My VitaMix

My parents got Jamaal and I a VitaMix for Christmas last year. (Okay, okay, because it was an expensive gift, it was labeled to both of us, but Jamaal really didn't care for, or understand why we received it. After a quick google search shortly after, he didn't understand why it was as expensive as it was either. But I digress). He told me that I better put it to use. I think I have done a decent job of that so far. It is amazing for making baby food. And I have made Riley a rice cereal by grinding brown rice in the dry container. (You can make flour too, but I haven't done that yet.) Smoothies are simple, and I have made several. Some have been better than others. 


Last night I decided to go a bit further out of my comfort zone. I decided I was going to make chicken burgers. I looked in the instruction booklet and found out how to mince onion. I followed the instructions adding onion, green pepper and 2 cloves of garlic. The VitaMix minced them for me. I set them aside, rinsed out the container and looked into grinding meat. I again followed the instructions and ground up 2 chicken breast halves. It made a very smooth ground chicken. I was amazed by how smooth it was. 


While I wish I could say that this meal won over my husband's opinion of the VitaMix (I still don't think he is convinced it is quite worth how expensive it was), I will have to save that for a later date. I will work on learning new ways to use the machine, in an attempt to prove that it really is more than just an eyesore. A downside to the VitaMix, is that it takes up quite a bit of space on my counter.


My vision was a juicy, tasty, healthy chicken burger. However, the finished product came out a little dry. And that is not the VitaMix's fault. I still stand by my VitaMix, it is the best blender I will ever own. And I will try grinding meat again in the future, that was not the issue. The issue was my execution. Even though it needs some tweaking, I will share my recipe with you, just keep in mind that it needs something else to really make it pop. :D


Ground Chicken Burgers
Ingredients
1 lb ground chicken (store bought or home ground)
1/4 of a large onion, minced
1/4 of a green pepper, minced
2 cloves of garlic, minced
1 tsp. sesame oil
1-2 Tbsp. soy sauce
1-2 tsp. chicken seasoning (I used a seasoning for beer can chicken)
4 slices of cheddar or Swiss cheese (if desired)


1. Mix all the ingredients (minus the cheese) in a med/large bowl, it is easiest to use your hands for this. (I buy non-latex gloves at Costco for touching meat, cleaning, and picking up gross stuff my dogs leave for me)
2. Divide the mixture into 4 (or more) equal parts and press into patties. (I made 3 burgers, thinking, that like their hamburger counterparts that they would shrink...there was no shrinking with these burgers, so the size you make them is the size they will come out.)
3. Grill or pan fry until cooked through. Top with cheese during last minute of cooking, so that it melts.


I have a left over patty for lunch, and will be cutting it up and tossing it with my left over green salad. The patties could freeze well too, if you don't want to cook them all up. Just freeze them divided, thaw them before cooking, and you're golden. I once made 6 hamburgers, cooked 3 and froze 3. They make for an easy meal later on. :D

He has escaped!

Thursday, August 11th

My baby is officially crawling. He has been unofficially crawling for a while now, for about a week and a half, possibly longer. He has been pushing up on his hands and knees, rocking, then falling to his stomach and sliding backwards. On Sunday he began going from stomach to knees to sitting. He was then crawling about two motions forward, then sitting. Which made him go forward for 2 paces, and backward about 4. The sitting maneuver really impeded his forward progress.

Today was the first day that he actually went forward for several paces before stopping to sit, or pausing on his belly to inspect something. I cannot believe how quickly he went from having a 3 foot radius to having no sense of boundaries at all. He was following me around today as I was getting some laundry done. It is nice to have a little follower, but at the same time I have lost that peace of mind I used to have when I sat him down and walked away. I used to be able to predict where I would find him when I would return, but now all bets are off. He could literally be anywhere.

I didn't realize how terrifying motherhood would be. Every step of the way there has been something that absolutely terrifies me. And it is not that that fear ever really goes away. No. After a while I become immune. Ever so often I am reminded of the reason I was terrified in the first place, but miraculously I am able to get past it.

Examples:

• Holding Riley for the first time while alone in the hospital, I was so scared that I would drop him onto the cold, tile floor of my hospital room. Fast forward to a couple days ago when I had him in bed with us, I became suddenly fearful of dropping him from the bed to the floor as he was climbing all over me.
• Those first few nights in the hospital, I was thankful that Riley was a loud breather. It was easy for me to distinguish his breath. I could hear it from across the room. As he has aged he has grown out of his noisy breathing, which has caused me a lot of anxiety. It was difficult to hear his breath over the rhythmic creaking of the swing, so I would close my eyes and focus until I could hear him breathe. At the beginning of this month we moved Riley into his pack-and-play, as he had grown out of his swing. We also moved him into his own room, and with this move the fear has resurfaced. The little mister loves to sleep on his stomach. Face down, arms up, butt in the air. It is adorable and frightening all at the same time. He puts himself there, every single time. I nursed him to sleep with him next to me on the couch, left him on his side, and shortly after that he rolled to his stomach where he slept for the remainder of his nap.

I could go on like this for days. Before I joined the motherhood club, I knew that babies were fragile. But I sort of thought after the first few weeks to months I would get over being scared/worried/anxious. This is not the case. The trick is to not get consumed by the feelings of anxiety and fear, but to focus more on what Riley is learning and gaining from his discoveries every day. 

I cannot believe how much my heart has grown since little Mr. Boogs was born. He is my precious little angel. :D

I started this post a week ago! Where does the time go?!

The pressure of my profession

There have been a lot of things rolling around in my brain lately. I want to discuss one of those things.

In April, a nurse committed suicide because of a medication error she had made the previous September. The medication error may have played a role in the death of the infant 5 days later. From what I have read, experts cannot say either way if the medication error caused the baby's death or not, as the baby was in a fragile state prior to the error.

What hurts the most are people's reactions to the tragedy. A few people commented on how there was no justice served for the family of the child since the nurse committed suicide. The one comment in particular that shook me was:

"This story is a real shame - that the nurse would take her own life, rather than face justice, only to leave the hospital staff to clean up her mess.

As a parent, especially of an infant or toddler, I would be only satisfied with questions of why. Why my child did you (hospital employee) chose to carry out ill advised medical care? Now that the nurse decided to end her own life, as a parent (hypothetically speaking), I am left without what I'd believe to be true justice. "

You can see one of the articles, and comments/responses here.

It only takes a few harsh/rude/inappropriate comments, in an ocean of supportive/friendly/agreeable comments to rock the boat. But I was not the only one shaken by this person's opinion. It makes me feel that the work I do isn't appreciated. The nurse was not reckless, she had no history of being a "crappy" nurse. She had been working for 24 years and had never made a mistake like this before. But there are people out there that are only satisfied with a public stoning. If I were to make a mistake, there would be people out there making comments similar to this. It is difficult to get "true justice" in a situation such as this. There is no winner, only losers. It terrifies me to my very core that I might find myself here: making an error that causes someone else harm. And to have no one there to pick me up after I fall.

I like to think that my family would support me, and carry me through that dark place of despair, that I would be strong enough to bounce back from such a horrible fall, but I don't know for sure. Depression, regret and guilt are difficult things to fight through, especially when the negative, harsh, unsupportive comments are louder and clearer than the supportive ones. I have to believe that I would persevere. I have to believe that I would be forgiven if I made such an error. Because the opposite is too depressing to think about.