Every so often, I come across a recipe on the internets that speaks to me. It doesn't happen often, but a few months ago I fell on these crazy looking Carmelita's on Pinterest (courtesy of Lulu the Baker). Everything about them appealed to me. The drippy caramel, the melted chocolate, and the fact that all this was sandwiched inside of an oatmeal crust - just thinking about it makes me... hungry. But one cannot subscribe to healthy eating and to a world where Carmelita's are a regular occurrence so I tucked the recipe into that little spot in my brain that I reserve for naughty stuff and went on my way. Then, the perfect event reared its head - we were invited to a Mother's Day BBQ and I was tasked with dessert! So I cracked open that naughty nook and got to work. And now, I share with you, the sickest dessert in the history of desserts - I even added a little party to the name for affect - the Fiesta Carmelita.
Ingredients:
2 bags of chewy Werthers caramels
1 cup heavy cream
3 sticks of butter (I never said they were healthy!)
1.5 cups brown sugar, packed
2 cups flour
2 cups old-fashioned or rolled oats
2tsp's baking soda
1 bag of chocolate chips
While I amended some of the ingredients a bit, I followed Lulu's instructions to the t:
"Combine caramels and cream in a small saucepan over low heat. Stir until completely smooth; set aside. In a separate bowl, combine melted butter, brown sugar, flour, oats, and baking soda. Pat half of the oatmeal mixture into the bottom of the pan. Bake at 350 degrees for 10 minutes. Remove pan from oven and sprinkle chocolate chips over crust. Pour caramel mixture over chocolate chips. Crumble remaining oatmeal mixture over caramel. Return to oven and bake an additional 15-20 minutes, until the edges are lightly browned. Remove from oven and cool completely before cutting.
*A stint in the fridge will help them cool off if you're pinched for time. They shouldn't be served cold, but all of that molten caramel takes a long time to cool down. They should be stored and served at room temperature."
Time Magazine released their latest issue today and unveiled a provocative cover that features a hot, blond mom standing with her boob exposed and her dumbstruck three-year-old suckling at it.
Without reading the story and based on the headline, you'd think it would be about that beaten-to-death "Mommy Wars" topic that rears its head every 25 minutes (and I've written about more than once). But it's not. It's actually a profile of Dr. Bill Sears, the 72-year-old doctor and author who began writing books 20 years ago that say parents must wear their babies as an appendage at all times, sleep with their babies lest they feel abandoned for 8 hours, breast-feed for at least one year to even be considered a mom, and pretty much arm your children with zero independence, no self-soothing skills and ensure that they need mommy and daddy for ev-er-y-thing until they at least 15. He even warns that that babies who cry too much — even those who are left to "cry it out" for short periods at night as they learn to go to sleep on their own — could suffer permanent brain damage, leading to a lower IQ, behavioral problems and more. No, seriously!
But my own opinions aside, I learned about the Time cover only secondary to a segment that aired on this morning's Morning Joe (below), during which Managing Editor Rick Stengel of Time Magazine appeared, most likely to promote the new issue, but also to be on the receiving end of a host and a guest, both of whom have vaginas, about the potentially gratuitous boob shot it portrays and the message that the headline, "Are you mom enough?" sends. I heard about it from my boss at work who saw the segment and said she thought of me as she is aware that I sometimes struggle with being a good full-time employee and being the type of mom my girls deserve. She too is a mom who works hard, and undoubtedly has stuggled with the same sometime feelings of guilt - both about kids and work - and has encouraged me to work hard but not to miss those moments with my kids that can't be recovered. I think about her advice often as I decide whether I can be spared at work for a few hours to chaperone a field trip or attend a religious service on a friday morning.
The opinion that moms must be all-mom-all-the-time in order to be a successful parent, along with Stengel's smug attitude about the cover, lit me a fire just hot enough to bother writing this post. Don't get me wrong, I'm a fan of breast-feeding, I'm a fan of bottle feeding, hell, I'm just a fan of feeding your child using whatever method ensures nourishment. I've said it before, I don't judge how other parents parent, so long as a child is not put in harm's way.
What I'm not a fan of, is slinging mud at both sides just to see who screams louder. And you know, this cover, regardless of what's inside of it, will prompt countless conversations, blog posts, tweets, status updates, Pins, etc about who is the mightiest parent of them all. Is it the stay-at-home-mom who wore her baby until her back broke, nursed till baby was enrolled in kindergarten, and snuggled baby and (all previous kids) in the "family bed" forcing daddy to lock himself in the bathroom with nudie magazines and a sock? Or is it the parents who kept baby beside them until they decided it was time for his/her own room, nurse or bottle fed or combined the two till it was time, encouraged their kids to walk, talk, and eat at their own pace, and wore them once in a while just to get dinner on the table in a timely manner?
Really, who cares. That's so not the point for me. If you watch the segment below, the two points that do resonate for me are:
1) According to Stengel, the image on the cover "represents the attachment between mother and child." There is SO MUCH WRONG with this statement that it's crazy. According to Stengel, if you don't have a kid hanging off your boob, you have failed at bonding with your kid.
Loving that this comes from a MAN. I guess to complement this view, Stengel sees no way for dads to bond as strongly with their children, since they have no boobs. I mean, how could they? And if you're a mom who didn't nurse then obviously your bond with your kid is far less than if you had. I mean, obv.
2) The hosts brought up a great point - if you're a dad who leaves work early to go cheer on your kid in little league you are a hero. But if you're a mom who needs to cut out early to take little Junior to the pediatrician? Well, that's coming outta your vacation time. And you can be sure that your promotion just moved a little further south, Mom.
Oh, the double-standards that abound in our modern, post-feminist, tech-savvy, contemporary society continue to astound. Personally, I feel lucky to have found a place of employment filled with managers who are moms and get that even though I'm not at the top of the food chain, my kids sometimes take priority, even between the hours of 8:30am and 5:30pm. Lucky me, but it's cover pieces like this that send a message to women that screams if you don't sell your soul to your children, you are not worthy of having any.
And that, my friends, couldn't be further from the truth.
I don't typically blast out my kids birthdays on my blog because, let's face it, who really cares. But this post isn't so much about a birthday as it is about the fact that there's this crazy thing that happens after your kid turns five and goes to kindergarten and then turns six and you notice all these changes, and some are big and others small, and is this happening at your house too????
Alex was my first child, often lovingly referred to (by me) as my "original" baby. She came just when I needed her most, and we've been a dynamic duo ever since (well, trio if you count her really cute lil sister). She has promised me that that we can live together forever and ever and I've promised her that I have never loved anyone as much as I love her and her sister. My feelings are 100 percent truth, and in all honesty, if things keep going this way, she may actually live up to her promise also.
Bottom line - she's an extraordinary kid and oh-so-loving. Which works out for me.
But in the last year, in between the tulips and butterflies and rainbows, there have been moments of OHMYGODWHOSEKIDISTHAT and I blame kindergarten.
A month or two ago, my not-quite-six-year-old came home and told me that two kids in her class were going on a date.
"A date?" I asked, keeping my voice even even if I was half in shock. "What's a date?"
"It's when a boy and a girl get together at night."
"What do they do on a date? What's the difference between a date and a playdate?" I was scared to hear what was next.
"The kids go out to a restaurant and eat dinner - a boy and a girl." I pressed her for more. "That's all I got," she said (for real). "But at the end you can kiss on the lips."
"Oh, and I forgot - you don't sit next to each other, you sit across from each other so you can look at each other."
I was totally appalled and not at all ready for this but the part of me that appreciates irony entertained the conversation. "They go out to eat? Who drives? Who orders? Neither kid can read! WHO PAYS!!!???"
We laughed. Because seriously, the whole thing was ridiculous.
Then the other day she came home from a playdate (with a girl) and proceeded to define "sexy" for me.
"It means stylish and pretty, mom," she told me like I'm an idiot.
While she wasn't wrong in her description, my heart sank. My sweet little six year old, my Spongebob Squarepants loving daughter who can't sleep unless I cuddle with her and still comes into my bed in the middle of the night several times a month - she was explaining what sexy means.
There's nothing to be done. As proof, we were listening to a popular morning show on the radio a few months ago and the word slut was being tossed around as casually as the forecast and before I could switch it (or even noticed), a little voice from the backseat says to me, "Mommy, what's a slut?"
I wasn't going there.
No matter how hard we try to shield our kids from the overly sexualized, less gentle world than my generation grew up in (and that's not saying much), it's just not possible. And I don't blame those kids who are teaching her these things prematurely. They're good kids who are learning from older siblings who have friends with older siblings.
So now she's six and in a few months she'll go to first grade and the social scene will only become more intense with each year. And each year, I'll lose a little more of the control that I struggle to hold on to due to the simple fact that I let her out into the world. And she'll lose a little more of that beautiful innocence that I wish she could possess forever.
So here's the plan. I'm going to do everything I can to instill decent values in my kids while they're under my roof. So with work and school and stuff, that leaves about two hours a day, plus weekends, to make my mark. I think it's going ok. They don't curse (Mommy! That's a BAAADDDD word!) and they know when they're saying something I won't like. They have nice table manners, say please and thank you, and other parents tell me that my girls are a pleasure to have in their homes. I'm sure they'll be privy to pretty much everything within the next few years, but I'll do whatever I can to protect those little people so they grow up to be big people who can feel proud to be who they are.
Happy sixth birthday to my delicious little girl...
Like most everyone else, weekends are somewhat sacred in our house. Unfortunately, too many of them get eaten up by errands, (other people's) birthday parties, commitment, and some silly thing or another so after spending Saturday doing my own thing, I reserved Sunday - for which the forecast was a warm, sunny day in New England - to do one of my favorite things: hit the beach.
It's getting easier now that my kids are getting older. At four and almost six, they can carry their own snack, (almost) carry their own mini beach chairs, and play together. Where a trip to the beach used to mean a cart load of stuff, eyes in the back of my head times two, and equal parts anxiety and fun, it's not like that anymore.
For me, the beach - especially the New England beach - is a safe place.
It's a place I can think clearly, whether I'm jumping waves or sitting in my chair staring at them. I can breathe deeply - I almost believe the sea air helps me sleep better (bottled beach air! just $19.99!). There's just something about a long beach day that equals luxury, decandence, relaxation. Especially after a long week at school and work. Especially when I'm surrounded by people I love.
We ended the day eating dinner while looking at the ocean in a nearby seaside town. We hit the candy store, walked with the throngs of early toursists, begged for ice cream and finally, fell asleep on the drive home, the sand still attached to our toes.
So I spent a week enjoying fresh food that I did not cook, calorie-count, weigh or measure, delivered to my door on a daily basis.
Can you say WINNING!
Ok - so about the food: most of what I ate on The Fresh Diet was delicious. Things I might not otherwise eat; turkey meatballs that were very tasty and nicely textured, steak & egg burrito with pico de gallo and sour cream that was a breakfast treat, even a small steak one night that fixed my craving for red meat. Most of the food was great.
Since so many Twitter folks have asked me about it, I'm going to go into more detail than I might have otherwise, but the idea is to honestly share my thoughts and if it means anything, I'm continuing The Fresh Diet even though my free trial is over. I've lost over 7lbs over the past 3 weeks and I have to attribute at least 1/3 of that to the fact that I looked forward to my next meal during my week on TFD.
Food stuff:
Salad - I love a good salad and some of my salads were great. I loved the citrus glazed chicken salad with honey ginger dressing, loved the "classic" cobb (sans egg), loved the horseradish dressing but did not love any of the salads topped with steak. They were simply beef on greens, no veggies, etc. and they didn't satisfy me. Going forward, I plan to stick with chicken topped salads.
The dips were worthy of dipping. What's better than freshly made hummus or olive spread? I wasn't nuts about the minuscule pieces of pita that accompanied them, though.
Wasn't wild about anything called "bruschetta" which was like salsa, or the mini egg salad pita hors d'ouevres as their size just made me hungrier HOWEVER the chicken tenders hit the spot as did the chicken satay. What can I say - I'm a protein girl.
Loved the omelettes and breakfast burritos (pictured) - artichoke and brie cheese? Goat cheese, sun-dried tomato and spinach? Yes, please!
Desserts - butterscotch chip cookies rocked, as did the coconut brownie. I LOVED the berries with ricotta cheese (I added sweetner - yum), and the chocolate chip bread pudding, but didn't love the artificially sweet tasting regular chocolate pudding.
Presentation - While the food was mostly really above average for this type of thing, I thought TFD could separate the sides from the main courses. As a result of the transportation, the meals sometimes had to be prettied up (who doesn't style their food prior to eating??) but I am aware that it would not be very environmentally friendly. So maybe comparmentalizing the different foods could be an idea TFD might consider in the future.
Portions were, well, "weight-loss" portions. In other words, while portions were size-challenged, I never walked away from a meal hungry. Being not a large woman, I selected the lowest caloric range so there were days I was hungry between meals and found myself adding a 100 calorie yogurt, or a small, low-calorie soup. I also added veggies and salad with low-cal dressing to the days I ate sandwiches for lunch. I would say that it would be nice if the meals came with the salad since anyone knows that salad is the Joanie to the sandwich's Chachi.
In conclusion - TFD food was there every morning, was never late and made no excuses. Better than a dinner date, that's right! For details about delivery options as well as pricing, visit The Fresh Diet. For now, can receive 3 days free with the purchase of a 31-day plan at $29.99 per day. Use promo code SEMOMMAR29.
Like I said, just because my free trial is done doesn't mean I am. I'm on-board as a paying customer for the next while at least and you should try it too, if you are looking for a simple way to shed a few for Spring without deprivation.
I may even blog about it.
“This post is sponsored by The Fresh Diet. I also received a week’s supply of The Fresh Diet food to facilitate this review. All opinions are my own.”
You see that post about the nutella-filled treats a few posts down? That (among others) is one of the reasons I've committed to beginning a healthy eating regimen starting ASAP. This warm winter combined with the fact that March is already here have made me cognizant of the crap I've been ingesting for the last few months and how it's affecting how I feel in my jeans, how I know I'll feel in my summer clothes, and how I feel about myself in general.
It's my opinion that a woman, mom or otherwise, must feel hawt at all times. And while that doesn't necessarily mean size 2, it does mean feeling healthy and fit.
So I am lucky to be part of The Fresh Diet campaign. The Fresh Diet is a healthy, fresh meal delivery program that makes eating mindfully easy. No measuring, no pre-planning, and no frozen meals (though in all honesty, I have had great success with frozen meal plans). You have two options on The Fresh Diet: daily delivery which is only offered in select cities at the moment, or twice weekly delivery, available everywhere. The food is delivered fresh in temperature controlled thermally insulated refrigerated cooler bags to your doorstep and you just put it in the fridge to store it.
Selecting a menu was easy. I went to the microsite, selected my calories per day (I picked 1000-1200/day for weight loss but you can choose as much as you'd like) and my food "dislikes" which didn't remove those foods from my menu choices (that might have been nice), but did alert me if I chose a food that included any of my dislikes. I had four choices for each meal of the day, four choices for snacks (which included sweets as well as more food-like selections like chicken satay or pita an hummus), and two choices for side dishes (like grains and veggies). It also alerted me if I was getting too carb heavy on a particular day. While I would've like even more choices per meal (I don't eat fish or pork so that instantly reduced my number of choices for many meals), there was plenty to choose from.
The food looked appetizing in the images provided with descriptions (if not big in portion size - but I guess that's the point), and the selections were foods I might eat anyway. I chose egg white burritos, salads topped with protein, steak and veggies. Most of the foods offered were familiar items but I also selected some things I wouldn't otherwise eat like turkey meatballs. Full food review to come.
I'm being treated to a week of taste-testing the meals, and (hopefully) losing a few LBs. My plan is not to stray from the plan (I'm headed to Vegas in two weeks and need to feel good in my Vegas clothes!) and really focus on being mindful of portion and what I'm ingesting. I'm hoping my children will take care of their own meals for the week and it'll feel almost like a vacation! Almost.
I'll post again after my week on the program. Wish me luck.
If you're interested in trying out The Fresh Diet, you can receive 3 days free with the purchase of a 31-day plan at $29.99 per day. Use promo code SEMOMMAR29.
“This post is sponsored by The Fresh Diet. I also received a week’s supply of The Fresh Diet food to facilitate this review. All opinions are my own.”
I read a piece on HuffPo Parents today called 'Apologies To The Parents I Judged Four Years Ago.' Written by blogger Kara Gebhart Uhl, it basically tells the story of 90% of people pre-kids, and then 90% of us, post-kids. The other 10% of parents who can't relate to this piece are full of shit.
Before becoming parents, many of us, myself included, looked at what parents were doing with their kids and scoffed. I can remember coming back from a family member's house and saying, "cheese sandwiches? For DINNER?" like arsenic was being sprinkled between two pieces of (WHITE!!!) bread and being fed to the unknowing children.
Let the record show we eat many grilled cheese sandwiches - for ANY meal.
In short, I don't judge much anymore. Or at least, I keep the judging to a minumum. After all, I don't like feeling judged for my choices. Firstly, you never know what's going on inside of someone else's world and secondly, unless a child is in danger of any sort, it's really not my (or your) business whether their apple is organic or not. To all you Judgey Judgerson's, I'll let you in on a lil secret - being judgmental is not the key to anyone's heart.
I admit, this transformation didn't happen overnight. I had a friend who decided to Ferberize her first child - at four months no less! - thus getting in the way of our New Year's Eve plans (made months in advance since we were both new moms). I hated the idea of "cry-it-out" and no baby of mine was going to be made to feel sad in her crib even if mom and dad hadn't had anything resembling a full night sleep in nine months. However, a week later, she had a four month old who was sleeping, well, like a baby, while we were still being woken up night after night.
Oh, and you child leashers? I still can't wrap my ahead around that but hey, it's not my therapy bill.
That said, I can recall giving a bottle to my almost asleep baby while she lay flat on her back in her crib (midnight feeding, she would eat then sleep. A dream.) I've been known to let my kids watch too much TV after a long day at work, all of us cuddled together enjoying - GASP - Spongebob! before bedtime. There are times when they go to bed a few minutes before their regular bedtime - without the requisite 20 minutes of reading - because the day has kicked Mommy's ass and she needs serenity, like, now. And other days we get to bed too late because I missed my babies more than usual that day. Selfish, I know.
And even after not supporting my friend's choice to let her baby cry, I did it with my second child. After allowing baby #1 to rule the bedtime roost out of sheer desperation, I just could not do it the second time around. So I ate my words, and baby #2 wasn't so lucky - I was more prepared to battle it out this time. So while I wouldn't recommend letting your baby sleep with you, I do get it. And if you choose to take baby in your bed, I'll tell you I'm sorry, but I won't be judging.
For the most part, I think we're doing just fine.
We eat whole grains as much as we can and do lots of art together. We bake, we practice spelling, we dip broccoli in hummus. We have never had to leave a restaurant due to a disruptive child nor are their eyeballs surgically attached to video games to get them to behave so we can eat (though, if this is your thing, cool.)
I work full-time. I sometimes feed my children chicken nuggets or fish sticks for dinner, other times they eat roasted kale and tilapia. Before I was a parent I was a highly judgmental person. Since then, I really care way less about what other people do and more about what I should be doing.
But all around me, I'm aware that judgment abounds. Much like the blogger who wrote that piece, I can sense it. But I don't really care.
As long as I'm ok with what I'm doing, it's all good.
"Judge not Before you judge yourself. Judge not If you're not ready for judgement."
I remember the first time I saw this. I was browsing in a store in Florida and came across this poem by Susan Ariel Rainbow Kennedy (AKA Sark). My step-sister's first child had just been born and I bought it for her in quilt form because the words spoke to me, even then before I had any kids of my own. They still do:
I know. Sounds crazy. But I've been bit by the Pinterest bug and I've become obsessed with amazingly delicious-looking food pictures and I came across this from Recipe Girl:
So, ours didn't look like that; we made our sort of flat, like half-moon shaped simply because we (my girls and I) were more interested in teasing our taste buds rather than our eyeballs (but aren't the heart shapes beautiful?). So we bought a package of Nasoya egg roll wrappers, a jar of nutella and got to work.
We literally smeared a tablespoon or two of the hazelnut chocolate spread inside of each egg roll wrapper, wet the edges to seal it in half, and tossed it in the frying pan with about a quarter inch of canola oil and, dare I say it, fried until brown. That's it. Obviously they were devoured quicker than I could photograph them but the pics above are far more aesthetically pleasing than ours looked.
Next time we are feeling crazy, we'll tackle these babies, courtesy of The Apron Gal:
Oh, and stay tuned for my latest weight loss update. :)
