Menu Monday - 8/20

Monday: Cheesy Mexican Rice Bake
Tuesday: Bourbon Turkey Tenderloin kabobs, saute swiss chard*, and leftover potato salad.
Wednesday: Shrimp, pasta, alfredo with eggplant and basil*
Thursday: Tuna Sandwiches, corn* and green bean*/tomato* salad
Friday:  Travel
Saturday:  Travel
Sunday: Steak with broccoli and potato

*Food from our CSA share

Read of the Week: Somewhere Only We Know

This isn't an article,but its an exceptional PSA about protecting our National Forests.  Happy Friday!

Love it!: Pinterest Review

Yes, I am one of those people.  I spend hours browsing Pinterest looking for the perfect kitchen color, perfect living room decor, and perfect kids room.  I have my dream house pinned on Pinterest!

What is it?  Pinterest is an online bulletin board for your interests.  You "pin" your "interests!" Remember when you ripped out pages of a magazine of the perfect kitchen or bedroom color and put them in a notebook or up on a bulletin board?  No more!  Now have the whole internet as your inspiration. You just "Pin it" when you see a photo or article you like and it's saved to one of your Pinterest "boards.

Rating:  Love it!

Pros:  All your ideas are all in one place.  It almost takes the place of website bookmarks. I still bookmark my favorite sites, but if I find a great recipie or craft tutorial, I pin in and a photo of the craft or recipie is saved along with the link.  It couldn't me easier!  You can also follow your facebook friends and see what they are pinning.  I steal all my best ideas from friends!

Cons:  There are few privacy settings to limit people from seeing your pins. Once you pin something, the whole world can see it and repin it (repin means they can save it to their board.)  So if you pin a gift for your friend and call it "Great idea for Sally's birthday," it is likely that Sally will see it if she is a member of pinterest. 

Go check it out!

Do: Cheesy Mexican Rice Bake Recipe

I made this up for dinner Monday, and it was so yummy. Pure comfort food!

Ingredients:
1 cup dry white rice
1 can red or black beans
1 can corn
1 can cream of chicken soup
1 cup of salsa
2 cups of cooked boneless chicken breast or thigh, cubed
1 cup shreaded Mexican blend cheese, divided
1/2 tsp cumin
1/2 tsp dried cilantro (fresh would be better!)

Do:
Preheat oven to 350.  Cook your rice according to the package directions.  In a 9x13 casserole pan, mix the beans, corn, cream of chicken soup, salsa, chicken, 1/2 cup of cheese, and spices.  Add cooked rice and stir until blended.  Top with remaining cheese.  Bake for 30 minutes or until warm and bubbly.
Serve with avocado, sour cream, or diced scallions.

Enjoy!

Cloth Diapers - The Basics!

I promise this won't be a cloth diaper blog!  But I wanted to share some Q and As I often get from my friends who don't cloth diaper.

Q.  Why do you cloth diaper JD?
Mainly to save money, but also for environmental reasons.  When I was pregnant, I researched EVERYTHING!  I discovered this whole community of cloth diapering parents and they taught me that modern cloth diapers are functional, affordable, and cute!  I did a quick calculation on the "return on investment" of a cloth diaper stash and I got 8 months!  After 8 months we will diaper JD for FREE!  I was sold.
I won't bore you with all the statistics about disposable diaper trash, but I didn't want to contribute any more trash than I had to.  Cloth diapering, even part time, can drastically reduce your trash!   Full disclosure time:  we do use disposables at night, when we travel and when JD was a newborn (see below), but most days we use cloth.

Q: What did you do when JD was a newborn?

JD at 12 days in a Kissaluvs 0 and Bummis cover

A: For the first few weeks of JD's life, we used a case Earth's Best newborn disposable diapers because we didn't want to have to learn to be parents while trying to figure out the whole cloth diaper thing  (sign up for Amazon Mom and you can order a case of diapers super cheap!) .
We skipped buying a full stash of newborn cloth diapers because we knew he would outgrow them so fast!  A friend gave me 5 Kissaluvs, size 0 and a few Bummis newborn covers that worked great from the start, but I was too chicken to go full time with cloth until JD was about 6 weeks old!  Knowing what I know now, I could have gone fulltime cloth a LOT earlier.  Maybe we will for #2!

At 6 weeks, and about  9-10 lbs,we finally got a good fit with our one-size diapers and started diapering full time with Bumgenius One-Size All-in-One Elemental diapers and Bumgenius 4.0 One-Size Stay Dry Pocket Diapers.

Q. How to you wash the diapers and deal with the Poop!?

A. We have the washing routine down and it really isn't that much work.  We bought a diaper care kit to get us started.  It has everything you need to clean the diapers except the pail (any trash can with a tight lid will work)

Wet diapers just get thrown into a diaper pail that has a washable liner.  Poopy diapers get rinsed off with a diaper sprayer (comes with the kit) that is attached to the toilet, then tossed in the pail.  Every 3rd day, we take the liner out of the pail and toss the whole thing in the washer.  One cold wash Tide original powder to remove any remaining poop, then a hot wash with Charlies soap, followed by another hot wash without soap.  We dry the inserts and all-in ones on medium heat, then toss in all the covers on low heat.  It takes 2 rounds in the dryer to get the all in one diapers dry.

Q. Do you touch Poop?

A. To be honest, I think I have to deal with more poop with disposables because the are more likely to leak and I have to not only change the diaper, but his clothes too!  There have been so few leaks with the cloth diapers that I am tempted to start traveling with them! 

Q.  Don't cloth diapers cost a lot of money?

A.  We've spent about $350 on our diapers, laundry soap, and washing kit (we should broke even when JD hits 8 months! After that, it's all gravy!).  We bought most of our diapers on e-bay, as seconds or used.  This saved a ton of money.  Cottonbabies.com has clearance sales every few months that includes seconds and returned diapers.  Ebay is great and you can find new diapers for cheap (lots of people try cloth diapers and give up - then sell off their diapers for 1/2 the price).  From my flats challenge post you can see how you can cloth diaper for under $100!

Gently Used Diapers websiteshttp://www.jilliansdrawers.
com/products/clothdiapers/gentlyused
http://www.diaperjunction.com/
used-cloth-diapers.html


Other Websites to browse
http://dirtydiaperlaundry.com/
cloth-diaper-video-reviews/
http://community.babycenter.
com/groups/a16235/cloth_diapering
http://www.jilliansdrawers.
com/products/clothdiapers/tryclothfor10

Menu Monday - 8/13

Here was last week's menu.

Leftover Lobster + Mayo  = AWESOME LOBSTER ROLL!

Monday: Lobster Roll with left over lobster!
Tuesday: Easy Chicken Enchilada
Wednesday: Fish Sandwich, corn* and Cole Slaw*
Thursday: Fried Eggplant* Parmesan and salad*
Friday:  Pizza and salad*
Saturday:  FYOD (Find your own Dinner - Leftovers in our house!)
Sunday: Burgers, salad*, and Loaded Potato* Salad

*Food from our CSA share

CSA Share this week!

Happy Birthday Nana!

JD wanted to wish his Nana a Happy Birthday! 

 

I made a video of this photo shoot....check it out!

Do: Fried eggplant and/or Zucchini Recipe

Summer is here, so it's time to make fried zucchini with all the extra zucchini you have coming out of your garden!  Actually, this is the first time we are making fried zucchini this year because our zucchini plants got trampled...so sad.  But that is a story for another day!  We just got our first zucchini and eggplant from our CSA so it was time to make this yummy family recipe.  It's so easy and SOOOOOO good.

Fried Zucchini and Eggplant (YUM!)

Ingredients:
1-2 zucchini (big ones work great!)
and/or eggplant (peel the eggplant because it's tough)
3 eggs (I use about 1 egg per zucchini//eggplant)
1-2 c. flour
grated parmesan cheese
lemon
vegetable oil

Do:
In a large frying pan, add enough oil to cover the bottom of your pan.  Warm oil on medium-high heat.
Cut your zucchini and eggplant into thin slices.  Make sure you peel your eggplant.
In a shallow bowl, scramble your eggs.  Pour 1 cup of flour in another shallow bowl.  Once your oil is hot enough (I drop a little water in the pan and if it sizzles, it's hot!,) dip your zucchini slices in the egg wash first, coating both sides.  Then dip the slices in the flour, coating completely.  Place in pan in one layer.  After about 2 minutes (or when golden brown,) turn with a fork.  Cook 2 more minutes. Place on a paper towel to cool.  Sprinkle with lemon and grated parmesan cheese while still hot. Continue until you cook all your zucchini/eggplant.  It usually takes 3-4 rounds to finish it all.  Make sure you add the lemon and cheese after every round.
Serve with pasta and red sauce.

My cooking station:  Egg, Flour, Cook, Cool, Lemon, Cheese!

Toddler Approved!

Enjoy!

Menu Monday-8/6

Here was last week's menu. I hope to post the fried zucchini recipe tomorrow.

Monday: Hot Dogs, salad, and Tots
Tuesday: Burgers, broccoli* and corn*
Wednesday: Fried eggplant* and Zucchini* with pasta
Thursday: Chicken with Mushrooms, green beans* and Rice
Friday:  Pizza and caprese salad
Saturday:  Lobster (It's $3.99/lb!) and corn
Sunday: FYOD (Find your own Dinner - Leftovers in our house!)
*Food from our CSA share

Do: Pizza

When I was in high school I worked at a pizza joint and I still love to toss pizza!  Every Friday we have pizza at our house.....here is how we do it.

Ingredients:

1 pizza dough ball from the Deli

Dusting of Flour

1 8oz can of tomato sauce

Sprinkle of dried basil and oregano

Fresh mozzarella or shredded mozzarella

Toppings of your choice:  We usually do 1/3 cheese,1/3 meat, 1/3 veggie.

Do:

First you need to thaw your dough for about 8 hours if it is frozen.  Frozen dough works just as well as dough from your deli. 

Preheat your oven to 450. I unwrap my dough ball and dunk it in the flour, coating it on all sides.  On a floured surface, flatten out your dough ball, working out all the air bubbles.  If you leave in the air bubbles, you may get one of those giant bubbles on your cooked pizza.  Then I toss it.  I'm sure you can find a youtube video on this....I may try to make one net week!

After your dough is stretched to the size of your pizza pan, spread out your sauce.  I like to use the back of a spoon to spread it around.

Then I give a generous sprinkle of basil and oregano (use your best judgement.)

Pizza with sauce and spices.

Toppings:  1/3 Turkey pepperoni and Bacon, 1/3 tomato and basil, 1/3 cheese.

Once the sauce is on, I like to lay out my toppings, then the cheese.  Some people like the toppings on top of the cheese, this is your choice.  JD likes shredded cheese, so his chunk is shredded, while the rest is slices of fresh mozzarella.

Ready to bake!

 Bake for 12 minutes or until the bottom is golden brown.

Fresh out of the oven!

Wait about 5 minutes before cutting so the cheese can set.

Serve with a salad.  Enjoy!

Read of the Week:Honesttoddler

This is sooooo JD!
Enjoy the read!

http://honesttoddler.wordpress.com/2012/07/26/recipes/

Love it!: Bumgenius 3.0/4.0 Stay Dry Pocket Diaper

Here is my first "Love it!" product review! Since I migrated all my Flat Diaper/Handwashing Challenge posts over from Domestic Dirt, I thought I'd start with a cloth diaper review! 

Bumgenius 3.0/4.0 Stay Dry Pocket Diaper

Rating: Love it! (snaps) Like it (hook and loop)

What is it?:  Bumgenius 3.0/4.0 stay dry pocket diapers are modern cloth diapers have a pocket made of suedecloth (soft) that you stuff absorbent inserts into.  The 3.0 versions come in velcro (hook and loop) and the 4.0 version comes in both snap and hook and loop.   In my experience, they fit from about 9-10 lbs to 35lbs.

Here is JD in a 4.0 snap version on the middle rise at 4 months and about 17 lbs.

Bumgenius retail for $17.95,but often are on sale for $14.50 each when you buy 6.  I bought several of JD's new, but over half of my stash are "last chance" diapers that cottonbabies.com offers occasionally.  These  "last chance" diapers are used and in need of repair, but cost only $1-2!

Pros:   Bumgenius are trim and they work!  What more can you ask for in a diaper!   The suedecloth wicks the wetness away from the baby so they feel dry.  JD seems to like the stay dry better than having wet cotton against his skin.  It's more like a disposable diaper where all the wetness gets locked into the inside of the diaper!  The hook and loop versions are very easy to put on (especially in the middle of the night!)  I like that you can customize the amount of absorbency by stuffing it with different kinds of inserts. The come with 2 microfiber inserts, but at 21 months, we now stuff all JD's Bumgenius with one pad folded flat and a 3-layer bamboo insert.

Here is JD in a Bumgenius 3.0 at 17 months and 30 lbs.

Cons:  Like most pocket diapers, you have to take out the microfiber insert before you wash it and then stuff it back in again after the wash.  Just an extra step, which when you are tired seems like a mountain of work!
The hook and look versions haven't held up over time.  After about 8 months of use, the hook and loop started to fray, and lost their stickiness.  I have replaced the  hook and loop  on several of my diapers which costs about $3 in supplies to accomplish.  I also bought snap pliers and some KAM snaps and converted some to snaps to avoid the  hook and loop issues in the future.  A set of pliers cost about $20 and snaps run about $5 set, which will fix 5 diapers.
The biggest con with Bumgenius is the microfiber inserts.  They hold a TON of liquid, but get stinky over time.  I've stripped them with dawn, beached them, changed my laundry soup, but they still stink.  Ever since I took the Flat Diaper/Handwashing Challenge in May, we have used only cotton flats and bamboo inserts in my Bumgenius and they work great.  

Disclaimer:  I was not paid or "perked" to give this review.  I bought all my Bumgenius from cottonbabies.com or the cloth diaper swap on babycenter.com.

Buy Local with Community Supported Agriculture (CSA)!

By now most people have heard of CSA or Community Supported Agriculture. 

Community Supported Agriculture or CSA is a partnership between consumers and farmers in which members buy shares of the farm’s harvest and enjoy regular allotments of food throughout the growing season. For farmers, this provides much needed cash flow for the beginning of the season, as well as a ready market and community of supporters. Shareholders join in the risks of the growing season but reap the benefits of the harvest.

Source: http://seacoasteatlocal.org/

When I moved to New Hampshire 6 years ago, I had no idea CSA shares existed.  I often went to the local farmers market and bought what I liked (tomatoes, lettuce, beans) and kinda squinted strangely at things with names like kohlrabi and kale.  By mid-summer that first year, I noticed some of the farmers at the market had grocery bags of food set aside that people would come pick up.  I drooled over the plump red tomatoes and corn on the cob in the bags set to the side.  The remaining vegetables for sale at  the stand were pretty picked over and there was a sign that they were out of corn.  This confused me.  So I asked one of the farmers how I could get some of the bagged veggies.  She explained that those were farm shares that people pre-bought at the beginning of the year.  She also explained that by buying a share, you get the "first picked" and the best.  You are guaranteed a bag of food every week for 20 weeks and you will get a little of everything to try.  Wow, that sounded great!  Too bad it was July and the shares sell out in March.

Fast forward 5 years, I finally got my act together in March and bought a "half share" at Heron Pond Farm in S. Hampton, NH.  Before I picked Heron Pond Farm, I went our winter farmers market CSA fair in January, talked with some farmers there, and looked at their brochures.  I discovered there were 10 farms that delivered to my local area!  After a little more research, I decided on Heron Pond Farm because they offered a half share, which was cheaper and about 1/2 the food.  A half share sounds like the best plan because I was afraid I would get overwhelmed with all the food!

Like all CSAs, I had to prepay for my farm share, but over 20 weeks, it averages $17 a week.  With the increase cost of food at the grocery store, that's not too bad!  Here is what we picked up Monday: 2 tomatoes, 2 peaches, 1 lb potatoes, 1/2 lb beans', 2 ears sweet corn, 1 eggplant, 1 onion, 1 bunch carrots, 1 head broccoli, 1 pepper, and a bag of greens. What a haul! 



Why do we love our CSA?  Not only do CSA support local farmers and the local economy, but we are eating fresher, more sustainably grown food.  Our farm share isn't certified organic, but they are low spray and I am confident in their farming practices because I talk to the farmer every week!   We also get to try a variety of foods I would normally buy just browsing the farmers market.

Anyone try a CSA this season?  Do you love it?