Recipes

Sweet and Sour Chicken

http://www.recipezaar.com/162120
1 lb chicken tenders
1 (8 ounce) can pineapple chunks, drained and juice reserved
1 cup uncooked rice
2 carrots, thinly sliced
1 green bell pepper, cut into 1-inch pieces
1 large onion, chopped
3 garlic cloves, minced
1 (14 1/2 ounce) can reduced-sodium chicken broth
1/3 cup soy sauce
3 tablespoons sugar
3 tablespoons apple cider vinegar
1 tablespoon sesame oil
1 1/2 teaspoons ground ginger
1/4 cup chopped peanuts (optional)
chopped fresh cilantro (optional)
Not the one? See other Sweet & Sour Chicken and Rice Recipes
Preheat oven to 350.
Spray 13x9-inch baking dish with nonstick cooking spray.
Combine chicken, pineapple, rice, carrots, bell pepper, onion and garlic in prepared dish.
Place broth, reserved pineapple juice, soy sauce, sugar, vinegar, sesame oil and ginger in small saucepan; bring to a boil over high heat. Remove from heat and pour over chicken mixture.
Cover tightly with foil and bake 45 to 50 minutes or until chicken is no longer pink in centers and rice is tender.
Sprinkle with peanuts and cilantro, if desired.



and


Slow Cook Garlic Smashed Potatoes

This is easy. Half or quarter new red potatoes, add to crock pot. Add half cup water, 4 garlic cloves, 1 tsp salt, 2 TB of olive oil. Mix well to coat potatoes pieces.
Cook on low for 3-4 hours.
Mash potatoes with fork.
Add a package of cream cheese and chopped scallions. Add 1/4 to one-half a cup of milk (I omitted milk and it was fine).
Mix. Salt and pepper to taste.
Serve or let cook for one more hour.

The boys went bezerk over the potatoes. What's not to love? The mixed them up with their green beans and ate it up.

I don't understand death. I don't understand the acceptance of the finality of it. Even when you know it is eminent, once it comes into your reality, it hits so deeply. I don't understand why it has to hurt, truly physically hurt, to die. I've been reading about the concept of "dynamic tension," and how basically we all grow and become more than what we are thru the struggle of uncertainty and difficulty. I like to think that those who struggle and hurt the most here in this realm go on to be our greatest Angels. There has to be a reason for so much suffering.

My mom's best friend of over 35 years is dying, painfully, of cancer. She will leave a man that it took most of her life to find (and who has supported her thru over 10 years of battling one cancer or another), and a newly married son who was hoping to give her a grandbaby before she died but at least gave her the satisfaction of knowing he married a good German girl.

She is still, barely with us. I don't know what I hope for her. I hope her well and that she can go back to the good life that took her over 40 years to finally get. I can't hope that she goes peacefully because she isn't. I can't hope she goes quickly because she hasn't. I don't want her to have any more pain. I don't want her loved ones to have any more pain. But once the pain is gone, what does that mean? What is left? What is left for Sam? My heart aches for him.

All I do know is that Marianne will be one knock out, tough, German frau of an Angel. I hope she can be an Angel soon.

I can't believe how better our days are around here. Today I got Jack down for a nap and now Will is writing me stories, but he says I have to read them since he can't read. : )

I made another chiro appt. with Dr. Crow for Will for this Wednesday. He now says he is having a "Cah" problem along with his laughing problem. I find this interesting because I have noticed the past couple days the breathing issue has changed... he does seem more to being doing this purposefully rather than it happening on its own. For two nights now I have not noticed any breathing issue while he sleeps.

I am just going to keep logging these changes so I can keep track of what is happening. Hopefully soon it will all go away on its own, aided by the fabulous Dr. Crow and his adjustments.

We have an appt. for Feb 16 with a pulmonary doctor but that sounds so excessive and extreme.... and at the same time I'm kind of afraid the dr. would look at me like an idiot for bringing in my son who was faking a breathing problem.

It feels weird to be happy that we are having such wonderful days but at the same time be worrying and wondering what the heck is going on with Will.

Fun, fun, fun

and now zzzzzzz. Keeping the boys busy with Daddy gone.

I haven't heard from Mark. Trying not to worry, I'm assuming he can't get thru on his sucky cell phone because of the mountains.

Will....

Its now going on four weeks with his breathing issue... but today was different. It seemed more like he was making the breathing spasm himself rather than it being involuntary as it seemed before. He is asleep and is breathing normally tonight....Is this something that has become habitual for Will now? Weirdness.

Went to see Dr. Crow on Wednesday of this week. Love him. He is wise and grooovy and put me at ease with what is going on with Will. We'll go back next week for another adjustment.

Mark is in California for a long weekend. I am happy that he is there, attending a friend's wedding and enjoying the beauty of the surf but I am envious that I no longer have that kind of freedom. Tonight he is camping on the beach in Mailbu, then to a friend's wedding tomorrow, then a quick trip to Big Sur for more camping and taking in of the salt air. I love that smell and long for it.

People who inspire me. Their love for others is so grand:

Dr. Page Crow
http://www.doccrow.com/bio.html

Carl Cook
Our Suzuki teacher

Ms. Diana
lakefarmschool.com

Meal planning.

I am quite excited about my recent menu planning and shopping trip. On the calendar:

White Turkey Chili (already made this and I had to alter the recipe so much that it was just okay).

Sweet and Sour Chicken and Rice (serious yum, already cooked).

Potato Spinach Quiche (a favorite in this house)

Miso soup with Asian noodles

Honey Baked Lentils (recipe from a MDC thread)

White Bean Rosemary Spread with pita bread (Suzanne Sommers cookbook - she actually has really good recipes!)

Ginger Chicken wontons (SUzanne Sommer's cookbook again)

Arugula/Pear Salad (actually I'm using spinach leaves)

Garlic Smashed potatoes (slow cooked in the crock pot) and green beans (from my mom's Pillsbury slow cook book from the 70s)

Vegetable Rice Pilaf (Pillsbury)

Mozzarella Bites (Using Jay's Signature Pizza Crust recipe from allrecipes.com)

Pumpkin Ravioli (I can't remember where I got this recipe)

Garlic Bread Soup (from recent issue of Vegetarian Times)

Grr.

Grrr, grrr, grrr, grrr, grrrr.

I need to do something nice for myself, and so do you! Go do it!

Burt's Bee's Lip Balm...

SUCKS! The peppermint is totally stinging my lips.



Anyway.

I feel like I am in a time warp here. Cleaning, cooking, knitting on my um, pot holder, and playing with the kids. Drinking lots of coffee and listening to music. A friend gave me some nice tea for Christmas... I've yet to be motivated to drink it. Maybe tomorrow.

I need to grocery shop, make Christmas returns, go to the library, post office... I just don't have the motivation. Actually, we are enjoying life so much AT HOME that I don't ever want to leave! Amazing!

Tomorrow afternoon cousin and baby Rowan will be here to play.

Still waiting for CHildren's MErcy appt.... spoke with the nurse in Neurology and she's not convinced they are the ones to help us.... I don't know who is...

Calendar of the Soul

[January 21, 2007 - January 27, 2007]

Forty-first Week
(January 12-18)

The soul's creative might
Strives outward from the heart's own core
To kindle and inflame god-given powers
In human life to right activity;
The soul thus shapes itself
In human loving and in human working.
________________________

Oh, and.

My lips are so freaking chapped! Ouch!

Stomach spasms are still around. I had a very neurotic post on here last night but went back and deleted it this morning. I don't want to bring that into my reality.

Met with Dr. Greenwood on Friday and we are now going to see a respiratory specialist at Children's Mercy next week.

Today was Beauty.

Ice hockey, skating and sledding on a new friend's pond. Hot chocolate and fires. Cozy woolen long johns and cuddly little boys that smell like sheep. Yum!

A Change Has Occurred...

At this point, I will let go of analyzing the why and just go with where we are heading...

Salicylate stuff:

Salicylates are chemicals found naturally in some plants, stored in the bark, leaves, roots, skin and seeds, where they protect the plants against insect damage and disease. In the human body, salicylate has been shown to have an effect on certain neuron receptors, to suppress some enzymes including the enzyme phenol sulfotransferase (PST), to inhibit prostaglandin synthesis, etc.
Most people have no problem with salicylate-containing foods or salicylate-containing drugs except at high doses, but some people can be extremely sensitive to these chemicals.

http://www.feingold.org/sas.html

I purchased The Salicylate Handbook here:

http://www.foodcanmakeyouill.co.uk/sali/articles.htm

I heard Karen DeFelice speak over a year ago... I have her book "Enzymes for Digestive Health and Nutrional Wealth." and immediately put it down. Too Much Information. I need to pick it up again. I know it is full of great information!
Her web site is very helpful:
http://www.enzymestuff.com/

I wish I had a doctor (or some V.I.P) holding my hand and telling me exactly what I need to do. Sorry. But I do.

Hugely Pleasant Days

around here for the past couple days. The neighbor kids have Snow Days so Will has had playmates and pretty much ignoring us. lol. He's at his cousins house now and later we are off to Eden Alley for more friends and a good meal. Jack is sleeping.

We are working on a low salicylate diet - eating lots of chicken and rice. I need to get to the store to stock up in this house. I purchased The Salicylate Handbook and look forward to getting it. http://www.foodcanmakeyouill.co.uk/bookshop/sali.htm

Two weeks ago WIll was complaining about a "laughing problem" that he had. We didn't understand. A week later we notice his breathing is irregular and he is having stomach spasms when he breathes about every other minute. Then it got a little worse so I made an appt. to see the Worthless Doctor. Will said he was so excited to get his laughing problem fixed. Worthless Doctor told me he was faking it. I wanted to make sure it didn't have anything to do with his heart and Worthless Doctor said no. I asked about food allergies and Worthless Doctor said allergies would show up as a rash and rarely related to breathing difficulties.

Will had been eating lots of apples and pickles. I learned cucumbers are quite high in salicylates.

So that was last... Wednesday. We went low salicylate that day. He is no longer have the stomach spasms. I need to start a food diary for him and will get that together soon. I want to do this right.

There is always a reason.

Its quite exhausting taking care of these boys. Sometimes, okay often, I think Mark and I just make it too hard. Its all about outlook. We both acknowledged that today and are trying to improve our daily attitudes.

Okay, so we stayed positive during the long, drawn out bedtime routine. Tonight it was wee Mr. Jack who was being ornery and not settling down. Finally, I took him out of the room and we played downstairs for awhile. Well, he took a nice little poop, I cleaned him up and he was ready to nurse down to sleep. I mean, who can blame the kid for not wanting to go to sleep until he took care of business? It helped remind me to really look past the current behavior and find the deeper meaning to the situation. I think of my sister (who is often the blunt of my judgemental comparisons), who would have stuck her 2 year old in the crib and let him CIO, only to discover in the morning a little boy with a poopy diaper and a bad diaper rash.

Sometimes we feel like total suckers the way these boys play us... that is our upbringing talking to us (and our family around us)... but if we stay true to what counts - our family - and ignore the comments and the little voices in our head, and stay focused on the moment and the needs of the moment I know we will raise healthy, happy and responsible little beings.

... And today

sucked.

Harmonic Resonance

So I've had my Enki materials for a few months, and I have been delving into it all. I've gone thru periods of pure excitement and pure overwhelmness and fear.

But here I am, at the end of an astonishingly delightful day, feeling pretty good about were I am in the process of "learning Enki." There is much that I have been working on over the past couple years, since learning about Waldorf, that is helping the family. We have some good rhythms in place; I am very aware of where we need more focus. I've taken the time to really analyze our days. I know what works for us and what doesn't (for the most part). My new buzz word these days is INTEGRATING.

I'm also beginning to feel more secure about beginning the more official blocks and not being so overwhelmed and thinking, oh crap I have to have a craft project, a folk talk, a fairy tale, movement circle, and songs every day. HELP! Where's the Play-doh? Really, once its broken down into the week its not so overwhelming:

Monday: Painting Day
Tuesday: Baking, Cooking, Home crafts day (knitting, or fixing buttons or broke toys or whatever).
Wednesday: Adventure Day (Park, play dates, nature walks)
Thursday: Craft Day (from the Enki Craft Book)
Friday: Adventure Day )Park, play dates, whatever)

So really. One day of painting - and all I have to do is read a story to help bring the energy of the colors to them, set up paints, let them paint, and clean up.
That just leaves me needing to prepare one craft a week.

Circle time songs - we practically have them all memorized and we don't do an official circle time. We sing them around the house or on walks. I burned a CD with about 9 songs and we'll use that for the season... and then I'll only change out the seasonal songs and keep the other songs for the entire year. This is flexible... as Will is only 4.5 years old right now.

I'm continuing to aim at building on our daily rhythms and establishing a solid ground.... really that is what Kindergarten is all about anyway...

And to end this - I have to laugh at the juxtaposition of our days sometimes. This morning we were all in the living room; I was knitting, Jack was "playing" the violin, and Will was playing the harp while we listened to our Suzuki Violin Lesson 1 CD (Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star). I felt very homeschooley.

The afternoon included Will and Jack playing Hot Wheels on the computer and screaming "Hot Wheels, Big Bad!" like they do on the computer game.

The evening ended with Will playing dress-up and pretending to be a preganant mama getting ready to have a baby and Jack walking around with my wedding veil on.




Suddenly this post seems quite corny to me. I sometimes wish I could have protected posts...

Hey, I just figured out how to label posts. Cool!

Back on the Low Salicylates Wagon...

I know without a doubt that Will has a sensitivity to foods high in salicylates.

I slacked. How can a mother deny their kid APPLES, and GRAPES, and CAULIFLOWER, and CINNAMON and KETCHUP? Or tomatoes in general for that matter? Or about 20 other fruits that are on the list? Do you know how SICK of bananas my kids are? And the fact that Will is an eating machine and loves all fruit. And lets not discuss the spices. Cumin is a standard in this house. Was.

Will has had 3 asthmatic related incidents that have required breathing treatments, and once again tonight he is labored in his breathing. He also has complained that his foot is hurting. I feared it was the foot he broke a couple years ago but now I believe its because its probably a little swollen, from the salicylates.

Now lets think about this. Each of these breathing problems have occured around Christmas. We aren't eating our regular diet around Christmas - lots of travel, more preservatives eaten then we normally would if at home. Also, I end up buying more apples this time of year because they are one of the cheaper fruits. More internet research and all the pieces of the mystery puzzle fit together...


http://www.webmd.com/content/article/61/67475
Allergies:
Salicylate Allergy

Salicylates are chemicals found naturally in plants and are a major ingredient of aspirin and other pain-relieving medications. They are also found in many fruits and vegetables, as well as many common health and beauty products.

What Are the Symptoms?

Some people have a low level of tolerance to salicylates and may have reactions if more than a small amount is consumed at one time. Symptoms of salicylate sensitivity vary but may include:

Asthma-like symptoms, such as trouble breathing and wheezing
Headaches
Nasal congestion
Changes in skin color
Itching, skin rash or hives
Swelling of the hands, feet and face
Stomach pain

Letting Go.

DON'T get me started on my obsession over rhythmic days and our a-rhythmic lives.

I let go tonight, turned on the TV for Will, went with the very long flow at bedtime, laughed, pulled fingers while the boys (all three of them) farted and we all fell asleep with no tears. Well, then I woke up.

I drank wine and have progressed to beer. If we were rich I would become one of *those* housewives. lol. But wine is out and typically not in the budget albeit for Grandma Reed's yearly Christmas present of a basket with 3 bottles of wine in it.

I have nightweaned Jack (age 2.5). Starting last Saturday. Cold turkey, until 5 am and it has been amazingly grand. He was a bit pissed the first few nights, but actually even then accepted the situation (eventually) with snuggles and soothing words. We had to sleep together on the floor a couple nights because he was too sad to sleep in the bed - where he gets his nursies. But now - less than a week later - he is a total pro. The timing was right for both of us.

I hung a star lamp in our bedroom, set a timer on it for 5 am and told him he could have nursies when the star came on. Last night, after 6 nights, he woke only at 4 am, let me rock him in the chair for awhile and then back to bed until 6 am when he woke to nurse. SUCCESS! We are all so much better for it, and although there were tears in the beginning - less than there were with the all day mommy resentment, whineys and so forth that went with all night nursing sessions. I'm thrilled and happy with how we did it. We still co-sleep, nurse to sleep in bed at night, and nurse and snuggle all morning. I still wake several times at night as my body is use to that, but I am getting a solid 4-5 hours of sleep. I wake around 3 am and can't go back to sleep - my body is not use to so much sleep! ITS A GOOD THING!!!!!!!!

Will and I have starting taking Suzuki violin lessons. I am new to all this - I took violin for a short time in college (and had a fleeting crush on my teacher but chose Mark instead) and am so excited to see where this will lead us. Today, Will was THRILLED to go to violin lessons and play with the choo-choo train but the teacher observed him and said ------
"He's a willful kid." (I've heard this before).
"He knows what he wants." (Yep.)
"He's totally ready to do this. (Hooray!)

It will take 1-2 years, but we will learn the "Twinkles." Which, apparently, is Twinkle Twinkle LIttle Star in four variations.
: )

Fun. Right?

Its all happening. : ) (Name that movie.)

Yes, I'm feeling happy. And maybe a little tipsy. : )