Creaky

The famz went up to Uncle Andy's place in Chelsea for some TV, then we walked home, hitting the farmer's market, the baby supply store, a restaurant, etc. We had plans in the evening, but they all got cancelled through no cause of our own. HVS was coming off a big day of yoga tests after grinding for weeks, so it was great to be able have her come over and take a load off, even if that meant doing 10 minutes of creaky yoga!

BREAKFAST: 10am, organic cheerios with organic dead milk, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5

AM SNACK: 11:30am, 2 donuts, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5
From the Donut Plant, a lemon and a triple chocolate.

LUNCH: 2pm, pizza, Greek salad pizza, orange soda, 1.25 bowl, hunger 4/5
At Pizza By the Inch, where they serve long Roman-style pies cut to order. The Greek salad pizza is basically a pre-baked shell with sauce, which they top with romaine, red onion, olives and sprinkle with feta. I'm not a big feta fan, but as a condiment it's pretty great.

PM SNACK: 5pm, apple cider, .25 bowl
Fresh from the farmer's market.

DINNER: 7:30pm, left over rigatoni & meatballs with spinach and ricotta, 1.5 bowl, hunger 4/5
The HVS was coming over, but wasn't hungry, so I zapped a few left overs which hit the spot.

SNICKLESNACK: 8pm, a little bit of dark chocolate, 2 graham crackers, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5

Snuggly

After doing the laundry in the morning, Edie and I napped and I ended up blowing off all plans for the afternoon. A cold snowy day outside, a warm snuggly baby inside, and enough little things to do around the house to remain sane. Edie fed strongly, and I got a few baby spoons of the good yogurt in. I can't begin to say how fun it is to feed her a food I love, and to watch her weird reaction; a screwed up little face followed by an open mouth looking for me.

BREAKFAST: 9am, apple cider, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5
Stomach still feeling a little weird from yesterday's dinner.

LUNCH: 12:30pm, rigatoni and sauce with meatballs, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5
Around 11:30 got hungry for lunch and started pacing the kitchen looking for something quick, but that feeling was what got me into trouble in yesterday's dinner. I happened to have an onion lying around and all the pantry ingredients for tomato sauce, so I made some. No recipe, just hoofed it, using a little tomato paste in the flavor base to see what would happen. Came out ok, I suspect the tomato paste gave it a stronger fakey tomato taste. Finished up the school meatballs.

I ate half my plate before realizing this was way too much food. I put it into a container and into the fridge -- in the past I would of just shovelled it down...

PM SNACK: 3:30pm, graham crackers and dark chocolate, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5

PM SNACK: 6:30pm, 2 veggie soy sausage patties, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5

DINNER: 8pm, chicken soup with vegetable gyoza, wheat crackers with the good peanut butter, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5
Stomach was feeling acidy but hungry. Roving around the kitchen again, realized I had freshly made never-frozen chicken stock in the fridge, so I cut it with 50% water and boiled up some dumplings in the freezer I picked up in Koreatown. Still nippy, B lead me to some wholegrain crackers which I shmeared with a little peanut butter. A light, very satisfying meal.

Dumb Dinner

Edie & I visited the Brooklyn Museum with our friend L. I thought we'd have some time in the morning to fart around but I was depending on Edie as an alarm clock, and she didn't go off until 9:45, so it was a quick jump out the door.

After the museum, we wandered in Prospect Heights for a late lunch, later than I like, I got too hungry and overate a little. It destroyed my appetite for a normal dinner, and on the way home I connected with B, and we spent some time wandered the aisles of the local drug stores (because that's what married people with babies do for fun, dang nabbit!) I almost got a single cheapo freezer case ice cream cone, but the line was too long, and the next drug store only had a 4 pack. -sigh--

Not a good dinner, not a good dinner at all. Dinner shouldn't give you a throbbing headache then send you to the bathroom when you should be soothing your baby. Lesson learned, I hope.

BREAKFAST: 10am, organic cheerios with organic dead milk, apple cider, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5

LUNCH: 3:30pm, variety of small Indian dishes including shrimp curry, chicken tikka, aloo gobi, rice, nan, rikta, water, 1.5 bowl, hunger 4/5

PM SNACK: 6pm, ice cream cone, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5

"DINNER": 8pm, 3 more ice cream cones, hotdog, 1.25 bowl, hunger 4/5

The Good Yogurt vs The Bad Yogurt

One of the things my wife and I do not see eye to eye on is yogurt. We both love Fage, the thick strained tangy Greek-style yogurt, what I call 'the good yogurt'. However, while I get plain ol' Fage, she get's Fage 0%, as in 0% fat. Fage, a cow's milk yogurt, in it's whole state, is not light: a full 2/3 of it's calories comes from fat, mostly saturated (though no trans). It makes sense, as fat IS flavor. While the 0% stuff looks identical, it's kinda like the difference between eating ice cream and eating paste in the shape of ice cream.

But my wife insists that there isn't a big difference, that she loves her yogurt regardless. A few times we had taste tests with various friends and relatives passing through our kitchen in the morning hours (hello Ido! hello Mariko!) and while they were both polite about it, both agreed that the whole unreduced less processed yogurt tasted better.

So this early this evening Edie was in a feeding frenzy, first I fed her some oatmeal-pea-formula mush which she ripped through, then I fed her the remaining peas from the jar, and she showed no sign of slowing. So my wife suggested we feed her some yogurt, as Edie already had some at some point. And then, you guessed it, B pulled out the ZERO PERCENT PASTE!! (the horrah, the horrah)

Bottom line, when man discovered that there were bacteria that could be added to dairy that would not only not spoil it, but preserve it, thicken it and have probiotic health benefits, the first thing they probably thought (after, "Hey! It didn't kill me!") was "This is delicious!", not, "How can this help me slim my figure?" Zero % yogurt is "less than", it is more processed, it is "reduced", it is unbalanced. All that milk protein without it's natural fat to help the body absorb it? Babies should never be given any sort of "diet" food.

So Edie tried her first good yogurt, and she screwed up her face in the most adorable of ways, then opened her mouth and went for more. I served her about a tablespoon, and she would of eaten more, but with such a rich food, moderation is probably not a bad thing at this stage in the game.

BREAKFAST: 10:15am, apple cider, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5

LUNCH: 12:30pm, 3 slices white shrimp & bacon pizza, Manhattan Special, 1.25 bowl, hunger 4/5

PM SNACK:5:30pm, large green salad, pickle, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5

DINNER: 7pm, halibut fishsticks, brown rice mushroom pilaf mixed with garlic spinach, graham crackers, water, 1.5 bowl, hunger 4/5
Picked up some battered fishsticks while touring Trader Joe's today. When Is aw them, reminded me of some horrible fishsticks my mom would serve -- processed pressed fish cakes in super thick and greasy coating. These fish sticks were really nice -- the fish seemed to be whole fish, and the batter was relatively thin with a nice touch of tumeric.

No Intervention

After a calm day of a playdate drop in at the community center and some grocery shopping, made myself a quick meal then attended a meeting to establish a food coop on the LES. Had to leave early, as Edie was getting cranky. Spent the evening making chicken stock, and as B slept, Edie woke up a few times crying. I picked her up and soothed her, and 3 minutes later put her back in the crib -- this was the first time I got her back to sleep successfully without the intervention of Betsy. That was pretty satisfying.

BREAKFAST: 8:30am, good yogurt with homemade vanilla extract, cashews and honey, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5

AM SNACK: 11:30am, tortilla chips with a little salsa, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5

LUNCH: 1:15pm, slice of streetza, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5

PM SNACK: 1:45pm, piece of chocolate chip banana bread, hunger 4/5

DINNER: 6pm, bone-in pork chop, sauteed spinach, brown rice mushroom pilaf, apple cider, 1.5 bowl, hunger 4/5
Some left over rice microwaved, put a thick 2" chop in the pan with a little chicken fat for 20 minutes, took a bag of frozen spinach and put it in another pan with chicken fat, garlic, salt, cayenne and a little water and slowly heated it covered. Once I rested the meat for about 5 minutes, I tucked into another meal that I was surprisingly happy with. The spinach was tasty, the chop was a little less pink than I like but juicy and a nice crust. The rice from yesterday was an excellent nutty-tasting side dish, and I would be very happy if I got this plate at a restaurant for $23. Which makes me think, the food cost on this was probably about half that, and in a restaurant setting 1/4 would more appropriate.

EVENING SNACK: 11pm, vegan oatmeal chocochip cookies, sour cream and onion pop-chips, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5
Up late making chicken stock, got hungry.

Corner Baby

Insomnia kept me up until 4, Ediebird got me up at 7:30. Got laundry done, and the plan was to get out of the house after lunch, but felt so run down, had to spend all my strength and concentration on keeping Edie happy and fed and safe. Her backwards crawling has gotten stronger, but when you can only go in reverse, it's inevitable that you're going to back yourself into a corner:



BREAKFAST: 9am, organic cheerios with organic dead milk, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5

LUNCH: 12 noon, large green salad, Stouffers Frenchbread pizzas, 1.5 bowl, hunger 4/5

PM SNACK: 4pm, chocolate covered bacon, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5

DINNER: 7:15pm, curry shrimp over porcini brown rice pilaf, chocolate chip mint ice cream, 1.5 bowl, hunger 4/5
It's nice when a casual meal is successful. Peeled and cleaned some shrimp, let in marinate in curry powder, cayenne and cinnamon. Sauteed onion and garlic in olive oil and butter, through in a pack of chopped dried porcinis, then toasted long grain brown rice. Covered it in a tetrapack of beef stock, brought to a boil and wacked it in the oven for about an hour. No recipe, just following basic method, and it came out really good. The premade stock was really salty, but fortunately the final rice was seasoned in the right spot.

Ice Cream & Peccadilloes

This morning a friend in the neighborhood came over with her 4 year old, and I ran the kid through the steps of making mint ice cream from scratch. He didn't quite have his coordination down (cracking an egg involved slamming it down full-force for a well-messy splatter) but it was fun anyway. I made a batch of mint custard yesterday so we would not have to wait 8 hours for it to chill.

In the evening, I went to Nobu with E to celebrate her latest personal peccadilloes. The restaurant was surprisingly empty, the weak economy in full force.

Tomorrow, B goes back to work and me n' Edie are back to getting our grooves back.

BREAKFAST: 10:30am, toasted pumpernickel bagel with cream cheese and homemade cured salmon, apple cider, 1.25 bowl, hunger 4/5

AM SNACK: 11:30am, "pig candy", just a snap
I was given really decadent chocolate-covered bacon as a gift for the ice cream excursion. Really tasty, but it just tastes so....unhealthy.

PM SNACK: 12:30pm, mint ice cream, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5

LUNCH: 3pm, mac n' cheese, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5

DINNER: 6:30pm, 7 small seafood courses, green tea mouse over sesame cake with redbean paste, half a bottle of sake, 1.5 bowl, hunger 4/5

EVENING SNACK: 10pm, mint chocolate chip ice cream. .25 bowl, hunger 4/5