Veggie Enchilada Casserole

A few days ago I made a vegetarian enchilada casserole.  I wanted to get creative with the sauce, and I also had some leftover grilled fajita veggies.  Here's what ensued:

Sauce:

1 15ish oz can tomato sauce
1 onion, diced
1 bell pepper (I used green) diced
1 c carrots, finely chopped (Measure after they're chopped)
2 cloves garlic, minced
Chili powder, onion powder, garlic powder, and salt/pepper to taste
2 chipotle peppers (or to taste; from a can with adobo sauce)
oil or broth for sauteeing

Sautee off the onion and pepper until the onion is translucent, sprinkle seasonings on.  Add in carrots, tomato sauce, and let simmer for a good while (as long as you have- 20 min or 2 hrs is fine!).  I actually didn't simmer mine at all- just threw it in the blender, which is the next step anyway.  Put it all in the blender (and use caution, as always, with hot liquids in a blender!).  Blenderize it until it's completely uniform (unless you like it chunky), and viola, sauce is ready.

Casserole:

1 batch of sauce
1/2 can corn
1/2 can black beans
About 2 c roasted, grilled, or otherwise cooked veggies (again, I had leftover grilled fajita onions, red peppers, and poblano peppers- SUPER delicious!)
1/2-1 c cheese!  (Or, if you want to go vegan, use some crushed raw cashews for a nice crunch!)
Whole grain flour or healthy corn tortillas (I used 8 or so large flour tortillas).  Cut all but 3 of them in half.
9x9 square baking dish (or bigger, if you prefer)

Start by placing some sauce in the bottom to prevent sticking.  Then a layer of tortillas- a whole one in the middle, and 4 halves around it (so the straight part of the tortilla lines up with the edge of the baking dish).  Then a bit more sauce, and the beans and corn.  Then another layer of tortillas, the same way as the first.  Then more sauce, then your veggies, then your last layer of tortillas.  Top with sauce BUT NOT THE CHEESE YET (cashews can go on now).

Bake at 350 until sauce is dry on the top, 20-25 min, then top with the cheese and bake until the cheese is desired doneness (I like mine extra brown, so probably another 10-15 min for me!).

As for the sauce-- I ended up with extra that i threw away.  You could probably get a 9x13 pan worth of enchiladas out of that sauce recipe, just add more filling and tortillas.

And enjoy!  A healthy vegetarian or vegan meal!

Kale Chips!!

I made Kale Chips yesterday.  My daughter gobbled them up!  Here's the recipe:

1 T Canola oil
1 T Water
1/3 cup unsalted, raw cashews
1/2 lemon, juiced
3/4 cup nutritional yeast
2 tablespoons soy sauce
2 teaspoons Dijon mustard
2 sm. garlic cloves
Additional water, as needed
1 bunch curly kale, washed and dried completely, stems removed and broken up into 2-inch pieces

Blend everything together until smooth in a high speed blender (or, blend water, canola oil, and cashews in a food processor until paste-like, then add the rest).  Add water until you get a thick sauce consistency- it should pour, but slowly.  Then pour the stuff over your kale.

Bake at 200 degrees for about an hour.  It works well to use cookie sheets lined with parchment paper.  Admittedly I used half a bunch of kale or so- that's all that would fit on my cookie sheets.  You may have to do two batches if your kale bunch is large!

Then eat and enjoy.  My daughter and myself love these, my husband, his son, and my brother couldn't stand them.  To each their own, I guess!

Cornbread and Black Eyed Peas!

Yuma! No photos though. Like I have time for that...

Beans!

1 lb dried black eyed peas- soak em overnight.

Then, add into the crockpot of awesome:

Above beans
6 c water (less if you like a thicker bean mush)
1 bay leaf
1 smoked ham hock
2-3t oregano
2t garlic powder
2t onion powder
1t kosher salt
Splash of soy sauce (2t?)
3 cubes chicken bullion (I used vegan chicken broth mix).

Cook on low 7-9 hrs. Stir occasionally. Eat.

Cornbread:

1.5 c cornmeal
0.5 c whole wheat pastry flour
2T flax meal
1 c milk (I used soy)
1/2 c unsweetened applesauce
1/4 c honey
2t powder
1/2 t salt
1c corn

Mix dry together, wet together then mall together and add corn. Stir as little as possible. Scoop into greased muffin tons. Bake at 350 for 20-24 min.

Vegan yet yummy coffee cake

I was in the mood to bake thanks to some craptastic news from a friend, so here is the recipe for future reference.

This turned out really delicious- I would easily serve this to non-vegans as a healthy(ier) option.

2 c unsweetened applesauce
1/2 c sugar (I used the organic evaporated cane stuff)
1t powder
1t soda
2 1/4 c flour (I used 1 c white wheat, 1 c whole wheat, and 1/4 c oat bran)
1.5T cinnamon
1T vanilla
1/4 c oil or melted margarine (I used oil)

Topping:

1/2 c old fashioned oats
3T cold margarine (or slightly softened)
1/4 c brown sugar
Lots of cinnamon (1-2T depending on how much you like!)

Preheat oven to 350. Grease (spray with Pam) a round cake pan (or I guess an 8-9" square is fine too).

Mix the cake stuff together, wet and dry separately then mix. Pour into greased round cake pan.

Mush the butter and sugar and cinnamon together with a fork until combined. Then mix in the oats. Dot the top of the cake with the topping.

Bake at 350 F for appx 48 min (that's how long mine took, anyway), until a toothpick comes out clean.

Let cool for at least 5 min. Serve warm. Possibly with ice cream (or guilt free frozen blenderized bananas).

Big hugs to my friend.

If you know who I am for really-reals...

OK folks, if you have read this blog in the past, cool.  Thanks for checking in.  If you haven't, well you're welcome to, but I want a place where I can type openly about things like nursing, babies, married life, love, work, parenting, being emotional, and all things that are ME.

I've felt in the past that I was limited in what I could blog because of where I worked and who might find it.  I don't feel that way anymore, mostly thanks to my new job.  

So, if you don't want to read my strong opinions on breastfeeding, including toddler nursing, being a mom, attachment parenting, and how to make all of that work as a working mama, then don't waste your time here.  

If you're still interested, great!  Read away (or read yourself to sleep).  

That is all. Posts forthcoming.  

Medicine

For as long as I can remember, I have wanted to go into medicine.  Like, go to medical school medicine.  It didn't happen after college, and I was devastated.  I went to grad school briefly, as if that would be a substitute path to a PhD, but I hated it.  I had no passion for the projects I was working on.  So I quit almost as promptly as I started.  And I tried to apply to medical school again, but again didn't get in.  So I went to paramedic school, and got a job as a medic.  And for a while, it was awesome.  I got my medicine fix, I was functioning at a level that was appropriate for a little while, and I would say I got decent at taking care of patients.  But 5 years into it (well, probably sooner than that), I became ready for the next challenge, the next level of taking care of patients, or the next challenge.  Unfortunately, in the EMS field, there's not much to do at a higher level than taking care of patients.

So my next challenge became the teaching job I accepted in August of 2012.  I am definitely enjoying teaching.  But I do not believe, at this point, that teaching will be a career for me.  I have spent the past 6 months or so wrestling with this.  Being a mom has changed ME.  My priorities have shifted.  Suddenly the world shouldn't bend to me, it should bend to you.

What this really means is that my vague goal of going to medical school became much more concrete.  I have wavered, though.  Medical school at this point in life is a big deal. Right now we DEPEND on two incomes- we have generated a lifestyle that requires it.  We like our vacations, we like our big house, our gym membership, our house cleaner, we like our new clothes and new shoes, and generally living care-free.  Going to medical school requires work.  It requires sacrifice, not just from me, but from the WHOLE family.  We will need to start saving now, need to start living more frugally.

And I need to take some classes and also the MCAT.  Le-Sigh... not THAT again... So... here's to working hard for the next 12 years of my life so I can achieve my dream.  And hopefully provide for my family.  I figure as long as I'm making more than I am now, I'll be doing OK...

So keep your fingers crossed for me.  I'm gonna be a doctor someday.

Home Birth, Birthing Center, Hospitals: Part 1- my experience

As a medic, I have been privileged to deliver one baby.  Yes, my non-birth-friendly medics out there, privileged to deliver.  I enjoyed it.  It was before I had one of my own, and it made me realize just how amazing the whole birth thing is.  I do find it amazing, and incredible.  I don't really care about the mess.  Granted, I didn't have to clean up- the mom birthed at her house on her own bed, so someone else cleaned it up.  Nonetheless, I was the lucky one who caught the baby.  It's a good thing I had support there- someone else suctioned the baby's nose and mouth, and clamped the cord, and dad cut the cord.  It was a good thing because I was so mesmerized by the fact that there was a brand new little life coming out of this woman that I may have taken a few extra seconds to actually accomplish those steps on my own.

Mom was amazing- she had a doula that was at home with her- she wanted to labor as much at home as possible, and then was going to go to the hospital.  Unfortunately (or, perhaps for her, quite fortunately!) her second labor was only a third of the duration of her first labor!  So the doula, recognizing the signs of transition (when the uterus goes from dilating the cervix to pushing the baby out), and called for the ambulance.  She pushed just a few times, and out came her baby boy.  He was perfect.  Mom did amazing.  There were no complications.

As a young and impressionable medic and woman/future-mom, I decided that perhaps home births aren't all that crazy- after all, I had just delivered a baby who did just fine!  I hadn't run any "bad calls" for childbirth.

And then I became pregnant, and realized that I was intimidated by the birth process, not to mention had a husband that didn't really believe in the home birth concept, the natural birth concept, or anything that had to do with birth outside the hospital.  Unfortunately, out of the half-dozen times he has delivered a baby, not one of them was "normal" or "healthy."

So a hospital birth it was for me- I put all thoughts of anything otherwise out of my head, which, admittedly, I was OK with, because it meant I could get an epidural without feeling guilty, or like I was any less of a woman!  I have no regrets, and my baby was still delivered vaginally.  But, looking back, I felt like I missed out on a few things, due in part to my hospital experience, and also due to unexpected complications.  My water broke but I didn't begin having contractions, so I was put on pitocin.  I developed a fever during labor- a sign of potential chorioamnionitis- or an infection within the amniotic fluid and placenta.  This puts both mom and baby at risk of infection, causes an increase in infant mortality, and requires the use of IV antibiotics.  What this meant was that my baby had to go to the NICU.  I was allowed one quick attempt to breastfeed, and then my baby was taken to NICU.  I did not get to "room in" with her until appx. 18 hours later.  I went over to the NICU every two hours to nurse.  My baby girl had an IV in her head (which is normal IV placement for newborns- they just don't have veins accessible in their arms!).  As a  medic, I understood this.  As a mom, I bawled my eyes out for a good 20 minutes in the NICU because my child had an IV sticking out of her head!!  She was also given a pacifier, which caused me anxiety due to the fact that I wanted desperately to breastfeed!  I was so concerned that she would end up with "nipple confusion" like the books and stuff talked about.

What disappointed me about my hospital experience was the following:

1.  I didn't get to nurse my child within the first hour of her life.  It was about 4 hours later before I got to nurse her.  I didn't get to experience my baby crawl up my abdomen to find the breast for herself.
2.  My baby was given a pacifier without me being asked.  While it ended up being a non-issue, it bothered me a bit that I didn't know about it.
3.  I was really bothered by how much the NICU nurses were willing to give my daughter formula.  They noticed I was exhausted (based on the timing of my labor and the inability to nap, I had realistically been up for 40 hours without sleep by the time she finally made it!), and said, "we can give her a bottle!  Just go get some rest!"  While I would never say that they were pushy about it, it was presented as an option multiple times.  Any type of supplementation, unless at the breast, can hinder breastfeeding, and can prevent milk from coming in appropriately.  I was determined to nurse her though, and so I didn't accept the help!
4.  My daughter ended up a bit dehydrated, and seemed honestly hungry.  She was not the calm, quiet newborn for the first 24 hours.  I suspect this has to do with the fact that she was poked and prodded, and almost certainly cried quite a bit, expending more energy than she should have the first hours of her life.  I wish that I could have just held her and nursed her the whole time, but I didn't get to.
5.  The lack of information with regards to informed consent.  I had pitocin administered, which I didn't really want, I wasn't given any sort of information about the fever and potential issues as far as risks of refusal, and same thing for my daughter.  There were no options given- it was "standard protocol."

Since she was born, I have read more and more about the medicalization of birth, and with my general impression of hospital births, I understand a little why women may not want a hospital birth.  I don't want to write a marathon post, so I will save my opinions for my next post :).