White Orchid Melody

I’m preparing this recipe for a stocking stuffing party we are hosting this weekend.  We are making stockings for an Army National Guard Unit that is serving in Iraq.  This is a modification of a recipe that I got from a local restaurant.  I ordered it everytime I went there, and then they took it off the menu, so I begged for the recipe!  Lasagna is time consuming, but oh-so-good!  You could make double and freeze one uncooked for later use.

Vegetable Lasagna

4 c. Broccoli Florets, steamed and chopped
3 c. White Bread Crumbs
1 c. 2% Milk
½ c. Olive Oil
2 c. Ricotta Cheese
1.5 lb Frozen Spinach, Thawed
¾ c. Parmesan Cheese
1 Tbsp Lemon Juice
½ tsp Thyme
½ tsp Basil
½ Tbsp Sea Salt
¼ tsp Ground Nutmeg (optional)

Combine above ingredients for filling mix.

1 lb Lasagna Noodles
Marinara Sauce
Mozzarella Cheese
Baby Spinach

Blanche noodles and chill in ice bath.  In greased pan, layer sauce, noodles, filling mix, fresh spinach, and cheese.  Repeat for four layers omitting fresh spinach on top layer.  Sprinkle with herbs and cover with foil.  Bake at 350 for 25 minutes.  Remove foil and finish about 12 minutes.

We had a very nice trip home to see my family last week.  The car ride was a bit long and very uncomfortable, but it was worth it.  We stayed with my grandmother and she fed us non-stop!  We probably consumed a month worth of calories over 4 days! 

My cousin and his wife had a baby in October, so we got to meet him.  It’s strange, even though I’m having a baby in just a couple months, I still have no desire to hold other people’s babies.  It’s not that I dislike them or anything; I’m just not compelled.  Anyway, they are following the attachment parenting method with their babe.  It is one of those things that sounds good in theory, but makes me wonder about quality of life for the parents.  It is more of a simple-living approach, but at what expense?  Take co-sleeping, for example.  It gets a lot of heat from different “authorities” on the degree of safety (concern for SIDS).  But truthfully, it is done all over the world, and if done properly poses little risk to the infant.  But from what I have read, ”properly” means that the parents cannot sleep with covers on the bed, as the infant could suffocate.  That would never work for me.  I am only content to sleep with my giant down comforter.  I would feel naked without it!  Furthermore, Brian is such a heavy sleeper, I’d be worried about him rolling over on the baby.  And I sleep so lightly anyway, I think I’d be jolted awake everytime Brian moved or the baby wimpered.  Quality of sleep matters.  You aren’t getting much with an infant anyway, so it seems like you’ll want to sleep well when the opportunity arises. 

Over the holiday, I read a book that a friend let me borrow, The Baby Whisperer.  The author’s approach is somewhere between the Sears or attachment parenting method and the cry-it-out approach.  I thought it was a good read.  Some of her reasons behind avoiding “on-demand” feeding made sense to me.  Parent sanity is top on the list.  But also, she gave examples of parents feeding the baby too frequently, which with breastfeeding meant that the baby wasn’t getting the full cycle (to hind milk).  This was causing indigestion for the babe and no sleep for anyone.  I also appreciate the fact that this book was written by a woman who has been practicing what she preaches and has learned all this from her first hand experience, rather than by a doctor.  I think in general, people get overly worked up about parenting techniques.  I don’t think our parents were reading 58 books on how to raise their children.  And most of us turned out okay.  I, for one, don’t remember lying afraid in my crib.  I don’t seem to have any permanent scars from that experience.  But of course, this whole train of thought may be thrown right out the window when I actually bring my baby home! 

These vegetarian Sloppy Joes make a quick family dinner.  Good messy fun!  Serve on a toasted wheat bun with your favorite side dishes.

1 Tbsp Canola Oil
1 Medium Onion, finely chopped
½ c Mixed Bell Peppers, finely chopped
3 Garlic Cloves, minced
Sea Salt
Cracked Pepper
Dash Celery Seed
1 pkg Soy Crumble (Morningstar or Boca)
1 – 15oz can Tomato Sauce
¼ c Ketchup
1 Tbsp Worcestershire Sauce

In a large skillet, heat oil over medium-high heat.  Add onion, peppers, garlic, and seasonings.  Cook, stirring frequently until vegetables are softened, 5 to 7 minutes.  Add Soy Crumble.  Cook until thawed.  Stir in tomato sauce, ketchup, and Worcestershire sauce. Simmer until thickened, stirring occasionally.
Season with more salt and pepper as desired.  Scoop onto toasted wheat buns.  Enjoy!

I’ve always been doctor-adverse.  So even though I love my OBGYN, I still don’t like all the appointments and procedures.  I had my gestational diabetes screening yesterday and had to drink the glucola, which is like flat orange soda with 50 grams of dextrose!  I was on a sugar high for about 30 minutes and then crashed and felt like crap!  Plus I got to spend the rest of the day worrying if I’d passed or failed.  Thanksgiving at Grandma’s wasn’t going to be much fun on a GD diet!  But they called this morning and I passed.  That was a relief.  I was just pondering what a silly thing it is to put most women under undue stress for all this testing.  Everytime we’ve had a procedure done I have a ton of anxiety over the potential outcome.  And I am a pretty healthy person, not at risk for any issues or complications.  They should really use more discretion with ordering the tests, I think.  But in the age of litigation I guess they have to cover all the bases.  I guess I should just be relieved that I passed the test and all is well with baby and mom.  Now I can look forward to Thanksgiving dinner!

I find it hard to get on here and post when Brian has long weekends.  We always seem so busy!  Saturday we had our childbirth class at the hospital.  It was good.  It covered the “what to do’s”…like how to know when you are really in labor, when to go to the hospital, how to preregister, etc.  We got to tour the OB ward, see the delivery room, the recovery room, the nursery.  The nursery was very small as the babies room in with mom unless she requests otherwise.  I like that.  For the most part, I liked the hospital set up quite a lot and think it will be a good experience.  The class also covered some breathing and positions, but in a very limited capacity.  The RN teaching it said that something like 88% of women get epidurals, so I guess they don’t see the point in spending much time on natural pain management.  Well I’m hoping to be in the 12% of women who don’t.  So, I was glad I’d done some reading ahead of time.  I really liked The Birth Book by William and Martha Sears.  It is geared towards a natural (non-medicated) birth using relaxation techniques.  For example, the breathing they advocate is slow and controlled to relax the body, much like in Yoga.  The class I took, by contrast, taught the “panting” breathing–hee-hee-hee-hoo!  That is the Lamaze method I believe.  The relaxed breathing comes from the Bradley method.  According to the Birth Book, the idea behind the relaxed breathing came from animal studies where Mr. Bradley found that dogs pant during birth, but horses don’t.  Why?  Because dogs don’t sweat so they have to pant to stay cool.  As horses, like people, are able to sweat, there is no need to pant.  Rapid breathing sends stress signals to the body.  I could tell just from practicing the Lamaze breathing that it made my body tense up and that was without the pain of a contraction!  Overall, though, I’d say it was a good class. 

Sunday was a beautiful day, so we went for a hike at Cliff Cave park.  I’m pretty slow these days, but it was still really pretty and good to get outside for a couple hours.  We took Susie along and she had a good time too.  Then I had grading to finish for my class, which takes forever.  Grading is the one thing that I think would keep me from wanting to ever teach full time.  That and staff meetings! 

Monday I had errands to run in the morning.  I sold a necklace from my store on etsy.com (see sidebar) and went to the post office to send it out….only to find that they were closed.  I’d forgotten that it was Veterans’ Day.  That’s why Brian was off work.  So, I had to cross bank off my list too.  Monday holidays always throw me off!  But I picked up some design boards from a friend of mine to show to my class.  I’m trying to teach them the marketing/merchandising end of the design process as well.  I think that is something the program has been lacking.  What happens to the garment after it is designed and constructed?  I think they end up designing in a bubble without that knowledge.  And there are no bubbles when you are designing for a company.  Everybody is in your business!   

Well that was our busy weekend.  Today we have a doctor’s appointment.  I have to drink this gross glucose stuff for a gestational diabetes test.  Not looking forward to that.  And really not looking forward to being put on a diet if I fail!  Wouldn’t make the holidays much fun at all! 

I finished reading Your Money or Your Life.  Now I’ll go back, reread, and apply the techniques.  There was a chapter on defining work that got me thinking.  One of the concepts was to take the pressure off finding the perfect job by realizing that the only thing you get from a job that you can’t get elsewhere is pay.  So, find a job with good pay and maximize the return on your time.  Meanwhile, you minimize expenses and increase savings until you have enough savings to produce passive income to cover all your expenses.  Then you can work your dream job without having to worry about how much money you make doing it. 

Well, I want to open my own shop and I’m torn on the timing of it.  Do I open it in the next year and use that to make money, or do I wait until we are financially independent to open it so that I don’t have to stress over whether or not it is making money?  According to this book, I should employ myself in whatever ways make the most money.  It is highly unlikely that a shop would bring me more money than some of the other things I’m qualified to do.  But, as a business owner there is an investment and potential return if you grow it into a successful endeavor and then sell it.  Having the shop without worrying about income is a comforting thought–the easy way out.  It lets you off the hook of having to work hard to market and grow the business.  It makes failure less scary.  Going out on your own while you and your family depend on your income is daunting.  That fear of failure looms large.  But successful people are those who are willing to take risks. 

I tend to overthink everything.  I want the planning completely done before I take a step.  Which means I don’t take many steps.  I find myself deliberating over whether I should pursue multiple paths to income or find a lucrative, yet tolerable full time job.  With a baby on the way, I lean away from any full time endeavor.  My fear on either path is that I won’t like what I choose and will have wasted the time and effort getting there.  Meanwhile, I waste all sorts of time with this internal dialogue, debating with myself.  I keep telling myself “just do it!”  But my brain keeps answering back, “do what?”  The answer is probably “anything.”  I guess I need motivation.  A reason to make the effort other than my own happiness since I’m capricious and happiness isn’t guaranteed.  Perhaps I could pursue any of the fifty different ways to make money with the goal of saving that money to open a shop.  At least then there is a fixed goal. 

This is a simple but hearty soup for a cool fall day.  I usually make cornbread with mine, but it’s also good in a sourdough bread bowl.  You can use canned beans or cook your own from dried.  If you don’t like spicy, omit the serrano peppers and the cayenne pepper.  The red pepper flakes add flavor, but not much heat.

2 cups dried black beans (or 4 cans)
2 carrots (or 1 cup baby carrots), diced
1 cup frozen corn
1 onion, chopped
4 cloves garlic, minced
4 serrano chili peppers (more or less to taste), chopped
2 Tbsp olive oil
1 Tbsp cumin
1 tsp garlic salt
1 tsp onion powder
1/2 tsp red pepper flakes
dash of cayenne pepper
2 cups vegetable broth
3 cups of crushed tomatoes (you can also use Rotel tomatoes w/ green chiles)

Cook black beans.  Heat oil in stock pot.  Add onions, garlic, and peppers.  Saute until onions are tender.  Add spices and stir to combine.  In blender or food processor, puree half of beans along with onion mixture.  Return to stock pot.  Add broth, tomatoes, and remaining beans.  Stir well and bring to a boil.  Reduce to simmer and add carrots and corn.  Continue to simmer an hour or so, until carrots are tender and flavors have melded, stirring periodically to avoid sticking (I recommend a non-stick pot for this recipe).  Serve with homemade cornbread muffins.  Yum!

We spent the weekend in Dubuque, Iowa, visiting friends.  It was a really nice trip.  Well, being there was really nice anyway.  The car ride is another story.  I just could not get comfortable.  But once we were there, I had a good time.  Brian got to go mountain biking and I got to relax.  We all went over to Galena, IL on Saturday.  It is a cute little town with a great historic shopping/dining district.  In my quest to find edible and practical christmas gifts, I got some good stocking stuffers at a shop there, spices and jam and such.  I also got some good ideas for things to make myself. 

The ride home was better than the ride there.  I was able to sleep some since I didn’t have to navigate.  Our neighbors watched the animals while we were gone.  When we got home, we found that they’d also left us two boxes of baby stuff, blankets, bibs, and toys, most of it never used.  That was a nice surprise.  We have the best neighbors! 

Brian was off yesterday, so we slept in, had breakfast, and then took a nice long walk.  It was beautiful day–pretty warm in the morning.  I’m glad we took advantage of it because it’s COLD today!   The wind is just frigid!  I had my class yesterday afternoon and then we headed over to the Delmar Loop for some pizza.  There’s a great new york style pizza place there.  I over-indulged and then had heartburn all night.  Oh, the joys of pregnancy! 

Today I’ve just been working around the house, cleaning, making soup for the week.  I guess I slept well last night because I’ve been quite energetic today!  We have an appointment this evening with a prospective pediatrician.  I made a long list of questions to ask him.  I hope we like him because I don’t have anyone else lined up!  But we still have some time to find someone if this doesn’t work out. 

I can’t believe we’re a week into Novemeber already.  Time flies when you are having fun!  I know the next couple months are going to go so fast with the holidays.  I need to get cracking on those homemade gifts!

I started reading Your Money or Your Life this week.  If you’ve done any reading about simple living, you’ve probably heard of it.  I must admit, I was a bit skeptical.  As I have mentioned before, I think frugality often goes hand in hand with a scarcity mentality.  So I was a bit wary of a book all about frugality.  But, I’ve been pleasantly surprised.  It’s actually much more in line with my views than I was expecting. 

It encourages you to align your spending with your values, through a system of tracking and charting.  I haven’t started any of the tracking yet, as I want to read through the whole book first.  I think Brian should read it too, then we could track how our spending relates to our values as a couple. 

The chapter I read last night asks you to redefine what “work” means to you.  A job is just “paid employment.”  The only thing you get from your job that you can’t get elsewhere is the “paid” aspect.  All those other reasons for going to work, social fulfillment, learning opportunities, time structuring, you can get from other sources.  The authors talk about how people search for a Mr. or Ms. Right Job like they would a significant other.  This puts pressure on people to have all their needs met in one place, which is impossible.  Even those who love their jobs don’t get all of their physical and emotional needs met there.  So, I guess the overall concept (though I’ve not finished the book yet!) is to reduce your spending to align with your values, start thinking of “paid employment” as what you do for money, and then, either work until you save enough to not have a job, or spend less time on your job so that you can spend more time now on the things that truly gratify you. 

One of the difficult parts of this for me is finding passion and value in my life outside of paid employment.  I hardly know what to do with myself without that….Obviously I wasn’t put on this earth to design clothes.  So what then?  Even with thinking of starting businesses you need a value base underneath that goes beyond your motivation to make money.  I’m still working on what that means for me.  I bought into the whole “go to college, get a great job, work hard, buy things” mentality really early.  It’s hard to break that now.  But I’m still young and so ahead of the game, I think. 

I’m grateful that Brian and I are figuring things out now.  We’ll be better parents for it, just knowing that there’s not one formula for success, but rather a system of trial and error.  I think it is really important to teach your children that it is okay to make a mistake, just learn from it and move on.  I’ve always been terrified of failing, which in turn makes one risk adverse.  I have lots of great ideas but have a hard time acting on them because of the fear of failure.  It isn’t always obvious that fear is the problem, sometimes it looks like there are a million other reasons.  But that psychological state of fear attracts all the obstacles into your path.  A self-fulfilling prophecy of sorts.  So, I think the book will be helpful in reevaluating what my values are and how that relates to what I earn money from and spend money on.  If you have a strong value based reason for pursuing a business endeavor, you are less likely to let fear block your way.

This is a 2 for 1 Thursday: entree and side dish for a completely yummie meal!  This one takes a bit of time to prepare.  You’ll want to start the rice first and let that get going for awhile before you start the enchiladas.  It depends on what type of rice you use.  Some rice, such as the long grain brown rice I use, takes longer to cook, especially with the addition of the tomatoes.  As always, you can substitute your favorite veggies; and if you want to up the protein content, they are good with the addition of black beans. 

Preheat oven to 350. 

You will need: 

4 flour tortillas (white or wheat)
1/2 cup shredded cheddar cheese

To make filling, combine in skillet: 

2 tbsp olive oil
1 cup fresh spinach
1 small potato, diced
1/2 cup carrots, diced (one medium carrot)
1/4 cup frozen corn kernels
1/4 cup frozen sweet peas
1/4 cup frozen mixed bell peppers (or one fresh red pepper, diced)
1-4 red chili peppers (depending on the amount of heat you like!) or 1/2 tsp red pepper
1 tsp onion powder
1 tsp garlic powder
1 tbsp lemon juice

Saute above ingredients until tender and heated through.

Meanwhile, whisk together in sauce pan:

1 cup crushed tomatoes or tomato sauce
1 tsp onion powder
1 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp chili powder
1 tsp powdered sugar (or brown sugar)
1 cup vegetable broth

Bring to a boil, stirring constantly.  Cook approximately 20 minutes, until sauce is thickened and reduced by a third.

Spoon a quarter of the filling into the center of each tortilla.  Roll the tortillas and place seam side down in an oven-proof dish (coat with non-stick cooking spray first).  Pour tomato sauce over the tortillas, sprinkle with grated cheese.  Bake for 20 minutes, or until the cheese is bubbly and golden.  (If using a casserole dish, place on baking sheet for easier removal from oven.)

Serve with Spanish Rice:

1 tbsp olive oil
1 cup brown rice
1 tsp onion powder
1 tsp garlic salt
2 tbsp chili powder
1 tsp cumin
1/2 tsp red pepper
2 cups vegetable broth
1/2 cup crushed tomatoes or tomato sauce
1 cup frozen peas (optional)

Heat olive oil in pan, add rice and spices.  Saute until rice looks transparent.  Add vegetable broth and tomatoes.  Bring to a boil.  Reduce to simmer.  Cook until most liquid has been absorbed, then add peas for last part of cooking (about 10 minutes).  Fluff with fork and let stand 5 minutes before serving.