Over the weekend I tried my hand at making homemade crackers. Oh yes.
Crackers are such a blessing and a curse for a parent. They’re so convenient, they pack well for when you go out, and my kids will always, always eat them when offered. And yet… they’re really not great for you. I checked my regular grocery store cracker aisle for just one box that didn’t have high-fructose corn syrup or hydrogenated oil (trans fats) in the ingredients. And I didn’t find one. Not ONE. How disappointing. So on to the natural/organic section I went. I did find some options without HFCS, but they either cost an arm and a leg or they still had some form of vegetable or soybean oil in them. (other things we’re avoiding) So our next step was making them homemade!
I’ve found a few recipes for homemade crackers lately, but after I had already made-up my mind to try them on Friday, I saw this recipe and decided to just go for this one first. Apparently this blogger (one of my favs, by the way, I recommend you check her out!) had great success with this recipe….more success than I did.
Making the actual dough was a piece of cake. Rolling it out was a little bit harder. I don’t think I divided it quite as small as Katie did, so I had a hard time getting it thin enough. I used a pizza slicer to cut them into squares, about Wheat Thin size, and doused them in sea salt. They came-out ok, but I think my problem was definitely that I didn’t roll them thin enough. Or maybe I didn’t cook them long enough. They were relatively crispy, but definitely not Wheat Thin crispy. There was still a bit of bend to them. They tasted pretty good, but it reminded me too much of wheat bread. They had a distinctly bread smell. It didn’t bother me, and even Clay liked them a lot (which really surprised me, I totally expected him to not like them at all!), but the kids didn’t love them. They had a few, but didn’t even finish what I gave them. The next day I gave Ev a bowl of a few crackers and she only ate about one and then told me she didn’t like them. This was a total first for her, she loves any kind of cracker. If you’re just looking for something to stack your cheese on, then they’re just fine, but to eat by themselves, eh.
So, back to the drawing board! I think next time I’m going to try this recipe, they’re cheese crackers, so hopefully they’ll go over better with the kiddos. Or maybe these homemade graham crackers. I didn’t take any pictures of my homemade crackers, but they pretty much look like these. In general, I’m trying to reduce the amount of grains in our diet, so I probably won’t make these a big staple in our pantry since our general cracker consumption has been majorly reduced, but for the every once in awhile treat, this is very doable, and I want to keep trying to find a recipe that we all love.
In light of recent comments on the last post, I thought it might be helpful if we talk about some ideas for healthy and quick whole foods for kids. Because to be honest, that’s one of the big problems for many of us. When it comes to feeding ourselves, no biggie, but feeding our kids is often a different story. Some of you might be blessed with kids who will eat anything, but I would guess that most of us probably have the typical kid who balks at much of the food that is offered.
For us pickiness has been the biggest challenge, but convenience is also a HUGE one. Even those who have good eaters still need to figure-out how to quickly and conveniently get that good food in them. Well…. I don’t have a lot of brilliant ideas. I kinda just want to hear from you! Here’s what I’ve come up with so far and what my kids mostly eat, starting with breakfast:
*I usually make eggs in a pan because that’s how I like them and I usually eat them, too, but if it’s just for one of them, I’ll just microwave them. Yes, you can make scrambled eggs by simply microwaving a whipped-up egg for a few minutes in a bowl. It actually comes-out in a circular shape that makes it easier to cut into small bites, and I think because it’s a little overcooked, it holds together better instead of falling off their fork.
*Ev is loving oatmeal these days since I started letting her mix-in the cinnamon and frozen blueberries on her own. She likes stirring it up and turning the oatmeal purple. It was kind of a pain to make, but I recently read on the back of the container that oatmeal is easily microwavable, too! I put about 1/4 of a cup in a bowl (Ev won’t usually even finish this amount), add 1/2 cup of water, and microwave it for about 3 minutes. Why in the world buy those small little sugary packets of instant when you can just microwave the regular old-fashioned oats that come in a huge container? (without sugar and much cheaper!) I try to add-in lots of butter and sometimes sprinkle some shredded coconut in there, too, when she’s not looking, for healthy fats. Make sure to see if your grocery store has a bulk grain section and compare the prices of oatmeal there to the ones in the containers. (Quakers and such) Often the price per pound is cheaper if you buy it in the bulk section, and you can get as little or as much as you like.
*Ev still doesn’t love regular yogurt, but on the rare occasion when she’ll agree to it, we mix-in blueberries and I add some xylitol or real maple syrup for sweetener. Harris will eat it plain or with fruit. Sometimes I’ll even mix yogurt and oatmeal together! (is that weird?)
*My trick for making waffles easier is to make a big batch and then use it for the rest of the week. I use this recipe (love it!) and usually double it. I’m sure it isn’t what you’re “supposed” to do, but I just stick the big bowl of batter back in the fridge and use it for the rest of the week. That way all it takes is for me to warm-up the waffle iron, plop some batter on it, and in a couple of minutes we have fresh waffles. (or pancakes) SO easy. I know some people make ahead all their waffles and keep them in the freezer, reheating them when necessary, so you could do it that way, too.
*Ev has been used to eating dry cereal, usually Cheerios, for breakfast for years. It’s still a part of her morning routine and something she’s not ready to give-up yet, but I’m trying to make it more of an appetizer by giving her a small amount. She eats that and is still hungry afterward, so then she gets her “real” breakfast.
Alright, that’s all I got. What other ideas do you have for a quick breakfast for kids using whole foods? (quick being the key since the kids are usually fussing around my feet in the kitchen whining because they’re so hungry. Oh yeah, and I am NOT waking-up before them to prepare something, don’t even think about suggesting that!)
Over the past few months, we’ve been slowly changing our eating habits. They weren’t all that horrible before…or rather, I should say we probably ate like most Americans do. Lots of crackers and cereal and snacks in little packages…an apple or banana every once in awhile, and our vegetables were mostly of the canned variety. Moving to Seattle meant having a little bit more money since Clay finally had a job, so I was able to rethink our diet a little bit more….not to mention I finally had a kitchen that more than one person could comfortably fit in, so I actually enjoy being in there and cooking isn’t quite the chore it used to be. As I mentioned before, last year I discovered what it meant to actually cook something from scratch.
Things I didn’t know you could make without using a box mix that I have since added to my cooking repertoire: brownies, hot chocolate, cake, muffins, biscuits, pancakes, pizza, cookies, etc., etc., etc…. Since I’ve been regularly making some of these, (mostly biscuits, pancakes, pizza, and cookies) now it just seems weird that I would buy them in a mix. And when I read the ingredient list of such mixes, I can’t imagine why they have such odd things in them like high fructose corn syrup and soy and other things I can’t pronounce. There is such a satisfaction to being able to name every single ingredient of something you’re eating because you were the one to include it.
So I slowly began eliminating as many processed foods from our diet as I could, and I’ve really enjoyed experimenting and learning more about how to actually make food. As silly as it sounds, I’m still kinda surprised when I realize that I can usually make most of the things I’ve always just bought. For example, last week I made homemade mayonnaise! We don’t eat vegetable oils anymore, and I could NOT find any mayonnaise in the store without them. I found a recipe online, so I tried it–and lo and behold, it was SO easy and SO good!!! (I did add an extra yolk) It really took about 4 minutes, and because I used olive oil instead of flavorless vegetable oil, it had such a great flavor. I normally don’t even like regular store-bought mayonnaise, but I definitely loved this kind!
I’ve started buying regular whole, unsweetened yogurt instead of the nonfat sugary stuff I used to get, and I LOVE it so much more now. (my favorite is the Stoneyfield Farms brand) It was a small adjustment getting used to the taste, and at first I didn’t like it at all. I started by putting sugar and/or strawberry jam in it, and I slowly decreased the amount until now I really love it just plain. Eating whole rather than lowfat means that there are more healthy fats to keep our appetites satisfied for longer and it’s one step closer to the way it came out of the cow. Not to mention, whole milk yogurt is so much thicker and creamier and tastier, I don’t think I could go back to lowfat! Buying plain yogurt also allows you to customize exactly what you want in it. You can still add sugar if you want to, and I’m betting it will take a whole lot less to taste good than is already added to the store-bought kind! You can also choose if you want to mix-in things like fruit, nuts, maple syrup, vanilla, jam, etc… This morning I found an easy recipe for making homemade yogurt in the crockpot, and I can’t WAIT to try this! (should probably finish the two big containers of it that are in my fridge first) I’ll let you know how it goes…
It’s been a fun process to experiment with making things homemade that I used to always buy in the store, and honestly, it has NOT been hard. When you’re used to just mixing some powder with water and an egg and all of a sudden you have pancakes, it’s only a couple extra steps to add baking powder and salt. When I realize how few ingredients it actually takes to create most things, it kinda grosses me out now when I read the super-long ingredient list on the store-bought items. I’m not saying I’ll never buy any processed food again, but avoiding them has been easier and more fun than I expected. If you’re a mayonnaise lover, I highly recommend you trying to make it yourself, you might be surprised at how easy and fun it is! And it definitely made for a very tasty chicken salad.
What food do you normally buy that you’d like to try to make at home? What processed food would you like to give-up or have you given-up?
I know I’m kinda jumping into this late in the game, but we’re finally down to five girls, and to me that’s the perfect time to begin really paying attention. So, what does everyone think so far? We’ve got the nice guy Jake and five girls of varying niceness. OK, here’s what I think:
1. First of all, I kinda wonder why Jake is doing this anyway since he’s mentioned several times that faith is at the top of the list of his desired traits in a wife…. somehow I don’t think he’s going to find that on The Bachelor. If that’s really what he cares about, he’d probably do better to look for a wife at church. Texas is a big place, I’m sure he hasn’t exhausted its wealth of nice Christian girls.
2. So far I’m impressed at how honest he’s been with the girls. He’s called-out a few of them on their game-playing and weirdness, and he’s sent home two extra girls before it was “time” simply because he realized that they weren’t right for him and he didn’t want to keep them around to play games. I mean, let’s be real here, he’s still on a show where he kisses multiple girls one after another, so it’s not like he’s a total pillar of integrity, but he’s definitely more the kid of guy I would like than the past bachelors.
3. As far as Vienna goes…..I don’t get it, what’s the big deal? I mean, she’s a little socially awkward and says things that easily come across the wrong way. But I’ve never seen her be outright mean, she even make a group apology at one point for anything she might’ve said to offend, and the camera showed her crying by herself in her room when no one would spend time with her. She seems like a nice girl whose just immature and spoiled and doesn’t know how to relate very well to other girls. But wow, I really don’t think her immaturity deserves the kind of vitriolic bitchiness that the other girls are showing. I mean, Ali is really over the top with her hatred… her emotional response to Vienna is simply out of proportion to the situation, it makes me question Ali’s maturity and sanity more than anything else. I don’t think Jake and Vienna belong together, but he’ll see that. He’s a smart guy. I guess I’ve seen so many other Bachelors where there is a girl who is truly a jerk who badmouths the other girls and even talks about how she’s not there for the guy and is truly a horrible person. But Vienna? Just being a little immature and saying kinda rude things doesn’t require Ali and Tinley to hate her with a passion that burns like the fire of a thousand suns.
4. Ali used to be my favorite, but ever since she started showing her bitchy side when it comes to Vienna, I don’t like her a bit. Seeing how incredibly mean she can be reveals more about her character than however cute and fun she is with Jake…and I think if he saw that side, he would be turned-off. I would never want to be in a relationship with someone who has so much hatred and anger against someone who never meant them harm. Not to mention, I think she’s exhibiting more immaturity every time she has a temper tantrum about Vienna than Vienna ever has.
5. I don’t know who my favorite is anymore. I do like Tinley, but again, I have a hard time with how mean she’s been to Vienna. But as far as relating to Jake and the way she’s talked about her past, I do like her a lot. Surprisingly, I also like Gia. I don’t think they’re really that great together, but she seems very sincere. Although I did laugh out loud when she was giddy and giggly during her date with Jake and she said, “I mean, I don’t think I’ve felt like like this in two or three years!!!” I thought she was going to say, “I have never felt like this before!”, or at least something appropriate for being with a guy you might want to marry!
6. I was very sad that he let go of Ella, she was my favorite. But hey, if she’s not right for him, then I’m glad he sent her home to be with her son. I liked that she was from Tennessee, of course, and she seemed very real and mature.
So, we’ll see how it turns-out and if there are a few weeks where they just have fun and he doesn’t get rid of anyone since he got rid of some extra people this week. My prediction? Hmmm….I think maybe Tinley and Ali will be left at the end. Can’t tell yet who will win. What do you think??????
One of my Christmas presents was a book from my Amazon Wishlist, Love is an Orientation by Andrew Marin. Marin’s passion and ministry is building bridges between the Church and the gay community, and reading this book has opened my eyes in a big time kind of way. One of those ways is to understand the common perception of Christians by the gay community. They don’t generally like us….because they believe we hate them. Because a lot of us do hate them. Because they have been hurt by the Church and by Christians over and over again. We don’t know how to communicate with them, and for all our talk about “hating the sin and loving the sinner,” we don’t know HOW to love them in a way that is measurable and unconditional…the way Jesus loves them. We don’t know what it’s like to be them (and we’re too afraid to find out), so we have no idea how to relate to them in a way that they are able to experience love.
Tyra Banks had a show last week titled “Is Gay the new black?,” and of course I totally tuned-in because I love it when Tyra gets all deep and “let’s change the world!” on social issues. The clip below is from the last part of the show (you can probably find the whole show on YouTube) where I believe they were discussing gay marriage, and there is a panel of people who are for it and a panel who are against it. The audience is divided into gay and straight sections. The whole thing is good, but pay attention just before the six-minute mark, that’s where things started getting interesting. The woman in the blue (against gay marriage) starts talking about how the Bible is her authority for her beliefs on homosexuality, and being gay is a miserable, diseased way to live. Of course this is pretty offensive to the gay crowd, and one guy in the audience stands-up to talk.
He starts telling her about his experience of being brutalized by the world in general and his dad in particular for being gay. His dad literally beat him when he found-out he was gay, and he used the Bible as his justification. This guy was so hurt, so broken, and he could barely finish what he was saying because he was crying. He spoke of how he was hospitalized on his birthday (for being beat-up or for something else, I’m not sure) and he was all alone, no friends or family, because they used the Bible as an excuse to hate him. He told the Christian woman, “How dare you hate me like that! You hate me! You hate me, and that is not a Christian!,” through his tears. So what was the Christians’ response? Something really defensive and uncompassionate about how he wasn’t mentally or emotionally stable. Before she could get very far, Tyra interrupted her and talked about how it’s one thing to differ in opinions, but it’s another thing to not recognize and empathize with someone’s pain. The Christians showed no empathy or even acknowledgement of the gay man’s great pain caused by the Church.
The point is not that this is definitely a talk show where people have strong opinions and don’t usually use their heads or their hearts to voice them. The point is that these Christians could have been any of us and their reactions were not so unlike many reactions to the gay community that I’ve personally heard from fellow believers. The point is that these are very common reactions to people who are gay, this is just a small microcosm of the reality of the Church and its relation to the gay community.
The point is not that, of course, the dad should have never used the Bible as an excuse to beat his son because that’s not a correct understanding of what the Bible teaches. The point is that that young gay man will forever relate the pain and shame of his parent hurting him to the Bible and Christians and probably God.
The point is not his anger and accusations that the Christian woman hates him when, in actuality, she probably doesn’t. The point is that her words and demeanor gave no sign of empathy and love and therefore fell in line with what the young man had always experienced from Christians. She gave him no reason to believe otherwise, no reason to think that maybe she was different, maybe Jesus was different.
The point is not that we talk amongst ourselves about “hating the sin and loving the sinner” (a phrase despised by gays) and pat ourselves on the back for not being repulsed or openly hostile. The point is that in general, the gay community feels no love from the Church. They feel hate, judgement, and hypocrisy. We may think we’re loving them, but they’re not feeling very loved. And when that’s the case, that means it’s our job to change something.
But there is an undercurrent of preexisting negative perceptions of Christianity’s traditional belief system that utterly repulses gays and lesbians. And in turn Christians then spotlight their sexual behaviors as a defense mechanism, rather than looking at their whole person. This impasse will never be breached unless Christians are the first ones to humble themselves.
That starts with acknowledging the GLBT community’s perceptions of evangelicalism. Believers are convinced that they know what gays and lesbians think, but actually, GLBT people’s real thoughts and fears are totally different. This is exactly where the systemic disconnect begins….
Even if Christians don’t agree with the GLBT community or what they might stand for, believers in Christ are supposed to know how to find real empathy for those who are going through things we can never understand. When we get our first glimpse of that genuine empathy, let it soak in until it becomes a real expression of our appreciation of what GLBT people face twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week.
The GLBT community shouldn’t have to demand that from Christians. We should demand it of ourselves a faithful stewards of the responsibility that they have given us by letting a straight, conservative Christian into their world. Let us then learn and listen and validate the reality of their stories as to what did actually happen in their life. Validation is different from affirmation, and it is an essential starting point to take gay people at their word. The more skeptical we are, the more we doubt the validity of a gay’s or lesbian’s life, the more shallow and ineffective our relationships become.
So when I saw the pain on that young man’s face and in his eyes, it really hurt me that that’s what the Church has done to him. That is what they think of us. I have a responsibility in that because though I haven’t intentionally been rude or hostile to a gay or lesbian, what have I done to give them a different picture of the Church and Jesus? What have I done to love them in a measurable way that they are able to receive? What have I done to defend them against those who shame and ridicule them?
Christians must be the first to apologize, and admit that we have wronged people who are gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender. A bridge cannot be built from just one side of a divide, but the traditional paradigm asks the GLBT community to somehow find their way to the Christian side of the divide before any meaningful contact is made. Until we come to the realization that we don’t understand the GLBT community, nothing substantial can occur. My experience has proven that right from the gate Christians can’t relate. Unless you have been sexually attracted to someone of the same sex you can never fully grasp, as a heterosexual Christian, what that means. So pretend like you know, because that is the quickest way to lose credibility in a GLBT person’s mind. pg.33
Just wanted to direct your attention to the sidebar where I’ve updated my blogroll for the first time in about a year or so. In that time I’ve dropped reading some blogs and added a bunch of new favorites, so make sure you catch a quick glance. I’ve set-up a few categories so you know what you’re getting into:
Birth Blogs: These are some awesome blogs that I read a LOT when I was pregnant and they really helped me learn more about natural childbirth and how God designed our bodies to birth.
Blogroll: These are the majority of the blogs I subscribe to in my Google Reader and consistently read
Favorite Blogs: These are the favs of all the 125 I’m subscribed to. When my Google Reader is totally full or I only have a few minutes to read something, these are the ones I go to first. You should definitely be reading these.
Friends: These are the blogs of some of my friends that I consistently read.
Food: These are some blogs that primarily talk about nutrition and food; I’ve been spending lots of time on these lately.
(Harris’ birthday was actually last week on the 13th, and I started writing this then…. I’m just now getting around to finishing it. Poor guy has such a slacker mom!)
A year ago today I experienced one of the most incredible transitions of life. Harris was born… all by himself. All by myself. There were a few words of encouragement by the midwife, she confirmed that my pushing was at the right time, and she and Clay caught him together. The rest was us, Harris and me. I had been ready for him to come out for awhile, but he took his time to get things started, and then he straight FLEW out of me! (three hour labor, start to finish) Over the past year I’ve reflected on his birth quite a bit. It was one of the best things I’ve ever done, and I loved it. Not just the having him, but the process of waiting and helping him come. I literally labored for him…. the pain was meaningful and productive, and somehow the process of feeling it completely and surrendering to what my body instinctively knew how to do in labor was significant to me. I gained a much greater love and appreciation for my body and what I’m capable of, what God designed and empowered me to do. There have been times over this past year when I don’t feel strong or when I’m discouraged about something my body is doing (not making enough milk, not losing weight) and I remember what I did when I birthed Harris. It’s something I come back to and am reminded that hey, my body did something pretty darn amazing! It carried and nourished and birthed another human life! I feel so blessed to have had that gift, and it changed the way I see my body. My body may have struggled to nourish Harris with a complete supply of breastmilk, but it sure did something right and amazing when it carried and birthed him. I may be a little softer and rounder than I was before, but my body has been strong and instinctively intelligent as a mom. I will always come back to Harris’ labor and birth as something that my body was awesome at.
This year has been crazy. The first six months of Harris’ life I wasn’t always sure that I liked him a lot. I loved him a bunch, but good grief, that boy kept me tired! He was a screamy, non-sleeping baby who literally woke-up about 5-7 times per night… for about four months. Really, he was probably about 9 months old before I consistently slept more than 3 straight hours at a time. I considered myself lucky to have more than one block of 3 hours per night. As soon as he came out and for the first three or so weeks of his life, he was stuck to my boob. And no, I don’t mean he nursed frequently… I mean there was rarely a time that he was NOT nursing! As in for HOURS at a time, several times a day and many times during the night. For the first six months or so he screamed in the car almost anytime we went anywhere….we went through phases where he needed to be held for his naps, where he needed to cry for his naps, where I cried for his naps…. we’ve really done it all! He needed so much attention for the first few months that I constantly felt guilty that I was giving Evelyne the short end of the stick. Let’s just say she watched a LOT of tv for awhile there. I kept telling myself, “It’s just a season, it’s just a season.” And I was totally right. If anything, I’ve learned this year that nothing ever stays the same with kids. All of those long, hard, terrible days are gone….in retrospect, they were really here for such a short time.
And now I have my beautiful, sweet Harris, whom I am truly in love with. As he grew older, he turned into a happy, content, very quick to smile, lovable little guy. He started scooting and beginning to army crawl at 6 months, so he’s been busy and on the move for quite awhile. He’s cuddlier than Evelyne was at this age, he’ll actually throw his arms around our neck and hug us with his head on our shoulder, or sit in our lap for extended periods of time just hanging out. He is just the sweetest and most awesome baby, and I am SO thankful for him. I didn’t like this stage with Evelyne (she was hard for a full year), but in the past few months I have just enjoyed Harris so much. He is so fun and now that I see how fast they grow, I’m wanting to keep him small and babylike for as long as possible. The hard beginning was more than worth it to have such a beautiful soul in our family. I really can’t remember what life was like without him, he adds such a wholeness to our family that wasn’t there before. Happy Birthday, Harris, may God give you many, many, many more.
Thanks to my dear friend Elizabeth Wiggs, I now finally have some new pictures of the four of us! Seriously, other than a handful (a very small handful) of snapshots from this past year, these are the only pictures of the four of us since Harris has been born. (a year ago on Wednesday) More pictures to follow….
I’m hoping that by now you’ve heard of one of the strangest and most talented new performers out there, Lady Gaga. The first time I saw her was when she performed on American Idol last season. I totally didn’t get it. I thought she was beyond weird, I hated the song she sang, and I hated her voice. I couldn’t imagine why someone like her was on such a big show.
The next time I heard her song (Poker Face) was on 90210 (yes, the new one. yes, I watch that.) It was playing in the background and was oddly catchy. I kept hearing it on the radio every once in awhile and before I knew it, it had totally grown on me and I found myself singing it all the time. Then I heard another song or two on the radio and realized that I really liked those, too. ( I will admit, it was much easier to start liking her songs when I was only hearing them and not watching her perform. I could actually concentrate on the music and not be distracted by her weird costumes.)
Here’s another one of her popular songs, Just Dance.
So I found myself really liking her. Then I saw her new video for Bad Romance. And wow. It’s….just wow. This is one of the strangest videos I’ve ever seen, and the first time I saw it I was confused and mesmerized and weirded-out….and I totally could NOT get the song out of my head! I really can’t even describe how weird this video is, but the more I watched it and the more I listened to the song, the more I liked it. I heard someone compare this video to Michael Jackson’s Thriller, and that helped me put it in a proper category in my mind that allowed me to appreciate Lady Gaga’s strange creativity.
Here’s the video to her new song Bad Romance…. watch it and try not to be totally weirded out and yet singing along anyway…. (and notice the crazy shoes!!!)
And if you can believe it, here she is before she was Lady Gaga. Love or hate Lady Gaga, you’ve GOT to see this, it’s awesome.
