1 year later - our TV free experiment

It's been a year since our T.V. was plugged into a wall and about 11 months since I've seen it as we sold it on craigslist last summer. At first the idea of selling the Time Vacuum seemed ridiculous to me. What if we really want to watch something? Can't we just keep it and not turn it on? It was my husband pushing for this change and I was still in the "everything in moderation camp".

While we both could see educational benefits to programming on PBS and other learning channels found on cable stations we had become increasingly discontent with the amount of advertising and the content of a lot of the programming. I still had my favorite prime-time shows but when pushed to really examine them I had to admit that yes they were on the trashy side. In the early years of our marriage, we went through phases of watching and not watching and we didn't pay for cable so it wasn't costing us anything.

Like pretty much every major change in the last year the final push to get rid of the time vacuum was having our daughter Sarah. The American Academy of Pediatrics had issued a statement saying that children under two should get zero screen time. They cited the rapidly changing images as re-hardwiring the way a child's brain worked and linking it to ADD and ADHD later in childhood. Here is an article on the study: http://www.whitedot.org/issue/iss_story.asp?slug=ADHD%20Toddlers
Having taken educational psychology courses in my college years this article re-enforced a lot of what I had learned.

When we talked about getting rid of the T.V. a few people thought it was a good idea; they too got sucked in to watching when they didn't really have time. Some of my friends however told me I would regret it (or later change my mind), the ONLY way they could make dinner was to put on Curious George. It didn't sit right with me that I would risk my daughter's brain development so I could have an easier time making dinner. So 6 weeks after she was born out it went. Would I miss it?

Surprisingly no.

In the past year I have spent many evenings cuddled up with my baby without the distraction of the T.V. I have also revisited many of my old hobbies and learned new ones. I joined cafemom's sewing diaper divas group and learned how to make my own cloth diapers. I pulled out an old manuscript that I always believed had potential but never "had time" to write (I have now FINISHED my rough draft). I have cooked tons and tons of vegetarian food, walked miles upon miles and even read a few books. My hubby has also done a great deal of cooking and cycling and completed his first 100K last fall. He intends on riding a century this fall. I still find myself super busy, these "hobbies" are usually only given a few minutes here or there and honestly when I talk to new parents who do watch shows on a regular basis I wonder how they even have the time.

We take everything "one day at a time." Sometimes I wonder if we will ever go back to owning a T.V. At this point I would say it seems doubtful. As Sarah (and any future siblings) get older we plan on watching DVD's, perhaps on the computer. We know there is educational and entertainment value in media but we plan on using it in a limited way without all the commercials.

XXL Hummus - for a 14 cup food processor

One of our staple foods since turning full-vegetarian is hummus. We enjoy it in the following ways: plain on bread or crackers, on sandwiches piled high with sliced peppers, onions, tomato and avocado, and on our vegan "pizza" (wheat crust, hummus, sliced tomatoes, fresh basil, and homemade pickled garlic (see recipes for that too!). With the volume of hummus we eat we would go broke buying it pre-made from the store. This is my husband's recipe which almost fills a 14 cup food processor! Enjoy!

Ingredients:
4 cups dry chick peas
2 cups lemon juice
1-2 cups water
1 cup olive oil (the greener the better)
1 cup sesame tahini
5 large cloves of fresh garlic
2 tablespoons salt
2 tablespoons ground cumin
1 tablespoon ground coriander
fresh ground black pepper to taste
ground red pepper to taste

Directions:
1)Re-hydrate the chick peas using your preferred method (we use a pressure cooker which requires no pre-soaking and approximately 40 minutes of cook time once pressure has built).
2) Place chick peas, garlic and tahini in food processor
3) Add half the lemon juice and begin to process. Add the rest of the lemon juice and olive oil while processing. Add water slowly to get hummus to desired consistency, remember if the beans are warm err on the side of making a slightly thinner hummus, it will thicken in the refrigerator as it cools. (If you add the full volume of liquid before processing it will leak as the liquid level will rise above the center hole in the processor...)
4) Once processed smooth, add spices, salt, and pepper. Process until well mixed.
Remember this is a starting point recipe, we add more oil, juice, salt and seasonings as needed batch to batch. Season to taste!

Hummus keeps well in the fridge for up to a week. We freeze in deli tubs (which we re-use with each batch). Make sure to leave a little space at the top of the tub (for expansion when freezing.) Cover with a thin layer of olive oil if you desire.) When you thaw you may need to mix a squirt of lemon juice or olive oil to get the hummus to desired consistency.

Serving Suggestions:
Traditionally hummus is served with on a plate topped with olive oil, fresh chick peas, and sprinkled with paprika.
We enjoy variations on this involving ground red pepper or fresh black pepper.


*** This is a double XXL Hummus batch minus a container for a neighbor and what we had for dinner :-)***

Our Eczema story, its ultimate solution, and the beginning of our full-vegitarian diet

When our daughter was born I tried to listen to the advice people gave me. This was our pre-vegetarian days. Initially I switched to purchasing high quality meats and organic dairy. The realization that everything I ate was being broken down into breast milk for her made me uncomfortable with eating many of the things we used to enjoy. I had been warned to go very light on the dairy as babies have a hard time digesting milk proteins. For a period of time I drank extremely little milk and only had yogurt which I had heard was more digestible.

Things were relatively event less until Sarah turned about two and a half months old. During a middle of the night diaper change I felt tiny bumps on Sarah's legs. I switched on a small light. They weren't red and looked a lot like the infant acne she used to have on her face. The next few nights it seemed that Sarah was having a terrible time sleeping. She kept kicking her legs; at first we thought she was "discovering" her feet, until the realization that she was rubbing her legs kicked in. One morning I realized that she had rubbed the bumps raw and they were weeping. Scared I called our pediatrician. I drove her to the doctor late on a Friday afternoon. The first thing the nurse practitioner asked was if I had started eating any new foods. I couldn't think of any at the time and she reassured me this was eczema.

Being a new parent and wanting to "fix" my daughter I did everything they suggested. I slathered her legs with steroid foam. I switched from my organic Lafe's baby wash to Aveeno, I went from an unscented detergent to Dreft and I even used disposable diapers for a very short period of time.

A lightbulb went off during a 3 a.m. feeding that I had recently begun eating cantaloupe. I googled "cantaloupe allergy." I gathered that while it was usually an oral "itchy" allergy it was related to the ragweed allergy. Being that I am HIGHLY allergic to ragweed. Bingo I thought, I'll stop eating melon.

The rash eventually faded but spiked glamorously again a week or two later. This time the rash also covered the backs of her elbows and arms. Rushing her back to the doctor the nurse practitioner gave me more steroids and said that maybe my car seat was causing her rash. This time my husband was with me and we both felt brushed off. We were instructed to give her Benedryl to make her sleep and more steroid cream as needed for redness.

Holding Sarah at night while she slept was the only way to keep her from kicking (itching) her legs. We were on a tight regiment of steroid cream, lotion, and petroleum jelly. Once applied we carefully slid my ankle socks over her legs to keep the greasy mess from getting everywhere. I was convinced there was an environmental trigger, but what? She had recently begun napping in her crib as she outgrew her bassinet; was it the mattress? $300+ dollars and an organic naturepedic mattress later I confirmed that no it was not the mattress. Was it diet? Cantaloupe was out but she was still having strange sudden break-outs. I felt so helpless and as Sarah struggled to rest comfortable I became increasingly uncomfortable with the "treat the rash" approach.

Google turned into my obsession. I checked for the most common eczema triggers; many were foods. Deciding to spend more money that we didn't have I made Sarah an appointment with an allergy specialist. He had eczema and childhood allergies listed as specialties and taught at the local university near where we lived (at the time in Florida). I have never been more frustrated with a doctor. The photos shown here are her skin the morning of our appointment.



He explained to me that Sarah's case of eczema was VERY mild a 1 or 2 on a scale of 1-10. While thankful she wasn't any higher in his opinion, I was still concerned. I asked about doing an elimination diet as I had read about online. The idea is to remove all highly allergenic foods from the diet and slowly re-introduce them to see which would cause reaction. He told me only 30% of eczema cases were related to food and that it would be near impossible to figure it out. (Only 30%??? That's 1 in 3!) He also explained to me that eczema was the "itch that rashes" so the bumps were only going to show up where she was making contact with things.

In a nut-shell, his conclusion was that eczema was something she would be dealing with for at least 2 years and I should just give her Zyrtec and use topical hydrocortisone when she had a flair up. He told me that he didn't want me to be frustrated with her or become frustrated with being a mother. He told me that he didn't want me to be so stressed out that I wouldn't want future babies. I wasn't thinking about future babies though, I was thinking about this baby!

Frustrated to the point of tears I left the practice vowing to get to the bottom of her eczema. I had read testimonials of people online who had figured out their child's dietary triggers. I had the personal story of a friend that struggled with eczema her entire life (through her mid-20's) until she was food-allergy tested. While Sarah was too young to be tested for allergies I was ready to attempt the elimination diet on my own.

I choose to eat very low allergy foods for a period of time and slowly re-introduce the higher-allergy foods. I carefully made sure that I was still meeting my nutritional needs while I ate my very bland diet. It was working, her skin was clearing up. This diet of low-allergy foods was also almost vegan. When I re-introduced eggs after a month without them she broke out. When I ate soup with squash in it she broke out. After more frantic googling I found that like cantaloupe, squash, cucumber, and bananas were in the same family of foods linked with the ragweed allergy. My careful intake of foods was having a profound impact on the condition of her skin. While I was still diligent to moisturize Sarah's skin, the petroleum jelly and steroid creams were no longer needed. It took us about 6 weeks for us to figure it out. We were lucky.

The end results were that eczema (In SARAH's Case) was triggered by:

Squash and Melon family items
Eggs
Dairy
Chlorine (no baby swim for us).
Certain exposed elastic (our x-mas dress :(
Long car rides in high heat (If it's hot enough that she gets sweaty in the carseat her back breaks out)

Since mid-fall of 2009 we have needed no more steroids, benedryl, lotions or creams. Sarah has beautiful clear skin. It does break out if I have even a couple of tablespoons of food that has squash in it. I have not attempted to re-introduce anything else. I am planning on having her tested for food allergies when she turns 2.

This was the beginning of our full-vegetarian journey. More to follow :-)

Mashed Potato "Pancakes"

Growing up in a German Catholic family I got my fill of potato pancakes - especially during lent. I LOVED them and have fond memories of my dad mixing the shredded potatos with eggs and listening to the sizzle when they hit the griddle. I made them a few times myself as an adult, I found shredding and then squeezing the water out of the grated potato was always so time consuming. This recipe was something I devised to use up a huge bag of organic potatoes that were on their way out. I drew inspiration from a recipe for Indian "tikki" and made a hybrid recipe that is vegan. These are very quick and easy (no shredding or squeezing!), versatile (use up whatever veggies you want), perfect for preparing ahead of time, and extremely family friendly. My one year old loved hers with a bit of salsa on it. Enjoy!

Mix Together these ingredients:

- cooked (mashed) potatoes
- diced veggies (I used peppers but you can use anything you have)
- semi-mashed beans (I used chick peas)
- a good squirt of lemon juice (the liquid aids in creating a shapable patty and adds a great flavor)

Add seasoning to taste:

- freshly ground black pepper
- garlic salt

Cook:
Create your patties. Brush both sides with olive oil. Cook on electric griddle (heated to 350 degrees). Flip them a few times until browned to your liking. Serve

Topping ideas:

-olive oil with salt and pepper
-salsa
-maple syrup

Welcome

It is the third-strait dark, rainy day here in the Midwest and while the baby was falling asleep for her nap I decided I needed to start a blog. I have been sending friends and family(as well as distant aquaintances) recipes, photos and articles and am getting to the point of needing a resource to catalog the information I'm passing it along. I anticipate that the majority of my posts will be related to cooking (recipies and photos included), sewing, health, and parenting.

I said in my "about me" that I stumbled unexpectedly into full-vegiterianism and natural parenting. As I blog I'll share the history behind these major life changes but to sum it up very simply a very wise woman once told me "when you know better you do better." Not to say our choices are the only way to live or the best for everyone, but right now they are the best for us.
Thanks for joining us!