You Dirty Dirty Rice! ;)

"It was the best of times, it was the worst of times..." so said the famous Mr. Charles D as we all may remember from High School. It is probably a very over-used quote, but I found it to be relevant to this week. It really is the best of times; Ally is getting cuter every day and continues to entertain me with huge smiles and sweet baby giggles. Beau and I are contentedly building our lives together and the dog has settled into his routine here. But it is also hard times... money, screaming babies, sleepless nights in the anticipation of some very mean teeth... So indeed, I am among some of the best times of my life, and some of the hardest. I suppose that is what happens when you have a baby young, but at the risk of sounding cliche, I wouldn't have it any other way.

This week has been particularly hard on the wallet and I am waiting for the next pay check before I go grocery shopping. So dinners have consisted of leftovers in the fridge thrown together into something hopefully edible. Last night we had bean chili with leftover taco steak thrown in, along with wild rice, spanish rice, and some salsa. Throw a little cheese on top and it wasn't half bad, plus I cleaned out my fridge with this one. But the real unexpected treasure was tonight's dinner. I had some ground beef in the freezer which I thawed, and a little bit of basmati rice in a bag stuffed into the back of the pantry. Out of this I made something quite delicious! I believe that part of what made this so very yummy was my chicken broth that I cooked the rice in. The recipe can be found in one of my past blogs. Basically just chicken, chicken bones, onion, celery, carrot, etc. I reccommend always making broth with all of your bones and keeping some in the fridge and some on the freezer. It will save a meal when you have limited ingredients.

Jasmine's Version of Dirty Rice

1 cup basmati rice
2 cups chicken broth
salt and pepper

1 pound ground beef
2 cloves garlic
a pinch of cayenne
a pinch of paprika
a pinch of whole cumin seeds
a pinch of mesquite seasoning
about 1/2 cup leftover spaghetti sauce
about 1/4 cup canned tomatoes

a little grated jack cheese on top

In a pot with a lid, boil the chicken broth, salt and pepper. Add the rice, turn down to a low simmer, cover and simmer the rice for 20 minutes. Turn it off and let it steam for a few minutes.

In a large saute pan, saute the garlic until golden. Add the ground beef and spices brown. Once the beef is cooked, add the spaghetti sauce and tomatoes to warm them. Let it all simmer together to create a little saucy meat mixture. To serve, put the rice down in a bowl, top with the meat and sprinkle with some cheese.

This really was very very tasty! And so stinken easy I can't stand it. :) I was also able to create a bunch of new baby food recipes while this was cooking that worked fantastic! Using the same basic, steam then blend method I cooked some apples, sweet potato, rice and carrots. All organic for my baby! Then I put some sweet potato in the food processor, a little but of rice and some apple puree. Blend it all up into a smooth puree and watch your baby love it! I would say the ratio was about 1/2 sweet potato, a little over 1/4 apples and the rest rice. (not the best ratio I have ever come up with, but hey, you get the idea right?) Also in my fridge is sweet potato rice, carrot apple, and apple. I am getting very good at this baby food making thing and I just love it! I wish it was as easy to feed grown ups...

My picky piggy

The dog is giving me his sad eyes. I know he wants to go for a walk terribly and he will continue to steal the baby's binky, eat my bras and cause chaos until I take him on one. But all day I have been cleaning and rearranging furniture and basically doing everything but being a good doggy mom. Don't even get me started on how bad this makes me feel. But sometimes it is just so damn windy! I really do hate the wind...

Ally is content to play with the buttons on the Xbox remote; thank goodness she is at a pretty easy age right now. So I have taken a little break to continue to not take the dog on a walk and to just chill.

Ahhh... that's better.

In about an hour I plan to pack up the baby and go on a little family outing to the gym. Some people say not to go to the gym with your man, but I wonder who came up with the rule? I love going to the gym with Beau! We motivate each other. We get a little bonding time while we warm up and then it is off to our own areas of the gym where I am usually working out the butt area and he is off doing whatever men work out at the gym. Then back together for some cardio and a little sauna time. Plus it is kind of fun to pretend he is a stranger and to watch him from across the room... but anyway I won't get into that. I believe my grandmother reads these. ;)

This will be the very first time I have ever taken Ally anywhere where she will be watched by a stranger. (I usually leave her with my mom or Aunty Bean) She is a sturdy 6 months old now and I should be fine with the idea, but it has me strangely anxious. Not really for her safety or anything (although I am sure that is part of it) but more for the person who will be watching her! Is she going to scream and cry at them? Will they know what to do when she cries? Will they hold her like she likes to be held? What if they have terrible breath and breathe in her face the whole hour she is in there?! Ugh...

I am sure she will be fine. I guess I am just one of those silly worry wort types. And once she is back safely in my arms at home, I will continue on my mission to try ways to get her to eat carrots since I have already bought so many! So carrots and rice will be on the menu and hopefully all goes well.

Ally's Carrots and Rice

1/4 cup pureed carrots from the previous recipe
1/4 cup brown rice
2 cups water (aprox.)

boil the water and then add in the brown rice. Boil for about 30 minutes, until the rice is tender. In your baby food maker or a food processor, blend the rice with some of the liquid. Continue to add liquid until the rice is the right consistency. Once smooth and baby food looking, stir in a bit of the pureed rice with the pureed carrots. Bam! Isn't making baby food fun? If only everything in life were as easy...

I am a mom...

With the holidays come and gone, there is a lot of visiting festively decorated houses and dropping by families' houses. All sorts of different ways of doing things, styles of furniture, food traditions and styles of parenting. After many days of observing other peoples' parenting skills (or lack thereof) and then watching a marathon of Super Nanny, I started to wonder: what kind of mother am I? And what sort of family will I raise? Will my kids scream cuss words at me while throwing toys at my face, like some of the little monsters on Super Nanny? Or maybe they will be little hippies and love the earth to the point of obnoxiousness. It's a little early to tell how Ally and all my future kids will turn out, but I do know what kind of person I am now and I am sure my own little quirks and habits will have some sort of effect on her future quirks and weird habits.

I started to notice the things I do as I go about my day while I tried to figure out what kind of mom I am...

I am the kind of mom who reads Natural Health magazine while munching on a donut...




I am the kind of mom who hates to eat animals or look at picture of animals who will soon be food, and yet I am always raving about the delicious pork roast I make every so often that is just SO yummy!

I am the kind of mommy who keeps a very clean house, despite a messy baby and a messy dog who try to make this as difficult as possible...


I am the kind of mom who is always reminding everyone to drink water even though I never drink enough myself.

I am the kind of mom who went to culinary school but who's favorite recipes are the quickest and least complicated...


I am the kind of mom who makes her daughter's baby food myself from organic veggies and fruits.

I am the kind of mom who has her baby on a strict schedule because it makes me feel less chaotic.

I am the kind of mom who hates the wind because it rattles my brain.

And I am the kind of mom who sits down on the couch with a sigh after a long day and sips red wine while browsing through Facebook.

I am certainly not the perfect mom (even if I might think so after a particularly awesome day of eating all her food, taking her naps on time and lots of happy giggling) but I do hope I will be a good role model for my little lady and someday have a beautiful, thoughtful and caring young woman on my hands. As for right now, all I can do is watch her grow.

Ally's Favorite First

1/2 cup organic carrots, diced
1 organic apple, peeled and diced
3/4 cup filtered water
more water for steaming

steam the carrots for 15 minutes. Once soft, blend the carrots with 1/2 cup filtered water in a food processor until it is a smooth puree.
Steam the apples for 10 minutes and then blend with 1/4 cup water until it is a smooth puree. You can add more water if you would like a thinner puree.
In your baby food storage jar, mix 1/4 apple puree with 3/4 carrot puree for a yummy carrot apple baby food!

I used my Baby Cook machine to do the steaming and the pureeing. There are fool proof lines to show you how much water to add, a little steam basket to steam the fruits and veggies in, and very little clean up. If you do not have such a handy little contraption, the amounts of water and steaming times may take some trial and error. Also, with my handy little machine, I get to puree the fruits and veggies in the liquid it was steamed in to try to recapture some of those nutrients that are lost while steaming. You can do this too by using the steaming liquid instead of filtered water in the puree. Just steam your veggies in filtered water and ka-blam!