watch this (a dog and his man)

Have you seen this video? If you have a dog, or even if you don't, you can feel the emotion so vividly. My love for Hank grows every day. But also, after having River, my frustration grows. He seems to make everything a little bit more difficult. Whether it's barking at the mailman during one of River's naps, or getting jealous of the attention everyone else is getting. I try to remember that he's getting used to the new member of the family but it's hard sometimes. After watching this video I just want to give a million squeezes to Hank and tell him how much I love him. Thank goodness for talented people like Ben Moon for making such touching pieces of art.

Enjoy!

(another) california adventure

A few weeks ago we spent a wonderful, long weekend in California. We flew into San Jose and drove up to San Francisco for a few hours. After some tacos here and some ice cream here we made the long trek down to San Luis Obispo for the rest of the weekend. We ate delicious food, spent time on the beach, and played bocce while tasting delicious wines. It was the perfect beach for River's first sand experience (I'm surprised there's any sand left after he ate so much) and we made many, many memories--including River's first flight (he did great). We used to do trips like this quite a bit more frequently, but we have started to come to the realization that with a baby joining our family, these little excursions are far more tiring than they used to be. We certainly don't want to forget about them all together, we just want to be more thoughtful and intentional about our time away from home.

Weekends like this are so rejuvenating. Excited to get the next one on the calendar...

an adventure in baby food

At first, the idea of making food for River was incredibly intimidating.

Where do I start?
What would he like?
What if he hates it after we put that much work into it?
Do I have the time to follow through with it?

And then, we made his first batch and stocked our freezer with it and on his sixth month birthday we let him eat it. And he loved it. Of course, he made funny faces but he didn't spit any out and it was so fun watching him start down this new, exciting world of food. It's such a special thing for Colby and me to make meals together and it's so exciting getting to share that with River.

For his first food we just went with sweet potatoes, and ever since that seems to be his favorite. Although, now he's branching out into other flavors. I thought it was going to be really time consuming and difficult and I was confused about what he could and couldn't eat. I researched lots of baby food blogs to get recipe ideas, but when we started making food I just went with super basic meals. We baked sweet potatoes, and steamed carrots, peas, and greens. I have been using these and these for storage and they've both been great. The Sage Spoonfuls have been our favorite. They come with great labels that peel off easily without leaving a mark--which works out great to be able to send food with River to daycare. Also, they're much more affordable.

Usually, we just spend a few hours on the weekend making enough containers of food to last for a week or two. Every baby is different, but River usually eats one container of food at breakfast, one and a half at lunch, and two for dinner. And once we started it was really easy and we got in to a great rhythm.

Here are a few easy ideas to start out with... you can do more or less of anything because it's all just fruits and veggies.

Baked sweet potatoes - bake for an hour at 400 degrees. Sometimes I add quinoa to this. Puree until smooth in food processor.

Steamed carrots with greens (kale, spinach, chard, brussel sprouts, etc) - steam the carrots until very soft and then add the greens at the very end to steam. You can also do a few containers without the greens. Puree until smooth in food processor. I've been filling the food containers with a little quinoa at the bottom and then putting this on top.

Pears and blueberries - steam the pears with a tiny bit of water until soft and then add the blueberries towards the end. Puree until smooth in food processor.

Apples - steam the apples with a little water and then puree until smooth in food processor.

Baked butternut squash - bake until soft at 350 degrees. Puree or mash with a fork.

We also feed him a lot of fresh avocado mashed up. He's not so in to plain bananas...although that's another great option for an easy meal.

Here are a few more involved recipes that we've had fun making for him...some of them were inspired by the Sprouted Kitchen recipes that you can find here...

Blueberry Banana Oats
4-6 servings
2 cups of water
3/4 cups of oats
1/2 banana, sliced
1/2 cup of blueberries

Bring the water to a boil over medium heat and then add the oats. Cook until they're soft (about 15ish minutes) and then add the bananas and blueberries. Mash in the pan with a potato masher and let cool before serving. 

Lentils with Carrots
8-10 servings
1 cup of red lentils, washed
2 cups of water
6-8 cups of steamed carrots
2 tbsp parsley
1/4 cup of coconut oil
1/8 tsp Salt

Add the lentils and the water to a pan and cook until soft - about 20 minutes. Combine the cooked lentils, steam carrots, parsley, salt, and coconut oil in the food processor and mix until smooth.

Colby and I even made a little extra for us to put over some rice and chicken.

watch this...the mind of a chef

Have you heard of this show on PBS? A friend turned me on to it and I am loving it. If you like to get nerdy about cooking, or like to watch other people get nerdy about it, this is for you. Each episode is about a specific topic (Fresh, Rotten, Southern, etc) and explores the many facets of that topic.

Seasons 1 and 2 are on Netflix right now. And, hopefully, season 3 will be there soon...

an easy breakfast - baked eggs

I love breakfast, but Colby doesn't have much of a sweet tooth, so I'm always trying to find meals that will make both of us happy. When my mom was here to help us out after River was born, she cooked lots and lots of good food for us. One morning, she sat Colby and I on the couch to just relax for a bit and made us a tasty breakfast of baked eggs and fruit. I think she threw some smashed fingerling potatoes on the plate too. I'm not sure...those first few weeks were a little hazy. Anyway, I remember it being delicious and have made it many times since then. And, while nothing is ever as good as when mom makes it, I think this is pretty close.

Baked Eggs
serves 1

You're gonna need...

2 eggs
1 tablespoon of butter
1 sprig of thyme
1 tablespoon mushrooms, chopped
2 cherry tomatoes, chopped
2 teaspoons of parmesan cheese
1 teaspoon Italian parsley, chopped
2 tablespoons heavy cream or half and half
Salt and pepper

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Add 1 tablespoon of butter to a ramekin. Place the ramekin in the oven to melt the butter - just a minute or two. Pull the ramekin out and add 1 tablespoon of cream, then add one egg. Sprinkle with salt and pepper and add the add half of the mushrooms and tomatoes. Add 1 teaspoon of cheese and half of the thyme and parsley. Crack the next egg over this and repeat the previous steps with the veggies and herbs. Pour the last tablespoon of cream on top and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Bake for 27 minutes (more or less depending on how you like your eggs done). 27 minutes will give you pretty hard eggs. You can check on it at 22 minutes and see if it's where you want it.

You can play around with this and add or take away whatever you want. Maybe do rosemary instead of thyme--or both! You could try cilantro, salsa, and peppers. When we have kale in the house I usually add that also. This is a great, versatile breakfast and can be easily multiplied for however many mouths you have to feed.

Enjoy!