• As I was preparing to return to work full time after the baby (I had been working for them part time since she was 4 weeks old), my boss had me come in because he needed to lay me off.  It was purely financial and I’ll get a great recommendation from him, but the timing wasn’t great.  Come to think of it, when is a layoff ever timed right.  I’m excited about exploring other opportunities and getting more time with my daughter, but my mind has been on finding a new job more than playing around on my hobby.

• As I was polishing off my resume and submitting it to sites, I got sick.  I got sick enough that the coughing made me lose my voice.  Little A didn’t seem to get sick.  I was sick for the better part of a week.  Hubby has it now, lets hope he doesn’t drag on like I have.
• I have been in kind of a funk athletically since Little A was born.  I just don’t care that much about training.  Other moms of the world, I get it now.  The last thing you want to do once the baby is in bed is get in a workout.  So I went ahead and signed up for one of those crazy obstacle races.  You know, a half marathon on a mountain requiring that you go through 25 or so obstacles? Why yes, I am slightly crazy.  I’m hoping that the race will get me to want to train again.

• I’m a little hesitant to share Little A’s medical details on the blog because she deserves privacy.  But I was relived to find out last week that a minor health issue would likely resolve itself and if it didn’t (only a 15% chance) they wouldn’t fix it until she was 3 years old.  It’s actually so minor that in males they wouldn’t even bother surgically repairing it.
• I plan on visiting my college professors to ask if I can do some guest lecturing when they need someone to fill in.  I want to be able to get a job as an adjunct professor in the future, so I need to get some lecturing experience.
• I’m behind on posting my daily pictures, but I’m proud to say the streak is still going strong.

Hopefully I’ll find a new job soon and I’ll be able to get in a routine where my posts are somewhat predictably spaced.

It’s also has an unpleasant texture to most omnivores.  It is somewhat mushy and gelatinous.

While baking tofu only slightly improves the texture, marinating it significantly improves the taste.  To save time in the evening, set your tofu to marinate before leaving for work in the morning.  In the evening, drain the marinate and set aside and bake the tofu in the same baking dish.  Baste tofu regularly during cooking time.

Baked tofu is an excellent way to use tofu as a main course.  There are so many variations of marinade possible too.

“Give the kale a little massage.”

“A massage?”

“Yeah, stick your hands in the bowl, rub and squeeze the kale until it’s a little more tender”

“Why would I do that?”

“It makes raw kale edible as a salad green”

Ladies and Gentlemen, little did I know that massage was the secret to Kale.  I never understood why so many vegan bloggers had blogs named after kale.  There’s only so much one can do to sing the praises of a vegetable.  Kale practically had a cult following it. 

While I’m more of a fan of broccoli, I’ve come to appreciate kale over the last few years.  But I always enjoyed my kale cooked… until recently when I learned about massage.

Kale massage doesn’t have to be complicated and it helps really get the dressing into every little nook and cranny.  Just remember to wear gloves while doing it if you are cooking for a crowd, because you really have to manhandle the leaves.

The dressing I came up with is really one of countless variation of tahini, ginger, cumin, garlic and oil.  Feel free to experiment with your own tastes.  I find this combination tastes a little like my go to hummus recipe.

I did really like this dressing kale combination with a single simple fruit to add a slight sweet taste.  It would probably work well with any berries or melons you have on hand, and it would be great for you.

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Unrelated to the recipe I hope my blog renovations are not inconveniencing people too much.  I only have a little time every evening to work on it.  I’ve been pretty terrible at promoting my posts because I would rather post and work on blog redesign than link up all over the place.  Feel free to leave me constructive criticism a I change things around.  And hopefully I’ll get around to promoting my posts properly again someday.

Some of the links in this post are amazon affiliate links, but be sure to check out local yard sales or consignment stores.  Some of the best advice I can give to stretching your baby dollar is to buy used when you can.  I have not been compensated in any way for recommending these products these are just the products I use every day.

Baby Carriers: Little A is an incredibly snuggly baby.  She loves to be held and carried around.  I’m told that most babies crave this closeness.  Without the carriers I wouldn’t be able to get much done.  I even put her in a carrier while we grocery shop now.  I have three baby carriers.  I love two of them and the third is a spare because it bugs my back as she’s getting older (there’s a few others that I wish I had, like a ring sling and a second wrap). 

I love my Moby Wrap and my Ergo Baby Performance Carrier (with infant insert).  My moby wrap was actually my secret weapon in the early days. When she would get fussy I would put her in the newborn position and she would fall asleep immediately.  It’s basically like being swaddled up tight right next to mom’s heart.

Little A’s doctor actually told me that taking her out in the world in a carrier is one of the best development activities I can do with her.  She can see the world, but feel safe next to me.

Booties:  Little A inherited a dislike for objects on her feet.  Put a pair of socks on her and within 15 minutes one or both socks will have disappeared.  I’ve found that while more expensive, booties stay on better.  I buy mine from etsy.  Sellers charge between $11 and $28 for the style that works for us.  The one pictured come from Bugs and Daisies.  Other shops I know of Bison Booties, My Chickie T, Jaclyn’s Designs, Made with love by Caty and Kreativity by Karrie.

Rock and Play: I hadn’t even heard of a Rock and Play until I was gifted one.  The gift giver told me she had 3 new grandbabies and that the Rock and Plays were all the rage.  It has been wonderful for us.  Little A spent a few nights of her life crib.  But she spent her first two months in the Rock and Play next to our bed.  She’s mostly in our room again now because I found one of the cats too close to her crib for comfort one night.

My understanding is that it helps babies sleep because their head is elevated.  It was a must have when she had her awful bout with the RSV virus.

Receiving blankets/swaddle me:  What can I say about newborns, they are really into bondage.  When she was little I found that the velcro swaddle devices like SwaddleMe and Halo swaddle sleep sack worked wonders.  When they are little they are in and out of the sack getting diapers changed all night.  As she got older, receiving blankets worked better for me.   For the most part we don’t change her at night unless she needs it and being able to unswaddle her soundlessly became a more valuable property.

My biggest problem was that most of my receiving blankets were not swaddle sized.  So be sure to look for swaddling blankets.  Ours are hand-me downs that a friend gave us.  A mom in my mom’s group swears by the Aden and Anais blankets she has.  They come in two sizes 44” x 44” and 47” x 47”.  I would spring for the bigger one if I were you.

Soothie pacifiers: My daughter has an oral fixation.  She’s a fan of Avent soothie pacifiers right now.  We probably have 10 of them.  At any given time, I probably know where 2 are.  Once they have a preference, stock up.

Car Seat: When we were buying things for Little A, I left this major purchase up to my husband.  I am SO grateful that he did a good job at this task.  We have a car seat as part of one of our jogging strollers and I would not like to have to adjust her in that on a regular basis.  Pick something with easily adjustable straps that easily click into and out of a base.  You’ll thank yourself for the extra cost when you are making daily treks to the pediatrician.  Hubby bought us the Chicco Keyfit 30 with an extra base for his car.  Everyone in my mom’s group seems to have the same type.

Sleep sack/bundlers: Before her birth my mom went to a consignment store and bought us 8 sets of sleep sacks and bundlers.  At first I was hesitant.  I didn’t want to waste her money if we didn’t end up using them.  But we used them, every day we used them.  She sleeps in a sleep sack every night.  Not only does it keep her from needing extra blankets, but it makes getting to a diaper easier.  And my hubby doesn’t have to put pants back on her squirmy legs.

In our Northern climate I really like the long sleeved sleep sacks/bags too.

Tummy time blanket:  Little A has so many toys already, but honestly, in the first three month, they have not been useful.  Her activities often revolve around sleeping, eating and doing tummy time.  So I don’t really know what toys are a big hit yet.  But a thicker blanket for use during tummy time is a must.  I really cannot recommend any commercial blanket because we were lucky enough to have a very talented friend make a perfect one for her.

Nursing covers: For modesty’s sake, I recommend buying a nursing cover instead of trying to use a blanket.  It’s more confortable and it leaves you with free hands to help the baby latch on.  In a pinch it serves as a car seat cover or a napping cover for the baby too.  I love mine by Tommee Tippee.  Although I wish I knew the brand used by some of my mom group mates (cute, cute, cute).

Nursing pads: Breast milk stinks and its sticky.  As a new mom you barely have time to shower so the last thing you want is for milk to leak through your shirt.  The first disposable nursing pads I had actually stuck to the injury on my nipple making it worst.  I’ve been happy with both the Avent and Lansinoh kinds.  Change them often to reduce the risk of thrush.

You know how I told you to look at consignment stores.

Swings: I wish I had learned more about how babies sleep before I had a baby.  I might have put her in a swing earlier on.  When I decided I needed one, I got this swing for $45 at the consignment store.

Upcoming: Media I found useful in the first three months.

What would you recommend for the first three months?

What advice do you have for 3-6 months?

Thus why I wanted to make muffins.

I adapted this recipe from Kitchen Treaty’s Hearty Spiced Carrot Muffins.  It looked wonderful, but I was pretty sure that all my carrots had gone to my hubby’s tummy.  Here’s what I changed from the recipe.

• Veganised the muffins using Almond milk instead of milk and a flax egg instead of an egg.
• Added raisins to the mixture
• Used butternut squash instead of carrots
• Reduced sugar by 1/4 cup and used coconut palm sugar instead.
• Added maple syrup.
• Eliminated cloves and ginger
• Possibly adjusted other measurements slightly here and there.

So basically the baking aspects of the recipe are still there.  Be sure to check out the original recipe if you want a well balanced carrot muffin.

And by the way, I never would have thought to put butternut squash in a muffin before.  I was making my lentil loaf at the same time and had butternut squash to spare.  Combined with the reduced sugar, this is a nice only-slightly sweet muffin.

I bet these would taste great with cranberries too!

My camera still needs to be sent in for work.  I can’t put it in manual mode, so I couldn’t do a great job at this. But it was fun, she’s adorable and I wasted some time on it, so I wanted to share.

I tried over cooking the second one, but got  similar result.  I suspected what the eventual problem was, but the failures were so delicious I didn’t feel overly motivated to come up with a proper solution to my problem.

In my stubbornness I was trying to develop a lentil loaf without putting any breadcrumbs, flours or grains.  This was why my loaves seemed to come out overly moist and mushy.  By the time I had decided to give the grains a go, I had already out of some of my planned ingredients (eg. walnuts) and forgot to get more during a grocery store trip.  So this is one of two successful versions I came up with once I figured out what was missing.

I find the toasted pecans add a nice touch to the loaf. 

Butternut squash and apples are such a nice complimentary flavor as well.

I hope to develop my own maple syrup based BBQ sauce recipe in the future to try with this recipe.  Because I’m crazy about putting a little BBQ sauce on this loaf despite the loaf containing BBQ sauce.  In the meantime, use your favorite BBQ sauce brand for the recipe.

I’m really looking forward to coming up with more variations of lentil loaf because it’s simply so delicious. 

I wouldn’t mind eating all my failures.

Have you ever had lentil loaf?  How do you like to make yours?

First, find a curry simmer sauce.  Some are vegan, while others like Trader Joes’ Yellow Thai Simmer sauce are only vegetarian because they contain whey (a milk product).  I had the yellow thai in my pantry and wanted to use it, so the dish I’m showing here is only vegetarian.

I would also pick up some fortified tofu.  It has vitamin B, which is hard to find in a vegan diet.

This dish only has zucchini, but you could easily mix in all kinds of vegetables in this curry.  I would suggest eggplant, cauliflower, carrots or peppers.

It comes together in 15-20 minutes and is an absolutely delicious way to enjoy vegetarian food.

This dish also adapts well to rice.  Be sure to try it out.

Be sure to check out Vegan Mother Hubbard’s meatless monday linkup for more great ideas.

If you are omnivore, do you celebrate meatless monday?

Project 365

The theme this week was without a doubt winter.  That wasn’t intentional. I’ve been documenting these on my 365 project page as well as occasionally loading them to this flickr set. 

52 Self Portraits

This was actually a flub with how zoomed in the camera was with where I was located.  I decided to keep it.  Who knows when I’ll cut my hair this year.

52 Little A Portraits

I wanted to do a full body shot this week.  She’s wearing clothes from Canadian friends and family.  The sweater is actually a Montreal sweater.  I’m glad it fits now.  It seemed so huge at first.

52 Cooper Portraits

I just like how he’s framed by wood piles.

But I when I eat too much cheese I take away some of the benefits of eating lots of broccoli.  So when my coworker brought a delicious cheesy broccoli casserole to a work party, I decided to make my own vegan version.

Despite not having any dairy in it, it’s delicious, and it has a second vegetable in the mixture.

I topped my breadcrumbs with paprika.

This dish was devoured by the hubby, so it must have been good.  I’m so glad he’s trying my weird creations now.

If you try it be sure to let me know what you think.  I think it combines the comfort part of mac and cheese with the nutrients of veggies.