A good day, despite lack of sleep

Woke up late, as another night of sleepless children kept the household in chaos. We did manage to get out of the house by noon, training it up to midtown for  a nice walk through Central Park and a visit to the zoo. We got home by 4ish, and B left around 6:30 for a wedding party of a close friend while I stayed behind with the hottentots. Fortunately, my friend MAP very generously came over to babysquat, watch Sesame St and generally be cool while I kept a lid on the situation.

Lunch comprise of some horrible foods, but tried to make up for it with an easy, but nutritionally valid dinner.

TODAY'S COOKING:
Oatmeal: I had Betsy make the oatmeal while I held the baby, which made me make up measurements for the recipe: 1.5 cups water, .5 steel cut oats, 2 tbsp brown sugar, 1 tbsp butter, 1/2 tsp salt, 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon. Micro on high 8 minutes, stirring half way through. Surprisingly salty, should cut it back to 1/4 teaspoon.

AM SNACK: 9:30am, iced green tea


BREAKFAST: 10am, oatmeal, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5

LUNCH pt 1: 12:30pm, street dirty water dog, waffle with chocolate, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5
In Central Park, pre-zoo. The dirty water dog was somehow exactly as I remember them and worse. Skinless hotdogs are kinda disgusting, compared to natural-casing dogs which have more snap, juice and flavor.


LUNCH pt 2: 2:45pm, small slice of pizza, french fries & ketchup, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5
At the cafe at the Central Park Zoo. I never ate french fries with pizza until Edie decided french fries are a major food group, and Betsy decided pizza is good no matter where the source. Hrumph.

PM SNORT: 6pm, glass of hard cider

DINNER: 9:30pm, large green salad, 2 spinach knishes, 1 kasha knish, health salad, pickle, 1.25 bowl, hunger 4/5


EVENING SNACK: 10:30am, peanuts & chocolate chips, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5

Crepier

A rough night of sleeplessness, crying babies, unhappy toddlers, frazzled wives and a lucky unaware cat. Betsy took Mil to a regular doc appt while I wheeled out Edie around the neighborhood with a friend, who is looking at spaces to open a food retail business. Edie popped off to sleep pretty much immediately, and when I got home at 1, got to work on some experimental pancakes.

Took the duo out to the local playground in the afternoon -- it's chilly, but not unplayable like it will be in the winter and got lazy and ordered in Chinese for dinner, but not before making a big green salad to get some balance in there.

TODAY'S COOKING:
Pancakes: Swung by Essex St Market this morning, got the good buttermilk from Saxelby. When my dad made pancakes, they were always from a mix, and they were always thin and a bit rubbery....I miss that. So I took my standard c-school pancake recipe (24 oz AP Flour, 3 oz sugar, 1 tsp baking powder, 2 tsp salt / 24 oz whole milk, 3 egg, 2 oz butter) and kinda winged it (24 oz AP flour, 3 oz vanilla sugar, 1 tsp baking powder, 2 tsp salt, 1 tsp cinnamon, scrapings of 4 vanilla beans / 24 oz buttermilk, 12 oz whole milk, 4 eggs, 3 oz butter) using the same method.

The pancakes definitely came out flatter/denser/moister/mushier/crepier. The liquid really prevented strong gluten formation. Tasted good, but some weird spot between a pancake and a French crepe.


BREAKFAST: 9:30am, organic cornflakes & milk, iced green tea, banana, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5

LUNCH: 1:30pm, pancakes, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5


PM SNACK: 5:15pm, large green salad, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5
Made salad today to balance the big dinner I knew coming.


DINNER: 6pm, chicken w/broccoli, pork fried rice, egg roll, grape soda, 1.5 bowl, hunger 4/5


EVENING SNACK: 7pm, peanut butter cups, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5
A gift of affection from wifey. Hrumph.

Failed Rice

After sleeping from around noon to 8:30 this morning, my body and head felt like little scrubbing bubbles had entered my system and just flushed all the junk away without and discomfort or upset. I wish the same could be said for B, who was a bit frazzled from going up against the two headed beast known as our kids "sleeping".

In the afternoon, we looked after our neighbor's two kids (of similar ages to E&E), and for the most part went smoothly. I looked after 3 for the first two hours, then B come over with Mil and she looked after the two babies while I took the toddlers to a playroom. It went pretty smoothly for me until the families with 8 kids started rolling in making the room feel like the inside of a jet engine. B seemed a little frazzled by the crying in stereo, but did great considering the night she had before. Next week, our friends will cover our childcare needs while we go out and do something date-ish.

TODAY'S COOKING
Failed Rice:  When I have a yen for rice, I bust out the rice cooker and throw in whatever is on hand that might be good, though sometimes it comes out quite nasty. This was one of those times. Started with long grain brown rice and water. Added salt, butter, minced dried morrels. Should of stopped there. Added a few glugs of red wine, some cayenne, a dash of machta (green tea powder), ground black pepper and onion powder. Came out weirdly earthy/spicy without too much heat. Not very tasty. I think I tried to do two different flavor combinations at once, and they fought each other.

BREAKFAST: 8:45am, iced green tea, good oatmeal, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5


BRUNCH: 11:45am, pumpernickel bagel with cream cheese, 1.5 donuts, 1.25 bowl, hunger 4/5


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


DINNER: 7:30pm, chili shrimp, failed rice, health salad, 1.25 bowl, hunger 4/5
Raw shrimp marinated in olive oil, chili powder and a little salt, sauteed hot and quick.

EVENING SNACK: 9:30pm, wholewheat ritz crackers and nutella, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5

Shorted out

The list of food that I ate this day is not incomplete -- I did not eat anything after lunch until I woke up the next day at 8:30am. Around 12:30, my battery just....died. Betsy was out with Edie, and I was home with Mil, trying to get myself together to go out at 1pm to go teach. I couldn't get the fuzzies out of my head, and my limbs felt like rubber. I called school to tell them I wasn't coming in, put myself to bed when my mother-in-law showed up around 1, and....with a few interruptions, pretty much slept through until 8:30 the next day. It was more than a little rough on B taking care of two kids over night, but my brain literally shorted-out. Oy. One part exhaustion, one part bug, nothings ever shut me down like that before, and I don't think I've ever slept for so many hours in one shot before.


BREAKFAST: 7:45am, iced green tea, good yogurt with honey, vanilla and almonds, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5


LUNCH: 11:30am, 2 slices of frozen pizza, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5

Trip to the Museum

The day was centered around taking the two tots up to the Museum of Natural History with our friends, who also have 2 tots of similar age. Lunch was had in the museum's cafe out of convenience, then a nice walk across the park ended in a detour to see the tree in Rock Center.

BREAKFAST: 7:45am, iced green tea, smoothie, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5


AM SNACK: 9:30am, potato samosa, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5


LUNCH: 12 noon, small plate of sushi, chicken fingers, diet coke, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5


PM SNACK: 5:15pm, potato chips, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5


DINNER: 6pm, breaded tilapia, 2 small spinach knishes, health salad, 1.25 bowl, hunger 4/5

The lid on my head

Took the mini-mes to a playdate in the 'hood in the morning, then put Edie on a bike and rode around downtown with B and his son for a few hours in the afternoon, before bringing Edie to a regular check up at the doc. Ordered in Indian food in the early evening.

Not making any progress on the knish front, due to being busy with the kids, and looking that Edie does not have school these two weeks, have realized I can not do special order holiday knishes without really putting a lot of stress on my family. Bummer, but I'm glad I have a great family, so it's not that big a trade-off.

AM SNACK: 9:30am, iced green tea, a couple of pumpkin chocolate chip cookies


BREAKFAST: 11am, PB&J on wholewheat, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5


LUNCH: 1:45pm, health salad, potato chips, pickle, a little mint ice cream, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5


PM SNACK: 4pm, whole wheat focaccia, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5


DINNER: 6:30pm, shrimp korma & rice, roti, samosa, water, 1.5 bowl, hunger 4/5
One of the first times ordering in didn't seem unnecessary or lazy or indulgent, but very necessary to keep the lid on my head from boiling over.

Sunday Thinkin'

Took Edie out in the morning, with the specter of no school for her for the next two weeks hanging over my head. B had some good friends over in the early afternoon, brought some wonderful homemade pumpkin chocolate chip cookies with them. Off to a friend's kid's birthday in the early evening, feeling zoned out and tired (and a rum & cider drink probably didn't help, but did make me think about making a rum/apple flavored ice cream.)

BREAKFAST: 8:15 am, iced green tea, oatmeal, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5
Oatmeal sat out over night, didn't taste quite right, too salty with a tang. Gonna toss it, redo it later.

BREAKFAST 2: 10:15am, pancakes, bacon, home fries, diet coke, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5


PM SNACK: 12:45am, handful of pumpkin chocolate chip cookies, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5


LUNCH: 2:45pm, large green salad, potato chips, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5

PM SNACK: 5:30pm, slice of streetza, chocolate cake, rum & cider drink, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5 

DINNER: 8:30pm, health salad, pototo chips, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5