The new, Glam, BRAT diet

As summer comes to an end and my little munchkin gets some sort of dreaded tummy bug, both her diaper and her belly need a little extra TLC. After many diapers of disaster in the last 48 hours, Delilah has been put on a probiotic a la doctor to restore health to her GI tract as well as a modified BRAT diet a la mama.

She got her beloved banana at breakfast, and would eat it at every meal if I let her. For her Rice course, the mama provided a decadent mushroom risotto. I absolutely love risottos because you can dress them up so many ways! I had some local eggplant just sitting, begging to be used, so I grilled them and stacked them between mounds of the warm risotto to satisfy the inner chef in me.

Don't fret, I served it with a side of Gianelli Turkey Sausage for our protein. And also because I can't spell apparently and thought chicken was one of the foods for the Brat diet (Delilah prefers Turkey as her poultry of choice, and now so do I!).  (I just checked and Wikipedia says BRATCH, the "CH" being for chicken, is a variation, so there!).

I took this opportunity to make a double batch to freeze for my stock of back-to-work grab and go. I froze both the risotto in single serve portions as well as a few portions of protein by mixing the sausage with some leftover organic kidney beans. I also set up a tray of toddler sized portions to serve Delilah. Double score!

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As for the "A", she had her probiotic hidden in some unsweetened organic applesauce (a real treat since she never gets purees anymore other than in her yogurt ). I have yet to give her toast- because I don't eat bread and that would mean going back out to the store. Maybe I should grab a loaf of organic bread and leave it in the freezer for future situations?

Make-Ahead Time Saver

It is getting to be that time of year where I have a giant mixed bag of emotions...school is starting! Being a teacher is unique because you never outgrow those feelings from when you were 5 years old and first started school. Excitement, nervousness, anger that summer is coming to an end.

One of the emotions I am battling with has to do with time. As a mother we are always worried about time. I know that when I get home from work I have exactly one hour to prepare and eat our dinner, play with my cuddle monkey, and if it is bath night then I only have 40 minutes for all of those things. It really is not a lot of time as my little mini-me is asleep in her crib by 6:30 every night (I know, it seems early but it is at her request!). Also, in the morning I will have zero play time as we have to get her up from her slumber at 7:30 to have her changed and dressed for daycare.

 Last school year I struggled with having her food ready to go to daycare let alone having mine made for the day and dinner on top of that. This year I have a plan! I will create make-ahead meals that can be left in the fridge for a week or in the freezer for longer. If I am going to actually make that work for at least a few weeks (let's face it, it can't really work for the long run as I am a foodie and can not deny my need for freshness), I need to start NOW. I have exactly 15 days, 4 hours and 19 minutes before I have to go back to work.

I bet many other moms could use some freezer make and take ideas, so here is the one I started with: it is a twist on a recipe found here: http://www.myrecipes.com/recipe/cilantro-pear-turkey-sausage-50400000117233/. The changes I made were doubling the recipe, using organic ground pork, which has less fat then conventional ground pork (I got it on sale for less than $3 a lb!), and using a spray oil.  I served it with a fresh tomato-basil-cucumber salsa and baked organic sweet potato wedges. After dinner I split half the patties in half and stored each half with a whole patty in Ziplock baggies in the freezer. That way I can pull a perfect 3 oz portion out as needed.

   

Sharing is Caring

I feel so blessed that Delilah is an adventurous eater. I am very proud of the fact that she is very disciplined in her food education thus far. Lately she has been eyeing my plate in a different way, noticing how my food looks different than hers (i.e. it is not cut into tiny bite size pieces!). Though they are the same foods on each of our plates, now she wants her food to look like mine.

Tonight she decided to go for the 3-4 inch long string bean from my plate and found that it was in fact too difficult for her to chew herself. Again, I am so proud that this moment of frustration did not result in a tantrum.  Rather, she choose to explore her options, and after a few tries, settled on feeding the sting bean to me up until the last half-inch at which point I handed the rest back to her. That was an acceptable form of compromise according to Delilah, and me, too! Now what to do about a favorite summer time treat, crabs....... :)

First Kiss

Little girls think about their first kiss very early on. There are many kinds of first kisses.  Like the one at your 5th birthday party when your prince charming wakes you from your pretend slumber at your princess themed festivity (yes, I have cool parents!).  Or the one on the playground in elementary school. Then there is the one that you were dared to do in middle school. And of course the one from your first boyfriend in high school.  All those kisses only have one thing on the big smoocher I recently got tonight: they were sloppy and wet!

As we continue to experience many firsts with our darling 13 month old, I have never been caught as surprised as I was when Delilah planted one huge open mouthed kiss in my mouth/chin region at the end of our bedtime routine.  After a long week of trying to keep up with the tiny energizer bunny/food guzzler/ diaper hoarder/only-wants-to-go-outsider, this was the best first kiss I have ever had (sorry, Bryan).  It took all I had not to cry but to carry forth my loving mini-me to her crib where she ravenously scooped up her second and third paci, cuddled up to her lovey and sat up to graciously accept my nightly kiss on her precious little head.

Cuddle Love

There is nothing quite like the cuddles of your baby in your arms.  In the first months of her life, that is all we did outside of feedings, diaper changes and sleeping.  Those cuddle moments are precious, and everyone warns you how one day they won't want to cuddle. But before that future tragic strikes, I am relishing in having Delilah leave her toy to rush over into my arms, often on her own accord but occasionally when I ask, "Mama, Love?" with outreached arms.  

We have a nightly routine that has been the same since she was 3 months old: we get changed for the night, lotioned up and hair brushed while daddy prepares her room for slumber and selects three books. Then Delilah sits in Bryan's lap while I read. The past few weeks Delilah has taken to stacking the books in her lap and browsing through them on her own for a few minutes when I am done reading. Tonight was the first night that, when finished her book hoarding, she climbed out of Bryan's lap and laid down across me for a body hug. She looked up at me with her piercing blue eyes and snuggled me tighter. My heart just melted.  

A few months ago Bryan and I felt like we were drawing sticks for who was going to put her to bed because it was such a long affair of rocking and feeding. Now, we skip the rocking chair, carry her to her crib, singing one round of our nightly song (which we use to sing for 5-10 minutes!!) and lay her down on her back, placing her extra paci in one hand and her lovey in the other. She looks up and says something through her paci-plugged mouth in gibberish that I am pretty sure is "I love you, too" and we leave the room. It truly is magical! I have been looking forward to these sort of reciprocated and random cuddles as well as the easy bed time since my head came out of its hormone induced cloud at 2 weeks post-natal. 

And though I am happy she is tucked in her crib for the night, I still miss holding her cuteness and will stalk photos and videos of her on my phone for the rest of the night. 

Finding the Time

I often think about things I want to write, to remember, to be able to share with Delilah when she is older. Finding the time to do so is incredibly hard.  All moms know this. And I use to feel bad about not blogging. But now I feel zero guilt. I am a working mom. I am a wife. And I am creating memories by spending the time not blogging with my beautiful daughter.

Speaking of, Delilah has settled into the most amazing sleeping pattern. She sleeps 6-6:30pm-6:30-7am (except for this morning when she woke up at 7:45!). This has led to me being able to take the time to take care of me and also to be a wife to my husband. I have recently been eating a mostly clean diet with regular meal planning and going to the gym. I have attained my pre-pregnancy weight and with that gained my confidence back. I feel like myself both physically and emotionally. I feel more able to live in the moment when I am playing and holding my daughter because I know I have other things in order for later: I cook on certain nights after she goes to sleep for a few days at a time; I plan ahead when I will go to the gym so my husband will pick up Delilah from daycare; I split household chores with my husband which we do during her naps on the weekends and when she is a sleep in the evenings.

I am very lucky to have a husband who shares these tasks with me (he was taught well by his parents:) ). I am very lucky to have a wonderful woman that helps us raise our daughter while we are at work. And I am blessed with an extraordinary daughter to which I dedicate this blog to so that she may one day see what her life was like when she was so young.

A Case of Formula

When my daughter decided to wean around 4 1/2 months I had to jump into high gear way before I thought I would need to find out what formula would be a right fit for us. I already knew that she would be getting something organic. I have read too much about GMO's, reproductive/hormone disruptive ingredients found in generic, non-organic foods and their effects on behavior.

However, I am also aware that not all organic labels are equal. For example, arsenic is a common chemical found in the natural world, including our food,  but that doesn't mean you want to feed it to anyone! A lot of organic foods have rice or apple in it, two foods which often contain higher levels of arsenic. There are other naturally occurring harmful chemicals in other foods as well, organic or not.

With this knowledge I went forth to conquer the realm of formula and came across this lovely article which helped me make my decision: http://foodbabe.com/2013/05/28/how-to-find-the-safest-organic-infant-formula/. One other deciding factor: a miss Delilah Poppy's taste approval. It took her a month to fully wean so we tried a few different kinds in those early weeks. I finally settled on Baby's Only Organic Dairy Formula by Nature's Way. Based on what I read about how they choose their ingredients, and that fact that their DHA Formula comes from eggs, not Fish Oil (which contains mercury), I feel comfortable giving Delilah this necessary item.

We get it ordered by the case from VitaCost but I have also bought it singly at Wegman's, My Organic Market, and Common Market. I have yet to see it available in the other superstores and grocery stores in my area.

As I said earlier, I did not plan on having formula in our house for a very long time, if ever: I thought  wanted hoped she would breastfeed till I had to wean her. That said, we are very happy with this formula.