Wednesday, January 27, 2010

breakfast: eggs with taylor ham and Matthew had some coconut milk AND some orange juice in a little box that he opted to buy with his "Fun" money because mommy wasn't spending extra money on small boxes. *eyeroll*

snack: half a banana and half of a Bob's Red Mill GF chocolate chip cookie (made yesterday)

lunch: rice pasta leftover from Monday night

snacks: organic grape tomatoes, Fruitabu grape fruit roll, organic peeled baby carrots. Mariella actually ate an entire hot dog and some banana pieces. :O Oh... and Matthew had 3 gummy bears (from Natural Candy Store) as part of learning how to use a map (he had to find them using a map of our house--part of our homeschooling. He had no clue what prize he was finding).

dinner: leftover pork loin pot roasted (seared in EVOO with minced garlic) with organic sweet potatoes, organic onions and organic apples (all cooked in the pot) plus canned organic green beans. Mariella only ate sweet potatoes and green beans given her earlier hot dog.

Sunday, January 24, 2010

breakfast: scrambled eggs with Taylor ham. Matthew poured himself a small cup of coconut milk with vanilla in it, but didn't actually drink it. Mike and I had the evil caffeinated coffee. Mariella ate a giNORmous amount of eggs and later threw all of it up. :(

snacks: raw organic baby carrots and potato chips. Mariella eats the chips.

lunch: leftover chinese: steamed chicken & broccoli for Matthew (with some of the chicken for Mariella). Shrimp Chow fun and steamed dumplings for Mike and I.

snacks: peeled organic pear wedges. Also, more chips. Again, Mariella eats the chips.

dinner: overcooked eye round that was stewed on top of the stove with onions, carrots, sweet potatoes and possibly apples (all organic except the meat). Mariella eats the carrots and sweet potatoes.

snack: banana (not organic)

Adding the baby to the mix...

Our adoptive daughter, Mariella, is just about to be 16 months old. She has some kind of food issues because about the time she turned 1, we tried to wean her off of her allergenic formula (Neocate) and it did NOT go well.

The bulk of her diet right now continues to be formula. She eats pieces of whatever we have at the table most of the time, but she doesn't eat nearly as much food as some children her age. In fact, we had an 8mo foster daughter here for 3 weeks in Dec. who far out-ate Mariella. Mariella's diet wasn't HALF of what this child consumed in solids. And Mariella is very small. Very active, but small. And although she's been cruising and trying to stand on her own (on the bed only) for months, she still doesn't walk. At all. We suspect she'll walk when she knows she can run; but for right now, she's just not interested.

And now it looks like she may be allergic to apples. We have to look at this a little more closely.

Last but not least, she doesn't sleep the night; and I'm starting to wonder if it's just lack of calories during the day. I don't know.

We're going to start really pushing a little more food on her. *sigh*

The stomach bug has hit our house

Mercifully, it's short. If I'd been more vigilant with our probiotics... actually, if we'd taken them at ALL... maybe we'd have skated. :(

So today was an EXTREMELY light day on food.

Matthew started with a carrot that was promptly thrown up. He then had half of a banana and maybe 3 bites of scrambled eggs. He's slept on and off all afternoon with fever and I've ordered Outback for dinner--so he'll have a little Joey Sirloin (without seasonings and cooked on a dry grill--they usually cook it with butter unless you tell them not to) and a dry sweet potato. We have fresh organic beets already cooked (steamed) at the house.

I had the other half of the banana. Mike and I also had eggs with some taylor ham around noon. We haven't eaten since. We're getting meat and potatoes with salad and we'll have veggies from home.

I got sick late Wednesday night and am already feeling better this afternoon. Hoping Matthew follows suit. The baby has had diarrhea since Sunday and Mike gave her half a jar of bananas today.

Wednesday, January 20, 2010

early breakfast for Matthew: a handful of organic grape tomatoes

breakfast: Matthew had 2 eggs scrambled with taylor ham. That wasn't enough, so he then proced to have 5 gummy bears (from the Natural Candy Store), 4 teaspoons of peanut butter, and 1 banana. Mike & I had 2 packets of organic instant oatmeal (each of us had 2 packets... apple/cinnamon kind) and then each of us had half of a broiled grapefruit with some honey and sucanat on top. Worthy of note that Matthew is now asking for MORE food.


---to be continued---

Monday, January 18, 2010

early breakfast: organic pears

breakfast: scrambled eggs with taylor ham plus some coffee for mom

snack: banana

lunch... we actually skipped lunch because we got up so late today

snacks: organic grape tomatoes, organic baby peeled carrots

dinner: leftovers

Not enough food...

So we're running into a problem of not having enough food. It's funny that I often had members who couldn't eat a whole share of food--it was too much. In fact, we had one family that split a share amongst three families (each with kids) and it was too much for them!

But the coop I belong to gets deliveries on Wed., Sat. then Thurs. depending on the location. Currently, my group gets food on Saturdays; but I just got a spot in a Wednesday group and a half share in a Thursday group. Not as close as my Saturday group, but I'll have food. We'll see how it goes.

That means that I just have to shop really for meat, grains and other non-produce groceries.

Bravo, bok choi...?!?

Let me state for the record that I have never. EVER. been a fan of leafy greens and generally less common vegetables. I grew up as a meat, potato flakes and canned green beans kinda girl. We always drank milk instead of juice or soda (or water for that matter--always milk). Occasionally a rare submarine sandwich and coveted "Yoohoo" drink. The occasional Chef Boyardee from a can or hot dog and beans. And I cooked for my mom a bit from the age of 8-12. Hey... single mom of 3 in the late 70s-early 80s who got off of welfare.

So I wasn't really an adventurous sort when it came to new foods in general.

I DID manage to branch into the more common American leafy greens via my membership in a CSA where I had to learn to do something with kale and chard. My sister-in-law did NOT grow up cooking and regularly used recipes from a cookbook. She has no clue what an awesome thing because she always cooks something new and out of the ordinary. Case in point: wilted spinach with garlic and pine nuts. This is now my staple recipe for all things green and leafy.

But then there's bok choi... or bok choy... or pak choi... or... whatever. This is now delving TOO far out of my comfort zone. This isn't the quirky American food that you know is good for you but have no exposure to.

And I keep getting it... and giving it to the chickens. Along with the lettuce (that I know darned well what to do with). But every penny counts now... so I need to learn how to use bok choy.

Sure enough, my default greens recipe works. On the advice of another produce coop coordinator, I used EVOO with minced garlic and powdered ginger (the only form I have in the house) despite the fact that I dreaded the potential for it to taste too Asian. I'm so NOT into Asian food... that I know of. I don't stray too much on the Chinese food menu.

So I chopped up the bok choi, stalk and all. I noticed that when I cut the bottom off it looked like a flower. Noting for future reference. I held it together and sliced the whole thing into 1/2" "slices" and threw it all in the pot of EVOO with minced garlic that had already started cooking. And just because I had some leftover snow peas, but not enough for a meal, I threw them in, too. Yet another food we are just venturing into (Mike steamed them for dinner the other day).

So bravo!! It DIDN'T taste bitter or Asian-y. It was actually pretty good. So the chickens will have to do without bok choi and I can stop throwing away a few more dollars of food.