Mark's Tuna Salad

My husband can make a good meal, even though I rarely see it! Last night he made tuna salad for us for dinner. This recipe could easily fit into a traditional foods lifestyle if you alter the ingredients some. I used mayonnaise purchased from www.celticseasalt.com The brand is Wilderness Family Naturals. It contains no soybean oil, and is all natural. I would omit the relish and replace it with finely chopped naturally fermented pickles and add a little honey for sweetness. You would probably want to leave out the lawry's salt as well. I would have used celtic sea salt, but the hubby was making it, so..

Here's his recipe:

2 7 oz cans tuna, drained(We like albacore)
1 jalapeno, finely chopped
1 clove garlic, chopped
3 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
lawry's salt(to taste)
2 free range hardboiled eggs, chopped
1/4 cup sweet relish(we like Wickles)
sweet mesquite seasoning(to taste)
1 tbsp grainy mustard
mayonnaise, to the consistency that you like

Combine all ingredients in a bowl, serve with crackers, as a sandwich or in a salad. Mark had a sandwich with raw pepperjack cheese, and I had it served over a salad with raw pepperjack, fresh avocado and homemade dressing.

Food!!

So, some people think I'm crazy, but most of my friends and family think its cool the way I eat. Yes, I have my slip ups and eat a handful of candy corn(my weakness!!) now and then, but for the most part, I've been trying really hard to eat traditional foods, local, organic and as much raw milk products as I can possibly afford. The next habit I need to kick however is my Starbucks habit. It's not that I even need the caffeine. Sometimes I go in just to get a drink out of habit. It's paying a hefty toll on my wallet though. I've found this awesome app for my palm called Budget Manager, and it's basically like a checkbook register in your phone. I always hated writing every purchase down, but I've got my phone with me at all times, so it's really easy to enter in amounts. It helps track your money and each budget individually. I know what I have in my account to the penny now and it's really helping me spend my money wisely. Anyway, back to food. My next challenge is to start taking coconut oil daily to see if it helps with my thyroid function. I've heard of people going off thyroid medication completely after taking coconut oil daily. What an easy fix! Last year, my family and I bought a whole pig from a local farm, lard, jowl, everything. A few months later, we bought a whole cow, bones, organs, everything. After reading the book, Real Food, What to Eat and Why, by Nina Planck, I was so convinced that eating traditional foods, the foods that were available and readily eaten 100 years ago is the healthiest way to eat. I understand why vegans and vegetarians feel the way they do about killing animals(well, only the ones that feel bad for the way animals are treated, not the ones that think animals shouldn't be killed at all, regardless of how humane it may be), but I'm convinced that I need a good amount of meat, protein and fat in my diet, but from a humane source. That's why I buy locally. I've felt this way for years but was convinced that I needed to eat according to the food pyramid to be healthy. Being gluten free, it's very hard to get in a lot of grains in a day, and I felt overwhelmed. Reading this book helped affirm my feelings about food and a diet that suited me. I'd say in a given day, my percentage of fat/carbs/protein is 50/30/20. Not exactly following the food pyramid. I believe that each person is different and that there's not a one size fits all approach to a healthy diet. I happen to feel great eating more fat and protein and less grains. Anyway, I'll get off my soapbox and share a recipe for everyone :)

Black Beans and Rice

1 can diced organic tomatoes

3/4 cup salsa or 1 can rotel

1 pork jowl, frozen or thawed

3 cups homemade chicken stock or bone broth

2 carrots, diced

2 celery stalks, diced

1 small onion, diced

1/2 lb black beans, soaked overnight and rinsed

some salt and pepper

2 cloves minced garlic

2 cups cooked rice

Combine all ingredients except rice in a crock pot and cook on high for 6 hours. Serve with rice, sour cream, cheese and some sliced avocado. Enjoy!

Rain, rain rain..

Ethan is now 9 and a half months old. We had a fun filled summer. Lots of pool time, spending time with family and a fun 5 day trip to Florida with the girls and babies. On that trip, Ethan popped his 6th tooth and just about gave up his pacifier. He still takes it occasionally, but he prefers the real thing :) It did help get through those rough colicky months though, and popping 3 teeth in like 3 weeks or something. He's eating 3 meals a day (usually sweet potatoes, peas, banana, meat, some kind of cheese or yogurt, kiwi, avocado and green beans makes up his meals) I occasionally give him brown rice and brown rice pasta, but only occasionally. I don't want to overload his system with grains.

Despite the rain, I love this time of year. It starts to get a little cool outside (by cool I mean low to mid 70's) and it's now okay to make soups a regular part of the weekly meal plan(I love soup all year round, but Mark think's it's wrong unless it's cool outside). My garden is starting to take form. I now have basil, coriander(?), green beans, cucumbers, and jalapenos. I grew some tomatoes over the summer and one plant did well, the other did not. We also tried to plant blueberry bushes and they just never took off. Hopefully now that I have a rainbarrel catchment, I will keep up with the watering more frequently and save water while doing it!

We're having such a hard time not totally going overboard on toys and clothes for Ethan. He so doesn't need any clothes. Everyone I know lately has had boys so I've gotten lots of hand-me-downs, which also helps justify buying the "Happy Father's Day" onesie, "Happy 4th of July" onesie, and halloween pajamas..oh and a halloween t-shirt that glows in the dark :) We also just bought him a cool truck by this company called Sprig. It's all recycled and eco-friendly materials. I love cool unique toys, something that no one else has.

I've been really getting into cooking lately as well. Since last summer, I've grown to love the farmer's market and coop sharing. The Movement Dallas is the coop that my mom, sister and I are a part of, and they are now offering salmon, bison, and local, organic produce in addition to the raw milk, cheese, yogurt, chickens, eggs, beef and pork. I swear, I think I could live off of this coop and never go to the grocery store. My hubby wouldn't go for that though :) He likes his boxed cereal and chips and salsa too much. I've been trying to make sure that I order at least one or two kinds of meat each week so that we pretty much only eat sustainable, organic meat. I was getting so excited about Ethan being able to have milk products soon, because I strongly believe that raw milk is very healthy, but I think he's sensitive to it. Maybe he's just not ready for it yet, and in time, his body can tolerate it. I don't even know if that's it, but he's had an ear infection and has just been generally fussy and gassy for weeks now. I got all the dairy out of his diet (including butter in my cooking) and he's seemed a bit better in the past few days, so we'll see.

And on to food! Tonight I made wild alaskan salmon(packaged on the boat, frozen the whole way, so you know it's fresh). I cut open the vacuum-sealed package, and all I could smell was the sea. It was so nice to not be overwhelmed with a strong fishy smell. All I did was put some salt and pepper on it, and placed it skin side down in a cast iron skillet in some olive oil and cooked it till it flaked. Then, squeezed some lemon juice over it. I served it with sautéed bok choy, which had some chopped garlic, olive oil, salt, pepper and lemon juice. A scoop of brown rice finished out the plate. It was so amazingly simple and delicious. Tomorrow I'm going to make bison chili, with soaked red beans and some cocoa powder (don't knock it till you've tried it!)

Work has been insanely busy lately, but in a good way. I like knowing that I can go to work and there will be plenty to do. Tuesdays are a bit crazy though. I split working and babysitting with my sister on Tuesday. My day starts at 7 am. I get up, get Ethan ready, make breakfast, get my pump ready, diaper bag packed, lunch and water packed, and head to my sister's. I have to be there by 8:45 at the latest. Either Shelley or I take the early shift to work and the other works in the afternoon. So for four hours, I watch 4 kids. We have a lot of fun in these 4 hours and I'm so glad that my little boy gets to play with his cousins at least once a week, usually more. Today, I took them all to Brilliant Sky, a kid's toy and bookstore in Highland Village. They carry all the unique toys that you don't see everywhere. You'll see brands like Melissa and Doug, Alex, Learning Toys, Edushape, Sprig, Playsilks, etc. I love it because they have a remote control train table, a marble game and other toys that kids can play with there while their parents look around. It seems like there's something for every age group to play with. We left there and it started to rain. So, we piled in the van and went an picked up lunch for my sister and mom, then drove to the studio, and when Shelley and I were doing the trade-off, Shelley stood in the rain while I got my stuff together. Addison came up with me and hung out while I worked. Actually, she was a big help. She tagged and bagged jewelry, and helped keep my boss's little boy entertained for a bit. After work ended at 6, I headed over to get Ethan, and went home to make dinner. Then there was dishes, and Mark bathed Ethan while I worked on my brother's website for a little bit. Got Ethan down to bed, and now I have some alone time. I love busy days like this, but let me just say, I'm glad it's only one day a week!! Well, that's all I got for today. I'll try to blog again soon. HA HA. right. It's been 4 months since the last post. Let's just be honest, it will probably be another 4 before I post again.

Wow, I've gotten really bad at blogging!

Well, it's been over 4 months since I last blogged. Let's just say, a lot has changed in the past 4 months! Ethan is getting so big and he's growing every day! He's already 17lbs 3oz and 28 1/2 inches long at only 5 months old. He's going to be a tall boy! He's rolling over enough that I have to keep an eye on him and he's learning how to grab things, especially my hair and jewelry. He's doing great with nursing. We never really had a problem with that except for one strange week when he was 2 months old that he would go like 6 or 7 hours without nursing, and when I would try and nurse him, he'd get fussy and arch his back. I'm not really sure what that was all about, but we got through it. He still sleeps in bed with Mark and I most of the night, but mainly because I've been dealing with insomnia for the past 4 months. I know, you're thinking..surely you would have had more time to blog if you were up all night watching the clock tick away. Well, I found that getting up out of bed made me more awake and made it worse, so I layed in bed, for hours some nights, wondering why I couldn't sleep. All the while, my child was sleeping peacefully next to me..sometimes 8-10 hours at a time. I figured I would get more sleep if he was in bed with us, so all I had to do was roll over and nurse him. Instead of finally drifting off to sleep, only to hear the monitor go off and have to get up and go get him. Luckily, my sleep cycle is finally normalizing. At first, my insomnia was the result of taking too much of my thyroid medication. I guess pregnancy can do some funky things to your hormones. Then, once I went off of that to normalize my hormones, I began taking zyrtec to help me sleep. I became dependant on it, and I think it eventually gave me insomnia. I've been off all medication(excluding the small amount of thyroid med) for the past two weeks now, and am slowly sleeping longer at night. My doctor thought that it had to do with low blood sugar beacause I would wake up at 3 or 4 am, ravenous, and sweaty. One night when I woke up, I got up and got a snack. I fell back asleep very soon after that, so I guess that was it too! Once I'm sleeping normally again, we're going to start putting Ethan back in his crib. I feel jipped though, because Ethan is a great sleeper..usually going 6-10 hours each night without waking up, and then there's me, laying awake, when I could be sleeping!



Anyway... my job is going well. I've been with Rachelle Dauphinee Jewelry for the past year and half and the business is growing! My highlight of the year so far though is being able to take a metalsmithing class with her. We're trying to expand our knowledge of jewelry making and evolve a bit more, so with that comes training. This week we learned about annealing and fusing. Basically we heated sterling silver until it turned red and pulled all the copper out of the metal, leaving fine silver in it's place. Next week we will be making a cuff. I'm having so much fun in this class!

Ethan's been so cute lately. He's started pulling his feet to his mouth and sucking on his toes. It's cute until he's big enough that he's walking around..then it won't be so cute putting his dirty feet in his mouth :) I have to be careful with breastfeeding because he's beginning to clamp down on me with his gums....That hurts, so I can't imagine how much it will hurt when he has teeth! We've been recording Ethan with our video camera almost once a week for the past month or so, because I've just realized how darn quickly he grows. I mean everyone tells you that, but you just sort of blow it off. It's totally true! I never realized how fast the newborn phase goes by. Now he's 5 1/2 months old!! I just bought him some new cloth diapers. We've been using Bum Genius 3.0 pretty exclusively, but I was doing diapers every day, so I decided it was time to get some new ones. I got an Econappi by Swaddlebees in chocolate with blue polka dots, two thirsties covers and a thirsties diaper, 5 prefolds, 1 prorap cover and 1 Happy Heinies AIO in a yellow color. I absolutely love the Econappi, and of course it was the most expensive one, at 26.95. But if it holds up, it will be worth it. Maybe I'll just set aside that much each month to buy more! I never realized how fun diapering could be!

Ethan's getting close to starting on solid food. He's not showing all the signs yet, but I have a feeling it won't be long. I want to wait as long as I can though because of the history of family allergies. Anyway, as you can see, my life is pretty much all about Ethan now. I love it!

I'll post about something else now. I love this time of year. I think I posted a blog last year around the same time, but I was pregnant at the time, so food sounded awful to me. The farmer's market is in full swing, and fresh seasonal produce is abundant. Last weekend, my sister, mom, Megan and I all went to the Farmer's Market in Coppell and Dallas. We got our raw milk and cheese, organic, local eggs, and I picked up some fresh uncured ham as well. After we got back to my mom's house, we made pickled beets, fresh pickles, ricotta cheese, beef bone broth and peach/plum jam for us all to share. All of the ingredients were fresh, local and organic. I made some roast one night and homemade biscuits with raw butter and topped them with the peach jam. It was to die for! Everything tastes so fresh this time of year, and I'm glad I'm able to enjoy it, since I'm not pregnant and nauseated by everything! Tonight I made a thai noodle and chicken dish that turned out really well. It's funny because last year, the week I found out that I was pregnant, I made a thai rice and chicken dish and it was the next day that I felt the nausea of pregnancy for the first time. My whole pregnancy, the red curry paste I used to cook the meal with sounded absolutely repulsive to me. Well, tonight I opened it up again, took a whiff and it actually sounded really good! Here's my recipe:

4 tbsp soy sauce
3 tbsp fish sauce
1 tbsp red curry paste
4 tbsp coconut oil, plus 2 for veggies
2 green onions, chopped
4 basil leaves, diced
handful of cilantro, chopped
1 tbsp agave nectar
couple of squirts of chriracha sauce(hot chili sauce)
1 package vermicilli rice noodles (Kame brand)
12 oz chicken breast, cut into 1/2 inch cubes
1/2 red pepper, thinly sliced
1 carrot, shredded
1/2 onion, thinly sliced,
3 garlic cloves, chopped

Mix the first nine ingredients in a bowl. Set aside. Sautee the veggies in the coconut oil until crisp tender. Put water on to boil and cook noodles until tender (about 2 or 3 minutes). Drain noodles and rinse with water to prevent sticking. Sautee chicken in a separate pan until done, then pour in sauce and veggies and heat until hot. Serve with crushed peanuts and a sprig of cilantro.

This turned out really well. I based the recipe loosley on one that I found online, making my own alterations.

We got together with the families from the birthing class that we took on May 24th. That was so much fun seeing all the babies..they are all about a month and half within age of eachother. I also enjoyed hanging out with other moms that are in the same place in life as myself. I'd really like to get together with them again sometime. Well, that's all I have for tonight. I'll try and blog again very soon.

Pictures of baby Ethan

This is my sweet baby Ethan. He's so adorable. My dad took these pictures when he was about 2 1/2 weeks old. He's now 4 weeks old. I can't believe a month has gone by already since I had him! He's getting more filled out every day and is already developing a bit of a personality. We are trying to develop a bit of a routine, but as I've come to realize, that's easier said than done with a baby. Just when you think you've got them all figured out, they change and there's a whole new set of challenges and experiences that you weren't prepared for. For example, just recently I thought I figured out all the reasons he cried; wet diaper, hungry, tired, hot, etc. Well, yesterday he was pretty fussy all day no matter what I did, and then I finally realized that he wasn't getting enough to eat, so I think he's going through a growth spurt and needs more milk now. But it was frustrating at the time because he wouldn't take a nap all day and didn't finally go to sleep until 12:30 last night. Luckily he slept really well and is currently still sleeping :) It's great once you finally figure out what they need! He's growing really well and goes back to the pediatrician in a month. I'm still not sure what I'm going to do about the whole vaccine thing. My pediatrician is really great and strongly believes in letting the parent chose whether or not they want to vaccinate, which is nice, but now the decision is ultimately up to me. My husband doesn't really feel strongly either way, so he doesn't have much of an opinion. I guess I have a month to decide :)

I've slowly returned to work. This week has been an exception though because my husband has been working on my car and the past 2 days have been really icy outside, so I haven't been to work all week. It's been kind of nice though and I'm trying to enjoy the time off while I can even though I am starting to have cabin fever! I've been making dinner every night too, which is nice because I really enjoy cooking, but I don't enjoy it when I don't have time. We did figure out a way for me to only have to work 25 hours a week, which makes me happy. I thought I'd be able to handle more but I guess I didn't realize how much energy a baby can take out of one person! Not that he's difficult, but caring for a baby is certainly a job in and of itself. However, it is the most fulfilling and joyful job that I've ever had! I absolutely love my job working for Rachelle and it is the perfect job to have when you have a baby because I pretty much have all the freedom that I need to tend to my baby.

I think I've finally mastered the whole cloth diaper thing. It's really much easier than I expected it to be. I think my husband agrees. Granted, he's a newborn and washing the diapers is much easier now than it will be when he starts eating solid food, but still. I also feel much better about not throwing disposable diapers into the landfill. It's really not much more work. You just have an extra load of laundry to do every other day or so. The only downfall to me is that cloth is bulkier, so you need a bigger bag to carry them in when you go out. I'm sad because the diaper bag that my husband bought for me for Christmas is too bulky to carry around all the time (and it was expensive too!!) That, and Ethan doesn't last very long wearing a wet diaper without getting fussy because there's not that absorbant crap in them to wick the moisture away from their bum. He must be changed, and he must be changed now! Ah well, luckily the diapers we are using are cheap and washable, so it's fine! Anyway, that's been my life for the past month!

Birth Story

Hey everyone, I had my baby December 26th at 1:12am. Ethan Emerson weighed 8lbs 4oz and was 22 inches long. This little guy cooperated and was born on his due date! Let's just say that Christmas day was eventful for me! I started having contractions on Chrismas eve, but they weren't too bad. We had dinner at my in-laws house and I went home that night and couldn't go to sleep because the contractions began to be more intense, but still tolerable. I was timing them on contractionmaster.com and they were anywhere from 5-11 minutes apart. I was having more pain in my lower back than anywhere else, so I got into the tub around 1am and kept filling it with warm water whenever it cooled off. Mark was sleeping at this time and I considered waking him up to support me through the contractions, but I felt like I could handle it on my own for awhile, so I let him sleep. I called Jean at 1am and asked her if there was anything I could do to help me sleep and she suggested a glass of wine. Well, I tried that and threw up a few hours later. By 6:30am, I just got up and started moving about my day. I called my mom and sister and they came up. My sister has had two natural home births so I figured she would have some nice tricks/advice to help me get through the contractions. She filled up the tub for me and began pouring warm water over my belly and when I would have a ctx I'd get up and lean over on the edge of the tub and she would pour water on my lower back. After about an hour and a half, I got out and just sort of walked around the house between contractions. I found that leaning on someone, squatting and having tennis balls rolled on my back helped the most, so we did this most of the day and evening. I had a tens unit that I was going to use but I couldn't figure out where to place the sensors exactly, so I gave that up. By 6pm my contractions were 3-5 minutes apart and lasting over a minute. We ended up meeting Betty up at the birthing center at 7pm and I immediately got into the tub right after Betty broke my water. The contractions began to get stronger and closer together, but I labored like this for a couple of hours. She checked my cervix and I was 5cm when I came in, 100 percent effaced and at 0 station. By the time I got to 7 cm, I asked for some pain relief. Betty didn't hesitate to give me the nubain, so I guess she thought I could use it. I really think as much as I didn't want to use drugs that it helped me get through those last couple of hours. The pain coping techniques worked pretty well in early labor, but by this point I felt like I had lost control of myself and needed to relax again. It definitely didn't stop the pain, just made it more managable. It wasn't long before I hit 10 cm and began feeling like pushing. I got onto the bed and laid on my back and began to push with each contraction. I pushed for about an hour before he finally made it out. Betty mentioned something about possibly having to do an episiotomy if I didn't get him out and that was all it took to push with all of my might. Apparently he had been face up most of the labor, so that was why my back was hurting so much, but he turned before delivery. I felt the ring of fire, but it was nothing! It actually felt like a bit of a relief to feel him finally making it past that point. I pushed him out and she immediately placed him on my belly and all I could do was just stare at him. I delivered the placenta and continued bleeding for a bit. Betty was a little concerned with the bleeding, so I accepted the cytotec to stop bleeding and she gave me some pitocin to help my uterus contract back. I also had some sugar water and other stuff to help from all the blood loss. I did tear and need stitches, which wasn't the most pleasant experience, but it was way better than labor! I ate some food, went to the bathroom and we were out of the birthing center by 4:30am. We are all doing really well now, it only took 2 days for my milk to come in and he's nursing like a champ! Merry Christmas, everyone! I'll type more later :)

The home stretch

Well, I know it's been awhile. I may as well admit that I'm not good at keeping up with a blog. But, I have this week off, so maybe I'll just blog every day since I'll have the time. Baby Ethan is due on Friday so Mark and I are just sitting around and waiting now! We've got the nursery all ready, his car seat in the car, bags packed, clothing and diapers washed and ready to go. Now we're just waiting for him to show up! I was a little sick over the weekend, vomiting and other nastiness, but I'm feeling better now, and I'm trying to take it easy, as hard as that is for me. I never take this much time off without having plans like going out of town or something, so this is going to be hard for me. But, my brother is in town, and I have lots of projects that I have wanted to get done, so maybe I'll have the time to do them now. Oh yeah, and it's Christmas, so there's that too! It will be a nice break from sitting all day making jewelry(which lately has been killing my back). The photo above with the henna art on my belly was taken at my baby shower about a month ago, so I was about 34 weeks there. Mark and I took some pregnancy photos a couple of weeks ago at my dad's studio, and that was a lot of fun.. I'm about 37 weeks there. I know, lying down I barely look pregnant, but trust me, I am! Our organic baby mattress came today that my brother bought for us. So we put the mattress protector and sheet on it and folded his blankets up and made the crib look all pretty :), even though he won't be sleeping in it for awhile. Not sure how long it will be before he makes it to his own room. We'll just see how everything goes. Also, we received an adorable newborn shirt from my Grandma from postivelyorganic.com in the mail. Thanks, Merrylynne! We were also able to get all of our Christmas presents wrapped and put under the tree today. It's amazing what you can get done with a whole day off! I think that this is the earliest I've gotten done Christmas shopping and wrapping presents ever. Normally I'm wrapping presents the day before or day of Christmas. It's nice to see presents under the tree before Christmas!

Tomorrow, my family is coming up to cook some lasagne for us to freeze for postpartum meals and eat dinner with us. My mom's also going to make some gluten free cakeballs. If you haven't had cakeballs yet, you should! They're so good! Yesterday my mom, sister and Kerry came up to my house and cleaned it from top to bottom, dog hair and all! Thanks guys! It's stayed pretty clean so far. Then Mark and I went down to Jason's mom's house to eat dinner and play Mexican train dominoes. It was a lot of fun! After leaving there, Jason and Tamara came back to our house and we watched Wanted with Angelina Jolie. Tamara and I both fell asleep in the middle of the movie, but apparently it was pretty good! I wish I could have stayed awake to watch the whole thing, but sleep is more important at this point.

Well, I had a midwife appointment on Friday and was told that I'm about 2 cm dialated and 80% effaced, which is a good thing! Maybe this kid will actually be born on his due date. But, I know that whenever he is born is the right time, regardless of when that may be. Well that's all I got for today. Maybe I'll post again tomorrow!