Vegetable Penne

I love this dish because it’s so quick to make, so fresh, and I am a sucker for fresh basil (and lots of cheese)!

Ingredients

• 1 pint of grape tomatoes, sliced in half
• 1 can of diced tomatoes (28oz)
• 3 zucchini, quartered
• 2 balls of fresh mozzarella, cubed
• 1 cup of fresh basil, chopped
• 1 TBSP garlic, finely minced
• 2 TSP olive oil
• 2 TBSP dried oregano
• 1lb dried penne
• kosher salt
• freshly ground black pepper
• 1/2 C grated Parmesan

Directions

Cook your pasta until al dente. Put your cubed mozzerella into the freezer (a trick so it doesn’t melt so fast in the dish).

In a large sauce pot add your oil and crank the heat up to high. Wait until the oil is really hot and add your zucchini, do not stir as you want the vegetable to get a bit golden brown. After a few minutes add some salt, pepper, and the garlic and stir. Again wait a few minutes to get the other side golden brown.

Once the zucchini is golden, add all of your tomatoes, oregano, salt and pepper, and Parmesan cheese. Cook for around 10 minutes, add your basil, and cook an additional 3 minutes.

Toss with your penne, add the cubed mozzarella cheese and let sit for 2 – 5 minutes. Serve with garlic bread if you have it.

So delicious!

Colors: Yellow & Orange

Being Supported in Natural Parenting

I have two sons. They each have different fathers.

To say that I witnessed different ends of the parenting spectrum is to put it mildly!

Daniel’s father… I do believe loved Dan as a baby and during the pregnancy, but once reality of being a parent kicked in, he made the choice to turn into an abuser and very bad parent. He has chosen not to be involved in Danny’s life since he was a toddler.

However I try and reflect on the good times (sadly, there are only a few). Just so everyone is aware, posting these photos is very difficult for me and in some ways, I feel like my heart is breaking for my son because I NEVER expected his bio-father to reject him like he has.

The awesomeness that is named… Keith
I never knew it was possible to be supported completely in how I wanted to raise my children. After only being together for two months (yes we moved quickly!) did we discover I was pregnant with Tristan. He suddenly became a father to a 7yr old boy and expecting a baby.

He stepped into the father role right away with Daniel and they are the best of friends. He calls him dad/daddy/real daddy. I sometimes joke that if I didn’t know better, I would swear Danny was biologically his because they have SUCH similar personalities! I am thankful for that though because I could not spend as much time discussing StarWars, Ben10, etc, as they do.

He had zero experience with babies and began to do his own research when I explained I was unbending on certain things such as:

• breastfeeding (and self-weaning!)
• no vaccinations
• no circumcision
• co-sleeping
• cloth diapering
• babywearing

He would ask questions and I answered to the best of my ability, he would spend hours doing his own research.

I rarely if ever, have to change diaper. Keith changes 95% of the diapers AND does all the diaper laundry. He will make me a grilled cheese at 3am when I am starving (during those growth spurts of Tristan’s, I am STARVING). He supports me in just about everything I do, everything I WANT to do (minus some debate on decorating the house lol).

I still reflect on that time occasionally, what it must have felt like for him to go from being single to having a live-in girlfriend who was pregnant with your first biological baby, and having a 7yr old boy who went through an extremely traumatic living experience for 5months with his bio-dad (who experienced night terrors for MONTHS).

I don’t even know how to express myself in words (that’s a first!) so I shall express myself in photos.

Because he is an awesome big brother…

Visit Hobo Mama and Code Name: Mama to find out how you can participate in the next Carnival of Natural Parenting!
Please take time to read the submissions by the other carnival participants:

• A Thank You to my Husband
  Lactating Girl at The Adventures of Lactating Girl thanks her husband for keeping her grounded and giving her unwavering support in the face of discouragement from within and without.
  (@lactatinggirl)
• My Reverse Traditional Husband In the Wild
  Paige at Baby Dust Diaries gives us a lesson on how dads in the wild parent their young. Can you guess which male animal actually nurses its young?
  (@babydust)
• February Carnival of Natural Parenting
  TopHat at The Bee in Your Bonnet tells us how the patience of a partner can make a difficult breastfeeding relationship succeed.
  (@TopHat8855)
• Parenting Together
  For Alison at BluebirdMama and her husband, parenting is simply an extension of the way they live.
  (@childbearing)
• If We Had A MIllion Dollars
  Melodie at Breastfeeding Moms Unite! and her husband would both agree to be crunchier parents if they had a million dollars to ease the way.
  (@bfmom)
• February Carnival of Natural Parenting: Co-Parents
  Dionna at Code Name: Mama has written a letter to her husband, thanking him for his incredible support in every aspect of their natural parenting journey.
  (@CodeNameMama)
• Natural Parenting Fathers
  Sarah at Natural Parenting is balancing being all there for her son with being present for her husband.
  (@considereden)
• Just Wonderful: Love and Partners and Natural Parenting
  Zoey at Good Goog let her husband lead her to babywearing and cosleeping.
  (@zoeyspeak)
• All that stuff I don’t get comes so easy to him
  The Grumbles is taking this opportunity to say thank you to her husband for his mad parenting skills.
  (@thegrumbles)
• The Power of Having a Supportive Co-Parent
  Chrystal at Happy Mothering and her husband started with vaccinations and moved on from there.
  (@HappyMothering)
• February Carnival of Natural Parenting: Love and partners
  Lauren at Hobo Mama makes do with babbling incoherently about how her husband practices natural parenting in such an effortless fashion, with bonus video.
  (@Hobo_Mama)
• Love and Partners
  Mrs Green at Little Green Blog shares her husband’s moving account of her birth story, and his testament to the power of a woman.
  (@myzerowaste)
• labor support…
  Mandy at Living Peacefully with Children is thankful that her partner has provided her immeasurable labor support through each of their last three unassisted homebirths (and will again for their upcoming fourth!).
• What co-parent? On prams, routines, ideals, sickness, and finding my way alone.
  Ruth at Look Left of the Pleiades describes life without a present co-parent: making new choices and taking care of things herself.
  (@brightravenmum)

• Parenting With Support
  How many people can say that their husband talked them into cloth diapering? Darcel at The Mahogany Way can!
  (@MahoganyWayMama)
• Co-Parenting Support
  Summer at Mama2Mama Tips knows the importance of being supported in the face of criticism.
  (@mama2mamatips)
• Natural Parenting Carnival: Love and Partners
  pchanner at A Mom’s Fresh Start has been blessed with an incredibly involved partner. Her husband loves to take part in every aspect of parenting!
  (@pchanner)
• Daddy’s Little Girls
  Kate Wicker at Momopoly finds her husband right at home in a tangle of girls.
  (@Momopoly)
• How do I love my parenting partner? Let me count the ways.
  Sybil at Musings of a Milk Maker is thankful that she and her partner co-parent fluidly and gracefully.
  (@mamamilkers)
• Interview with a Daddy
  NavelgazingBajan brings us a highly amusing peek into her husband’s perspective.
• Being Supported in Natural Parenting
  Sarah at OneStarryNight has witnessed both ends of the parenting spectrum, and is grateful she found a father who is comfortable with natural parenting.
  (@starrymom)
• Moments in time: a love letter
  Arwyn at Raising My Boychick will make you cry with the beautiful way she describes the complete relationship between father and child.
  (@RaisingBoychick)
• Natural parenting converts
  Jen at Recovering Procrastinator brought her reluctant husband around to cloth diapers, bed sharing, and time-ins as a discipline method.
  (@jenwestpfahl)
• Breastfeeding Father
  Amber Strocel at Strocel.com describes how her husband helped her overcome the breastfeeding challenges she encountered with her premature daughter.
  (@AmberStrocel)
• A Natural Parenting Village
  Acacia from Art, Body & Soul, in a guest post for Jamie at Suddenly Stay at Home, broadens the term “coparents” to embrace supportive extended family on both sides.
  (@SuddnlyStyAtHme)
• A Natural Dad
  Shana at Tales of Minor Interest doesn’t have a husband who merely supports her
  she has a husband just as dedicated to natural parenting as she is.
• Love and Support From My (sometimes pantsless) Man
  Joni Rae at Tales of a Kitchen Witch Momma describes life with the sometimes bumbling but always lovable Pantsless Man.
  (@kitchenwitch)
• G-O-T-E-A-M!
  Jessica at This Is Worthwhile made sure her future husband agreed with her parenting choices early in their dating.
  (@tisworthwhile)
• how we come to parenthood
  Michelle at womanseekingmother dances with her husband around the subject of cosleeping.
  (@seekingmother)

This, That, and The Other Thing

Just to get it out of my head (as much as I can anyway) I appreciate more than I could ever say all the supportive comments in my previous entry, Being Supported in Natural Parenting.

I was however, dismayed to see that my tiny mention of us not doing vaccinations caused some individuals to take that and run with it. That was NOT the point of that entry at all and it really made me want to not post such personal things anymore. Thankfully after tweeting about it, so many of you offered your ears / comments / tweets to me so I don’t take it so personally!

I am in general still feeling raw and exposed in some ways. Hard to believe it would have been my 11yr anniversary with Daniel’s bio-dad this week! I do think in some ways, everything happens for a reason and comparing how I felt THEN to how I feel NOW… well suffice to say having Keith in our lives has show us what the word “family” really means.

Now onto other things…

Weight Watchers
So both the boyfriend and I started Weight Watchers (they have a breastfeeding option so I don’t have any supply issues yay!) this past Sunday. He’s never tried to change his eating habits before and since meeting him (including the pregnancy/after the baby) I’ve gained freaking 50lbs! Considering I was already on the “thicker” side of things already, I just feel so uncomfortable in my skin!

So first week is almost done with and if the peek at the scale today is any indication, I’ve lost around 8lbs! I will post some recipes that are WW friendly but that are still in line with “whole” foods, filling foods, and overall super fantastic delicious foods. For example I’ve made a wonderful turkey chili, which I need to make again tonight because Daniel requested it, I also made a veggie lasagna, and a great chicken and penne dish, just to name a few.

If any of you are also doing WW, let me know! Share your favorite WW links!

Photography
In other awesome news, I purchased the Nikon D90, haven’t really used it much but so far I love what I see! The feel is just great, the camera overall is much better in low light situations, and the flesh tones are spot on! There are so many new features in comparison to my D50 that I need to find some time to read the manual (oh yes… RTFM always!). I am loving that it has a self-cleaning sensor as I’m so lazy when it comes to doing that.

iPhone
I also purchased for myself, the 16GB white iPhone! The first few hours I was scared to touch it and left it in its box. I have a decent amount of apps so far (should probably do a post on that!) but always looking for new ones as the app store is just confusing and I am tired of all the “adult themed” apps cluttering things up. I also got a new phone number so if you need/want it, let me know!

ICAN
This upcoming Sunday is not only Valentine’s Day but I am going to try and go to my first ICAN meeting. I still have so many unresolved emotional (and physical) issues surrounding Tristan’s birth and the topic is supposed to be about traumatic births. How perfect for me right?

Bloggy Stuff
Anyone want to be linked up on my exit page? I need some new reads!

Interested in reading all of your comments!

Black & White Flowers

Since I’ve been feeling a bit down lately, I thought I would post some of my older black and white flower photos.

Bathroom Redo

This bathroom hasn’t been changed in the twenty-seven years since Keith’s father built the house (minus some decorative touches).

I couldn’t take it anymore! We had a very small budget so we couldn’t redo the tile or the floor but I think we did a huge improvement!

The Before Shots

The Awesome After Shots

What do you think? I am so proud that he sucked it up, removed the shower doors, and let me have a shower curtain! I think it’s rather cute! Our color scheme (to match the tile really) is yellow and orange. I used my own photography of course. We also scrubbed the hell out of the bathroom so it’s so uber fresh and clean right now!

Pumpkin Chili

This is a really filling, affordable, delicious meal! The leftovers can be used in so many ways (if you have any leftover!) so it’s also versatile!

Ingredients

• 2 medium bell peppers, chopped
• 3 small onions, chopped
• 3 medium stalks of celery , chopped
• 1 Tbsp chili powder
• 1 Tbsp ground cumin
• 1 1/2 cups canned pumpkin
• 1 cup fire roasted diced tomatoes
• 15 oz canned kidney beans, drained and rinsed
• 15 oz canned black beans
• 28 oz canned diced tomatoes
• 29 oz canned tomato sauce
• 6 cloves of garlic, minced
• 1 cup cilantro, chopped
• kosher salt
• freshly ground black pepper

Garnishes

• Avocado tossed with kosher salt and lime juice
• Corn tortillas baked in the oven until crispy
• 2% Shredded sharp cheddar
• Light sour cream
• Chopped cilantro
• Diced red onion

Directions
In a large pot on high heat, add your celery, bell pepper, onion, garlic, ground cumin, chili powder, kosher salt, and freshly ground black pepper. Cook until the vegetables are softened, approx five minutes.

Then add everything else except for the cilantro. Add more kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper to season the new additions. Simmer on a medium heat for around twenty minutes, stirring often. Add your cilantro, and simmer for another five minutes. Then it’s ready to serve!

Each serving is 1cup and this makes 11 servings. For those doing WeightWatchers, it’s 2pts per serving. If you omit the garnish of shredded cheese, this dish is also vegan! Hope you all enjoy!