Eat Your Greens! Satay Spinach

While pregnant I was told more than once I needed to get my iron up - and that already included an iron supplement! I love vegetables as much as the next person (can you sense the irony) so I needed to find a tasty way to do so and spinach was the answer.

Spinach is one of those wonder-veggies - it's dark green, delicious, and super versatile. And you can't argue with it's ability to clean you out. So here's a recipe that's quick and good enough to serve at a dinner party.


Satay Spinach

When cooking spinach remember it shrinks waaaay down when it's cooked. So I start out using 3 bunches of spinach, or 4 huge handfuls if you buy fresh in the bag (like I do from Costco).

Heat olive oil to high in a large pot then lower temp to medium

After thoroughly washing spinach add it one handful at a time to the pot. Be careful because the oil may splatter at first from excess water on the spinach leaves. Load it all into the pot then cover and let the leaves cook down for a few minutes. Drain out water.

Add 2 garlic cloves diced and mix into leaves now leaving uncovered.

Add a huge hunking over-the-top spoon full of peanut butter. Allow it to melt and mix in.

Butternut Squash Fries

I love fries any way I can get them. October starts squash season and that means the best fries of all - butternut squash fries! Much like sweet potato fries these take half the time to cook and taste just as sweet (if not sweeter).

What you need:

1/2 a Butternut Squash peeled, seeded and cut lengthwise into 1/4 inch strips

Olive Oil

Salt and Pepper to taste

How to do it:

Put fries into pan and stir in olive oil to coat. Sprinkle with salt and pepper. Pop it in the oven at 425 degrees for 30 minutes. I never bother flipping half way because it lets all the heat out.

They won't be crispy unless you separate them nicely (which I never do). I like them soggy, so I just load 'em on and put 'em in.

Enjoy with grill fare or late at night as a snack.

Baby Boom for the Blues

From time to time I get down in the dumps. I love my wee one, but I miss my career too. Will I be able to go back again someday? Am I missing out on more training and trends than my colleagues? Can I ever catch up?

Then I see a movie at 2am that makes me feel so much better - smart women have been making the same tough choices since the beginning of time. And so many of the biases we get from others and ourselves remain the same.

My 2am movie last night was Baby Boom with Diane Keaton. I remember watching it with my mom when I was young and thought it was very funny then. But watching it with my husband last night was therapeutic for me and very informative for him.

"See! That's how people talked to me when I was interviewing - like I was either too fragile or mentally occupied by baby to do a proper job!" And that applied to interviews for everything from administrative positions to cashier gigs at local book stores.

Some things never change. And movies like Baby Boom help me to laugh about it instead of cry.

How To Make Your Towels Smell Better

I avoid my garage at all costs. This is due to a number of reasons:

-it's dark and creepy
-it smells like stray cats
-it's cold
-the cats run in there every time I open the door (answer to reason 2?)
-there's no place to set the baby down... etc.

This means laundry sits for longer than it should. With clothing you can fluff it up in the dryer and it's no problem - but for towels it's another story.

The result? Awful, smelly towels - like the kind you remember from summer camp that sat out wet all night in a dank cabin. Or like the hand towels grandma kept under the sink with all the moth balls. It's the worst. So how do you fix it?

Add three cups of white distilled vinegar to your next wash. Just load in all your towels, put three cups of vinegar into the prewash drawer, and run it on on the "soak and spin" cycle once. Leave it there for an hour afterwards to let it set-in (a great way to buy time and avoid the garage until the husband comes home and checks it for ghosts). Then add your regular detergent and wash as usual.

Done. Awesome.

3 cups: plus soak and spin

Discussion: Removing Milk Stains

Has anyone found a good method for removing those permanently nested milk stains from your cotton shirts?

Good Buy Baby - Breast Pads

So you're home from the hospital bouncing baby in hand and your milk has come in - yay! Once the pain of fullness goes away (it will) it's time to start thinking about how to keep that fabulous miracle food from permanently staining all of your clothing (it will).

I've tried several different types of nursing pads both disposable and reusable. Not every pad is perfect and you'll have to change multiple times a day until your flow becomes stable (2-3 months). I highly recommend Johnson's Nursing Pads during those first 2 months. They hold an insane amount of milk - really. And they are solid, meaning they don't bunch up and twist about in your bra. They maintain their shape which makes them easy to remove during feeding/pumping, and put right back in again for multiple uses. And best of all? No itch! Those Lansinoh pads are always in stock in the drug store, but beware! They will make you itch and have enough packaging on each pad to stuff a mattress.

It's 3 months (for me anyway) and you've got your flow under control. You want to do your bit for the environment by cutting down on disposables (which I still use at night). I recommend Charlie Banana washable pads. I got mine on Amazon with my diaper order (Amazon has great prices on diapers!). They're perfume and dye free for sensitive skin like mine, super soft, and won't make you itch. At night just hand wash them in the sink and let them dry for use the next morning.

You're welcome retailers.
 

How To Make Your Carpet Smell Better

When I go to play groups I'm always mucho impressed when someone comes in with a hand-made quilted play blanket. But then there's the rest of us (i.e., me) who were born without the ability to sew a straight line much less piece things together in a string of consistantly straight lines and come out with something you can use and possibly even display with pride at the end of it - whew! And if I'm lucky enough to get an hour to myself during the day I'm not going to spend it at my sewing machine... if only...

So instead I use towels and the carpet. But what happens when your carpet starts to get that awful smell? You know the one that's a perfect blend of feet, cats, dogs, spilt milk... etc? Well, Ross doesn't always have animal print rugs in stock and I don't always have the dough for it - so what do I do?

Baking Soda.
Yes.
Baking Soda.

Take a box and sprinkle it generously all over your carpet at night just before you crash. Take a broom and sweep it over the rug so it gets deep down inside. Leave it in overnight and ignore it for as much of the next day as you can.

When baby's asleep or willing to sit tight in your front pack get out your vacuum and run it over a few times.

Now get down on your hands and knees and take a big whiff... go on... nice huh?