Base Batter (Adapted from the Mark Bittman recipe “Everyday pancakes”)

2 cups all purpose flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

½ tsp salt

2 eggs

1 ½ – 2 cups milk

(optional – 2 TBSP butter melted and cooled)

Mix together dry ingredients. Beat eggs and add to the milk. Add butter, and stir this into the dry ingredients. If the batter seems thick you can add more milk. Don’t over-beat.

Savory Ingredients:

½ – 1 grated zucchini

1 finely chopped bell pepper

¼  finely chopped white onion

1 cup feta cheese

Warm a skillet with about 1 tablespoon of olive oil. Add onions and cook about 5 minutes. Add the rest of the vegetables and sautee until about al dente (color is bright).

LET COOL

Take as much pancake batter as you would like for the savory cakes and blend vegetables with the batter and feta cheese.

Cook just like regular pancakes. If you make some small ones they also make nice to-go snacks for toddlers. Save the rest of the batter for sweet cakes!

Bonus Nutrients: This pancake recipe lends itself very easily to adding cooked ancient grains like amaranth, millet and quinoa. This gives your pancakes a big protein and B vitamin boost, so no post-pancake carb crash! Take a short cut and cook 1/2 cup of each grain (total 1.5 c. grains), and simmer in 3 cups of water for about 20 minutes. Once the grains are cooked you can add any amount you like to the pancake batter. If you have picky eaters you can add up to a cup and it won’t even be noticed.

Having said all that, I am very pleased to finally have time to make my favorite homemade wipes wash. One of the “green baby” things we felt so sure was within our bandwidth was homemade wipes and cloth diapers, but we never got a handle on the wipes. The whole green baby commercial movement is kind of frustrating to me because:

A. Everything is over-priced

B. You can’t be sure that their product is going to fit your life style or baby.

Then I started taking classes at Rebecca’s  Apothecary with Faith Goguen. Faith is a Certified Clinical Herbalist, and from the sound of it, she’s had some similar frustrations with finding and making toxin-free baby products that really work. She’s taking matters into her own hands and has created an entire line of herbal baby care products, and so far I love them all.

Here are some of the roadblocks I hit in the past with reusable wipes – they sell them made of 4×4 inch organic cotton flannel for about a dollar a piece. Having 10 or 20 on hand is fine when the baby is still nursing exclusively and if you’re in a situation where you can do laundry every day. I also have a friend who makes her own, and they are really, really cute; which also makes them affordable. She cuts them in perfect 6×6 or 8×8 inch squares and then hems them evenly on all four sides. They are really lovely.

Neither $100 in pieces of tiny organic flannel or four evenly cut and hemmed squares is my world right now, but cutting up an old pair of pajama bottoms in shapes loosely resembling squares and rectangles is:

I even left a pair for shorts for summer PJs, and you can see how the flannel wipes fit right into a wipes box. I fold them in thirds to make them easy to grab.

Here are two wipes wash recipes you can try, and feel free to explore with various ratios of the ingredients depending on what feels best to you and if your baby has any skin reactions. One thing Faith does that I like is that she stores the wash in  a spritzer bottle instead of soaking all the wipes at once. The wash gets funky when it sits in the fabric after a few days, so if you want to wet a whole bunch at once be sure to use them up in a day or two. I also put some soaked flannel cuts in a ziplock if I just need a hand-full for being out and about for a day.

Bum Wash – by Faith Goguen

4 & 1/2 oz water

2 oz aloe

1 oz witch hazel

2 tbsp apricot kernel oil

8 drops rose geranium essential oil

*********

Wipes Water – (my variation on different recipes I’ve found online)

5 oz water

3 oz witch hazel

3 oz aloe juice

1 oz rose water (or skip this and just use 6 oz water)

1 tsp of almond oil (or jojoba oil)

3 drops of tea tree essential oil

3 drops of lavender essential oil

Yep – this creation was so fast I didn’t even have time to take a picture. Here’s the dish:

Pan Poached Salmon with ginger, garlic, olive oil and maple syrup marinade, served with grilled onions and steamed broccoli.

Ingredients:

Salmon (with skin)

2 tsp maple syrup

3 Tbsp olive oil

3 cloves of chopped garlic

A thumb-sized piece of fresh grated ginger

1 lg white onion – sliced

3 cups broccoli

Directions:

The night before you want to cook this meal, dress the salmon with olive oil, ginger, garlic, maple syrup and black pepper. Let sit over night, and take out of the fridge about 20 minutes before you want to cook it.

While the salmon comes closer to room temperature, slice the onions, and chop broccoli into small florets

Let a frying pan get really hot (put on high for about 10 minutes) (I use a pan that has a 3 inch wall. You could also use a wok, and a regular frying pan would be fine – you might just get a little extra splash on the stove-top).

Place the salmon with all of the marinade and the onions in the pan and cover.

Cook for 10 minutes, then flip the fish and add broccoli. Cover again for about 10 minutes, or until done to your preference.

Notes:

You don’t need to marinate the salmon overnight, but it cuts down on the work time by about 10-15 minutes, so it’s easier to do this the night before; and I was seriously impressed by having dinner and sides all ready for 3 people in 20 minutes. I didn’t even have time to cook the rice, so we just skipped it. Now that you know how quick this dish is, you can start the rice further ahead

A few days later I was trying on swim suits, as you could say my “roadmap” is well written. I was so exasperated by trying to figure out how the different sizes work for different brands at one point I said to myself, “Well at least they make them big enough for me!” Then I caught myself. I looked at my little pine nut crawling around on the dressing room floor, yanking on tags, sticking her tongue out at the mirror and suddenly the magnitude of what it means to raise a girl in this culture with a healthy body image sank in so unexpectedly it took my breath away. I realized in an instant that the importance of getting a swimsuit for the summer was beyond the thing itself. It was about putting one on, taking my little girl swimming, being out in public showing the world my roadmap, and teaching her that the most important thing is having the ability to go swimming at all. I was thinking about how many women I know who will not go swimming with their children because they will not be seen in public in a swim suit, and was shocked to realize how easy that road can be to go down. I wondered, at what point in my life will I truly have the gratitude for my health and respect for my body it deserves? When will I free myself from this struggle and lay down this cross? Will I have to be a breast cancer survivor? Will I have to lose someone I love to a terminal disease? How do I cross the threshold into self acceptance and loving-kindness?

As if I was meant to receive the message, I caught an interview with Anne Lamott a few hours later. She was talking about how she went shopping with a close friend who was dying of cancer. Annie tried on a dress and asked her friend, ”Does this dress make my hips look wide?” Her friend replied, “Annie, we don’t have that kind of time.”

What she meant is that we can’t philander our time here on earth with the things that take us away from becoming all of who we are meant to be. There is only enough time to show compassion and be present for the people you love, to fully embrace what is real and here now, and to strive towards being the very best person you can be for both yourself and for others. Anything that does not bring us closer to those states of being is an untruth.

I let this sink in at the same time knowing my skin will lose its elasticity. My laugh lines will become crows feet. My freckles will become age spots. I may never lose the baby weight; but when my joints start to ache and it’s harder to get around, I will be glad to have spent my time at the beach while I could.

16 oz chicken breast (about 2 pounds)

boil to cook, and save cooking water  for a soup broth

Dice chicken,  then toss with:

1/4 c. pumpkin seeds

¼ c. Chopped almonds

1 tbsp chopped dried cherries (or cranberries)

4 stalks diced celery

1-2 tbsp diced onion

1/2 c. grated carrots

1 tbsp mayo

The mayo is optional. Carrots are used as most of the mayo replacement. Sometimes instead of any mayo I use the carrots and then add avocado to my salad when I serve it. (Don’t make it with avocado to save, as it will oxidize and not look appealing  – though it would still taste good).

The other thing I learned about meatballs is that it’s a lot like meatloaf in the sense that you can pretty much add whatever you want. Any recipe you find is really just a guideline. It’s the eggs and breadcrumbs that hold it together, so you can include all kinds of seasonings and veggies. I even added some millet and amaranth.

I started with a base recipe from Gourmet for “spaghetti and Meatballs.” They use 3 different kinds of meat, I only used a pound of lean ground beef. They used 6 eggs, I only used 3. They used a special kind of cheese – I used no cheese. They soaked Italian bread in 3 cups of milk all afternoon, I used croutons I had made from stale bread a few moths ago. You get my drift.

Here’s my meatball recipe creation:

1 pound ground beef

1 onion

6-7 cloves of garlic

1 green bell pepper

1 red bell pepper

4 stalks of celery

3 eggs

1/4 cup amaranth (cooked ahead of time)

1/4 cup millet (cooked ahead of time)

2-3 cups bread crumbs

1 TBSP dried parsley

2 tsp. Italian seasoning blend (oregano, rosemary, basil, thyme)

A few grinds of pepper to taste

Directions:

Finely chop or mince the onion, celery, peppers and garlic. Sautee in olive oil until al dente (about 10 minutes). Let veggie mix cool.

In a large bowl add bread crumbs, meat, grains, and spices. When the veggies have cooled, add them to the bowl and mix thoroughly with your hands. When everything is well blended, add the eggs and mix in really well. (Remember, it’s the eggs binding with the bread that holds them together, so you want them mixed through and through).

Preheat oven to 375, and start making meatballs about 1 inch in diameter. (The size doesn’t matter really except that the larger the meatball, the longer the cooking time). Meatballs will bake on a cookie sheet for about 15 minutes.

Other thoughts on things you can add to a meatball base:

Chopped pumpkin seeds, oats, bran flakes, quinoa, sunflower seeds, carrots, parsnips, chard or kale.

Again, I wouldn’t call this a quick dinner if you have to do everything yourself, but it is easy. In my case with a baby crawling around if I had wanted to eat them that night for dinner I would have had to start at 9 AM and really dedicate myself to getting it done – what with letting the veggies cool and then making all the little balls, etc. However, I’m glad I learned how flexible meatball recipes are, and I love that I made them with millet, amaranth and lean meat, and I added no salt. This way I can feel fine giving them to the baby as well. Also, I love meatballs, but I never get to eat them because the chemical list and mystery meats in the manufactured ones give me the willies. So, as I mentioned, I look at this as an “investment cooking project,” where I will freeze them in bags of 6-8, and have several meals and some baby snacks ready to go.

A note on the amaranth and millet. This is a great grain to have in the house as a staple, and it’s as easy to cook as rice. I usually cook them together in the same pot, and them I use it as a cereal or a dinner savory throughout the week. It’s a great super food for babies as well. High in protein, amino acids, iron, and B vitamins.

To prepare:

1/2 cup amaranth

1/2 cup millet

Bring 2 cups of water to a boil. Add grains and simmer on low for about 15-20 minutes.

Serve with nuts or fruit for a cereal: (we like bananas, raspberries and yogurt):

or serve with roasted veggies for dinner: (kale, carrots and zucchini):

Amy is a guest blogger for Nicholas Kristof, and is currently living in the Congo working with survivors of the war, and in the case of today’s article, even rescuing the survivors from their caretakers. I didn’t want to read the article. I knew better. I knew how it would tear my heart out and wrench my soul. I already know “these things” go on in the world, so most of the time I look away, telling myself, “the best thing I can do right now is raise my girl to be strong and confident.” But sometimes I feel like it is my duty as a woman to know the stories of other mothers – my sisters – indeed it is a part of the legacy of womanhood my daughter has inherited from the world, and I would be remiss if I did not acknowledge the inherent challenges my girl may face by mere fact of her gender.

As a mother though, there is a new kind of pain that cuts through the center of my essence when I hear these stories, and so it was with a haunted feeling of both sorrow and longing to bring these babies into my home that I went to bed with tonight. And it was this same ache that led me to her when she awoke in the middle of the night. My girl is a sleeper, and so usually when she wakes up she’ll fall back asleep within a few minutes. In fact the times we pick her up it seems like we disturb her even more by trying to sooth her. But tonight my heart weighed heavy with all the babies in the world for whom no one answers their cries at night…or worse yet – that sometimes someone does come.

As I felt her cries subside and her sniffles mellow while I held her close and rocked her, my own tears came. It wasn’t my usually mental ranting about how twisted the world political systems are, and who are these sick people that hurt babies, that ran through my mind.

It was wordless, and came from an even deeper place that cannot be named – A sorrow bigger than anything that could come from inside myself. It was a black hole of grief for all of the nameless babies that go unloved, discarded, un-soothed, and never get to experience their own innocence.  I leaned in and took in a deep breath, and rested my nose on her forehead as we continued to rock. All babies begin with this clean slate. All babies smell like the origin of air and the first dew of spring.  All babies should get the opportunity to know love in this world, and why they don’t is something I can’t even grapple with it is so desperately sad to me.

Her breaths deepen now, her arms go limp against my chest, in her safe, fearless world. I suddenly didn’t care about a good nights sleep. Sleep training sounded so meaningless – vapid even. All the online banter about Amy Chua – smoke screens and distractions from what we mommas should really be outraged about. It almost seems staged to me now, it’s so irrelevant. How quintessentially bourgeois American to have so many opinions about sleep-overs and how long piano practice should last. I breathe in her sweet smell one more time and give her a kiss goodnight. Then I hug her close and give her one more kiss in the name of all the babies who didn’t get one tonight.

And if you’re not convinced yet, did I mention the fact that you get all the vitamins and minerals from the vegetables into the broth, and none of the sodium or preservatives?

This weeks Tuesday Tip:

Vegetable Broth

Ingredients:

What ever wilted veggies are sitting in your produce drawer that don’t seem fresh enough to make a dish with, but are still not spoiled.

Plus 1/1 -1 onion

In my case this week it was 2 carrots, the center of the celery stalk and an onion.

Put all ingredients in a pot of water.

Simmer anywhere from 1/2 hour to 3 hours (the longer the simmer, the richer the flavor. Just be sure to keep adding water if it starts to evaporate). Usually you have a nice greenish or orange-ish  tint to the water indicating your minerals are leeched into the water. Strain and – voila – broth.

Same idea applies to chicken – say left over bones from a roasted bird, or if I am making chicken salad I save the water I boiled the chicken in.

PS – you can add any spices you like as well.

Today I am making fish tacos with cabbage salad, mango-ginger dressing and avocado salsa. I was snowed-in and feeling inspired, so you can simplify according to your schedule/inclination.

You can make the dressing ahead of time, or skip it, but it really only takes 15 minutes, and it’s really good on the cabbage salad.

Mango Dressing:

1 c mango

1 tbsp walnut oil (or other light oil)

1 tsp fresh ginger

2-3 cloves garlic

juice of half a lime

1 tbsp lemon/lime vinegar

Puree in a food processor, and add chopped green onions and cilantro as garnish. Salt to taste:

The Fish Tacos:

Two pieces of cod, seared in a hot frying pan with some olive oil and black pepper.

Cabbage Salad:

Chopped green cabbage (if you have red and green they mix well).

Sliced red bell pepper

White rice

Black beans

Put the fish on the salad and dress with chopped cilantro and the mango dressing:

Avocado Salsa

Like the mango dressing, this was an extra step, but since I had the time I had to go for it because it is SOOOOOOOO good.

2 chopped avocados

1/2 chopped mango

1/4 diced white onion

2-3 cloves minced garlic

1/2 diced red bell pepper

Juice of 1/2 lime

Salt, pepper, cilantro to taste

Add-in Options:

Diced tomato, black beans, corn

Bring 4 cups of water to a boil, then turn heat to simmer

Add 1 cup millet

Add 1 cup quinoa

Cover and cook on low heat for about 20 minutes

Mash with sweet potatoes, bananas, or avocado and serve!

My little one had a hard time with the millet texture at 5 months, but by 7 she was really enjoying the new texture. When she wasn’t ready for the millet I just used quinoa with short grain brown rice and overcooked the rice with extra water so it pureed better. Millet and quinoa are high in protein, amino acids, and B vitamins, and they give a little extra heft to the veggies to keep their tummies full. Also, they give some extra fiber to any fruits so you can slow down the sugar response, and give fruits a little more weight.

Another grain to try once your infant is ready for textured foods is amaranth. Amaranth is a gluten free grain with one of the highest protein values of all grains, and has a complete amino acids profile. It is one of the most easily digested and absorbed grains.

Here is a picture of the grains mixed with yams: