Dairy - the last piece of the puzzle

A couple of weeks ago I decided to go dairy-free just to see if dairy was making more of an impact on Olivia's sleep than I was willing to admit. It took me three days to feel full, and I had to start eating more meat than I am used to. After about ten days, we didn't think it was helping, so I started putting parmesan on my pasta. We had two good nights sleep in a row, but again I was putting parmesan on my pasta so I assumed that there was no connection. I then started eating cheese at lunch again, and Olivia's sleep immediately got worse. So, I will be eating dairy-free for a while. This is definitely the hardest. I've gotten used to cooking gluten-free. We have taco night and eat more rice. I've found decent gf pastas and even a bread that is both gf and egg-free and actually worth eating. I have a real avversion to fake dairy products though. If nothing else they tend to be highly processed, and I think I would rather eat more meat than eat that much guar gum and soy lecithin. Even more importantly, I don't enjoy the taste of fake dairy.

I've been eating more peanut butter and nuts and will add more tofu into my routine. I'm also hoping that I will be able to eat more beans. I think beans are a problem for Olivia when her system is upset. If the lack of gluten, eggs, and dairy leads to a happier tummy, then hopefully it will be more tolerant of beans.

So that's that. Here's a picture of the little stinker.

 

 

Postato con Blogsy

We're Going on a Bear Hunt... In Malden

Today we took a walk around Fellsmere Pond here in Malden. It's a man-made pond with fountains, surrounded by trees, rocky hills, and Olmsted-type meandering paths. Alessia loves nature, which is a polite way of seeing she is a dirt monkey whom we should be raising in the country. She loves sticks and rocks, trees and bushes, ducks and geese, and dirt and mud. So, needless to say, she was having a grand time, wandering on and off the path and asking a million "what's that?" questions. About halfway around the pond, she jumped up to a tree "We're going on a bear hunt. We're going to catch a big one. What a beautiful day. We're not scared. Uh, oh. A forest. A deep dark forest. We can't go over it. We can't go under it. We've got to go through it. Stumble trip. Stumble trip. Stumble trip." During that last bit she repeatedly "tripped" and through herself to the ground. All of a sudden the landscape was part of one of her favorite books, We're Going on a Bear Hunt.

Further along, "what's that?" Tall grass. And off she went again. "Uh, oh. Grass. Long wavy grass. We can't go over it...." A few steps in among the trees she sat on the remains of a stump. She plunged her hands into the dark earth. "Uh, oh. Mud. Thick, oozy mud. We can't go over it..." And finally the pond itself was noticed as part of the story. "Uh, oh. A river. A deep, cold river. We can't go over it..."

This is what I love about spending time with a two-year-old. The first time we visited this pond, Alessia picked up about hundred different sticks and noted the various sizes - little, big, reeeaaally big, teeny tiny. Today the pond became the setting of a favorite book, and there is no way to know what the pond will look like next time we go.

Postato con Blogsy

Bird Seeds Really Are Seeds

This winter my mother-in-law gave us a bird feeder. We hung it on the front pronch so that we could watch the birds from our window seat. Birds are very messy, and the porch was soon covered with seeds. No big deal. Adam swept the seeds off the porch. Unfortunately, he swept them off the side into one of my raised garden beds. Now, along with my kale, parsley, scallions, pac choi, and lettuce seelings, there are hundreds of tiny blades of grass (millet?) poking up from the soil. There's going to be a lot of weeding this spring.

Postato con Blogsy

Focking?

This morning Alessia was running around with a yellow ribbon. She announced that she was "focking." It took me awhile to figure out what this meant. Here is the logic for you:

If fishing is what you do when you wish to catch a fish and newting is what you do when you wish to catch a newt, then focking is what you do when you wish to catch a fock, which is, of course, a single fox.

Postato con Blogsy

In the Spring Garden

We spent Saturday in the garden. Adam cleaned out the last of the fall leaves and cut back dead foliage. We gave the lillies and daffodils a bit of breathing room, and we are all happier for it. Adam also put out mulch to give us a head start on weed control.

I turned over my two raised vegetable beds, built a trellis, and seeded all the spring veg - peas, carrots, radishes, lettuces, arugula, kale, pac choi, parsley, cilantro, and scallions. I grow such small quantities of each vegetable and herb, that if I loose some in a late hard frost, there are still seeds in the packets. I also have some seeds started in the basement and will transplant swiss chard and kale to pots next weekend. This is our first year for kale, chard, and pac choi. I grew tatsoi last year. It was delicious, but since it grows outwards rather than up, it just doesn't make much sense in a tiny little garden like mine.

I've been talking to Alessia about the coming spring for over a month now. We talk about the snow disappearing and the first leaves and flowers coming. We're keeping an eye on the lilly shoots and dandelions peeking out of the dirt in our yard. Before Easter we took a long walk and she started pointing wildly and exclaiming "fiori, fiori" (we tend to talk about this subject in Italian) when she saw the first crocuses. Yesterday we took a long walk around the neighborhood. Olivia is my summer baby. All winter long she has fussed when the wind hits her in the stroller. Yesterday for the first time she smiled into the wind as it blew her hair around. "La primavera é arrivata!" was our cry.

And since I don't have any pictures of the garden, here's Olivia sporting short sleeves.

 

Postato con Blogsy

The Weekday Vegetarian - Taco Night

Many families have a taco night. Taco night was an occasional thing for us, until I had to go gluten-free. Now it is a weekly event. Taco night has evolved as my cooking has evolved. I don't buy tomatoes out of season, and I very rarely buy lettuce out of season anymore. They are two foods that use incredible amounts of resources to grow, ship, and store during the winter. Tomatoes taste so much better in summer, that I am happy to wait for them, and lettuce has so few calories that it's become hard for me to justify buying it out of season, except on rare occasions. So, without the traditional meat filling and tomato and lettuce garnishes what does taco night look like?

The Filling

Saute an onion with cumin and coriander. Add chopped green peppers and beans (black or red beans). Add cayenne, chilli powder, and salt to taste.

Garnishes

Slices of pepper jack cheese and cabbage slaw. Cabbage slaw is traditional on fish tacos in tex mex restaurants. It's delicious on any taco though. I slice cabbage into long thin ribbons, which makes it easier to keep on the taco. Then I dress it with salt, lemon juice, a little oil, and something creamy - mayo, yogurt, or sour cream. Lately we've been using yogurt.

Shells

We prefer soft corn tortillas. I put a slice of pepper jack on each tortilla as I heat it up.

Sides

Some nights we just eat whatever's left of the slaw as a side. Last night I roasted plaintains with olive oil and salt for a side.

So that's what taco night currently looks like at my house.

Postato con Blogsy

Olivia's Tummy and Doctor Nonsense

After several days of improved sleep, Olivia went back to waking up once an hour even though I continued to eat gluten-feee. So I called the doctor's office and made an appointment. The nurse on the phone was very sympathetic, and I had hopes that soon I would know what was wrong and how to make it better.

Instead, the doctor told me that there was nothing wrong with her tummy and I just needed to turn off the monitor for ten hours a night. During the appointment I was so tired that it all sounded reasonable, if disheartening. We never ignored Alessia's cries during the night, but the doctor assured me that different babies need different approaches. So I went home and ate a sandwhich on wheat toast, ordered the book the doctor recommended, and had a good cry. We weren't prepared to turn the monitor off that night, so we did our ususal routine. Well the wheat sandwhich did a number on Olivia's tummy that night. So that was strike one against the doctor. Obviously what I ate did effect her. The next day, with a slightly clearer head I remembered going through all this with Alessia. Now Alessia never woke up once an hour for several weeks straight, but her sleep did have its up and downs. Throughout, people recommended we just turn off the monitor, and throughout it all, we continued to respond to her cries. In remembering all of that, I remembered all my counter arguments to the doctor's arguments in favoring of allowing my tiny baby to cry all night.

In the meantime I went back to eating gluten-free and for two nights Olivia went back to her usual routine of waking up every three hours. (Strike two against the doctor who told me that once a baby is used to waking up once an hour it will never get better on its own.) Then yesterday I ate eggs for breakfast and made muffins with eggs and butter in them. Well, Olivia was up all night with gas pain again. It occured to me that the reason her sleep got better when I first went gluten-free and then got bad again was that it wasn't for a few days after going gluten-free that I bought and made gluten-free cookies, both of which contain eggs and butter. The day after the doctor's appointment I was out and it wasn't until Saturday that I cooked eggs again.

So, for a bit, I will be eating gluten-free, egg-free, and butter-free. Cheese doesn't seem to be a problem, nor does a small amout of milk on my oatmeal in the morning. It's the rich dairy like butter and cream. I debated calling the doctor and telling her all this, but I'm not sure it's worth my time. She obviously felt she knew exactly what the problem and answer were before even talking to me, and she is not our usual doctor anyway.

Postato con Blogsy