Cleansing Mommy

Having felt sluggish and rather irritable for a while now, I decided it was time to cut back on the coffee and treats I consume throughout the day. I don’t have the will power to just cut it out of my life, so I decided to do one of those juice cleanses. My hope was that it was cleanse my sugar cravings, turn coffee back into a coffee house treat like it used to be for me, and that it would clear my head a bit. Here I am ½ a day into a 3-day cleanse and I am dying.

As a wife and mom, I prepared everyone else for my 3-day check-out of eating solid foods. I made suppers and lunches for my husband that he can easily heat up, and made sure I had plenty of yummy, healthy foods on hand for the kids. I knew I wouldn’t really be in the mood to grocery shop. But past that, I thought how hard could this really be?

Well, I like to eat. And most of the time I am a relatively healthy eater. But today as I was conscious of my eating for the first time, I found myself just heading to the fridge for a slice of cheese, or absent mindedly picking up a stray glob of peanut butter leftover from the ants on a log I’d made the kids for lunch. Ouch. No licking fingers? No popping their crusts into my mouth? This is much much harder than I thought….

If I have the willpower later on today, I will post the recipe for Chicken Marbella and the sides I made with it for my Wednesday Supper Exchange I do with my friends. It was pretty simple, and really good—and I am not just saying that since it was my last solid meal!

Mommy Needed a Little Pampering

I wish I could come up with some cool/adventurous story about why I am limping around this Memorial Day weekend…suffice it to say it involved carrying my little one on my hip all of my older one's “K Beach Day” and wiping out (yes, in front of everyone) while trying to make my way to the water. Who knew that a California born and bred mom could have offspring who do not want their feet to touch the sand?! Anyway, rather than throw myself a full-blown pity party I enlisted my husband to watch the kids, and booked a facial for this afternoon. I do very few things that are for me-- and me alone-- but this is one of my regular splurges. And a weekend when I am supposed to “take it easy” seems like a natural week to book another appointment, right?

The aesthetician/owner, Melissa, uses Jurlique products (or Skinceuticals if you request), so I can feel good about what’s going onto my skin…and I come out looking radiant after all that facial massage. If you feel like you need a little “me” time and want more info on Elysian Fields Facial Spa, click here. (Though keep in mind that clearly facials, and not web design, are her forte…in fact I think the prices are outdated on the website too, but at $90, her hour long facial is still worth every penny.)

The path of least resistance...

This isn’t rocket science, but time and time again I am reminded that:

• My grocery will be much less costly if I shop with a list, and
• We will eat more fruits and vegetables if they are prepped and ready to simply grab from the fridge or fruit bowl.

I am hopeless when it comes to my first revelation. It’s not that I’m not organized...it’s just that I love food. So if I’m shopping and something looks really fresh and yummy—or quick and interesting—I tend to grab it. Then I come home with what I intended to shop for and the spontaneous purchases and well, sometimes it’s too much.

I’m not going to fight that battle. I am shopping without a list these days. I am choosing what looks fresh and is priced well. If it’s local, even better. No matter what meal I am making, I always get at least one fruit and veggie on the plate. My older child totally gets the “rainbow” concept when it comes to food and likes to count the colors on his plate.

If you spend an extra half hour when you get home from the market, washing and/or slicing your fruits and veggies…and storing them front and center… you will certainly eat them more than if they’re tucked away and need prep before you can enjoy them. This is why “value added” fruits are so appealing—you see the ripe mango or sliced pineapple and think “hmm, that looks yummy”. You can do the same in your fridge.

Right now, to give you some ideas, here’s what I have prepped and ready to go:

• Strawberries – ½ the box is cut up and sprinkled with a little Turbinado sugar so they’re in with a little syrup for morning pancakes, the other ½ simply has the stems lopped off and are ready for a snack or to pop in a lunchbox;
• Grapes – washed and torn into small bundles, perfect for the kids to grab as they run outside;
• Watermelon – this is the one “value added” item I bought this week since I knew we wouldn’t plow through a whole watermelon. I cut it into chunks that I can quickly pop onto the kid’s plates at mealtime or into a lunchbox;
• Blueberries and blackberries – washed and ready to pop onto pancakes, cereal, oatmeal, or for a snack;
• Red and yellow peppers – washed and cut into matchsticks for lunches and snacks or quickly chopped to go in scrambled eggs or a salad;
• Peas - steamed and ready to be inhaled by my older one and flung/catapulted across the kitchen by my little one;
• Carrots – washed, peeled and cut into matchsticks (or buy a bag of the mini ones);
• Celery – washed and cut into manageable pieces, ready to quickly become “ants on a log” with cream cheese or peanut butter and raisins;
• Spinach and Romaine – from our CSA, washed and stored in a damp paper towel;
• Cucumbers – from our CSA, washed and cut into “cucumber pennies” that the kids like to dip in hummus for snack or lunch;
• Apples – are washed and out in the fruit bowl on the counter;
• Bananas – are also out in the fruit bowl on the counter, within easy reach of my kids.

Prioritization

You know when you feel like you’ve hit the mommy jackpot? It’s the day when the kids are happy (and behaving), your jeans fit, you’ve crossed a long list errands off your list, laundry is folded (and put away), you had a chance to make a some healthy homemade meals (which everyone ate), and you even got to peruse the headlines on the newspaper (on the day it was delivered). Oh, and somewhere in those 24 hours, you squeezed in a little “me time”, whether it was as simple as having an uninterrupted phone conversation or as lavish as booking a sitter for lunch out with a girlfriend. Yeah, well, yesterday was kind of the polar opposite for me. Don’t get me wrong, I am thankful for each and every day I get to stay home with my boys. But sometimes I get muddled in the juggling act of motherhood. So Annie, this entry is for you.

Last week, my dear friend Annie sent me an email saying how much she likes this bog but asking “how do you do it all and make it look so easy…stay so balanced”.

Fast forward to this morning when my older son gave me a handmade card. The card reads:
“107 TO DIY TO MOM HAPPE MUTRS DAY I LOVE YOU DIS WILL TELL YOU HAW MUCH I LOVE YOU” [then there is a chart at the bottom] “NODE: 0…MACING BREKFAS: 2…LEXEO: 5…BING NOS: 100”

For those not versed in reading phonetically, I got a total of 107 points today and this is how the points broke down: 0 points for being naughty (which he defined as yelling at him), 2 points for making breakfast, 5 points for playing a game with him, and 100 points for being nice. There it is. I have been doing too much yelling. Now if that isn’t enough to make you take a step back and evaluate what you’re doing right and what is causing stress in your life, I am not sure what is?

Though I didn’t have time to actually put pen to paper until now, I was going to email Annie back and then I decided that writing an entry here might actually be more helpful/interesting to our broader group of friends who reads this blog. I mean who doesn’t have a little morbid curiosity when it comes to our fellow moms?

So, let’s tell it like it really is this week. Most days, I’d like to think that I do have it figured out and under control. I have limited my kid’s playdates and after school activities so I am not racing around like a wild woman. Cooking comes easy to me, so even if I haven’t made it to the market I can usually scrounge up 3 yummy, relatively healthy meals a day. To stay healthy, I either go to a Stroller Strides class or squeeze in a DVD workout while my little one naps. And, I have learned that it’s ok to leave the house with the breakfast dishes in the sink… But then I got the brilliant idea that since things were going along so swimmingly I could start this blog, launch private cooking classes, and train to become a Stroller Strides instructor…while maintaining my large volunteer role with The Tiny Miracles Foundation, my smaller volunteer roles at my son’s school and the raising two little cherubs without any help. And for a while, everything jelled.

Then things started to get a little more chaotic: I’d created a need to be at the computer (writing these blog entries, working out the cooking class curriculum and planning the Stroller Strides workouts) many times when I used to spend time with my children...I frequently heard myself saying “Hang on! I need to take a photo of that for the blog before you eat it!”...People send queries about the cooking classes, but the economy (understandably) holds people back…Mom-a-licious readers ask why I’m not posting more frequently…the New Canaan Rec Dept. reneged their approval for Stroller Strides to offer classes at Waveny Park, dashing—hopefully temporarily?—my goal (and lots of time and money spent training) of bringing these classes to New Canaan…and my little one started giving up his nap (poof, free time gone, just like that).

So here I am sort of back at square one feeling like the balance I had created is woefully off this week. Clearly, I am not going to make a habit of spending my precious free time writing blog entries that dwell on the imbalance of motherhood. But Annie, I have my moments. I may make it seem so carefree and easy, but that is simply because those are the times I choose to focus upon and share in the hopes that a friend (or friend of a friend) will glean an idea or inspiration from that entry. We’re all immersed in poopy diapers, too little sleep, the quandary of whether we should be using our MBAs for "real work"...we bristle when our child chooses the Richard Scarry book off the bookshelf, and most of us don’t get to connect with our husband or friends nearly enough. There’s no point in me writing about that!

I guess the point in me making this reply more public is reassurance that just like you, I find that every month or so I need to prioritize. What makes me feel “mom-a-licious”? What do I need to increase or decrease in my life to be grounded, healthy and happy... a good mom, wife, friend and role model for my kids?

I want to look like Tracy

Laugh all you want. Fine, so I'll never be 5 feet tall...I haven't had a tiny little body like that since high school (or was that middle school?!)..and I won't be blond with plump pouty lips without some serious intervention, but a girl can dream, right?

I feel like all I have done the past couple days is cook. On Friday night I made a simple and delicious Bouillabaisse (that I prepped earlier in the day then simple added the seafood last minute) so we could enjoy a relaxing dinner with my parents who are visiting. On Saturday I whipped up copious amounts of Protein Pancakes (see my March 21 posting for that recipe) so I’d also have a healthy yummy breakfast before school this week. I also made a big batch of my Mango Chicken Quesadillas (multi-tasking the kid and adult versions, see posting on March 24 for that recipe/ideas) because we’re having friends come up for a visit and lunch on Monday (and if you haven’t figured it out by now, I am all about preparing things ahead of time so I get to enjoy my company…). Then I took the night off of cooking Saturday and let someone else serve me and clean up. This morning I made a Soy Sausage and Cheese Frittata and fruit salad for Easter brunch. After hunting for eggs with the kids, I whipped up Lamb & Pistachio Meatballs... a Greek Yogurt Dip with Roasted Garlic, Dill, Mint and Parsley... Roasted Sweet Potatoes with Cumin, Chile Powder and Cinnamon...and an Israeli Cous Cous side that I made up as I went and it ended up with wilted spinach, dried cranberries, Feta and pine nuts in it. But ironically, when we opened the fridge this afternoon my mom lamented that the (scrumptious) Bouillabaisse was going to go bad if we didn’t eat it today, so we ended up having that for Easter dinner. No one complained that we were having leftovers. In fact, everyone ooh’d and aah’d about how good it was again this evening. So, on a random Monday night we’ll enjoy our Easter Lamb & Pistachio Meatball feast! Nothing like making a Monday special.

But if you’re getting full just reading this litany of foods, then you understand why I also made an investment in Tracy Anderson’s video. Mmm hmm. I ordered the video after asking a friend with a couple month old baby how her tummy was so flat after having her fourth child. I’d heard about the videos, but am always a little skeptical of a DVD workout. You know I love my Stroller Strides classes, and I do treat myself to Go Figure classes here and there (if I can wake up early enough on a weekend morning to rally…or get my husband home early one night/week which rarely seems to come to fruition). But on those days when the day passes me by, the kids are finally put down and I need to rally and do something for me, it’s nice to have an alternative I can pop in. Her cueing isn’t great, but I am still impressed. I mean, I am using my sore fanny as a proxy, and that’s as good as any these days.

"Mom-a-licious" Moms Graber & Tauber

While I don’t have the time to be witty and type a whole lot today since I am still plowing through the vacation laundry, have a playdate arriving momentarily, it’s my turn to shop and cook for my Wednesday Dinner Swap (see my post from March 18) and it’s entirely too gorgeous a day to be sitting in my office, I did want to let readers know about two local mom-a-licious friends who have some interesting things going when it comes to feeding our families…

Cobie Graber has become the "Alice Waters" of New Canaan, working her little tail off to reform the food in our public schools and create an Edible Schoolyard that would be a hands-on learning experience for our children, across all areas of the school curriculum. But, she needs our help to enact change and get this off the ground. If you’d like to join her efforts or keep abreast of what she is working towards in the realm of school food and an Edible Schoolyards in New Canaan, please send her an email with your name, email address and phone number.

Another busy New Canaan mom, Jennifer Tauber, posts a weekly suggestion of recipes that she’s making for her family on her blog. Recipes ideas are nice, but what I love about her weekly musings is her commentary. This week focuses (both humorously and informatively) on how cooking at home is the new “it thing”. Jennifer introduces readers to a ton of information she culls from magazines, websites and the like. Think of her as your personal clipping service, with a healthy dose of wit and humor.

The wealth of knowledge, passion and willingness to share helpful information from moms around town never ceases to amaze and enlighten me.

Come and Get 'Em!

As I mentioned in an earlier entry, I am immersed in Stroller Strides Instructor Training this weekend. I am truly excited about all the pre- and post-natal exercise knowledge I am picking up but the intense days have meant that my sweet husband is left in charge of Thing 1 and Thing 2. Today they went “mountain biking” in Waveny (something I would have liked to have seen…) Anyway, anyone who knows me can be assured that the boys were well fed in my absence. Yesterday I whipped up a batch of our favorite “Protein Pancakes”, a Chicken Apple Sausage Frittata and a hearty Spanakopita for them to reheat for breakfasts and lunches, in addition to replenishing the supply of Trader Joe’s Pesto Pizza and organic carrots, apples (you’d think I was raising two horses, not boys) and whole milk.

For my friends who might like to make their own batch of Protein Pancakes heading into the week ahead, here are the details. Because this is akin to baking you need to stick to a recipe this go round:

“Protein Pancakes”
Makes about 30 small pancakes.

4 eggs
15 oz tub of ricotta cheese
2/3 cup of sour cream (preferably the organic whole milk variety)
1 1/3 cups all-purpose flour (I use King Arthur white whole wheat flour)
1 Tablespoon baking powder
½ teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon baking soda
1 ½ cups organic whole milk
Liberal amount of vanilla (optional, though I think they are bland without it)
Liberal amount of cinnamon (optional, but again, we like this addition)
Zest of 1 lemon (optional again)
Butter*

Toppings: maple syrup (get the good stuff), vanilla yogurt & berries, sliced bananas, etc…

Heat a skillet (or griddle if you’ve got one… we don’t, I just use a big Green non-stick fry pan). Mix all ingredients in a large bowl with a hand mixer until well blended. I then use a ¼ cup measuring cup and drop batter onto the non-stick fry pan in batches. *If your pan isn’t non-stick then you’ll want to melt some butter beforehand to prevent sticking… Flip the pancakes when they start to bubble.

The beauty of these pancakes is that they are moist, not cake-y like Aunt Jemima’s. And, you can put them in your fridge in a sealed container and just heat what you’d like in the microwave throughout the week. In addition to making them for the boys while I am away this weekend, I often make these for Sunday breakfast and then parse them away for mornings before school. It’s a beautiful thing to have a healthy, homemade breakfast without any effort on a random Tuesday!

Mall walking-- minus the white Reeboks

I love to cook. I also love to eat. I’m not the skinniest mom I know, but I feel good about my body. Post-baby? Not feelin’ too hot. But now it is strong, a little svelter and always able to keep up with my two little boys. A “mom-a-licious” mom has got to feel good about the way she looks if she’s going to be upbeat for her husband, her kids, and (most importantly) herself. For those of us who are trying to be more financially prudent, gone are the days of hiring a sitter so we could get to the gym. My answer to the no sitter/booger-fest gym daycare dilemma has been Stroller Strides classes. While I sometimes cringe at the fact that I spent my winter working out in the mall, you cannot beat a rigorous hour long workout alongside other health-minded moms, with our babies or kids in tow. I didn't let a little snow, sleet, rain or blowing wind get in my way. Besides, Spring is just around the corner, and once the sun comes out for good these fabulous classes will be held outside in Greenwich, Stamford, Rowayton, and (drum roll) New Canaan too!

Yours truly is spending her Spring Break getting trained as a Stroller Strides Instructor. In May, I’ll be bringing these mommy & me exercise classes to Waveny, to encourage local moms to get (or stay) in shape...without breaking the bank. Tune up those jogging strollers!