Monday's food

#17. Eat only foods that have been cooked by humans.

~ Michael Pollan, Food Rules

On the second day of our food week, I spent the majority of my lunch break (I work from home which makes this a possibility for our family) preparing for dinner. I try to do that for part of my lunch break almost every day, although some days I spend more time than others. Today, I cooked lentils and rice and put together the lentil loaf and set up the bread machine with the ingredients of WHO bread. (I also made vanilla pudding from scratch but forgot to photograph that!) This is what works for our family and allows us to follow rule #17 (above) instead of eating mostly processed foods for dinner.

Monday

WHO Bread - recipe by Soulemama

Lentil Loaf

sides of steamed broccoli and maple glazed carrots

Lentil Loaf

3 cups cooked lentils

3 cups cooked brown rice (sometimes I use a brown/wild rice blend)

1 onion, chopped

3 stalks celery, chopped

2 tsp sage

3 cloves garlic

2 tbsp ketchup or tomato sauce

salt

pepper

2 cups marinara sauce

Saute onion, celery and garlic for 8-10 minutes until onion is translucent. Place cooked lentils and rice in a large mixing bowl and mash together with the back of a large wooden spoon for a few minutes. Mix in onion, celery and garlic as well as sage and ketchup; salt and pepper to taste. Press into one large loaf pan or two smaller ones. (I use 2 smaller loaf pans, then freeze 1 loaf for a quick dinner on a busier night. One smaller loaf will feed our family with little to no leftovers.) Bake at 350 for 35-40 min, then pour marinara sauce on top and bake for another 15 min until sauce is hot.

Maple Glazed Carrots

5 large carrots

1/2-2/3 cup apple juice

2 tbsp butter

1 tbsp maple syrup

Bring first 3 ingredients together to a boil, then turn down to a simmer. Simmer for 20-25 min until carrots are almost soft. Add maple syrup and simmer another 5 min.

#25. Eat your colors.

(Just make sure they don't touch if you have kids. ;)

A new week.

Inspired by and in honor of Michael Pollan's new book, Food Rules, I decided to take a week on my blog and show you a week's worth of meals at our house. Food Rules is what it says, a list of rules to help you eat a cleaner, more nourishing diet and gives you a better way to look at food than just a substance to fill your stomach. Much of the information in Pollan's new book is regurgitated from In Defense of Food, but in a clearer, more concise format.

Sunday

Tomato-Rice Soup with Cheese from The Complete Tassajara Cookbook

Carrot-Corn Muffins

1 1/3 cup flour (I used spelt)

2/3 cup corn meal

3 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 cup sugar or honey

2 med-lrg sized carrots, grated (or about 1 1/2 cups grated)

2 eggs

3/4 cup milk (or milk sub)

1/4 cup olive oil

Mix dry ingredients in bowl then add wet ingredients. Stir until just mixed. Pour 1/4 cup of batter into each muffin container. Bake at 350 for 18-20 min or until center of muffin is set.

Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants. ~ Michael Pollan

The Magic Flute - in puppets

A while back, I posted about Elizabeth's school along with an excerpt of their most recent big project, which was a puppet version of Mozart's The Magic Flute. The 3rd graders at her school were supposed to have a big live performance just before the winter break, which ended up being postponed due to a snowstorm that descended. They were finally able to perform this weekend and I'm including an excerpt of one of Elizabeth's parts as a bird. I love how her school is able to integrate what the students are working on in dance, music, art and drama to culminate in an arts extravaganza while they immerse themselves in this historic masterpiece.

From The Magic Flute program:

This production began with a study of the art and history of ancient Egypt. Students...studied the opera itself, and we listened to recordings, watch videos of professional opera productions and stop-action animation, created our own dialogue, recorded dialogue for the show, and created puppets for the show. Visiting puppetry artist Lisa Sturz (Red Herring puppets, Asheville) gave us an introduction, and the puppets were created by parents, teachers, and students together.

art in my mailbox

The most beautiful and extraordinary piece of mail arrived yesterday.

But before I get to that, I should mention that this is an amazing technological time in which we live. I have a group of wonderful friends across the US, even the world, whom I've never met, yet they are the most supportive, creative, hands-on blogging mamas. I may never meet some, or most, of them in person, but they are intricately woven into the fabric of my life and encourage and inspire me in so many ways.

Similarly, social networking tools, like Facebook, have done the same thing with people who used to be a daily part of my life. I love seeing where my high school and college friends are now and the lives they've built for themselves. Even more than that, I love seeing a glimpse into my husband's past life, "meeting" his friends from college and his early career days. One friend of his in particular (actually, I think they weren't very good friends back in their college days, although they had the same circle of friends) reconnected with him over Facebook and then started following my blog. She and I would have conversations over his status updates, and we soon became friends ourselves. I have never met Jodi in person, but I can tell you this, she's an amazing mother, artist and friend.

About that beautiful and extraordinary package that appeared in our mailbox, this stunning card which she made, then wrote a lovely note inside.

And that was just the beginning.

Out of a lovely brown organza bag, appeared this gift. A place to record our cherished memories and important dates. There were pictures of our family, meaningful quotes, and bits of beautiful color and texture everywhere.

I know my pictures don't do it justice, and as Paul says, you can't get it's full effect without feeling it anyway. But trust me, this will be a cherished piece of art in our house.

See more of Jodi's incredible work here and here. Thanks again, Jodi! We truly love our gift and are honored that you would share your art with us in this way. :)

Nurturing Finn

Finn is having a rough week. Therefore, everyone Finn knows and loves is having a rough week. He's not one to bottle his emotions; when he's having a hard time, everyone else gets the brunt of his frustration...but mostly mama.

Finn was home with me for the two weeks around Christmas that the kids were out on school break. Right at the end of the break, just before he was to begin at his new Montessori school, he came down with what I think was the flu. He was really sick for 2 days and then spent another day recuperating before finally starting school on Tuesday. He went to school in a good mood and excited about his new school and new friends. Then, mama had the nerve to go pick him up from school. Mean mama! He cried and screamed the whole way out of school, the whole way home, took a nap, then cried after his nap until dinnertime. An unprecedented amount and intensity of crying, even for an intense little boy. Finally when daddy came home and brought his brothers, he seemed mostly normal for the rest of the evening. I chalked it up to a new experience and the fact he hadn't slept well while he was sick. Then the night came. He fell asleep without problem, but woke up at 11 pm and whined/cried/called for me for 2.5 hours straight. Oh, I went in there, as did Paul, dozens of times. He would calm down for 5 minutes at a time just to start up again as soon as we would start to drift back to sleep. It was torture.

The next day, he happily went to school eager to play with his new friends again. But that afternoon, the same crying and generally unhappy malaise when I picked him up from school. And it lasted for more than an hour. I had already made a bedtime plan that I hoped would at least address the sleeping problem because it's hard to fix emotional over-reaction when the babe is too tired. So our bedtime routine went like this. Warm and filling dinner, bath with lavender and sandalwood essential oils, Valerian and Rescue Remedy before bed, extra singing and poetry, lavender and humidifier in the bedroom, and two layers of pjs to keep him warm. And it worked. He slept for almost 12 hours straight.

{thank you little glass bottles of liquid sleep-inducing gold!}

This morning he happily went to school, ate a good lunch, took a good nap, then mama picked him up and ruined the show again (still can't figure out what's going on here!?). He calmed down finally, but not before spending 10 min alone in his bed then me rocking him silently for another 5-10. He still insists that he doesn't want me to pick him up from school so we agreed that daddy could try the pickup tomorrow (although what difference that makes, I don't know!). We continued the routine from last night minus a bath and added some favorite foods that Finn helped me make for dinner and an idea I gleaned from Heather, trying some relaxing yoga poses before bed. I only tried one position with Finn this evening. He laid with his back on the floor and his legs up the wall. I don't know that he relaxed very much since he was busy playing with the new eye pillow I made for him this afternoon, but maybe it will relax him the more often we try it.

{some of his favorite foods}

{his new recycled sweater eye pillow

with needle felted car and relaxing oils}

At this point, I'm happy to take any and all suggestions on the pickup transition. According to his teachers, he's perfectly happy and sweet the entire time he's at school so I'm not sure what's causing the pickup time meltdown, especially since it seems so directed at me. I'm definitely interested to see what happens when Paul picks him up tomorrow. I need a day to let my emotions balance back out again. You'd think by the time the 4th kid comes along that you'd seen it all but I guess that's not always the case.

WIP Wednesday & January nature table

With one sweater under my belt, I almost immediately began another, this one for Elizabeth's birthday at the end of the month. Her birthday sweater is moving along more quickly with bulky yarn, Wool of the Andes by Knit Picks in the Galaxy colorway. The back in already complete and the front is about halfway finished. I can't wait to see her wearing it. She loves warm clothes so this will be a perfect first mama-knitted sweater for her.

{back}

Our nature table received a January makeover this week too. These next few shots are completely reflective of the weather we've been experiencing this month so far--cold winter purples and blues with bright sunshine. It's been COLD for these parts! Clearly, Jack Frost has been busy with that frost wand.

We're ready for a small bit of warmth and longer light to return. Until then...

his first day

excerpt from The First Day of School

by Howard Nemerov

A school is where they grind the grain of thought,

And grind the children who must mind the thought.

It may be those two grindings are but one,

As from the alphabet come Shakespeare's Plays,

As from the integers comes Euler's Law,

As from the whole, inseperably, the lives,

The shrunken lives that have not been set free

By law or by poetic phantasy.

But may they be. My child has disappeared

Behind the schoolroom door. And should I live

To see his coming forth, a life away,

I know my hope, but do not know its form.

**********************

Finn began his school career today. His first day at a local Montessori school. I know it's not the first day of kindergarten or anything, but for this, my baby, it's a huge step. He's been with the same two lovely women for childcare since he was 6 months old, when I started back to work full-time. He's now a lunchbag toting, playmat rolling out, Montessori work doin', independent big kid. So sighs my heart...

As you can see, he was more than ready for the start of his big day.

And silly as always.

After putting away his lunchbag, coat and hat,

he changed into his slippers.

Then off to put together cars as an interim task until the official start of the school day.

Bye-bye, mama!

the art of creativity

The most recent issue of Hip Mama, on creativity, really struck a chord with me. As an self-described "art family", creativity is something we live out in our daily life, not just in the moments we spend with charcoal and pastels. This quote in particular really spoke to me:

"My kids keep me creative. As mothers we are forced to improvise our existence to meet the chaos of life. A creative mother sings the scrapes and bruises away, makes sushi pizza as requested and takes their babes on fantastic voyages just before bedtime. Kids press our imaginations beyond the limits of reality. They help us find art in every breath." ~ Rose Norton

Don't get me wrong. Much of the day our creativity plays out like this:

*learning the ins and outs of watercolor pencils

* bathroom science experiments

*knights battling in the window

But just as often, our creativity is in this form:

*new bread recipes, enjoyed fresh from the oven

*watching Mozart - Die Zauberflote Fur Kinder (a live stage version of The Magic Flute) in German

* made up songs to help weepy, cranky or obstinate little ones laugh

Five little Finnegans jumping on the bed. One fell off and bumped his head. Mama gave him arnica and Mama said, "No more Finnegans jumping on the bed"! Four little Finnegans jumping on the bed. One fell off and bumped his head. Mama gave him arnica and Mama said, "No more Finnegans jumping on the bed"! ...and so on.

Passive creativity, as I like to think of it, is more of the backbone of our life rather than the creative goals or projects we consciously plan. But it really isn't all that passive, is it? This choice we make in every moment, at many forked points during the day, to take the road less traveled by dancing our way creatively through this parenting process...this life.

2010, so far...

has been filled with:

::family dinners::

::more handmade gifting::

::extended family visiting (he's my brother, can you tell?)::

::game-playing children::

::celebration of these two sweet boys::

**Photo by JACreative

**Photo by JACreative

::birthday cake eating, recipe here::

::simple foods::

::celebrating with family::

::the completion of Finn's city::

**with special thanks to all of our wonderful family who made this a lovely start to the new year

birthday sweater

Finn's ubiquitous birthday sweater came off the needles just in time. Not in time for his birthday exactly since the pattern didn't call for enough of the the main color yarn and I had to order another skein (which was backordered). When it finally appeared in my mailbox, 3 days before Finn's birthday, Christmas celebrating had commenced so there wasn't a chance to finish the sweater until this week. Fortunately, we celebrated Finn's birthday (and his cousin, Aren, whose birthday falls on Christmas Eve) with family today so he was able to wear his birthday sweater for his party.

I have to say that I'm pretty pleased overall with how the sweater turned out, especially since this was my first sweater, and I, for some reason, thought it would be a good idea to start with stripes.

Isn't he so sweet?! I could eat him for lunch!

The minor detail that I wasn't crazy about was the fact that the sleeves turned out longer than the body of the sweater. I used the size 4-5 pattern, which was spot on for the sleeves, but the body was more like a size 3 so I doubt this sweater will fit him past the fall. If I knit this sweater again, I'll add another 1.5-2 inches to the length of the front and back. I've also started working on a birthday sweater for Elizabeth (due in 1 month) by the same company so I'm more conscious of the length this time.

Onward and upward to more sweater knitting. Now that I've delved into this world, I'm anxious to try different patterns and yarns. I'll keep you posted as Elizabeth's birthday sweater becomes fleshed out and as I start on one for a wee cousin due in the spring.