Going Vegan

Finally, this is the year I am attempting to go vegan. I have been vegetarian for about six years now, and have turned over the idea of becoming vegan for quite some time. After sampling some delicious vegan cuisine from Avanti Cafe, Native Foods, California Vegan, and Veggie Grill – and of course cooking at home – I’ve decided to give it the old college try. Beginning today, I will eat all vegan all day two days a week.

Follow my journey each week as I chronicle my meals, cravings, new recipes, photos, and tips for staying healthy this year. My goal is to gradually increase the number of days I go vegan until I’ve made this a permanent lifestyle change. 

Want to make this your resolution too? Buddy up with me by visiting The Daily Vegan blog to keep yourself on track (or keep me accountable), get motivated, or just have fun. Pick your own days to go vegetarian or vegan and post your comments. These can be questions, challenges, inspirational messages, recipes, snack ideas – you name it! Go vegan or go home!!

Baby Tech

My niece got a laptop for Christmas. She’s 18 months old. Okay, it’s a toddler laptop (toddler…laptop…still trying to wrap my head around that one) that teaches numbers, colors, and the alphabet, sings songs, etc. Bells and whistles aside, I wonder what this means for the next generation of children who will come of age well into the 2000s. I’m all for advancing technology, but at what expense when it comes to raising a child in an environment where there is constant exposure to media and technology influences?

Without completely sheltering our impressionable children from the outside world or compromising personal belief systems, how do we negotiate the boundaries and benefits of media and technology? Over the years my students have schooled me in the latest tech toys from headphones, to handheld gaming systems, to MP3 players. Major media and technology companies like AT&T and Nintendo strategically market to younger and younger demographics. The result: my 16-year-old cousin owns a Blackberry, 10-year-old cousin synchs her DSi (apparently this stands for Developers’ System or Dual Screen, and the “i” in DSi refers to the “eye” of the camera feature) with friends online, toddler niece totes a laptop, and infant son bangs a baby flip phone against any hard surface within reach. I’m still young enough to be considered cool, but it’s all I can do to keep up with the technology marketed exclusively to kids! Sure, the baby phone flashes lights and makes noise, but are six-month-old babies really learning numbers or counting yet? Don’t think so.

It’s interesting how we miniaturize our adult world to fit the size of little hands. I suppose toy typewriters have been replaced by these new kid friendly laptops, and classic plastic rotary telephones with their digital counterparts. As children develop, I believe it is our responsibility to teach them how to function in the world. This means exposing them to a range of media and technology outlets that promote different kinds of learning (i.e., cerebral, tactile, kinetic, audio, visual, etc.). But I also think as parents, we need to monitor and moderate the amount of time and attention paid to technology based devices, no matter how interesting they may be. Screen time, or time spent consuming media and technology resources, does not equate with quality face time with our children.

Look out for more research and musings on this topic. And please post your comments. I’m very interested in getting my finger on the pulse of this increasingly relevant topic. Many thanks! J

Kid’s Corner

• Chicken Soup With Rice, Maurice Sendak, 1962
• Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star, Chronicle Books, 2001
• Where the Wild Things Are, Maurice Sendak, 1963
• Storm Is Coming!, Heather Tekavec, Illus. Margaret Spengler, 2002
• Goodbye Old Year, Hello New Year, Frank Modell, 1984
• Snow, Uri Shulevitz, 1998

Baby Book Nook

• Baby Touch and Feel: Animals, DK Publishing, 2008
• Little Hands Love, Piggy Toes Press, 2009
• Baby Colors, Rachael Hale, 2009
• The Going to Bed Book, Sandra Boynton, 1995

Cooking

Ronnen, Tal. The Conscious Cook. New York, NY: HarperCollins, 2009. Print.

Whole Foods From the Start

The bulk of my evening was spent boiling select fruits and vegetables for a month’s worth of meals for baby boy. August and I are certainly looking forward to eating our meals together from now on. Tonight he was my taste tester, and he gobbled down two puréed meals for the first time.

For the last month we’ve been doing rice cereal at breakfast – very messy, lots of fun. He’s a natural at getting almost every morsel in his mouth, or at least somewhere on his face. Last week I integrated puréed peas and carrots of the Gerber persuasion to test out A’s taste buds. They work. I was also stalling for time to catch up on my reading in preparation for getting homemade baby food just right!

The result: we’ve got fresh carrots, apples, and mashed potatoes a plenty! Whole, unprocessed foods, I’m convinced, are going to continue to be a hit with August, and will hopefully broaden his palate as he develops. Translation: he’s going to have to like it because that’s what’s on the menu!

Toothy Nubbins

Lots of crying from August this morning, spitting up, and difficulty staying asleep for the night. It must be a combination of the tiny white nubs coming in on A’s bottom gums and Christmas day approaching. Now I can hardly keep my eyes open. Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night!

Vegan Chili

This not-too-spicy vegan chili recipe is a crowd pleaser every time, and an excellent winter recipe for even the most sophisticated palates. My recommendation is to wash and prepare all vegetables at the outset so that you have everything you need on hand. Use a large, deep set skillet to combine and cook all ingredients. Apart from a sturdy knife, wooden fork, and serving ladle, it’s the only major tool you’ll need to whip up this quick and easy recipe. 

Vegan Chili

1 package soy chorizo

1 yellow onion (diced)

1 green bell pepper (diced)

1 red bell pepper (diced)

2 large carrots (chopped into cubes or coins)

2 zucchinnis (chopped)

1 cup loose white corn

4 cloves garlic (minced)

1 can diced tomatoes

1 can pinto beans

1 can black beans

1 tbsp chili powder

1 tbsp ground cumin

1 tsp ground Allspice

Avocado slices to garnish

*In a large, deep set skillet, sautee onion, bell peppers, carrots, and garlic until softened, about 10 minutes. Remove chorizo casing and add to sauteed vegetable mixture. Add spices (chili powder, cumin, Allspice). Mix and sautee for about 30 seconds. Add diced tomatoes, including the juice. Add a can of water, enough to almost cover the mixture. One can of water will yield chunky style chili, though you may add up to two cans of water for a soup-like consistency as desired. Bring to a boil; cover and simmer for 20 minutes. Add zucchini and corn. Drain and rinse beans; add to chili. Cook another 5 to 8 minutes until zucchini and corn are softened and beans are warmed through. Garnish with avocado slices. Serves 4-6.

Serve with a side of french cut green beans or a spinach salad topped with shredded cucumber, diced tomato, and balsamic vinaigrette.

MyAlbumPics.com – Check out my Image

MyAlbumPics.com – Check out my Image.

August Rain

“The sun did not shine. It was too wet to play. So we sat in the house. All that cold, cold, wet day.” from The Cat in The Hat, by Dr. Seuss

An apt description of my day. Usually I am happy during the few days of California rain each year. Because these are few with long stretches of sunshine in between, I always find it difficult to remember the quality of a real rain until I can smell the wet musk in the air when the skies are still brooding. The constant downpour today kept August and I inside, he in his footsie pajamas and  I in stockinged feet. Today was our first deluge together, which got me thinking about all of the intricate changes he has undergone in the last several weeks, the many small ‘firsts’ and the memories we have newly made.

My son is an bona fide thumbsucker, a sweet detail among many more. He smiles, tickles, and laughs easily, and is meeting every developmental milestone beautifully. It seems where he was formerly predictable, he now surprises me with new discoveries and behaviors. Now he reaches for me when I move to pick him up, and his latest quirk is to press his forehead against my cheek and watch whatever I attempt to do one-handed as I shoulder him.

We watched the rain this way today, standing at the same square-faced glass door that leads to the backyard where I used to play as a girl. It was in front of this very door that I would sit with a blanket, in slippers, and endlessly draw the rain as it fell and puddled on the porch. I remembered this as I stood there with my little son perched cozily in the crook of one arm, my other outstretched with a foggy hand spread across the cold glass.

The rest of the day was made up of a cycle of short naps for August, during which I wrapped Christmas gifts, sang carols, and baked oatmeal clusters. Tomorrow we’ll dress in knits and layers and venture out to explore the soggy yard. It may be the perfect day to search the neighborhood for moss for the terrarium I am making next week.