weekly thread and topic of the week 2/28 through 3/6

[PancakeGoddess]

Welcome to March, almost. OK, questions...

discuss! (and think of more questions. After this week, I'm out again!)

- Are you stocking up on freezer meals? What have you made/what are you planning to make? Want to share a recipe or several?

- Do you plan to read to the babe? Are you much of a reader yourself? What kind of books do you most enjoy? What have you read lately (both child-related and not)?

[Still_Snarky]

Somehow I missed the last one of these threads. :scratch

- Are you stocking up on freezer meals? What have you made/what are you planning to make? Want to share a recipe or several?

:nod Yep! My 87 year old grandma is coming to visit us and she's going to teach dh and I to make gnocchi and ravioli. We plan to make a bunch and freeze them for the summer. I don't know what else to make yet but I'll share my recipes when I get them. :thumb

- Do you plan to read to the babe? Are you much of a reader yourself? What kind of books do you most enjoy? What have you read lately (both child-related and not)?

:nod I am a HUGE reader. I read anything and everything. Lately I've been reading psychology memoirs but I typically read everything I can find on a subject and then move on to something else! Also, I'm reading "Birthing From Within" and would highly recommend it. Parker also loves reading and I'm sure the new baby will too! :D

[jinkel]

No freezer meals here – I’ve got someone in our household to cook/shop (I’m very thankful/grateful! :love ). It's a good thing I've got someone to help - - ‘cause my freezer in this condo is TINY. With that said, I LOVE recipes (and stocking up on recipes) - - and one day, I will again live in a place with a big fridge/freezer (or even just a *normal* sized one!) - - so I’m gonna lurk, and :notes:!

Yah, I’ll read to the babe (probably not till he’s outta me, though). I read a lot to ds, and I love to read myself (when I have time). My fave style books are science fiction. And Stephen King is always an easy, fun read. I’ve also been trying to read children’s classics. (I didn’t read ANY when I was young). The most recent books I’ve finished are ‘The Scar’ - China Mieville, ‘From a Buick 8’ - Stephen King, ‘The Horse and His Boy’ - C.S. Lewis. I just started reading ‘Footfall’ - Larry Niven/Jerry Pournelle. My next children’s classic I will begin is ‘Alice in Wonderland’ - Lewis Carroll(shocking that I’ve never read it, I know!:blush )

[jinkel]

:nod Yep! My 87 year old grandma is coming to visit us and she's going to teach dh and I to make gnocchi and ravioli. We plan to make a bunch and freeze them for the summer. I don't know what else to make yet but I'll share my recipes when I get them. :thumb
YUM! Ravioli (stuffed with *anything*) is my absolute FAVORITE food on the planet. :yum

[lotus.blossom]

(Its settled, I'm making ravioli for lunch! ;) )

I don't usually make a lot of freezable type meals so I'll probably be cooking with a newborn, but I plan to make some freezer meals for backup. I am really keeping my fingers crossed that I will be able to cultivate a nice veggie garden this spring/summer so I plan to do some freezing and canning of the veggies so that I can make my own baby food. Also my parents in Florida have a giant mango tree and they are gonna send me a box of them. I'll have my freezer filled with mango! Mmm...... :yum

I'm currently reading Everyday Blessings: The Inner Work of Mindful Parenting by Jon and Myla Kabat-Zinn. I have a discussion group tomorrow with some fellow MDC'ers and am looking forward to it! Other than that I read lots of non-fiction (about herbs, self help, parenting) and for the baby I would like to read childrens books and maybe poetry books. At a very young age my mom taught me to memorize small clips of poetry and I loved it.

[1stTimeMummytoLore]

April- I LOVE that book! If you like that one, you should read Buddha Mom too. It's another fabulous mindful parenting book.

Currently I'm reading twin books, although I'm being very picky about which ones and staying away from the doom and gloom ones. As a doula and CBE, I had read just about everything else I could find on childbirth already, but this is opening up a new subsection I never studied much before.

I read to my DD all the time, so in essence I'm also reading to the twins that way too. When I was pregnant with DD, I did read to her- classics mostly, like Wind in the Willows and Little Women. It would be nice if I could find the time for that with these babes, but they might have to settle for what I read to DD.

I would love to stock my freezer for after the birth. I did this with DD and the all day freezer cooking is actually what sent me into labor! The one catch is we currently buy all our meat direct from this fabulous farm where all the animals are grass-fed and free range and all that great stuff, but he delivers it up here to our area already frozen and you're not supposed to thaw meat, cook it and then re-freeze it I think. I might just have to talk DH into splurging and buy some insanely expensive fresh meat from Whole Foods and cook up a few meals. There is also a huge mothers of multiples club up here that brings new moms meals after birth, so between that and a few other friends and family, we should be able to get by. I sure as heck know I'm not cooking a dang thing for at least the first 2-3 weeks after these babies are born, so somebody better do it!!! :)

[writermommy]

This is my fourth and I never froze meals with the last three. I think I will definitely do it this time, so I'll have more time for all four of them. I haven't started yet and am definitely interested in hearing some good recipes.

We read to our first baby every night when I was pregnant. Since I already read lots of stories to our girls, I don't specifically read to the baby. He hears stories with his sisters, just like he will after he is born.

[~pi]

(and think of more questions. After this week, I'm out again!)
Well, you used all five of mine in two weeks! Come on, Amy, rationing. :wink

- Are you stocking up on freezer meals? What have you made/what are you planning to make? Want to share a recipe or several?

I sent this question in before Yin Yang started the freezer meals thread, so I am looking forward to checking that out! Yes, we have slowly started stocking up.

- Do you plan to read to the babe? Are you much of a reader yourself? What kind of books do you most enjoy? What have you read lately (both child-related and not)?

We absolutely plan to read to the babe. It's one of the best things my parents ever did for me, and both DH and I are huge readers.

I most enjoy contemporary fiction. I have a preference for women authors.

Non-child-related, most lately, I read Amriika by M.G. Vassanji. It was good, but I didn't enjoy it as much as The Book of Secrets, his previous novel. I had more trouble relating to the protagonist this time.

Prior to that, I read Missing Sarah by Maggie de Vries, a moving story about the author's younger sister, who was one of the missing women in Vancouver and whose DNA turned up at the farm where it is suspected that dozens of sex workers were killed. It was a very heavy book -- a lot of discussion about the sex trade, drugs, and how those affect a person and a family.

Child-related, I recently read Spiritual Midwifery by Ina May Gaskin. I really enjoyed it. My DH was raised on a commune not unlike The Farm (without the midwifery focus, though), which had positive and negative aspects for him. My own upbringing was pretty crunchy and not always happily so, so having seen it from the child's perspective, it was really interesting to read and understand more about that time and way of thinking from an adult's perspective.

[ksjhwkr]

- Are you stocking up on freezer meals? What have you made/what are you planning to make? Want to share a recipe or several?

- Do you plan to read to the babe? Are you much of a reader yourself? What kind of books do you most enjoy? What have you read lately (both child-related and not)?

I'm not doing anymore cookign than I have to right now. I don't really enjoy cooking and we have a TINY freezer, so...no :) But, I do have some good recipes. I'll have to post them later though. I'm sitting with heat on my sore low back right now :)

I love to read. Right now I am re-reading The Womanly Art of Breastfeeding and Birthing from Within. I love birthy books a lot!!!
Although, I do love a good love story too, I'm such a sucker for those. Not the steamy romance novels, but like Nicolas Sparks kind of books. :throb
I will read to the baby. She hears books everyday as I read to ds. He has even started to read to her. It's kind of funny. He will put the book on my belly and that constitutes reading to her! :lol He's such a funny kiddo!!!

[Miss Juice]

Not cooking yet. Have to clear out the freezer first! We have a big freezer in the basement, and it has gotten cluttered with some things we're never going to use (some things that are now older than my younger DD :bag: so we need to clean it out and defrost. Then we are planning to stock up, but cooking is enough of a challenge for us right now - some nights we aren't all home until almost 7pm!

I'm planning to ask a friend to throw a Fill-The-Freezer baby shower for us. We don't need stuff, as this is our third baby. We do need food. The nice thing about it is that we'll get more interesting things, that we might not make or think of for ourselves. The risk is that we'll get more interesting things...but I think it will be fun.

I love to read, and with two kids my reading is strictly limited to the kids' books. I've wanted to reread the Chronicles of Narnia, one of my favorites as an older kid, so I picked up the big fat one (all seven in one book). I haven't opened it, but DH has managed to read the whole thing! He's a nut, though. I swear he reads while getting dressed, while making his lunch, while shaving...I'm almost surprised he doesn't try to read while driving.

On a happy front, I have been feeling more movement! I'm almost 20 weeks, and I remember this as being a very sweet time in pregnancy. Last night for the first time I felt nudges on my hand, from the outside. Still too small for DH to feel, unless he's really really patient, but I noticed. Good to know someone is moving around in there.

[Jade2561]

Yikes - you ladies are making me feel lazy! I haven't frozen any dinners and probably won't as we don't have an extra freezer and ours is tiny tiny. I think we are going to get a deep freeze when we move.

I jut got done reading The Case for Vegetarianism. I am not reading any birth books. I am a CBE so I have read/own nearly all of the books/ articles; sometimes I get sick of reading about birth. I do lots of reading to Cady and the new baby. Cadence's current favorites are Five Little Pumpkins and Billy Bunny.

[Quagmire]

Happy new week!

I have started thinking about what to make that would be freezable. For some reason I don't feel like cooking will be as much of an issue with this babe since summer is a great time to sit out back and grill. Last time we never cooked for ourselves, so it was expensive for a while to buy all those frozen meals. Oddly when I went back to work (and had less time to do things) was when I started cooking again. Hmm. I think we were just lazy :)

I also plan to ask for a meal as "baby admission" See the babe, bring a dinner :mischief

Reading... I love reading! I don't think I ever read more than when I was breastfeeding an infant. Between nursing my DD and pumping for her at work I was going through 3-4 books a week. Mostly new fiction, though I was also doing a lot of reading here on parenting and breastfeeding.

Right now I'm on a birthing kick. I recently finished "The Thinking Woman's Guide to a Better Birth" and "Immaculate Deception II: Myth, Magic and Birth" Both *GREAT* reads. I am working on "Milk, Money and Madness" now which is something I have been meaning to read for a long time.

(Basically I'm surrounding myself with positive literature regarding natural birth and midwifery to prepare myself for a great experience. I am avoiding discussion of horror stories. I've told several people to take a hike as they seemed insistent on sharing some terrible experience a friend of a friend had. That's pretty annoying :irked: )

I think I'll end up reading to this babe sooner and more often than with my first DD. She now LOVES to read so bean #2 will be exposed by default. I'd like to start earlier anyway - it was just tough to get DD #1 to sit for anything for a while!

[carouselrider]

I'm planning to ask a friend to throw a Fill-The-Freezer baby shower for us. We don't need stuff, as this is our third baby.

What a great idea! I've been struggling how to deal with the offer of my department at work to have a shower for me, I just might suggest this idea!

I have to admit I'm being lazy on this front, as my mother will be with me for at least two weeks after baby, and she is a cooking/freezing machine! She never leaves our house after babies are born without packing the freezer, and somehow "mom meals" taste so much better than those I make and freeze myself. Some special ingredient.

We read constantly to my 5 and 3 year old, so yes, baby is getting read to now. I found that with my first, I purposefully read to her at a much earlier age, even before she understood the words, with the second, she just joined story time from the get go. I assume that will be the case with this one too. My husband and I both read compulsively too. I tend to read more fiction than nonfiction - I just finished this amazing book of short stories about Haiti called "Krik? Krak!" and I am now in the middle of "Wicked" (a retelling of the wizard of oz from the wicked witch's side of the story) which is lots of fun. Kid books - I'm always into "Siblings without Rivalry" (FAber/Mazlish) and their other "How to Talk" book lately. I haven't really been reading birth books, but I guess that's a result of knowing I will have a c-section. I do miss the excitment of planning for a natural birth, that's for sure.

[AidansMommy1012]

Welcome to March, almost. OK, questions...

discuss! (and think of more questions. After this week, I'm out again!)

- Are you stocking up on freezer meals? What have you made/what are you planning to make? Want to share a recipe or several?

- Do you plan to read to the babe? Are you much of a reader yourself? What kind of books do you most enjoy? What have you read lately (both child-related and not)?

No freezer meals yet, though I am cooking for just about everyone else I know! One of my friends is due to have twins anywhere from mid-March to early April (and she's a first time single mom living alone, so I think she'll need it more than I will), so I've been all over that. And my best friend is due in late May. As I am going to be the last one out of the gate, however, I'm not really expecting them to return the favor, as they'll be very busy people by that point! I'll probably get around to it--if not I have a husband who can whip up some pretty tasty stuff and a great, cheap deli right around the corner. And the family better be bringing some food if they know what's good for them! :wink I have no issue with calling MIL and whining that I'm hungry.

However, for any interested, an excellent dish for freezing is:

ROTINI HOT DISH
3 c. whole wheat pasta (use 3 different kinds; cooked)
1 4oz. pkg. pepperoni - sliced, then quarter sliced
1 4oz. can of mushrooms
1/2 c. black olives-sliced
3/4 c. green bell peppers- sliced
3/4 c. chopped onion
32 oz. spaghetti sauce, use 2/3 of the jar
1 c. shredded Cheddar cheese

Saute bell peppers and onions together to soften. Mix all ingredients together in large casserole dish. Bake covered at 350 for 1/2 hr. to 45 min. (until hot).

Top with 2 c. shredded mozzarella cheese, return to oven to melt (2-3 min.)

Apparently my mom had to get this recipe off of our neighbor when I was a preschooler. I played with the little girl next door all the time and would gobble down tons of this stuff at their house, then come home and refuse to eat dinner. It's good stuff, and I can't tell DH that I posted this because he thinks it's his "special dish". He doesn't want me to even make it for company. :lol

I do plan to read to the baby, but as DS is such a huge reader, I doubt I would even have the option not to! Right now Nate gets read to whenever Aidan does, so at least three times a day! I'm a big reader myself. Right now I'm into the nonfiction genre, but I like my fiction as well. I finished reading "Ina May's Guide to Childbirth" and passed it on to aforementioned best friend (thanks, kirstie!), and I am now reading the Sears' The Discipline Book. After that, it's on to Having a Baby, Naturally, and either The Womanly Art of Breastfeeding or The No Cry Sleep Solution for Preschoolers and Toddlers (DS has been uncharacteristically waking quite a bit lately). I'm likely going to need some fiction in there somewhere asnot to burn out on the kid books, so I'll probably peruse this thread and hit the library.

[puddleduck]

I don't really like frozen food - it never seems to taste quite right. When ds was born we lived on salads and take outs! This time however i have taught dh to cook - he has about 10 recipies he can do now so we wont starve. I will do all the food shopping online and make sure there is plenty of fresh stuff to eat as last time my diet was a bit rubbish.

I love to read anything will do. Although as my brain is the size of a pea i'm having to put back the more difficault reads and concentrate on easy books. At the moment i am reading easy to love, difficault to discapline (sp?) - such a good book - at the moment we are having pushing issues - my son loves to push his friends over - maybe he has space issues - maybe he is a little boystrous, maybe he is just being 21 months - anyway i feel really bad for my friends kids who are on the end of his beatings so i'm seeing what i can do to help. Fiction wise, i just got a load of books from the charity shop and i'm making my way though those, i've not read anything great though. I've just finished reading birthing from within and leant it to my friend. I seem to have leant out all of my having a baby books - i'm doing most of my reading online looking at UC sites for info. For my degree i'm reading about the digetive and urinary system - fun, fun fun. Ds loves books - we have to read to him while he eats his meals - dh is in charge of before bedtime reading. his favourite books at the moment are ones with numbers in, the tiger that came to tea, and anything with rhymes.

Pregnancy wise everything seems fine, i have a midwife appointment next week and a scan the week after - so keep your fingers crossed that baby will be showing the goods. I did get a little worried that i had not been feeling this baby much - just lots of gas - till i realised that the feeling was the baby bouncing off my colon and causing the gas!! but babe is wiggling more not loads but ds was very calm in my tummy and i thought i'd be getting a calm baby - haa haa haa.

vikki

[Miss Juice]

However, for any interested, an excellent dish for freezing is:

ROTINI HOT DISH
3 c. whole wheat pasta (use 3 different kinds; cooked)
1 4oz. pkg. pepperoni - sliced, then quarter sliced
1 4oz. can of mushrooms
1/2 c. black olives-sliced
3/4 c. green bell peppers- sliced
3/4 c. chopped onion
32 oz. spaghetti sauce, use 2/3 of the jar
1 c. shredded Cheddar cheese

Saute bell peppers and onions together to soften. Mix all ingredients together in large casserole dish. Bake covered at 350 for 1/2 hr. to 45 min. (until hot).

Top with 2 c. shredded mozzarella cheese, return to oven to melt (2-3 min.)


Do you freeze this before you bake it? (I would guess yes, but I'm never sure!) Some things are better frozen before they are cooked, and some are better cooked and then frozen. I'm in the "gathering ideas" stage. This recipe is one I'll try out on my family :thumb

[Quagmire]

Re: frozen meals... I wonder if any other DDCs have done this and have recipes we could steal? :mischief