Vegetarian Barley Shepherd's Pie

This vegetarian dish requires a lot of chopping but makes a large quantity and freezes well. I'm the only one who eats it in my house so the initial prep time is well worth the eight dinner-sized portions I end up with. For more protein, throw in a can of beans or a pound of cooked ground beef if you're not concerned with keeping it vegetarian. I topped mine with shredded cheddar and sliced avocado and it was absolutely lovely.

Ingredients
2 Tablespoons olive oil
6 cups (approximately) diced veg (I used: 1 onion, 3 carrots, 3 ribs celery, 1 golden beet, 1 parsnip, 1 turnip, and 8 white mushrooms) 
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 teaspoon dried thyme leaves
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
1 Tablespoon Worcestershire Sauce (omit or use vegan if you're cooking for strict vegetarians. Traditional Worcestershire Sauce contains anchovies.)
1 cup dry barley, prepared per package
1 cup frozen shelled edamame
1 cup veggie broth

Topping Ingredients
4 cups (approximately) peeled sweet potato chunks (I have no idea how to accurately quantify sweet potatoes. Telling you I used three sweet potatoes doesn't really do it. In my experience, sweet potatoes range in size from the size of a miniature banana to the size of a small baby. All I can tell you is this: I cut my sweet potatoes into walnut-sized chunks and I had about 4 cups)
2 cloves garlic, peeled and roughly chopped
water and salt to boil
1/4 cup butter
salt and pepper to taste

Directions

Preheat oven to 350F. Lightly grease 9x13 baking dish.

Cook barley per package instructions. Fluff and set aside.

Put sweet potatoes and 2 cloves chopped garlic in pot and cover with cold water. Add about a teaspoon of salt. Bring to a boil over high heat. Reduce heat, cover, and cook until fork tender. Drain. Mash with butter while still hot so the butter melts. Season with salt and pepper. Set aside.

Heat olive oil in large skillet. Sauté veg over med-high heat until onion is translucent and veg is tender, 7 - 10 minutes.

Add garlic, thyme, salt, pepper and Worcestershire Sauce and cook for another minute until garlic is fragrant. Stir in prepared barley, edamame, and broth. Spoon into baking dish and pat down gently.

Spread mashed sweet potatoes evenly over barley mixture.

Bake 20-30 minutes until heated through and topping is lightly browned.

Serves 8 as a main dish.

Meal Plan 03/13/2017 - 03/17/2017

Grady is on Spring Break for the next two weeks so my plan is to get him heavily involved in meal planning, prep, and execution. His picky eating is negatively affecting meal times and I feel like if he (thinks he) has more control, he may be willing to accept new foods.

Monday: Baked salmon with Kale and Navy Bean Caesar-ish Salad.

Tuesday: Fake Shake Burgers with sweet potato oven fries and broccoli slaw.

Wednesday: Barbecue chicken stuffed baked sweet potatoes with leftover broccoli slaw.

Thursday: Leftovers

Friday: One Pot Swedish Meatball Pasta served with some form of Responsibility Vegetable.

What's on your meal plan this week?

Kid Craft: Reading Sticks

We read with Grady every day but Grady doesn't know how to read yet. To be clear: we don't expect Grady to know how to read. We do, however, want to support his reading comprehension. We want reading to be enjoyable. We want to do whatever we can to help him learn easily but apart from making reading part of our daily routine, we weren't really sure how. ​

Grady's teacher recently introduced me to reading sticks. They're simple pointers the kids use to identify letters, syllables, and simple words as they "read" with her. They're brilliant. Grady can't look at a sentence and read all of the words yet, but he can use the pointer and consistently follow along, word for word, syllable for syllable, as I read to him. It makes our reading time more interactive (I'm not reading to him, we're reading together) and he's becoming more confident in his reading abilities. 

Reading sticks are an easy kid craft. Popsicle sticks are a great size and then you just need something fun for your pointer (pompom, sequin, sticker, googly eye, etc.). Grady's excited to make them (I let him use GRADE ONE GLUE!!) and that translates into him being excited to use them. We've made a bunch and stashed them in various places so at any given moment we can whip out a reading stick and do some learning. ​

How do you support your early reader? We've got two weeks of spring break and I want to keep the reading momentum going. ​

Angry Bees

I don't sleep much but when I do, I wake up and my face hurts from clenching my teeth. There's no separation between my mental turmoil and the physical pain that radiates down my jaw. Awake or asleep, my head is in a constant state of angry bees. I am volatile and capricious and perpetually buzzing.

* * *

Poppy has (what we suspect is) an allergic reaction to peanuts. I question our decision to follow her doctor's advice to introduce peanuts at a young age. I berate myself for giving her peanuts so soon after an extended illness when her immune system is already taxed. I watch her breathe as she sleeps, instead of sleeping myself, for two nights. I cry on the phone when the allergist calls to set up her allergy test. "You didn't do this to your baby," he tells me. I don't believe him.

* * *

I commit myself to good sleep habits. I cut down on caffeine and sugar and alcohol. I limit my screen time in the evening. I meditate and take a bath with lavender bubbles and drink a mug of chamomile tea. I crawl between the sheets before 10pm. I dream about forgetting to pick Grady up from school; accidentally leaving Poppy in the bath by herself with the water running; going to work and forgetting to arrange childcare; Shawn being in a car wreck; falling down the stairs; falling from the balcony; falling off the sidewalk into oncoming traffic; always falling.

* * * 

Grady needs an echocardiogram. His cardiologist is reassuring and kind. She is checking on how his heart has grown but she is not concerned. There is no reason to be afraid or anxious but I torture myself for weeks, wondering at what point his aorta arched the wrong way. What did I do to cause it? How will it affect him? The results are the best possible results but I still feel like I broke my baby.

* * *

Before Grady was born, I thought postpartum depression was moms hurting their babies or moms hurting themselves. I didn't know there was a spectrum of different mood disorders that can manifest during pregnancy or in the postpartum period. I think it's important for us to talk about this stuff so women feel less alone in a period of their life that can't help but be vulnerable. Hormones spike and crash. There is no sleep. Pregnancy, giving birth, and life with a baby require stamina and tenacity that can be difficult to find. Talking to other women who have been there before, or who are there with me right now, has been my saving grace. I don't feel like a monster because I have a running montage of all the terrible things that could potentially happen to my kids looping through my mind; I feel like someone whose hormones are out of whack, who needs a good night's sleep, and who is struggling but is not broken. For me, for right now, postpartum depression looks like chaos and worst-case scenarios. For others, it may look like sadness or apathy or rage. And that's okay. Feeling sad or mad or frustrated or devastated doesn't mean you don't love your baby or you're ungrateful or flawed. It means you're a human feeling messy, human emotions.

If you're struggling during pregnancy or postpartum, there are different places you can reach out to find support. Taking the first step can feel overwhelming but it's important to know you're not alone, you're not the first person to feel this way, and you absolutely deserve to be helped and to feel better.

If you need help, start here:

Postpartum Support International
Perinatal Mood Disorder Awareness
Suicide Prevention Lifeline