Super Duper Porridge for Super Babies

+ J. M. J.

Fitting good food into the mealtimes of a short-attention-spanned toddler can be a challenge. That’s where Super Porridge comes in (Super Baby Food, Ruth Yaron, 1998).

Super Porridge is whole grain(s) blended into powder and made into cereal.

High Protein Super Porridge (9+ mo for higher calorie & activity needs) is blended whole grain(s) & legume(s) and made into cereal.

Maybe I went off the deep end. I thought, “There are many healthy foods in our kitchen with nutrients, complex carbs, fiber, protein, good fats…why not put them together into toddler hot cereal?”

SUPER DUPER PORRIDGE

In a blender combine:

1/2 cup dried beans (here 2 Tbs each garbanzos, lentils, green split peas & great northern)

2 Tbs quinoa

1 heaping Tbs flax seed

1 heaping Tbs wheat germ

1 cup whole grain (oatmeal shown here)

Then BLEND that puppy about 2 minutes, until very smooth.

It will be a soft, very fine flour. Store this dried cereal in an air tight container.  Can you see the green split peas? Didn’t think so. They won’t turn the cereal green. 😉

Every 1/2 c dry cereal = boil 1 cup water (or bring milk to a constantly-stirred simmer). Cook 10 minutes, stirring frequently.

Optional: add things like fruit or yogurt. Serve it up. Store leftover prepared porridge  2-3 days covered in fridge.

Mothers

+ J. M. J.

Stay-at-home moms, sometimes what you do may seem mundane but you’re investing in your children’s and spouse’s eternity & a better society.

“In the first place, the worker must be paid a wage sufficient to support him and his family. That the rest of the family should also contribute to the common support, according to the capacity of each, is certainly right, as can be observed especially in the families of farmers, but also in the families of many craftsmen and small shopkeepers. But to abuse the years of childhood and the limited strength of women is grossly wrong.”Mothers, concentrating on household duties, should work primarily in the home or in its immediate vicinity. It is an intolerable abuse, and to be abolished at all cost, for mothers on account of the father’s low wage to be forced to engage in gainful occupations outside the home to the neglect of their proper cares and duties, especially the training of children.”

 

– Pope Pius XI, in his great social encylical Quadragesimo Anno

 

2 of 30 Things: 3 Fears

30 Things, Day 2. Describe 3 legitimate fears you have and explain how they became fears. Okay, 3 worldly things:

 

1. Living without my husband.

Okay, this one sounds morbid. But it also means he living in another location than with our family. It must be a natural fear but that doesn’t make it any less real.

 

2. Dense places.

Wide, open spaces and uncrowded towns are peaceful and therein lies a 360-degree scope. Hills and trees are beautiful, the city is exciting and cultured–but after a while claustrophobia gets the best of me and (can’t believe I’m saying this) I miss seeing the horizon from one end to the other in all directions.

 

3. Tornadoes

This is a love/hate relationship because I LOVE the rain that comes with thunderstorms! But not tornadoes. They are one of the easiest natural disasters to outrun because a good basement is all it takes. But that doesn’t make them any less scary!

Day 1 of 30 Things: 20 Randoms

+ J. M. J.

Meme from this blog. It’s also a fun date night idea. 🙂

1. List 20 random facts about yourself.

1. I want to learn how to sew.

2. My dad named me.

3. After my short lifetime of not really caring for purple, it’s really starting to grow on me.

4. Bad Catholic is my favorite blog.

5. When feeling down, I read books by the Duggar family and they make me happy. 😀

6. I’m the slowest diaper stuffer in the history of man.

7. Every time I visit a used book store I look for a big Berenstain Bear book I loved as a kid but don’t remember anything about other than that it was full of lists and classifications.

8. In college I owned a lionhead rabbit named Grif.

9. I love having my daughter help in the kitchen.

10. I have an irrational fear of toothpicks.

11. The saints I asked at Confirmation to be patrons of my life were St. Augustine and Mary.

12. I asked my husband to change my Facebook password for me so that I can only log in once a day.

13. I have seen every episode of the first season of Timmy Time 9 times.

14. God willing, I would like to have a book published by the time I’m 35.

15. At this time I do not have a “5 year plan.”

16. I lost my engagement ring shortly after DD2 was born when it still couldn’t fit on my finger.

17. I want to live in the Rockies. My husband wants to live in Appalachia.

18. Peaches are my favorite food.

19. Every time I write the word arithmetic I say in my head “A Rat In The House May Eat The Ice Cream.”

20. I don’t like Oreo creme–just the cookie part. 😉

Feast of the Trinity – Braided Bread

+ J. M. J.

Tonight is the eve of the Feast of the Holy Trinity.

And to celebrate with food (duh….of course we’re celebrating with food, is there another kind?),

we baked braided bread!

Cell phone cameras never do justice.

Using this recipe for Awesome 1 Minute Ciabatta Bread, after rising, the dough was separated in 3 parts and braided—3 Divine Persons, 1 God.

(If I had older children this would be an edible theology lesson–the best kind.)

Onion powder, fresh parsley, quinoa and garlic sprinkled on top.

Per directions, we popped it in a 400˚ oven for 25 minutes.

Try to hold off cutting into it for 10 minutes so it doesn’t cave in.

And then add copious amounts of butter before consumption because, hey, we’re celebrating the wondrous Most Holy Trinity today and everything is better with more butter.