accomplished is slight. So without further ado, my January goals, I'm 3 for 6 .. 

-Take vitamins and fish oil daily.

-Cook, Sit, and Enjoy five family dinners

-Cook with fish at least once. 

-Email to the LittleOne once per week (see Email for Babies) (2/4)

-Orchestrate Interactive Dinner Party 

-Make and Attend an Eye Appointment

(Red: Not Started/ Yellow: In Progress/ Green: Complete)

Moving forward into February, I'm taking some of the unaccomplished January pieces as well as challenging myself to move forward. At this pace, I won't want to see the length of my December 2011 list!



-Email to LittleOne once per week.
-Acquire fresh fish, and prepare for a glorious dinner.
-Read a novel. 
-Blog & Share three additional toddler-favorite recipes.
-"Spring Clean" the RedDoor master bedroom, bathroom, and closet.
-Finish Step 1 of adorable knitting project

Three Bears (Purple) Porridge

As with many other parents who work outside the home, our weekends at home with the LittleOne are sacred. At least once per weekend we try to sit down together and enjoy a long, lingering dining experience as a family. One meal together really shouldn't be ridiculously challenging to coordinate, but sadly it tends to be. We've been 'busy,' remember?

So rather than aim for dinnertime, where timing can be hit-or-miss with the LittleOne, this weekend we enjoyed a wonderful breakfast together of Purple Porridge. As we ate, we recited to the LittleOne the infamous story about Goldilocks and the Three Bears, adding our own touches. (i.e. she made sure to knock politely before entering, and of course she was sure to take her shoes off at the door..) Anyway, the recipe was a huge hit and The Husband can't wait to revisit the leftovers early next week!

Note: We do quite a bit of cooking on the weekends to ensure that everyone is adequately nourished throughout the week. This recipe was doubled with no changes to cooking time, and is easily reheated on the stovetop or microwave for repeat enjoyment. 

Purple Porridge

Extra blueberries for the Little One

Ingredients
1 1/4 cups water
dash of salt
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
2 teaspoons agave nectar (or honey)
2/3 cup old-fashioned rolled oats (not quick-cooking)
1/2 cup fresh or frozen blueberries
1/2 teaspoon finely chopped or grated orange zest
1/2 cup milk (we had vanilla soy milk)

Bring water to a boil in a medium-size saucepan.
Add salt, cinnamon, agave and oatmeal.
Stir well.

With extra cinnamon, for The Husband

Reduce heat, and simmer uncovered for five minutes or until most of the water has been absorbed before adding blueberries, orange zest and milk. Bring to a simmer, and cook five additional minutes or until oatmeal is thick and creamy and the blueberries have begun to burst.
Remove from heat, cover, and let stand five minutes, then serve.

*Note, mom added bananas, which everyone thought was a grand idea and soon all three of us had them in our bowls. Highly recommended addition to an already-stellar oatmeal experience. 

Bananas for mom, highly recommended!

Roasted Root Vegetables with Rosemary

Today's recipe is brought to you by the letter "R" .. 

Everyone has a favorite food, and although she can't communicate much beyond pointing, clapping, signing for "more," babbling "that," "this," and rooooaring like a lion, we are quite sure that the recipe that follows is her favorite. The Husband is also a fan, so much actually that we had to start doubling this recipe to use as an adult side dish as well.

Roasted Root Vegetables with Rosemary
Ingredients:
1 parsnip, washed and trimmed, wax removed
2 carrots, washed and trimmed
1 sweet potato, washed
Olive Oil
1-2 tablespoons Rosemary, crushed

Procedure:
Preheat oven to 375 degrees
Chop all vegetables to a uniform size (if feeding to a young child, we tend to choose something between 'finger food' size or a bit smaller).
Toss vegetables in 1/8-1/4 cup olive oil, sprinkle with rosemary.
Spread in 8x8 or 8x13 glass pan and cook, uncovered, 30-45 minutes, or until vegetables are fork-tender.
Allow to cool.
For adults, may add salt and pepper to taste

We hope you enjoy as much as our LittleOne!

So touched.

Those of you who know me personally know that I work in oncology. Sometimes those days are rough, some days are joyous. Sometimes you rush home and hug your family, and sometimes you are so touched by something that you can't help but share it. I hope you don't mind the digression from normally scheduled programming, but this was one of those stories.

Life is so much shorter than it should be for some people. Do me a favor and think of the thing that has been aggravating you the most today.. and then watch this video and put it into perspective. I know it made me feel pretty grateful to have a healthy family and friends. I wish the same for you, I really do.

Slow Cooked Red Curry

Gourmet Vegetarian Slow Cooker: Simple and Sophisticated Meals from Around the WorldGourmet Vegetarian Slow Cooker: Simple and Sophisticated Meals from Around the World

In the 'words' of LittleOne, "Mmmmmm"
(okay, so she has like five words/sounds, I picked the one that worked..)
 
We had been craving the savory flavors from our favorite local thai restaurant for what felt like weeks before we realized that life is just too 'busy' right now. If either of us would be lucky enough to get home from work early enough to make it to Cy's, the other would inevitably be stuck in the traffic, snow, office or hospital fuming with jealousy and imagining the other's Fusion Curry. What's a curry-craving lady to do?

We had tried our hand at homemade curries in the past with several semi-successes, but the latest from a gem of a new library release (see "adapted from" below) was a wonderful new addition to the permanent recipe file. The added bonus? Sweet Potatoes!!

An aside (similar to the lentil tangent..) - Sweet Potatoes are another one of those wonder-foods that we try to use frequently, feed to the LittleOne often, and hopefully this summer harvest our own. Why? Well first off, they're delicious.. but equally important: their beta-carotene content is unmatched! You'll notice this recipe has FULL FAT coconut milk; this is important to not substitute. First for the texture, but second because research has shown that 3-5 grams of fat in a meal is required to reap substantial update of beta-carotene from sweet potatoes. The same is true for carrots, which is how I justify dipping mine in gobs of guacamole. Also, we tend to leave the skins on our potatoes when we cook with them (fiber, people!!). In this particular recipe you won't even realize the skins are still intact, but if you have extremely picky eaters in your house, feel free to peel them.

Ingredients:
2 pounds small red potatoes, cubed into 1 inch pieces
1 yellow onion, sliced
1 can (14 oz) coconut milk (regular style, not 'light')
2-3 tablespoons red curry paste (the more curry, the more spice)
2 tablespoons agave nectar (or brown sugar)
1 tablespoon soy sauce
1 large sweet potato, cubed into 1 inch pieces
2 cups fresh or frozen green peas
salt to taste

Preparation:
Scrub potatoes, cube, and place them in the slow cooker with sliced onion. 

In a small bowl, mix coconut milk, red curry paste, agave and soy sauce together and pour over the potatoes. Cover and cook on low for about 3 hours, or until the potatoes are slightly tender when pierced with a fork.

Add the sweet potato, cover, and continue to cook on low for another 2-3 hours, until all of the vegetables are tender.

Add peas and salt to taste.
Continue to cook, uncovered, for 15 minutes longer.

Serve over rice. And if you're fancy, you can garnish with cashews and/or fresh cilantro. As you can see, we're either not fancy or we were out of garnishes (turns out, the answer is 'all of the above'). 

Adapted From: The Gourmet Vegetarian Slow Cooker

Email for Babies

Like many well-meaning new parents, we had every intention of documenting the milestones of our LittleOne's first year in a beautiful homemade scrapbook -- each page personalized to her story, artfully laid out and filled with photographer-caliber images of those first twelve months. I even omitted registering for the traditional "Baby Book" because I was so confident that I would create my own.

And perhaps I will.............................someday (oh, that infamous word..)

In addition to the standard new-parent haze, concurrent to our LittleOne's first year was a seven month work assignment across the country for The Husband.. a new time-consuming job for yours truly.. and a myriad of other things that kept my scrapbooking ambitions stifled like wine glasses at a baby shower.

If you are reading this and think, "Oh.. how sad.. I finished my baby book concurrent to each milestone in my child's life!" I have two things to say to you: #1. Shush. and #2. My child enjoys sitting on anything she knows I am intent to work on. Like, sitting right on top of it.  Reading a magazine? PLOP. Not anymore, says LittleOne. Folding Laundry? PLOP. Organizing something? Oooh.. My favorite!! PLOP, tear paper, PLOP.

I first attempted to keep shorthand in a spiral bound notebook -- Easy, I thought! --once I got around to that baby book, I could just reference important dates and such from this wonderful little time capsule. Alas, we traveled quite a bit those first seven months, back and forth to visit The Husband.. back and forth to visit my parents.. back and forth to visit anywhere that kept us out of the house that desperately needed dusting (but I digress..). So we were traveling, and that trusty little notebook never seemed to be in the place I needed it when a story, new tooth, or milestone needed to be recorded. Hmm...

Then, it hit me one day -- she must have an email address! Why, my husband queried, must a four month old possess such a thing? Well, I explained - anyone can contribute. From anywhere. Grandma, Grandpa, Other Grandma, Other Grandpa, Aunts, Uncle, Friends.. they can send photos and stories and we can email her when things happen in her life.

Currently, she receives emails regularly from her mom and dad - occasionally just a short "New tooth today!" message, and about once a month a quick chronicle about what is going on in all of our lives. Also, LittleOne's grandparents send messages every month or so, and some playmates we met while traveling like to keep in touch as well .

Additional ways we have found this useful: 

• Sending 'Hello' and 'Thank You' messages from LittleOne to cherished babysitters and little friends.
• Photos: Whenever emailing photos to others, I cc:LittleOne as a virtual photo album
• Forward birth announcements and virtual holiday greetings from friends with children of similar ages
• News: Cut and pasted articles from local and national newspapers when big events happen (links likely will no longer be active when their little fingers learn qwerty) 

Added bonus: if gmail still exists when she is old enough to type, she has rights to her very own name and won't need to be highschoolnickname-plus-year-of-graduation at hotmail dot com. 


Oh, and if "someday" ever comes and I decide to create that baby book, we will have a quick dated reference with a plethora of information and photos.. and if that someday never comes (gasp!) as the very least she'll have a chronological record of her early days, as well as a couple of emails to catch up on! May as well start her off like the rest of us -- with a full email box and people we haven't replied to in ages!

What have you done in lieu of a traditional baby book?