Sautéed Swiss Chard with Garlic and Lemon

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Swiss Chard with Garlic and Lemon

Swiss chard. What a great green vegetable. It can hold its own when tossed amongst pastas or chickpeas and bring out the flavor in a well prepared chicken or steak dish. Perhaps its best quality, in my humble opinion, is that it is an easy green vegetable to wash. Let’s face it–the reason I don’t make a green veggie every single time I cook is that I absolutely hate washing bits of dirt out of the myriad of places it has hidden itself amongst greens. Lettuces, leeks, and spinach are bad, but cilantro… Man, don’t even get me started on cilantro.

I made this lovely swiss chard dish last night as I felt our nutrient-less dinner of mac & cheese needed some serious boost of vitamins. It was well worth the washing time.

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DIY Baby Cold and Congestion Reliever

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Faye has been sick for six days. It started off with a fever and cough. With tons of rest, her fever broke within 36 hrs, but that cough continued to get worse and worse. On Saturday night, she sounded pretty bad so we decided to bring her in the bathroom for a steam bath with essential oils before shelling some $$$ out for a vaporizer. (She has a cold mist humidifier, but it wasn’t doing enough to abate her hack.)

Faye enjoying her reflection during a steam bath.

Faye enjoying her reflection during a steam bath.

The lavender and chamomile essential oils–funny enough–aren’t essential, but they definitely sped up her recovery. Plus, they make your house smell amazing. The guy who delivered our bahn mi sandwiches from Ha Noi commented on how wonderful our house smelled while he was at our door. On top of it, these are two oils that are used in almost every single DIY natural product for babies as they have fantastic qualities from anti-fungal to anti-inflammatory (lavender oil benefits, chamomile benefits). Make sure to get high quality oils ** as you want them to be as pure as possible.

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Buffalo Chicken, Avocado, and Spinach Sandwiches in 10 Minutes Flat

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Buffalo Chicken, Avocado & Spinach Sandwich

It’s 1 am, the night before a gigantic snowstorm, and we have hardly anything in the house. Luckily, my husband purchased two roasted chickens from Whole Foods the other day and I only used one for the Kimchi Fried Rice with Chicken. Again, it’s 1 am. All take-out is closed; our only option is this chicken. He suggests a chicken salad sandwich, only we’re out of mayo and eggs so I can’t even make mayo if I wanted to do so. I stare longingly into the fridge looking for a spark of inspiration and BINGO! Frank’s Red Hot Sauce stares back at me, begging to be used. A few more staples and ten minutes later we had dinner. A very, very tasty dinner.

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Kimchi Fried Rice with Chicken

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kimchee fried rice with chicken

When I was pregnant, I ate pounds upon pounds of kimchi. This dish was my way of being able to shovel even more of it down my throat.

Now it’s a great go-to dish when I’m craving something spicy that’s super easy to make (20 minutes tops). What’s even better is that this recipe makes a good 4 bowls of food; enough to get my husband and I through two meals.

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Cornbread with Salted & Browned Honey Butter

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Cornbread with Salted & Browned Honey Butter

Dear pregnancy jeans,
Thank you for continuing to be a major comfort four months and three weeks after my daughter was born. Even though I can now squeeze my ‘new’ body and it’s +7 lbs into a pair of my pre-pregnancy jeans, I choose to wear you. You provide extra warmth across my belly in the winter, don’t give me a muffin top, and never scoff at me for eating things as delicious as cornbread with salted & browned honey butter.

With sincerest gratitude,
T

This cornbread is good, but the salted and browned honey butter is outstanding. I could forego the cornbread and eat the butter solo. When diving into the jar I have to continually remind myself that it is butter so as to not eat it in its entirety. Basically, what I’m saying is make this. Make this now. If you don’t have the ingredients for corn bread, screw it and just make the butter. (Unless you are vegan, I know you have butter in your fridge.) Put it on anything and everything: a slice of toast, a piece of chicken, a morning muffin, pancakes, a cinnamon raisin bagel, a ham panini with gruyere and thyme. The list is never ending.

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DIY Montessori Grasping Rattle

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IMG_5906

This grasping rattle was the first rattle of the bunch that excited Faye, (and it still does over a month later). It was cut from the same ⅜” dowel as the Bell Rattle and takes even less time and effort to make!

All parts of this rattle are exceptional for building grasping skills and are great for munching. The two larger beads on the end make it easy for her to pass objects back and forth between her left and right hand and allow the rattle to roll across a surface encouraging Faye to move by stretching, rolling, and crawling after it. The past two weeks I’ve noticed that she’s using the rings around the dowel to develop the beginnings of her pincer grasp.

When shaken, the sound is very light and earthy – great for those mornings when you’d like a little more calm or when you’re out and trying to have a conversation over the sounds of a baby.

Assuming you are using the wood glue you purchased and the natural sealant you made for the Bell Rattle, this Grasping Rattle takes under 10 minutes to construct and costs less than $2.00 to make.

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Creamless Cream of Zucchini Soup

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CreamlessZucchiniSoup

I’ve been on a soup kick lately because it is super easy to make and gives me a giant dose of veggies. Plus, soup has been known to keep one satiated longer which is great because I’m finding that I have to choose between eating, sleeping, or catching up on some mundane house chore. Usually, catching up on the house chores wins out (quickly followed by a small creative project) and when I finally head to bed (around 2ish) I find I’m starving.

Giant bonus, Faye completely digs this soup. I let her try a bit from her own spoon and she went nuts for it.

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If I Knew You Were Comin’ I’d’ve Baked a Cake…

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Faye absolutely adores this song. I think it’s in part because I love singing it to her. We actually started off singing it in German, as my husband first recalled it from a Sesame Street skit, but I found it easier to sing it in English (go figure).

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DIY Montessori Bell Rattle

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Faye has been in love with the Bell Rattle for about a month now. The size is perfect for her tiny hand, it’s easy to hold, and the sound it makes is quite lovely. At four months, she was working on purposeful grasping and this was a great toy with which to practice.

At a week shy of 5 months, she still chooses this rattle over all the others. It’s quite safe to chew on which is great since she gums up that metal like no other toy. I think the cool temperature of the metal helps calm her teething pain.

This is a toy that could easily be introduced at 2 months, teaching the child how its movements can influence sound.

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Booby Boosting Dark Chocolate and Cherry Oatmeal

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Oatmeal with Dark Chocolate Chips, Cherries, Flax Seeds, and Pumpkin Seeds.

Dessert for Breakfast: Oatmeal with Dark Chocolate Chips, Cherries, Flax Seeds, and Pumpkin Seeds.

Let me put this out there early on in this blog: I hate breakfast. I dislike most “breakfasty” type foods. If I can wait until lunchtime to eat, I do. If it’s anywhere close to noon, I will hem and haw until a feasible lunch time rolls around.

There are those times when it’s 8 or 9 am, I’m starving, and there is nothing in the house for me to eat, so I must look to a breakfast food. A breakfast food that is quick and easy to assemble as well as easy for me to get down without gagging.

Last week, after one such day, I stumbled upon this beauty. Not only is this oatmeal quick and easy, but it is absolutely delicious!!!! I find myself looking forward to breakfast when I awake.

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