Superfood salad with garlic-ginger-lime shrimp!

Sometimes I am so proud of myself in the kitchen.  These times are few and far between because "dinner" is usually leftovers or hummus and crackers or, let's be honest, it's ice cream.

But tonight I actually made dinner and it was a GOOD one so I had to share! Here is the "recipe." Keep in mind I made this up with what I had in the kitchen and I didn't measure.  I will make some best guesses. But feel free to modify and use whatever you have fresh in your kitchen!

Superfood salad with garlic-ginger-lime shrimp! serves 2

1 box power greens (baby kale, spinach, chard and mizuna) (organic)
handful of grape tomatoes, halved (organic)
1 carrot, shredded (organic)
1/2 cup parsley, roughly chopped (organic)
green onion, chopped (organic)
4 fingerling potatoes (organic)
walnuts, toasted
feta cheese
1/4-1/2 cup olive oil (total guess... I really don't know how much olive oil)
1/2 lime
1/8 lemon
1 clove garlic
fresh ginger
18 cocktail shrimp (precooked)(or buy raw and cook it)
for the potatoes: rosemary, basil, oregano, garlic powder, olive oil

soooo pretty!!!!

for the dressing: pour olive oil and the juice of half a lime and a little lemon into a bowl. chop up the clove of garlic and grate some ginger into the mixture. let the shrimp marinate in this while you make the salad.

chop the potatoes into small wedges (the smaller the pieces, the faster they cook). pour olive oil over them and add the herbs and mix til coated. bake at 415F for about 25-30 minutes or until they are getting crispy and brown outside and flip halfway through.

toast the walnuts on a baking sheet until they begin to darken (but not burn!!).

divide the greens between 2 large plates. chop the tomatoes, grate the carrot, chop the green onion and parsley, and arrange over the greens. add the walnuts, feta, and the potatoes when done. then arrange the shrimp on top (a nice circle in the middle looks fancy!) and pour the rest of the dressing over it all.

If you have a whiny, hungry, crabby toddler clinging to your legs and crying to be held the entire time you're making this salad, ply her with shrimp.  This worked for me.  I hope your toddler also loves shrimp.

This tasted SO fresh and light and healthy and I LOVE the tangy grated ginger and citrus dressing. Nothing compares to homemade dressing. I will definitely have a post on making dressing coming soon.

It's also best enjoyed after the baby goes to bed when you can really focus on the flavors. Pay no attention to the socks, shoes, magnets, toys, and coats all over the kitchen floor, but do try not to trip over them. And do not forget a beverage. I had a tasty Warsteiner beer to complement this beautiful green plate of delightfulness and I was totally satisfied.  Bon appetite!

A Salute to Single Parents and People with a Long Commute

Single parents of the world, if I could give all of you a two week vacation to a tropical island resort, I would, because you deserve a break.  I am fortunate enough to have a wonderful husband to share the work of parenting with and I still yearn for a tropical vacation approximately 27-28 times an hour on any given day (quadruple that in the winter).

I have extra appreciation for single parents this week because Rich had to go out of town for work for 5 days and I am on day 4 of "single momming it." It's actually gone pretty well. I am managing just fine.
I've even enjoyed my time with Valerie more than I expected this week.  We've had some sweet morning snuggles and some fun moments that probably wouldn't have happened if dad was here.

But she is also entering a SUPER fun phase of being SUPER whiny and clingy. When we're home she wants to be held all the time and will loudly whine and carry on if she's not being properly catered to. And her demands can be challenging to meet if one needs to, say, make dinner, or take off one's coat.

We get home around 6-6:30 every evening and she's already starving for dinner, so I immediately try to distract her so I can quickly heat up/cut up some dinner for her. Meanwhile she's whining and moaning at my feet to pick her up and take her over to the fridge so she can point to the pictures of babies on the fridge.  Her demands are really pretty simple.  "I don't know why you can't just stop what you're doing and help me look at my baby friends on the fridge Mom! and by the way I'M STARVING WHERE IS MY DINNER WOMAN!?!?"

Then, there's dinner, which I have to admit is getting faster and better every day. Two words that usually describe her eating dinner are slow and messy. But she is actually improving in both these areas. The past two nights she's eaten really good dinners, not taken forever, and not thrown excessive handfuls of food on the floor. So, fantastic progress there.

Evenings can be a bear and they are a lot less fun by myself than with Rich's help.  When we're both home, we take turns picking her up from school (and enduring the sometimes fussy/trafficky drive home), and then one of us can play with her while the other gets dinner ready and we can coach her through dinner together, and then one of us can put her to bed while the other cleans up.

Alone, I get to leave work, drive to her school, pick her up and try to entertain her while battling traffic, make dinner, listen to whining, watch her eat, put her to bed and then clean up. Thank god she's asleep by 7:30-8 because that is an exhausting two hours after a full day of work.

Mornings are not so bad. She's pretty cheerful and cute in the morning (once she gets her bottle!!!  It's like the toddler equivalent of coffee.  DO NOT talk to her til she's sucked down 8 oz of milk in one go).

The worst part about single mom mornings is the extra driving.  Rich usually does the morning daycare drop-off because it's close to his work. It's completely out of the way for me. We live 7 minutes away from my work, but when I have to drop her off first, it takes closer to 30-40 minutes.  And I really, really hate driving in traffic.

Here I will admit that I am terribly spoiled by my 7 minute commute.  It's the BEST FRICKIN THING EVER. It makes me crabby to have to spend 80 minutes of my day driving rather than 14. I realize some people have far longer commutes than this.  Like one or even two hours each way.  I would recommend dramatic life changes for those people... if it were me.  I could not cope with such a long commute every day. Way too much time lost. If it's a driving commute, that is.  A bus or train commute where you can take a nap, work or surf the web is a different animal. That's not so bad.  But driving for more than an hour a day every day would seriously downgrade my standard happiness quotient.

So, single parents and people with long commutes...and, lord have mercy, people who are both(!!!!)... I salute you, brave citizens. I have nearly survived my 5 days of single parenting and extra driving and I can't wait to get back into my spoiled working mom routine where I have tons of help. Hopefully this experience will help me to properly appreciate how easy I have it.

It's a good life. Reading back through this, it sounds like a pretty dreary daily routine, but I honestly feel like I have it all. Family and work and friends and great health... My daughter is healthy and growing and turning into an awesome little person.  It's a lot of work, but she also brings us so much joy. I get to spend my days with people I love and people I laugh with and pretty soon there will be drinking on patios too.  It doesn't get any better than that!

I wouldn't keep you little

A lot of parents say they wish they could keep their babies little forever.  I'm not one of those parents. While I adore my now-14-month-old "little baby" who's quickly toddling her way to toddler status, I never for a moment wish to go back to when she was a tiny, inert lump, which newborns are.

Don't get me wrong, she was a cute lump, but honestly there is nothing about that stage that I miss. She didn't smile for the first time until she was about 12 weeks old and it was a LOOOOOONG 12 weeks waiting for that smile. When you put so much time, blood, sweat and milk into caring for a completely helpless human, the least you want in return is a little love and they can't give it yet.

People who say they wish they could keep their babies little are probably referring to the smiling, sitting-up stage around 5-8 months. Babies definitely get cuter around this age as they fatten up and lose their smushed alien newborn look. But I wouldn't go back to this stage either, cute as it was. Valerie wanted to go places and reach for things but she couldn't crawl yet. It was frustrating for her to wiggle on her hands and knees trying and failing to get anywhere. And of course she still really could not communicate at all except by crying or smiling.

Each age for me has been more fun than the last. Every tiny step toward personhood is a victory. Every new development lets a baby show you her personality, her love, her curiosity; every gain in physical strength lets her explore and discover the world around her and you begin to see who she will be. This is so much greater to me than an adorable but impenetrable creature who is impossible to interact with.

Every day my struggle is to enjoy her as she is now and not wish away the day, hoping that tomorrow will be the day she finally says "mama" or uses a spoon to eat. Every time she makes the next big leap in development there's another one right behind it that she can't do yet.

She is new to walking and getting steadier every day and I can't lie, seeing her walk on her own feet fills me with joy every time. And not just because she's so hilariously and adorably wobbly.

I can't imagine seeing her toddling around the backyard pointing at everything she sees and wishing she was a tiny baby again.  Nothing is more thrilling than seeing her grow into an upright, capable person.

I sing songs to Valerie all the time now. Her eyes absolutely light up whenever she hears one of her favorite songs. Keep in mind I can't carry a tune to save my life. I'm still trying to learn the words to the animal sounds song even though I've heard it about a million times (that one is her absolute favorite). But she loves it when I sing and smiles and claps for more. I'm sure she will soon be demanding that I never sing again and I don't want to be singing the ABCs 10 times a day forever, but tonight I was trying to remember the words to "Baby Beluga" and "Down by the Bay" on the way home and actually really enjoying myself.  Anyone having a rough day should try singing their favorite kid's song to a toddler who listens, entranced. One of those mom moments you never anticipated loving, but there it is.

Today was a pretty successful one in the ongoing struggle to enjoy the moment. It is getting easier. All I have to do is ask, "what does a chicken say?"  and the tiny answer, "cuck cuck," climbs inside my heart and fills it to the brim til I can't imagine loving her any more. 

This is my experience of being a mom so far: getting to watch this brand new person meet herself as she gradually becomes aware that she exists. I have no idea what tomorrow holds but my little girl will be a little older, a little stronger, and a little more aware than she was today, and I will be there to see it.

I have an image of her in my mind, wearing a backpack, her hair in pigtails, getting on the school bus by herself. Off to school she goes!  I love to imagine her like this, old enough to tell me about her day, ask questions, surprise me and make me laugh with the things she says.

I know that day is coming faster than I realize and I can hardly wait.