Adventures in new fruit: Papaya

It all started when I bought these at Wegmans. I was feeling adventurous.

Yes, they were incredibly delicous - I highly recommend them.

Well, it got Lou and I talking about tropical fruit. I told him they had the same cookies in "Guava" flavor, but I didn't know if I liked Guava (never had one), so I chose the safe Mango flavor (LOVE mango).

So then I was curious as to how a Guava tasted, so I decided to get one at the store. Alas, they didn't have any, so I ended up getting a Papaya, since I've never had one of those, either.

I LOVE fruit - all fruit. Well, okay, so cantaloupe is my one exception - not nuts about it, but I love everything else - everything from the boring apples and bananas to the more exotic starfruit and plantains, and everything in between.

So anyhow, I was excited to try the papaya...

I did my research before I went to the store so that I would know how to pick a good one, and according to everything I read on the internet, the one I picked at the store should have been the best papaya in the universe.

So I get it home and begin to cut it up, just like I saw on a handful of Youtube videos. Kind of freaky-looking inside, isn't it? Those black seeds look like caviar - nasty. I read that they have a sort of peppery bitter taste, but I was too weirded out by their fish egg appearance to try one.

Anyhow, so I cut up this papaya and now I had a huge bowl of beautiful salmon-colored cubes of fruit that seemed to have the texture of canteloupe or honeydew. I was so psyched to taste it - it was just so pretty...

Okay, the seeds are not pretty, but the fruit is, once you get it all cut up.

Anyhow, so I decided to smell it first (a weird habit I picked up from Lou after years of seeing him do this to ALL food). I took a step back - whoa, this stuff smelled nasty - I mean NAS-TAY. Okay, no big deal, I tell myself, maybe you can't judge a fruit by it's smell (although, generally, you can...).

Then I pop a piece in my mouth and...gagged. Oh mother of all that is good and holy in this world, this was THE most disgusting thing I have ever had in my mouth - BAR NONE. I didn't want to spit it out, because Maria and Josephine were watching and I didn't want to set a bad example, so I finished chewing, facing away from them, so they couldn't see the expression of absolute horror on my face.

"Who the heck would eat this stuff on PURPOSE?!", I thought frantically as I swallowed the sickening stuff. Seriously, it tasted like puke - and no, I don't mean that in the "oh, it was so gross, it was like puke" sense. I mean it ACTUALLY tasted like I was eating puke (which, by the way, is what it smelled like, too).

Now, I know it wasn't rotten. The skin was part yellow, part green, just like it was supposed to be, and it had just the right amount of give when I pressed it. So maybe I just hate papaya, but I really don't understand how anyone could like it!

All over the internet, websites are touting it's virtues as one of nature's most healthy fruits - it aids digestion, it's a wondefrul meat tenderizer, it's chock-full of vitamin C, folate, potassium, fiber, vitamins E & A, and it has tons of antioxidants & flavanoids (touted as being able to stave off cancer). Christopher Coloumbus nicknamed it the "fruit of the angels"...

...yeah, too bad it tastes like VOMIT!!!

Oh, and FYI, the girls thought it was gross, too. Maria agreed with me: "Mom, not to be rude, but it kind of tastes like barf".

So, now I have all these cups of papaya, and I don't want to WASTE them (that junk was expensive!!), but I certainly don't want to EAT them. I wonder if I put them into a smoothie, will the bananas and honey and lime juice cover up the taste, or will I just end up with an up-chuck-flavored smoothie?

Hmm...I wonder.

Any ideas?

More weird crap for you to try

Okay, this is not so weird as the last one, but it is good, and for sure more healthy than saltines with butter and sugar.

Okay, so take a slice of this:

Drizzle it with this:

And sprinkle it with this:

Last week I had a craving for sopapillas (friend tortillas drizzled with honey and cinnamon sugar), but I have been so bad with the sweets lately, that I just couldn't get myself to make and eat fried anything, so I thought up this alternative. It was actually immensely satisfying!! Soooo yummy, and way healthier than some of the other treats I have dreamed up. Mmmmm...you should try it... :)

Living dairy free...and hating it.

So I have had to give up milk products, after realizing that they were upsetting Edward's stomach. All babies are gassy to some extent, but this kid was really gassy, and often at night you could actually hear his stomach making horrible noises while he screamed in pain. We were giving him the gripe water, but wanted to find the source of the problem rather than just constantly treat the symptoms. I tried a blander diet (absolutely no spicy foods, garlic, onions, beans, brocolli, etc.), but it didn't help that much, so, after some research, decided to try giving up dairy. Apparently some babies have extra sensitive stomachs that have a hard time breaking down the proteins in cow's milk. First I gave up just milk - I was drinking about 24oz a day (I love milk!) - and saw some definite improvement. So then I gave it all up - cheese, yogurt, ice cream, etc., and voila - gas problems gone. No more churning stomach, no more arching back in pain - done. And then I started to mourn the loss of dairy in my life...

I never realized how much dairy I ate until I had to give it up. No more cereal in the morning, or cream of wheat, pancakes, or waffles, or french toast (ALL made with milk!!). It was either eggs or toast - boooooring. Also, no more yogurt for my daily healthy 3pm snack, no more grilled cheese, no more quesadillas, or lasagna, ice cream, hot chocolate, pudding, cheesecake (not that I eat these last couple of things everyday, but STILL). No more cheese on my egg sandwich or tacos, or deli meat sandwich, no more tall glass of cold milk with dinner (insert sobs here..), etc.

What the heck am I supposed to eat?!! Not to mention where am I going to get my calcium?!

Well, I've started taking a calcium supplement (lame, but better than nothing), and have researched which fruits, vegetables and legumes are good sources of calcium.

And, I've started drinking this:
I have always found soymilk to be mildly repulsive, especially its freaky unnatural color. But, after WEEKS with no milk, I finally caved after my mom sent a carton to my house. It was just too tempting - the thought of being able to have cereal again in the morning...

...and believe it or not, I have grown to like it! Weird. But desperate times call for desperate measures, and if you go long enough without something, a close substitute starts to sound pretty dang good. The cereal covers up most of the taste, and I've even gotten to the point where I can drink it straight...in small amounts...and out of the container, so I don't have to see the weird brownish-grey cast that it has.

Anyhow, it's expensive, and way higher fat than my old skim milk, but it's a great source of protein, has calcium in it, and now, after a I have a couple of cookies or a PBJ, I can wash them down with some nice creamy milk.

And all in all, it's a small price to pay for Eddie to not be uncomfortable all the time. :)

Next adventure: vegan ice cream...

Weird, yet good

Here's a nasty snack that you would never think is good, but soooo is.



Take these:

Spread them with a thin layer of this:

And sprinkle them with this:

Yes, I've just described saltines with butter and sugar. Now I KNOW this sounds gross (not to mention totally unhealthy). I remember my Mom telling me she loved these when she was PMSing and I thought she was nuts. But I tried it out of sheer curiosity one day, and it's got this whole yummy sweet and salty thing going on that is really kind of great.

So if you're feeling adventurous sometime, and have a craving for sweet and salty, give it a try - you just might like it!

Do you have any odd snacks that you eat?

Upgrade!

As you can probably tell by my recent posts, I've been a bit down in the dumps lately. Well on Valentine's Day this year Lou did a great job breaking me out of my slump. We don't really make a big deal out of V-day most years. We're not some of those Anti-Valentine's people or anything like that. We just like to keep it simple. Anyhow, Lou outdid himself this year...

First he gave me these:

He said he felt cheesy doing the "box of chocolates" thing, but he's never done this before, and little did he know that I have secretly always wanted a big heart-shaped box of chocolates, so I was thrilled with this "cheesy" gift.

He also made me a wonderful dinner of steak, shrimp, bread and peas - yes, he was grilling outside in the middle of February - gotta love this guy!

And here's the big daddy. He gave me my new, upgraded engagement ring! Here's a picture of the original:

It's hard to tell in this picture, but this ring was VERY fragile. It was an estate ring, and though very beautiful, very fragile and always getting bent and beat up. You can see in the picture that the left side stone is missing. The darn ring kept cracking and the stones on the side kept getting lost. Lou finally had enough and said I was getting a new ring - I didn't argue. :)


Here's the new ice:

MUCH stronger, sturdier, and sooo beautiful. The center stone is the one from my original, but the rest is all new!

He had the old circle side stones replaced with a baguette-cut, which I love.

Here it is with my wedding band

And again, but flipped the other way. I have never before gotten diamonds on Valentine's Day, and although I'm not a big "give me jewelry" person, I have to say, I was ecstatic when I saw this ring!!

My last gift came from my Mom and kids. My Mom and Dad were nice enough to take the girls for the day, so we could have some time alone (well, when Edward was napping, anyway). When Maria came home, she had a mysterious paper bag that she and Nana had been working on. She told me that we needed to stay out of our room for a few minutes while she finished our surprise. This is what she did:

Her and my Mom cut out all the hearts that afternoon.

Cute, huh?

So how can anyone feel depressed after a day like that? It was just perfect. The only imperfect thing about it were the almond-paste cookies that I attempted to make for Lou (he loves almond paste). Yeah, they didn't turn out so great - hence why there are no pictures...

Oh well, Lou ate them anyway, giving me the whole "it's the thought that count's" bit, and I was okay with that.

Anyhow, thank goodness for family who boosts you up when you are feeling down. Happy Valentine's Day, loved ones... :)

Am I the only one #22

Am I the only one who feels hopelessly inadequate sometimes? (well, most of the time, nowadays...) I somehow felt like, with my third baby I would be this seasoned, wise mother who could just do it all and take the setbacks in stride, but I feel like I just keep coming up short nowadays, for everyone in my family. I am trying so hard to help Edward with his sleep issues (and to no avail, by the way), so I am spending a LOT of time in his room, trying to either get him to sleep or get him back to sleep. This means that Josephine (and Maria, when she's not in school) is spending a LOT of time alone, which makes me feel guilty to no end. I feel like I can't attend to the needs of one child without neglecting the other. If I want to play with the girls, color with them, read stories, etc., Edward does nothing but scream the whole time unless he is nursing at the time, which makes me feel guilty, too. And just forget about keeping up with the housework - it's all I can do to keep everyone in clean clothes. I just don't know how to do it all with any semblance of success, and it has me really down lately. I just think it's really sad that I've been a mother for almost seven years, am on my third baby and I still suck at this...

I...need...SLEEP!!!

Edward is having sleep issues...well, that' putting it lightly actually. Really, to be blunt, he is sleeping like crap. I don't know how this started, I just know that I want out, bad. At six weeks old, he was sleeping so well - 5-6 hours at a time, and I was thanking my lucky stars that we didn't have another Josephine on our hands (that's a story for another day - the short of it is that she was the worst sleeper EVER, and did not sleep more than a half an hour at a time until she was 11 months old). He took nice long 2-3 hour naps, and I was in heaven. Ah, but that seems like a lifetime ago at this point...

This is a scene not often had at our house right now - Edward sleeping peacefully - oh, how I long for those days again!!!

I am convinced that the miracle blanket (I've blogged about it before), was responsible for his sleeping so well, so young. But, unfortunately, he grew out of it, and right around the same time, his sleeping started to go downhill. First, he just started waking up more at night, and then the naptimes got shorter and shorter. He is now waking up AT LEAST 7-8 times a night, and waking up after only 30 minutes of naptime, which means he (not to mention the rest of us) is chronically overtired. Wow, it's like deja-vu - HELLO Josephine...sigh.

Lou and I are desperate for sleep, and are at the point where we argue through the wee hours of the morning over whose turn it is to go and deal with the screaming angry baby who does NOT want to sleep alone in his crib. There has been more than a few times now that Edward and I are both crying in his room - a pretty pathetic sight, if you ask me.

And in case you are wondering, NO, I did not bring this habit on myself - I made none of the mistakes this time around that I made with Josephine such as:

• co-sleeping early on
• nursing the baby to sleep all the time
• rocking the baby to sleep

Nope, I was determined to not make those mistakes again - I make sure he is drowsy but awake when I put him down, and he falls asleep just fine, it's just that he doesn't stay asleep, and wakes up over and over and over and over, until Lou and I think we just might go mad.

We've tried several things to combat this, including:

The "Swaddleme", made by Kiddopotomas (recommended by a friend). It's a swaddler for bigger babies, and has velcro so that baby can't break free...except for the fact that somehow or other, Edward does (seriously, how does a baby get past velcro straps?), and at this point, he actually really resents not being able to have his hands free at all times (even though he sleeps soooo much better when he's wrapped up tight, since he startles a LOT in his sleep). So, after several nights of failure, we ditched it.

Edward is VERY gassy, so we thought it might be waking him up. I've heard that Mylacon drops kind of suck (and I don't like overmedicating babies with drugs), so Lou found this all-natural anti-gas stuff (with stuff like ginger and anise), and when Edward is gassy, it works like a charm, stopping his crying within 5 minutes and softening up his hard belly...but he still wakes up all night, just not from gas - darn it.

So then we bought a sound machine with all kinds of white noise sounds. Edward loves loud white noise like the vacuum cleaner, the washer, the dryer, the blender, etc. So we thought, "Hey, they calm him down during the day, maybe they would help him be calm and sleep better at night". Um, no luck there either - crap.

At this point, we've spent over $50 trying to get something that would help with this sleep problem, and so far, we have nothing to show for it...

Oh, and yes, we have also tried the "crying it out" method. It worked fine for Maria (our angel sleeper), but not for Josephine, and not for Edward either. We've let him cry up to an hour, at which point his sheets are drenched with tears and he is twitching and gagging like he is having siezures - nowhere near sleepy land.

So, short of selling him on Ebay (no way am I doing that, seeing as the hell I went through physcially to get him here... :), I have no idea what to do. I did everything I was supposed to this time - I didn't "spoil" him by rocking/nursing him to sleep and/or co-sleeping, I make sure his belly is full and his diaper is dry before I put him down. And the two parental units here are just tired beyond all reason on a regular basis. I know that these times don't last forever, and there are bigger problems in life (I'm sure when he's sixteen and mouthy and all that, I'll long for these days), but tell me that at 3 in the morning when I'm in his room for the 5th time that night and I'll probably tell you to shove it - because that's about my attitude in the middle of the night when I've had zero sleep...

So hey, any suggestions out there?