Still Growing Strong and Rosy!

The photo is a bit outdated, being three weeks old, but my camera activity has slowed a bit recently. We believe she is now nearly 13 pounds, though we'll find out for sure week after next at her 4-month appointment. I can't believe my little girl is nearly four months old already! Time is going so fast.

She is smiling, laughing, and just starting to roll over (once in a while). She reaches for objects and puts them in her mouth. She loves songs, sleep, and walks in her stroller. She is a lot of fun!

Crockpot Black Bean Soup

This recipe is adapted from my newest cookbook: Fresh From the Vegetarian Slow Cooker by Robin Robertson. I have made it several times, and loved it every time! It's really quite easy, and the crockpot cooking method is very user-friendly. If you don't have a crockpot, I think you could make it in a regular pot, too.

Ingredients:

1 lb dried black beans, rinsed and soaked overnight
1 T canola oil
1 yellow onion, diced
2 garlic cloves, minced
3-4 carrots, halved and sliced
1 green bell pepper, diced OR 1 14-oz can diced tomatoes with green chilies
1 28-oz can diced tomatoes
2 cups vegetable broth, or more
2 bay leaves
1 T ground cumin
2 tsp dried thyme
1/4 tsp cayenne pepper
salt and pepper to taste

1. Drain or partially drain* the beans and place in a crock pot with water to cover by three inches. Cook on low for 8 hours.
2. Heat the oil in a frying pan and saute the onions, garlic, carrots, and green pepper if using, until softened.
3. Add the vegetables, tomatoes, broth, and spices to the the beans.** Cook for at least another half hour to let the flavors blend.
4. Ladle some of the soup into a blender and puree. Return it to the crockpot and stir it in. It will thicken the soup. You can continue to puree until all of it is smooth, or leave some in chunks.

I like to eat it with sour cream or grated sharp cheddar cheese. You can also make this recipe with canned beans. I would use 3 15-oz cans and reduce the cooking time to six hours, with the vegetables included for the whole cooking time.

Weight Watchers points: 3 per cup of soup.

* Draining the rinse water from the beans reduces flatulence but also eliminates many of the B-vitamins that have soaked out into the water. I usually do a partial drain to try and get the best of both options.
** You can add the sauteed vegetables and the spices before or after cooking the beans. However, the tomatoes, vegetable broth, and salt should not be added until after the beans are completely cooked.

11 Weeks

Our vegetarian (breastfed) baby continues to grow! She weighed 11 lbs 4 oz at her 2-month check-up, continuing at the 50th percentile that she's been at all along. We are pleased.

I recently had a 3-day hospital stay, including two surgeries under general anesthesia, and managed to keep my milk supply strong despite a large loss of blood. (The surgeries were to repair damage caused by childbirth -- I had a uterine inversion and some accompanying issues.) I like to think that having a good diet with iron-rich vegetarian foods helps me to produce good milk!

Hummus

I tasted my first hummus in the summer of 1995, and have been a major fan ever since! It's nutritious and oh-so-delicious. Here is my basic recipe:

2 cans garbanzo beans, rinsed and drained
2-6 cloves of garlic (depending on your preferences), peeled and halved
1/2 cup tahini paste (sesame paste)
1/3 cup olive oil
1/4 cup warm water
juice and pulp of one lemon, or 3-4 T lemon juice
1 T ground cumin
salt and fresh ground pepper to taste

1. Put the beans and the garlic in a food processor with the large blade attached. Process until most of the beans are pureed.
2. Add the tahini, olive oil, water, and lemon juice. Process until smooth.
3. Add the cumin, salt, and pepper. Taste for flavor. Add more salt and pepper as needed.

Refrigerated, can last for up to a week. Eat with fresh vegetables, crackers, pita bread, or make into hummus-and-cheese sandwiches.

Optional additions: fresh basil leaves, fresh tomato, fresh parsley

6 Weeks and Growing

My baby is now six weeks old, and it seems that a vegetarian diet is just fine for breastfeeding. She weighed a whopping nine pounds even at her one-month checkup, and we're pretty sure she's over ten now! She's also grown more than two inches in length. She grows out of clothes so quickly that we don't have time to wear them all!

I haven't had much time for posting recipes lately but hope to be back to it soon. In the meantime, I'm eating lots of: Cheerios, oatmeal, spaghetti, beans, apples, and cheese.

My Vegetarian Baby is Born!

She arrived Friday, March 28, weighing 6 lbs 15 oz. She is beautiful!

Som Tam

One of my favorite foods while living in Thailand was "som tam" -- spicy raw papaya salad. I wasn't sure whether I'd ever be able to find it in the USA, but it turns out that it's sold at many Thai restaurants! Of course, it costs about 20 times as much as it did in our Peace Corps town.

I haven't wanted to eat much som tam while pregnant, though, because folk wisdom has it that raw papaya can cause contractions -- not something you want early in your pregnancy. Now that I've reached full-term, however, I feel safe eating it again! So on Saturday night we headed over to Uwajimaya - a local Asian grocery store - and picked out the ingredients. Robert made the som tam while I worked on a noodle curry. He did a great job -- it tasted perfect!

1 large unripe papaya, peeled and grated
2-4 cloves of garlic, minced
2-4 small Thai chili peppers, finely chopped
1 cup green beans, cut into 1-inch pieces
1 large or 2 small tomatoes, coarsely chopped
3 T soy sauce, or to taste
1 T sugar, or to taste (optional)
1/2 cup peanuts, coarsely chopped
juice of 1-2 limes

The fresh chilies give it a real kick, so you might want to start on the lower end and increase if you think it isn't spicy enough. Som tam is best eaten fresh, but can keep for about two days, covered, in the refrigerator.

Phil's Burritos

My stepfather, Phil, makes his own version of these, which are quite delicious. Mine are lower-fat and have less sauce somehow, but I still call them "Phil's Burritos." They are super easy and delicious!

Ingredients:

8 large tortillas (I like whole wheat)
3 cans black beans, rinsed and drained
1 onion, chopped
1 very large or 2 medium jars of salsa
2 cups grated cheddar cheese (or a little more)
sour cream

1. In a large bowl, mix together the beans, onion, most of the salsa, and most of the cheese.
2. Put a couple of spoonfuls of the mixture into each tortilla and fold it into a burrito shape.
3. Bake the burritos in an oven pre-heated to 350 degrees, covered with tin foil, for 30 minutes. I prefer a glass baking dish -- or two, if they don't all fit -- but metal works just fine.
4. Remove the tin foil, sprinkle the burritos with the remaining cheese, and bake 15 minutes more.
5. Serve with salsa and sour cream on the side. Yum!

36-37 Week Photo

Taken this morning, in front of the window for a change of scenery. I'm definitely feeling more ready every day for this baby to make it's move into the outside world!

Healthy Start

Two weeks ago, when I went for the standard gestational diabetes test, I also had my iron levels checked. Being vegetarian and pregnant, I was slightly worried that I would have low iron. However, I passed both tests with flying colors!

I like to think that part of my success comes from the little things I do each day to boost my nutrient intake. In addition to aiming for a good variety of foods each day, or at least each week, I also make an effort to start every morning with a healthy breakfast. Most mornings, I have a bowl of oatmeal and a glass of cranberry juice. The oatmeal includes a good balance of complex carbohydrates, iron, fiber, and antioxidants. Here is how I make it:

1/2 cup instant oatmeal, microwaved with 1 cup water for 90-120 seconds
sprinkle of cinnamon
1/4 cup unsweetened applesauce
1/4 cup frozen blueberries, thawed in the microwave
1/8 cup raisins
1/4 cup plain soymilk

On days when I eat this breakfast, I don't feel quite as guilty about indulging my ice cream cravings in the evening!