Back again

I’ve been a busy. Back to working part time while being a full time mama. My little baby is now 8 months old and I’ve started giving her solids. I followed baby led weaning guidelines with my older daughter. If you are not familiar with baby led weaning, here are a few highlights:

– wait until baby can sit independently and shows an interest in solids.
– give baby soft foods that you are eating. This includes things like steamed veggies, avocado, and other foods that are not highly spiced. Kate’s first food was steamed sweet potato.
– give an ounce of water in a sippy with meals.

That’s it in a nutshell.

My other past time is cooking. My hubby and I are trying to cut down on our expenses. Eating out and convenience foods are a huge budget buster. So I’ve been trying to cook almost all our meals at home. If we eat out once a week, that would be a vast improvement.

Of course to help me do that, I had to get some new kitchen toys.
– a bread maker. This helps me make organic breads. I can buy a 5 lb bag of organic flour for about $4. A jar of yeast is $2. The bag of flour makes at least 6 loaves of bread. When I buy a loaf of organic bread, it can cost me between $4 and $5.
– a juicer. I bought an Omega 8004 which is a masticating juicer. This is definitely a luxury item but I love fresh juices. This helps use up veggies that I don’t feel like cooking but need to use up.
– an Instapot. This is an electric pressure cooker. I have been using it for making soups. But I hear that it is wonderful for cooking beans. It can cook dry beans in under an hour!

So we’ll see how much I spend on food this month. Our goal is to save enough money to start furnishing and fixing up our home without creating debt.

Here’s a random picture of the dessert I made last night. It’s a peanut butter cookie milkshake. I am vegan so now cows were harmed in the making of this dessert:)

Book Review: Eat and Run

Like I said before, I love reading and thinking about becoming an ultra runner.  It just sounds so romantic.  Having a goal, communing with nature, and becoming one with pain.  Almost like giving birth.
I’ve read several books on running before.

• What I think about while running by Haruki Murakami
• Born to Run by Christopher McDougall
• Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand

Now… I have run a half marathon in the past but I haven’t been too consistent with fitness.  I’m trying hard and my goal is to do a long run next year.  It’s pretty hard for me to train with two little girls but I will put in an effort when they don’t need me.

Eat and Run is an interesting autobiography of Scott Jurek, ultra marathoner and vegan.  It shares his struggles and triumph growing up with a sick mother and carnivorous family.  I thought he wrote the book well and even included recipes at the end of each chapter.

I don’t think I can write anything earth shattering about the book but it really struck me how running was a journey for this man.  He had journeyed through college, the Barrancas, and Death Valley on his two feet.  Although he runs fast, he slows down to appreciate life.  As a society, humans have lost the ability to slow down and enjoy the earth.  This man enjoys the act of running and fueling his body both with his chosen activity and the food he eats.  He truly is what he eats.

I don’t think I’ll be running ultra marathons in my life but I can always take out an hour to just enjoy the earth and moving my body.  I’ve been so wired to technology for a good portion of the decade and I want to distance myself a bit from it and instead live life.  Who needs to read about or look at pictures on the internet when I could be outside breathing some fresh air and moving my body the way nature intended.  Even if you can’t run races or even run, you can do that at least once a day.  It’s good for the soul.

I am intending on getting to the gym today.  There is a strength class I want to attend this afternoon.  Today is supposed to be a scorcher.  It’s already up to the 90’s so I think spending my time exercising indoors would be prudent.  Especially since I am definitely not conditioned to outdoor exercising.

I made dinner last night for my non-vegan friend who was visiting from out of town and my parents.  Of course I used the Happy Herbivore cookbooks and we had chickpea tacos and the Southwest Chop Salad.  Both were a hit.  I also made some vegan lactation cookies and spanish rice for my daughter.  She has a thing for spanish rice.

I loved having my friend down for the weekend.  We haven’t seen each other since my wedding about 4 years ago and we hardly talk on the phone since neither one of us is a phone talker but it felt like she’d been in my life everyday.  We caught up immediately and had so much fun.  I love when someone is just “easy”.  We don’t have any pretenses or agendas.  We just really enjoy each others company.  There are several people in this world that I can do this with and I am grateful for this.

 

 

Breakfast

I wanted to use up some spinach that was starting to get slimy so I thought green smoothie for breakfast this morning.  My go to recipe is from the Delicious and quick and has fruit and veggies. I also had a slice of whole wheat toast with natural peanut butter and strawberry jam. Yum.

Perfunctury Introduction

I am a mom of two little girls, a nurse, and at the moment stay at home mom.  A job that I find immensely challenging and rewarding.  I will be going back to work in November and am very sad that I cannot remain a full time mommy and home maker.  I live in sunny Southern California and am an accidental Attachment Parenting practitioner.  Meaning all of the parenting I do actually has a name.  I breastfeed, baby wear, cloth diaper, and co-sleep.  The breastfeeding was deliberate.  Baby wearing and co-sleeping evolved out of necessity.  I also am newly plant based.  I have been a long time ovo-lacto vegetarian.  However, after reading all the health benefits of a plant based (aka vegan) diet, I am transitioning.  It’s hard with societal and familial pressure to eat unhealthy foods.  I am definitely not perfect but I am trying hard.

I’m not quite sure why I decided to start a blog.  Perhaps to chronicle my daughters growing up.  Maybe to keep track of recipes I have tried.  Maybe to share photos.  I love books, food, and I’m attempting to get more fit by exercising.  With two little ones, it is very hard to find the time but I know how important it is.  I’m lucky enough to have my parents close by who will take the kids at a moments’ notice.

I will try to post regularly.  But who knows.  I don’t even know if I’ll tell my friends and family that I am writing this blog.  Maybe it will be just for me.