Monthly Archives: May 2009

How Much Water Do You Need For Cooking?

It doesn’t sound like much, but boiling too much water when you cook is a waste. It’s not just the water, after all. It’s the energy it takes to heat it.

You aren’t always going to be certain of the exact amount you need, of course. Most people I know aren’t going to measure the water they put in the tea kettle when boiling water for tea. Then again, it’s more efficient to boil the water in the cup you’re going to use in the microwave if one cup of tea is all you’re doing. Just watch out for sudden boiling from superheated water.

You may also want to consider steaming vegetables rather than boiling them. First of all, steaming is generally better for keeping nutrients in the vegetables, rather than releasing them into the water. I think they taste much better that way too.

In addition to only boiling what you need, remember to put a lid on the pot when you’re boiling water. It will come to a boil sooner, saving both energy and time.

Clearing Baby’s Stuffy Nose Without a Nasal Aspirator

Baby Selene has been really stuffed up with a cold recently. We had 3 nearly sleepless nights because she kept waking up struggling to breathe due to congestion. Babies, if you don’t know, are considered to be obligate nasal breathers, which means they can only breathe through their noses. Heavy congestion is really uncomfortable for them.

We’d been doing as many parents do, dropping in a couple of saline drops to soften the mucus, then suctioning it out with the aspirator. It works, but made her scream and even gave her a bloody nose one time, poor thing.

Finally, I took her to the doctor last Friday to make sure that the congestion was the only problem we were dealing with. Didn’t want to find out that there was something more going on over the weekend after all. He confirmed that it was indeed all just heavy congestion, and told me a kinder way to clear her nose.

It’s really simple too, so I thought I would share.

You still need the saline drops. In fact, you put in more of those than you would for using the aspirator, and you do both nostrils at once, as I understand it. This is uncomfortable for baby, but only lasts a moment.

As soon as all the drops are over, flip baby onto her tummy, and start gently wiggling her bottom. This will gently move the head too, and the saline and loosened mucus will start coming out on their own.

I advise doing this over a burp cloth or something else you can throw into the wash easily.

We don’t get gobs out this way or anything, but it is so much gentler than the aspirator and sometimes a decent amount of mucus does clear out. Far fewer screams and a much happier baby.

You can do it as often as necessary, as the saline solution is very safe. Just be sure you drop the saline in, not spray it, even though most can do both. The spray is too high a pressure for babies.

I figure this is not too different from using nasal irrigation on myself, which I swear by for colds. Somewhat odd feeling, but it really does the job. Makes sense to me that it helps babies too, even if you can’t go so far as to use a Neti pot on a baby.

Green Party Favors Can be a Huge Hit

We finally celebrated my daughter’s birthday over the weekend. A little late, but with the cold bug we all had to deal with, it was best that we get some time to get well beforehand.

I’ve always kept the parties simple. Themes are simply declared, such as when she wanted a princess party. We just told the guests to wear their princess dresses, which just about all of them already had. Obviously we didn’t invite any boys to that party, although we could have encouraged them to be knights or something.

But I liked the theme better this time. It was a garden theme.

I made a butterfly shaped cake. That’s as close as we got to decorating anything around here.

Rather than do gift bags, we had the kids decorate little pots and then plant seeds. This was a huge hit. First graders love craft projects. I understand the ones who forgot to bring theirs home are anxiously awaiting my remembering to bring them to school.

And several of the parents were quite delighted at the lack of small, rapidly broken toys to deal with. We all know how quickly the usual gift bag fare goes into the trash. It’s ridiculous.

They were also fascinated by the seed bombs we gave them to plant. Most of the parents had never heard of the idea, but really loved it. I’m thinking there are probably too many seeds per bomb for that size pot, but that’s how it goes sometimes.

It’s really nice being able to give the kids something a little more memorable to take home with them while giving a really subtle lesson. I don’t think most of the kids or parents were really thinking of this as an environmental move. It just looks like a way to have the party favors be a little more unique. Given that I don’t know which of the parents would really be up for a discussion on environmental topics, I’d call that a good thing.

Can Baby Go Organic?

I’m greener these days than I was when I had my first two kids. It’s amazing how things change once new ideas get on your radar. It makes some things more complex.

I’ve blogged a lot about how we use cloth diapers with our baby. That’s still going really well. We also use a lot more homemade cleaners. But there are a lot more things we want to do this time around.

We’ve resisted the temptation to get organic sheets and such for her bedding. Just about all the baby clothes and other supplies we have are handmedowns, and have likely off gassed pretty much anything there could be to worry about with them. Shopping for organic replacements strikes me as a bit of a waste at this point.

Baby food, on the other hand…

Going organic here is going to be pretty affordable with any luck. We have a garden, and one of the big things I want to do with any excess is prepare it as baby food.

I figure it will be a great way to get cheap, organic baby food. No question of how it was grown or prepared.

We don’t have any fruit trees, so I will still have to buy fruits to prepare for her, but if the garden behaves we’ll be in pretty good shape with certain varieties.

For the early days we have the VitaMix blender. That should make some really good purees. As she gets big enough to have a little texture, our little KidCo baby food mill should do the job at each meal.

Yes, I know organic baby food is fairly easy to buy these days in jars. I’d still rather make what I can. It makes sense financially and I know to be very, very careful about keeping things clean when making baby food, as food poisoning is more dangerous to infants.

I have a bit of time yet before taking this step, but it’s definitely time to get planning. Selene is three months now and I want to be ready to get things started when she’s six months old, not still trying to figure the whole deal out.

Our Broccoli Has Bolted – Mmmm, Flowers!

I knew buying broccoli for a spring planting was risky. Even told my husband we should wait for fall, but he wanted to plant it anyhow.

boltedbroccoliSo it’s no surprise that it has bolted already.

One important thing to remember about bolted broccoli – it still tastes good. My kids are utterly delighted with the taste of the flowers.

We’ve trimmed some for dinner. It has a really nice, kind of sweet taste. I almost don’t dare steam or otherwise cook it for fear of ruining the flavor.

I’m also eager for the next heads to appear around where we trimmed it. My mother was telling us about how she grew broccoli when we were kids. The heads get sweeter with each trim, she says, as well as smaller. She said we would go out and just snack on them.

Sounds good to me. Now I’m just hoping we get enough enjoyment from the lettuce we planted. I managed to keep my husband from planting the spinach until fall, but he couldn’t resist some random varieties that were already started at the garden center.