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.

Sweet potatoes, carrots and chicken



This little guy loves his food. We have come a long way in the past month since starting on solids. I have been making most of his food. I did end up buying some baby food to have for convenience purposes, and to take with us when we went camping, but that is another story. :) Also, while I'm sure it is possible to make prunes into a baby food, I don't feel quite that adventurous. So I intend on feeding him store bought prunes ever so often to help with, well, you know.

So far I have made peas, apples and sweet potatoes. He enjoyed all except the peas, though I don't blame him. I have tried everything I've given him (okay so I did not try the prunes, or the store bought peaches simply because they smelt awful. And since his poop after having the peaches smelt more like a peach than the food did, I don't think I'll try that one in the future. And you can bet I won't buy it again either.) The peas were made from canned peas that I rinsed really well, I will try making them again with fresh peas, and probably mix them with some carrots.

Here are a few things I've learned about making homemade baby food:

• A Vita Mix is essential for ultra smooth puree. (Though I'm sure you could get by with your run of the mill blender or food processor)
• While adding breast milk instead of water to the purees provides more calories and nutrients, the convenience of heating the frozen food up in the microwave trumps the higher calorie count. I figure he can just have fresh breast milk straight from the source instead. ;) (If you are new to this, breast milk cannot be heated in a microwave or on the stove; also you cannot use frozen breast milk and then re-freeze it.)
• You cannot put sweet potatoes on the stove to steam and then take a shower. When the water evaporates the sugars from the potatoes burn on the bottom of the pan, creating your own little smoker. And even though the sweet potatoes are perfectly steamed, they now have a distinctively smoked taste to them.
• It is incredibly cheaper to make baby food at home. It is $1.08 (plus tax) for a two pack of baby food. If I mix it with rice cereal, I can get two servings per pack. One sweet potato (which costs on average $2) makes about 12 or more servings, which is a difference of $0.10 per serving.
• If you don't have an ice cube tray (you should get one to freeze the food into perfect portions), you can scoop the food onto a cookie sheet lined with foil. Do not use parchment paper (because the food sort of melts into it) or waxed paper (because if the food is warm, it will melt the paper).

Are you still there? :D I'm getting a bit long winded, so I better get to the whole point of this post:

I read somewhere that breastfed babes stop absorbing as much iron from the breast milk when they begin solids. So, in an effort to increase his iron intake, I decided to introduce meats. After reading up on this, I found that meats are usually best mixed with veggies. Too much protein isn't good for the little one's kidneys. Also the veggies help to mask some of the taste. So after looking around I came up with this recipe. And as you see from the pictures, it was a hit. :D

Sweet Potato, Carrot and Chicken Puree

Ingredients:

1 large sweet potato

1 large carrot

1 boneless, skinless chicken breast; trimmed of fat and tough pieces

1 cup water

1/2 cup apple juice (no sugar added, not from concentrate, pasteurized)

1. Chop up the potato, carrot, and chicken breast.

2. Mix ingredients together in pot.

3. Bring to boil, reduce heat to medium-low and simmer for 20 minutes, or until chicken is cooked through.

4. Spoon out potatoes, carrots and chicken and place in a blender. Add about half of the liquid. Blend. Continue to add liquid until desired consistency is met. I ended up using it all, but needing no additional liquid.

5. Freeze food in baby sized portions.

As you can see, babies aren't the only ones that enjoy this yummy puree. ;)





Chili Tortilla Bake

I wasn't very prepared today. Thursday night Mr. Riley decided he wasn't going to sleep well, so mommy didn't get very much sleep prior to working a 12-hour shift on Friday. He has a sensor that tells him when mommy will be going to work. That means I get about 4 hours of sleep prior to working. And that isn't a continuous 4 hours. So, as you can imagine, I end up needing to recuperate the next day. That brings us back to today. Instead of planning dinner and getting something out of the freezer, I spent my time napping and playing with Riley.

I got online and googled "casserole recipes" and eventually found this one. It was one of the first I looked at, and amazingly enough I had all of the ingredients. Well, sorta. We both liked it, and I will be making it again someday. That means, I will be sharing it with you all, so that you might enjoy it as we did. :D The original recipe can be found here.

Chili Tortilla Bake
Ingredients
-1 pound extra-lean ground beef
-16 ounces canned tomato sauce
-1 can (15 ounces) black beans, rinsed and drained
-1 cup frozen corn (I drained an 8 ounce can of corn, since I didn't have frozen)
-1 can (4 ounces) chopped green chilies
-2 tablespoons dried minced onion (I chopped up a quarter of an onion, since I didn't have this)
-2 tablespoons chili powder
-1 teaspoon ground cumin
-1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
-1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
-Dash of cayenne pepper (I added this to give it a kick)
-6 whole wheat tortillas (8 inches) (I used regular tortillas)
-1 cup shredded cheddar cheese

1. In a large skillet, cook beef over medium heat (with chopped onion if you are using fresh onion like I did) until no longer pink.

2. Stir in the tomato sauce, beans, corn, green chilis, dried onion (if you didn't use fresh), chili powder, cumin, garlic powder, oregano, and cayenne pepper until heated through. Allow it to simmer for a couple minutes, stirring occasionally.

3. The original recipe calls for an 11-in x 7-in baking dish, but I have a Corningware 2-1/2 quart round casserole dish that fit the tortillas perfectly, so I used that instead. Coat whatever dish you decide to use with cooking spray, then layer the beef mixture, tortillas, and cheese until you have no more room to layer. I ended with a tortilla with a sprinkling of cheese on top.

4. Bake for 25-30 minutes at 350. Serve with sour cream if desired.

Take my word for it...

I have a sitter. (I do have pictures, but alas I am that lazy.) It was amazing how fast it happened. One day he had to be supported while sitting all the time, then he was able to sit for about a minute by himself, until now he can sit for several minutes before he decides to reach for something really far away and ends up on his stomach. He also will occasionally fall backwards, but that doesn't happen as often.

Today Riley and I went to Heaven Sent, a children's consignment store. It is in Federal Way, and I forgot all about it until today. I went there way before Riley to visit a friend of mine who worked there. I walked away with a never used grocery cart cover, a barely used board book about trucks, 3 fabric books (one that krinkles which is his favorite noise) that look like they were never used, and 4 pairs of pajamas. All for $25. It was a wonderful day. I was super excited about the books because Riley kept stealing one from my friend's baby the last time we were together. He was also excited about them. :D

I am making dinner right now, so that is it for now.

Questions, Comments, Concerns

Questions
Are you still out there? Do you still read this? I would understand if you've left. It has been forever. Almost 2 months! Where is the time going to? I cannot believe that my baby will be a year in less than 6 months. It has flown by. And you know everyone tells you that it does. But reality doesn't really hit you until you are really in it, at least this is true for me.

Comments
Riley is growing, and it seems that he has just gone through a growth spurt. He is beginning to need larger clothes, and is pretty much fully out of the 0-3 months clothes. He definitely still fits the best in most of the 3 months clothes (except for the pants of most things). He is like me and has longer legs, and a shorter torso, so he grows out of the pants first. Most of the 6 months clothing are too big at the waist. I cannot imagine a baby actually fitting in some of the clothes. (Though I know there are some Budha bellies out there that might.)

Riley has begun on solid food now. I started him out with peas (because it was something I had on hand). I pureed them in my VitaMix, as I plan on making all of his food at least for the first year. He was not a fan of peas. I wasn't sure if it was the taste or the texture, so I waited 3 days and attempted apples. Again, the same thing. He was not a fan. I wanted him to get some extra calories, so I decided to start him on rice cereal.

I had read many places that rice cereal isn't necessary, and decided I wasn't going to introduce it. However, since I wondered if he wasn't ready for solids, or just wasn't a fan of the flavors I had picked out for him, I decided to try it anyway. I pulled out the dry container for my VitaMix and blended brown rice into a powder. The only unfortunate thing is that unlike the store bought variety, you have to cook homemade rice cereal. It is much like oatmeal when you cook it. I make a serving, then divide it into small containers and refrigerate it. He actually loves it.

A couple days ago I added some ripe bananas to it, and he was a big fan of that. He still is pretty messy at the whole eating thing, which means he pretty much needs a bath afterwards, but it is worth it.

I'm out of practice, and have a lot of things to say, but I have a fussy baby in the other room frustrating his daddy. Which means I need to get the booger fed and put to bed soon. Therefore, my writing is jumbled and disorganized, and I apologize.

Concerns
On Friday I took Riley to his 6-month well-baby exam. He weighed in at 12 pounds 14 ounces. This is below the 3rd percentile for weight and she wants me to bring him in again in a month for a weight check. I've known he was small, but he was consistent prior to this. He had been on the same curve since birth, but this weigh in he dropped down quite a bit. So now we are on a mission to fatten my baby up. I'm going to try and drink a lot more water, and make sure he eats well every time. The problem is that he often falls asleep while nursing, so doesn't always empty each side. I'm really focusing now on making him stay awake as long as possible, in hopes that he will get as much milk as possible.

I hope to be back here a bit more frequently. While writing this post I can feel all of the thoughts and feelings I would like to share flooding out of me. I have missed it.