Apartment Tour: Bedroom

I'm kind of proud of our little apartment. This was the homiest place we've lived so far. This is the bedroom. I tried to keep the minimum in here in terms of furniture. The bassinet is fairly recent and also temporary as my little monster has grown out of it all ready.

I made the valence above the bed. It was pretty simple. I hung some bamboo ($0.80 each) with fishing line then draped fabric over them. I had to tie the fabric on with a bit of thread. I bought the fabric from the sale bin for $4.00.

The chair is second hand. There is a blanket draped over it so that it will match and has a reading lamp near by.

The comforter was $30. I got the throw pillows and bundled sticks on sale as well. Overall, this room was pretty cheap to put together.

Fajitas

Before swearing off meat I used to enjoy fajitas rather regularly. Since then I tried making them with just the fried pepper and onion but I found them a little plain. Marinated mushrooms were the solution to that problem. I found the marinade recipe in the cookbook Vegan Fire & Spice that I got from the library. I since returned the book so I might be missing a few minor ingredients but I committed the main ones to memory and I didn't follow the recipe exactly anyway. We really liked how this turned out and are planning to have it again.

Marinade Ingredients
1/2 cup lime juice
1 jalapeno, seeded and sliced
1 tsp salt
1 clove minced garlic

Other Ingredients
2 portabello mushrooms, sliced
red pepper, sliced
onion, sliced
zucchini, sliced
1 tbsp oil

tortillas
salsa
vegan sour cream

Directions
1. Mix marinade ingredients together and mix in mushrooms. Let sit in the fridge for a few hours.
2. Fry onions in a skillet in the oil until they start to brown. Add pepper, zucchini and mushrooms. Fry until mushrooms are cooked.
3. Load up your tortillas with the salsa, sour cream and veggie mix. Roll or fold and enjoy :)

Custom Under the Bed Storage Boxes

I made these boxes a while ago. I am not going to include a tutorial because these are pretty basic to make. I just measured the space under the bed and cut out each side of the box separately. I double layered the cardboard for extra strength which made the job a lot bigger but it was worth it. I glued the two plys together with a hot glue gun then taped the sides onto a cardboard base. I coated them with white paper and cut out some patters to pretty 'em up. Hopefully this is not confusing but if anyone were up to copying these I'm sure they would be resourceful enough to figure it out or ask me in the comments. I made three boxes that fit all on one side. I could have made three more for the other side but I already have a purchased storage solution there.

If I had hardwood floors, I would have opted for putting drawers (from an old dresser) on wheels that could fit under the bed. I don't know where I saw the idea but it is awesome and probably less work. You would have to find the right sized drawers though which could be tricky.

Super Healthy, Almost Instant Asian Soup

I threw this soup together today for dinner. I tend not to want to put a lot of effort into a meal if I am the only one eating it. This was really easy and really quick. The miso and the wakame make it quite healthy. I added toast because it is not the most filling soup. The wakame is extra awesome if your thyroid is sluggish as it contains a healthy dose of iodine. Most people get their iodine from seafood or table salt. I don`t eat fish so seaweed is a healthy way to get iodine in my diet. Miso, a fermented soy product, is a tasty way to get your B vitamins. I did not expect to like miso soup because it is so touted as a health food but it is surprisingly good.

Ingredients
1 pk miso soup mix
wakame seaweed
longxu noodles (any quick cooking noodle will do)
1-2 cups water

Directions
1. Add water to a small pot and set to max. Sprinkle in some wakame and add some noodles. Once boiling, boil until noodles are cooked.
2. Mix in miso soup mix. Enjoy!

Roasting Red Pepper in the Oven

I must admit, I am a jarred roasted red pepper gal. Though way too expensive, it is just easier to buy roasted red peppers by the jar than to roast them myself. But then yesterday I finally had no choice. We had company coming over, I was serving a polenta dish with red pepper coulis. The polenta was made when my hubby came back from the grocery store with four plump red peppers instead of the two jars I requested. The store had run out. My poor husband had to make a call, get the pickled red peppers or get some fresh ones. He made the right choice, the pickled would have been useless.

So I was forced to roast the peppers myself. It was a bit of work but it was much cheaper, made a larger quantity and tasted great in the recipe. All I did was turn the oven to broil, put the clean whole peppers in a large casserole dish and broiled the peppers until the skin bubbled. I turned the peppers a few times to expose all of the skin. Once all the skin was bubbly I took the dish out of the oven, put on the lid and left the peppers to steam for 15 minutes before peeling off the skin. It was a bit of work but not overly difficult. Given the price of the jarred red peppers I suspect I will be roasting them myself going forward. 

A Great Recipe for Stuffed Tomatoes

I tried out this stuffed tomato recipe tonight and am very happy with the results. It's not my own recipe, it can be found here. There are a few steps involved in this dish but it was still pretty easy to make and it didn't take very long. What I like most about it is the potential to make the dish look pretty. Also, it tasted pretty good. The recipe made a lot more lentil stuffing than I had tomatoes to stuff but I suspect I can fry up the leftovers and it will make a good breakfast tomorrow. I added some dried parsley as a garnish though I would have used fresh if I had some as that would have been prettier. 

Raw Cookie Dough that Won`t Make You Sick

Cookie Dough!

I love cookie dough. When I was a kid I always wanted to eat it but I was not allowed to because of the raw egg. One year my mom bought a tub of white chocolate macadamia nut cookie dough and left most of it in the freezer. Little did she know that I was sneaking it little by little until the tub was empty. It was good dough, it had to be done.

Now that I`m an adult and can eat whatever I want I make cookie dough for the purpose of eating it raw. There is no egg in any recipe I make now but I purposely leave out baking ingredients because they are just not necessary. I also don`t measure the ingredients so these are approximations.

Ingredients
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 cup of margarine
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 cup flour
water
chocolate chips

Directions
Cream together first three ingredients. Mix in flour and chocolate chips. If too dry, add water to desired consistency  Enjoy!

Fancy Storage boxes

I bought 5 of these boxes at the dollar store to keep car and other outdoor things in the hall closet. They were kind of plain and since I was keeping them on the top shelf I needed a way to label the contents so I can quickly find the item I need. I found some pretty ribbon at Michael's which I wrapped around each box and affixed with a glue gun. I got some chalk board paint and painted these small pieces of cardboard which I attached to the front. I can now write a list of contents in chalk on each one. If I were to repeat this project I would use small pieces of wood instead of cardboard. It's easier to write on :).

Quick, Cheap Coasters

This project is really easy. I wanted some basic, matching coasters that would fit well with the decor in the living room. I bought a pack of those adhesive tabs that are suppose to be affixed to cupboard doors to stop them from slamming when they close. You can buy a pack for a dollar at the dollar store. I had some left over tiles so I put a tab on each corner of the underside of the tile to make a quick and easy coaster. I repeated this until I had 4. I still have tabs and tiles left over
so if I needed to I could easily throw together another coaster or two if we have more guests. There is a lot of creative potential with these. I might try painting a few for special occasions or perhaps as gifts.

Indoor Veggie Garden

My Husband made me something awesome for my birthday (which was in May). He put together a small indoor garden for me in the office. It is made out of 4 small garbage cans filled with soil and has a grow light with a tin foil coated top that reflects the light back to the plants. We've tried growing veggies on the patio in previous years but it is covered and there was not enough light. The only thing that grew was the swiss chard and some Herbs but the squirrels attacked the herbs.

I'm stoked that the indoor garden is working. The peppers are doing really well and I have okra growing too. I just started some lettuce, spinach, cilantro and dill. Hopefully they will thrive too now that I added some organic fertilizer. It takes a bit longer for the plants to grew indoors with the light but once assembled the whole thing is pretty low maintenance. I can't wait until the veggies start growing on the plants.

Tutorial: Creating Custom Storage Boxes

I needed a place to keep my baby's clean cloth diapers near my diapering station but there was very limited room to work with. Whatever was going to work had to fit between the desk we are using as a change table and the door frame beside it, only 26 cm. I couldn't find anything in stores so I made a container out of the box our car seat came in. It didn't talk long at all and turned out better than I expected. Here is how I did it. If you need a custom container you could repeat this tutorial with your own specific dimensions.

Step 1- Lay the original box flat on the ground with the sturdiest corners on the outside. I wanted the length and width to be 25 cm so I drew a line in pencil 25 cm from each outside edge on both sides and cut out the remainder in the middle. The middles can be discarded or set aside for another project.

Step 2- I cut the two outside pieces to the height desired and discarded the excess. It doesn't matter if you trim the top of the box or the bottom as log as you are consistent with both pieces.

Step 3- Lay the two pieces beside each other with two cut ends touching and tape together with some duct tape.

Step 4- Fold into a box then tape to keep it together. The base flaps (or top flaps depending on which side y0u cut) of the original box will fold to form the base of your new box. Keep the base together with a few pieces of tape.

Step 5- The rest is easy. Simply reinforce the base by putting a piece of duct tape over every corner. I covered my box in white paper then reinforced the corners with a strip of duct tape over each corner edge of the box. I finished the rough edges on top with more black duct tape.

And here is the finished product. It is tidy looking which is what I was going for, and fits the space perfectly. The pail below keeps the dirty diapers before they are washed. We recently started using the cloth diapers and this set up is serving us well so far. The only problem is the cats like the box so I have to make a lid to keep them out.

Awesome Slow Cooker Chili

I got a slow cooker yesterday and had to make some chili to try it out. It worked great despite costing around $20. This chili tasted great. I've made it before without the slow cooker by using canned beans but I like the slow cooker version because dried beans are so much cheaper. I always use fresh tomatoes as they are much healthier than canned tomatoes and taste so much better. Tomatoes, being rather acidic, leach BPA out of the plastic lining inside the can. Fresh tastes better anyway so th BPA gives me an excuse to use them. I served this chili in big mugs with a home made bread.

Ingredients

1 cup of dried beans (I used half kidney, half black eyed peas)

5 cups of water

1 tbsp oil

1 large chopped onion

2 cloves minced garlic

4 chopped tomatoes

1 tbsp chili powder

1/2 tsp curry powder

2 tsp cumin, ground

1/4 tsp ground cayenne

salt to taste

Directions

place beans and water in slow cooker on high until beans are cooked. This took my slow cooker about 5 hours. If there is a lot of water remaining after cooking time, ladle some out (there should not be a full layer of water covering the beans). Heat oil in frying pan then add onion. Fry for about five minutes then add garlic and continue to fry until garlic is golden but not browned. Add to the slow cooker. Add remaining ingredients to cooker. Simmer for 30 minutes and serve.

Quick and Easy Potato Soup with Dumplings

I made this soup tonight and remembered just how simple it is so I thought I would post it. It's the perfect recipe for a weeknight because it is so quick, requires little prep and is nice and filling. My husband is a fan.

Servers 2-4

Ingredients for Soup

4 potatoes, peeled and chopped

4 cups of vegetable broth

1-2 cups water

1/2 cup soy milk (or other kind of milk)

Ingredients for Dumplings

1/4 cup soy milk (or other kind of milk)

1 tbsp oil

1 tsp lemon juice

1/2 cup of Flour

1/4 tsp salt

1 tsp baking powder

Directions

For the soup, add broth, water and potatoes to a pot and bring to boil. Reduce heat if needed and boil until potatoes are tender. Mash potatoes with a masher while in pot. Its fine if the potatoes are a bit lumpy as that is just added texture. Add soy milk.

For dumplings, mix soy milk, oil and lemon juice in a small mixing bowl. Add flour, salt and baking powder to the bowl and mix. Cut dough into 4 and drop into soup. Cover and let steam for 5-10 minutes and serve.

Mornings

I hated 6:00am. Every weekday I would have to get up at 6:00am. I was always tired. It always felt too early. Three weeks ago I changed my mind about 6:00am. 6:00am is no longer reserved for weekdays. The reprieve of the weekend sleep-in has disappeared. I don’t miss it. I love 6:00am.

Why? Because that is when my little love wakes up. He begins to fuss about until I pick him up. We head to the living room and I feed him. I can’t help but stair at his tiny, perfect little features. He’s too perfect for words.

Easy to Make Home Made Air Fresheners

I stumbled upon this recipe at allcrafts.net a few months back and decided I had to try this out. I am dead against using those chemical plug in room fresheners as I suspect that they are super unhealthy. They also gave me some major allergy issues when I was younger and I`d worry about my cats trying to eat them. These gel air fresheners are very simple to make, have few ingredients and since you make them yourself you know exactly what goes into them. I made a bunch of different scents in different containers because I thought it would be neat to have each room smell differently. The liquor glasses turned out the prettiest and I left out the food colouring. This would not be considered a vegan recipe as it contains gelatin so if you are vegan for animal welfare reasons you may want to try making these with agar instead. I have not tried this but it seems like it would work.

Gathering a Birth Team that Suits me: Part 2

I hit a few snags on the birth team front just two weeks ago. It’s bad timing, I found out the problem 8 weeks before my guess date so there is really not much that can be done to fix it. When I first went in to see the doctor that would be following my pregnancy she was on vacation and a nurse filled me in with the details. She told me that either my doctor or her partner would deliver my baby. I met her partner and I liked them both so that was fine with me. This was not actually true however; my doctor and her partner belong to a team of 8, any one of which could be on call for delivery. I was a little bit mortified.

So I have gone from hoping to have a home birth with a midwife to having a hospital birth with likely a random stranger for a still low risk pregnancy. This is not good for my stress. Stress is not good during pregnancy.

I am not afraid of anything to do with child birth really. I am not afraid of the pain or the process or taking care of the baby after or any of it. I’m terrified of the hospital and the medical system and I don’t want them near my baby. I suppose it stems from all the issues I’ve had in the past, bad doctors who nearly killed me out of arrogance and stupid mistakes. I’ve also been lied to in order to get me to go along with a rather useless, painful and inconvenient treatment. I’ve had tests preformed on me in error because they thought I was another patient. Needless to say, I have trouble trusting MD’s.

This situation is now far from ideal and I got up the nerve to actually tell my current doctor that it is really stressing me out. I don’t think switching now would be possible. It was a battle to get the doctor I have (she was midwife recommended) and I don’t think I would be able to switch to a smaller team and get comfortable with them in time (now just 6 weeks left). My doctor was very nice about it but there is nothing she can do, this is how the system works. She gave me the names of the rest of her team mates so I can look them up and hopefully I’ll be less stressed after that. She thinks highly of all of them and they are all female at least. I guess I’ll look them up and see how good they are.

I did recently meet my doula. Doula’s are free (or by donation) in Halifax and they match you to one they think suits your personality. My doula is very nice and she helped dispel a lot of my stress. With all the nurses and residents at the hospital giving me different information it is nice to have someone who has been to a few births there and can give a less biased opinion. I still don’t know exactly what a doula does but I already feel like she’s helping so that’s great.

Another decision I recently made regarding my birth team is I want it as small as possible. My birth is not a spectator event. I heard from others that if you allow residents in you might have an audience of 8 people watching you. Not cool. Seeing as I feel like I have so little control in the hospital, I am going to exercise the control I do have and say no unnecessary people in the room. It’s already going to be an uphill battle trying to stay stress free in this ridicules environment, I’m certainly not letting them add to it.

The whole experience with the hospital has made me feel like a child, like my opinion doesn't count for anything. Well, it's my body and my baby and so in the end it's only my opinion and my husbands opinion that actually count. Doctors can make suggestions but that's where it ends. I just have to remember that when the time comes.

List of Questions for my Doctor

As I mentioned in my last post, I had a large list of questions for the doctor side of my birth team. I'm going to post them here. I got a bunch of the questions from My Best Birth which is a worth while read. It's not a huge book and it explains the obstetric myths quite well. Let me know if you have any questions in the coments and I will help define what I can :).

Policy and Procedures

1.       Can I walk and move around during labor?

2.       Do I have to deliver lying flat on my back? I prefer just going with the position that feels right at the time. I’ll be open to suggestions but not supine.

3.       Do you use continual fetal monitoring? What form do you use? Is intermittent monitoring an option? Do I have to be strapped down for it.

4.       Do you routinely perform episiotomies?

5.       I don’t want an IV is that tolerated? Is a hep lock an option?

6.       Do you support natural childbirth?

7.       Is there a time limit to labour? What is it?

8.       Can I eat and drink during labor?

9.       What is your c-section rate? Under what conditions do you require a c-section?

10.   Can I have a copy of every waiver?

11.   How long do I have to stay here after the baby is born?

12.   How often must I be vaginally examined while in labour.

13.   Does the hospital use cytotec?

14.   I want to follow my body and push when I have the urge, will that be an issue?

Baby Safety

1.       I want to hold my baby immediately after birth, they won’t take my baby away will they? Can I nurse my baby immediately?

2.       I am not comfortable with pitocin at all. If I must induce are there better methods I can use? Are cervical balloons used here? How long can I be pregnant before I must be induced?

3.       Is the hospital equipped for emergencies 24/7 or are there specific hours when OR and anesthesiologist are available?

4.       If for some reason I am separated from the baby and cannot breast feed, I don’t want the baby fed any dairy based formula or animal milk. If there must be something, please use soy.

Preparedness

1.       Who delivers my baby? You, team member, on-call doctor?

2.       Do you honour birth plans?

3.       Is there a way to see what the rooms are like?

4.       At what stage in labour must I come to the hospital? I would like to labour at home as long as I can.

5.       I don’t want an epidural, will I be under pressure by nurses?

Comfort

1.       Are the rooms private? Will there be lots of people coming in and out?

2.       Can lights be dimmed?

3.       Are there any restrictions on who is allowed in the room?

4.       Will I have to change rooms during my stay?

5.       Are there rules about what I can wear and what I can bring?

6.       I may hire a doula, is that tolerated?

7.       I might try a bunch of alternative pain management methods, is that ok?

8.       Will I have access to…

a.       squat bar

b.      tub

c.       shower

d.      ball

Gathering a Birth team that Suites Me : Part 1

"Who is your family doctor?" This is a question I have been asked countless times since I got pregnant. I don’t have a family doctor. People look at me with the glare of judgment when respond to their question. “I have a naturopath” I will add. No one seems interested in that information, despite my naturopath being capable of everything regular doctors are capable of.

The truth is, I have not had a family for about 6 years. I haven’t needed one. I went to walk in clinics early on if I needed anything and I have not been sick in the last 3 years so why have a doctor on retainer. I go to a naturopath not to fix health problems but to get even healthier. Well, apparently I need a family doctor to be released from the hospital after I have my baby so checkmate medical system, you win. I suppose I will have to find one.

Assembling your birth team without a family doctor can be tricky, here is what I did and though it was hard work, it seems to be paying off quite well. My naturopath can’t deliver so I had to find someone who could. There are no midwives in my area (very disappointing) but I was put on a waiting list to be tended to by one out of town. Unfortunately, I could not get a spot. They called me up to inform me they did not have an opening and before I started crying in the bathroom at work, I asked the midwives if they could recommend a doctor for my maternal care. They gave me three names.

I called one name on my list to find out that she only delivers her own patients babies and was not accepting new patients. I looked up the second name and found her number in a directory. I called and they gave me a different number to call. I called that one and they tried to give me my original number to call. I said that wouldn’t work, then I’m on hold . . . for a really long time. They can’t tell me anything. I call the original number, they give me a new number who gives me yet another number and I finally reach the perinatal clinic. They tell me I need to go to a walk in clinic to get a referral. Fine, I can do that.

I get the referral. I tell the on call doctor that either of the two doctors on the list will work. He says it’s not a problem and sends me on my way, problem solved . . . ? No.

I wait a week. I figure the referral might take some time, and then I start calling the hospital. Over a few days I call 3 times leaving 3 messages on the automated message system before I get to speak to anyone. They give me a different number to call. Grrr. I call that number and reach someone who sounds like she has it together. She tells me a referral was never received and gives me her direct fax line. I call the walk-in clinic and they agree to resend it to the new number and she calls me back with an appointment. I love this mystery woman.  So competent.

I go in for my appointment with my husband. He comes to all baby appointments because he’s awesome. We go in expecting one doctor, the one on the referral and are surprised to see another doctor is working in her place. The two doctors are a team so one of the two of them will be delivering my baby and I am so fortunate as to get to meet them both early on in my pregnancy (well, 4 months in actually). We talk to their nurse first for a good long time. She has all the time in the world for me to go through all my questions. As I brought a list of over 30 (a bunch from reading Your Best Birth: Know All Your Options, Discover the Natural Choices, and Take Back the Birth Experience), I didn’t get through them all because I got tired. The nurse was absolutely great. We really clicked. I could see why the midwives had recommended this team.  Even the doctor had time for me.  They supported my idea of how a birth should go, set me up with a meet n’ greet for a family doctor and gave me info on the doula program. They don’t do any of the stupid, crazy stuff other doctors do routinely that the WHO is against and they made me feel in control of the situation. I was happy leaving that appointment and I’m still pretty stoked the next day!

It’s so important to have a birth team who you see eye to eye with and I’m glad to have found this team of doctors who mesh well with my personality. The first maternity doctor I saw was nothing like this one. She took offence to my intention to have a natural birth which I found to be unprofessional. I left her office feeling like she was trying to take my control away and I simply won’t have that. So I guess basically what I am saying here is don’t settle for a doctor you are not comfortable with. It might be a lot of work finding your perfect match but it is well worth it.

My Fun New Project

I have not been posting too much lately. I have been rather engrossed in a top secret project or rather a series of projects. We are having a baby in October and there is lots of work to be done. Though I would have loved to have been posting regularly about my exciting new projects, I could not risk family finding out online, instead of from us. I thought that would not be a great way to find out. But we have been busy and now I have lots of new projects to post if I could only find some time.

Going along with the attitude of this website, we will be making and doing as much from scratch as possible. I’ve already fired up the ol’ sewing machine a few times, but I have a lot of work ahead of me. If you are on a budget, like we are, you save lots of money by making things yourself. I’ve done a bunch of research and below is a list of things you can make yourself if you are so inclined. If anyone has anything to add, please comment!

• Cloth Diapers
• Diaper covers
• Soakers
• Disposable baby wipes
• Changing mats
• Blankets 
• Sweaters
• Diaper bag (really looking forward to making a chic diaper bag that I'm not embarrassed to carry)
• Mobiles
• Socks (Yes, I made baby socks when I could have bought them but mine are cute)
• Swaddling cloth
• Hats
• Toys (so many tutorials out there)
• Burp cloths
• Bibs
• Cute clothes (though I will probably get most of these second hand)

That's all I have come up with but it is quite the to-do list. I will post some tutorials for the things I come up with.

When Life gives you Lemons

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When life gives you lemons, what do you do? You make lemonade!  Lemonade is very easy to make. Perhaps that is why it is such a popular drink in many countries around the world. To make lemonade, all you need is lemons, sugar and water. Lemonade has been enjoyed for centuries all over the world. It can be considered healthy if you are easy on the sugar. Though often considered a summer drink, lemonade can be a great pick me up in the winter months too.

No one knows where this tasty drink originated from but some believe it may have been in Egypt, as lemonade is referenced in Egyptian writing. It was a little different from our version of lemonade as it was served as a wine made with dates and honey.

Lemons are good for you. Lemons function as an antiseptic. They aid in digestion and can help to relieve heartburn, bloating, gout, rickets, rheumatism and tuberculosis. Lemonade is a great alternative to other more sugary drinks. Because you are making it from scratch, you can control how much sugar goes into it. You need a lot less sugar to make lemonade taste good than some of the commercial fruit flavored mixes, like Cool-aid.

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Here is my favorite lemonade recipe: place some peeled and sliced lemons in a glass pitcher. You don’t have to peel them but I choose to because I find the peels will give the lemonade a bit of an after taste if they are left in for longer than a few hours. I add ¼ to ½ cup of sugar and a little boiling water to the pitcher. With a long wooden spoon mix in the sugar and muddle up the lemons a bit. Fill the pitcher with cold water and ice and you’re done.

Lemonade is so simple that it is easy to customize.
•         You can add more or less sugar. In fact many European counties make lemonade with no sugar at all.
•         A lemonade drink common in parts of India has salt, pepper and other spices added to it.
•         You can use a carbonated water like club soda to replace the water as is the tradition in France.
•         It has recently become popular in North America to add green or other teas to lemonade.
•         You could try incorporating various berries, fruits, fruit juices or grenadine to your mix.

It is hard to talk about lemonade without mentioning it’s popular cousin, pink lemonade. Pink lemonade today is regular lemonade with more sugar and some food colouring but that is not how it began. Originally made from crushed sumac berries, Native North Americans would serve pink lemonade sweetened with maple sugar. It was a real hit with the European Colonists. But as time passed, it’s ingredients were replaced with cheaper ones and the sumac berry industry eventually fell away.

There you have it folks, a quick crash course on how to make lemonade, a beverage ripe with antiquity and endless possibilities. Remember not to overdo the sugar.  Next time life hands you lemons, you will know what to do.