Pumpkin (not from a can) 101

I have a food post I've been working on. It started as a review of the movie, Food Inc. (amazing movie by the way...definitely worth your time) and turned into a discussion about Genetically Modified "Food." The integrity of food and providing consumers with the information they need to make smart food choices is really important to me (in other words: I think genetically modified foods should be labeled). I got so passionate and upset about the whole big ugly Monsanto issue (a good brief is here if you are unfamiliar) that every time I sat down to work on my blog post, that it ended up getting put on hold until I could be less worked up. and that didn't really happen....so it's been languishing for a while. So for the sake of deciding to keep this blog rolling for now, I've decided to shelve it and move on. I'm sure you'll hear all about it later when I can be more composed.

So onto happier and less controversial topics (for now):

How to Roast a Pumpkin 101

Canned pumpkin is a pantry staple for most families about this time of year and mine is no exception. A couple weeks ago however, while shopping at Trader Joe's, I saw small pumpkins with stickers on them that gave basic instruction for for how to take that pumpkin and turn it into a pie. Having never made a pumpkin pie from scratch, I decided to take it home and give it a whirl. When Joe mentioned it sounded tedious, I agreed that it probably was but I just wanted to do it once. But now I am hooked!

Not only is the process of taking a pumpkin and turning it into the fresh equivalent of what you'd get in a can super easy, it tastes better, too. If you've been thinking that it must be hard, tedious, or complicated to turn a pumpkin into a pie, give this a shot. I think you will be pleasantly surprised at how easy it really is!

Step 1: Acquire a Pumpkin
Mine is a "Pamper'd Pumpkin" from Trader Joe's. Any small, sweet or 'pie' variety will do.



Step 2: Wash pumpkin and cut in half (plus preheat oven to 350 degrees)
(Remove the stem, too)



Step 3: Scoop out seeds and strings.
Save the innards if you want to make pumpkin seeds and/or feed the leftovers to your worms. Otherwise, discard.




Step 4: Place pumpkin halves cut side down in a baking dish and bake 1 hour - 1.5 hours until outside can easily be pressed in with a spoon.
(also, separate and rinse pumpkin seeds if desired. Spread on a baking sheet. Spray with olive oil and sprinkle with salt. Bake for approx. 20 while pumpkin is baking)



Step 5: Allow pumpkin to cool so you can handle it easily.


Step 6: Scoop out flesh into a bowl with a spoon



Step 7: Blend with hand blender or run through food processor until smooth




That's it! Now measure out 2 cups of fresh pumpkin puree to stand in for a standard can of pumpkin. Or add some to ice cube trays and freeze to use later for baby food. You can also cover and refrigerate for about 5 days.

I used mine to make a Chocolate Pumpkin Spice Cake.

Ingredients:

• 1 box chocolate cake mix
• 2 cups fresh pumpkin puree
• 2 tsp cinnamon
• 1 tsp ground cloves
• 1 tsp ground all spice
• 1/2 tsp ground cloves
• 1/4 tsp ground ginger
• 3 eggs (or however many called for on the box)
• 1 Tbsp canola oil

Blend all ingredients together using a hand mixer and bake until knife inserted in the center comes out clean (see box for temperature and approximate baking time).

Top with chocolate frosting and sprinkles.

Not only does it make a super tasty moist cake, but you'll be able to sneak some extra veggies into your kids' (or husband's) diets while you're at it.

For more recipes using pumpkin as the star ingredient, check out The Pumpkin Nook.

I'm not really a hippie BUT I do use cloth diapers

Of all of the choices I made while preparing for the arrival of our little one, our choice to use reusable or cloth diapers has by far been the decision which has caused the most raised eyebrows and statements of disbelief in our ability to continue using them.

In part, I understand some of the disbelief. When most people hear "cloth diapers" this is what they think:

Big flat pieces of cotton, sharp diaper pins, lots of leaks, gross laundry and a stinky nursery. Thankfully, our cloth diapering experience hasn't included any of those!

Let me introduce you to BumGenius:

They look kind of like disposables, right? No big sheets of cloth. No pins. Open diaper, insert baby, close up with velcro (or snaps if you prefer). Done. These are so far removed from stacks of thin cotton and pins that I almost don't like calling them "cloth" diapers and would rather call them "reusable" diapers or "washable" diapers. They are super daddy and babysitter friendly and really only have one extra step beyond disposables, which is inserting the stuffing.

So what I'm sure you're wondering next is WHY? Why reuse diapers when it's so convenient to throw them away?

My initial motivation behind exploring the world of cloth diapers was environmental. Even if you have super baby who is able to be potty trained by their second birthday, you're conservatively looking at using approximately 3,000 diapers the first year and 2,200 diapers the second year they are alive. That's more than 5,000 diapers in just the first 2 years! Estimates I found online, though, say that most babies actually use between 6,000 - 10,000 diapers by the time they are completely toilet trained. Think about that in terms of space. As far as raw materials go, disposable diapers add up to approximately 2 tons of waste per baby over the course of their diapering season. And that's just waste space. In order to even create the diapers, “Diapers: Environmental Impacts and Lifecycle Analysis" estimates that more than 300 pounds of wood, 50 pounds of patroleum feedstocks and 20 pounds of chlorine are used per baby per year for their disposable diapers.

Even for not-a-hippie me (and my even less of a hippie husband), this just seems to add up to a whole lot of waste. And as someone who takes the humanitarian responsibility of Earth stewardship really seriously, I just couldn't do it.

What really convinced my husband, though, was the cost savings. Even if you use off-brand diapers, you are looking at a cost of about $0.15 - $0.24 per diaper depending on diaper size. Name brand diapers like Pampers and Huggies cost anywhere from $0.20 - $0.47 per diaper. Based on really conservative estimates, then, American parents are facing a price tag of about $1,300 for off brand diapers or $2,500 for name brand diapers in the first two years alone. If potty training takes longer (as it often does in disposables), the price goes up even more. This doesn't include the price of disposable wipes, a diaper genie and diaper genie refills. Plus the potential rise in cost of your garbage bill if the area you live in bases the cost of your garbage bill on the volume of garbage your family produces. Compare that to our arsenal of brand name reusable diapers, which I purchased for just under $400. And because the diapers we chose are an adjustable size, we can use the same diapers from birth through potty training and never have to buy more. If we use the diapers again for a second child, the savings is even greater.

Taking both of these key factors into consideration, it seemed like a no brainer to us! Some of the other benefits of cloth diapers that I totally dig:

• Decreased occurrence and severity of diaper rash
• Way less poop blow outs (our son has never had a poop blow out in a cloth diaper...and he has had some SERIOUS poops)
• Cloth diapered kids have a tendency to potty train quicker
  
• They just seem more comfortable than disposables

So that's our story about why we chose cloth. And really, I think cloth might be right for some of you, too. Even if your child is a little older and you've been using disposables, cloth might still make sense for you. Based on diaper cost alone, if you think you have seven months or more of diaper wearing left between any current babies and future babies you're planning, you will save money using cloth.

On a final note, please ask questions! We were able to make an informed decision about using cloth diapers because I had friends I could ask about it. If you're curious or have any questions on the specifics of life with cloth diapers, please ask me personally or in the comments below. I love helping people in get started with and be successful with cloth diapers!

My Not-A-Hippie Manifesto

When I was nine years old, my family moved to Washington state. While we fully embraced mandatory curbside recycling, we still held quite a few of the practices of the "eccentric" locals at arms length. We called them "crazy hippies", "tree huggers" or "the earthy crunchy granola types." They did things like wear [almost always non-stylish] clothes from organic fibers, didn't shop at Walmart, bought organic whole grain foods, used [what seemed to be] sub-par beauty and sanitation products, ate flaxseeds, wore birkenstocks and planted trees. They extolled the virtues of mud and natural "unprocessed" things.

To illustrate how different my family was from these people: when we were learning about "junk food" in elementary school and how things like boxed mac & cheese, corn dogs, spam and hot dogs were processed "junk foods" that you should only eat on occasion, I was left wondering 'Well then what do you eat? That's what I would call dinner.' We were a white bread eating, high fructose corn syrup consuming, walmart shopping family.

My journey has been gradual. When I first moved out of my mom's house to go to college, I met friends who I regarded as relatively normal people who ate whole grain bread products and drank soy milk. I started learning about the difference between processed and whole grain foods and decided to try them myself. I was a vegetarian so already ate a lot of vegetables but found when I moved to whole grain pastas and bread, using butter and olive oil instead of margarine and cooking a lot of my food myself instead of always eating at McDonalds and Taco Bell or ordering pizza....I felt a ton better.

Eight years later, I'm a mom who uses cloth diapers and glass bottles. I bring m own bags to the grocery store. We're using a modified vaccine schedule instead of the one pushed by the CDC. My son is still exclusively breastfed (or bottle fed expressed breast milk) but when he does start with purees and solids, we will be making our own foods at home. We agree with Dr. Sears' approach to parenting and especially "night parenting" and how we are teaching our son to sleep on his own.

When people find out that we do these things, I can see them write me off as one of those people who I used to write off. They think I'm a hippie who is fighting the way Americans do things in vain. They think I prefer ineffective, more arduous ways of doing things that surely must cost more. But really?

I am SO not a hippie.

I was not raised with that world view. I like foods that taste good. I don't own a single pair of Birkenstocks. And I (at least occasionally) shop at Walmart.

So why am I doing all this stuff? For lots of reasons. But at the root of all of this, it's because I am a Christian. I realize this sounds odd beause in America at least we tend to associate Christianity with being a republican. Being a republican with denying the existence of global warming. And the denial of global warming with actions that maximize things like pesticide use, SUV's, plastic grocery bags and refusing to recycle.

So what does Christianity have to do with it? In the very first chapters of the book of Genesis, God makes people and puts them in charge of the Garden...the earth that he created. They are to "fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air and over every living creature that moves on the ground." We as human beings are God's chosen guardians and care takers of the Earth. Like the master in the parable of the talents in Matthew 25:14-30, I believe that one day God will ask for an accounting of what we have done with the things he entrusted to us: Our finances, our children, our resources and our planet. Did we take good care of them? Are they flourishing and doing well under our care? Or are they sick and neglected? Did we make decisions that were convenient instead of decisions that were right? Did we care about the things God cares about? Or only about the things we care about?

It is my goal to care of the things God has entrusted to me the best way that I can. To use our resources wisely, to avoid known toxins when possible and not create large piles of trash that won't go away for anywhere from 550 - 1,000,000 years.

Like many things, this is a journey. I do not profess perfection. I do not aspire to judge others. I would like to use this space, though, to talk about the choices my family has made, why we have made them and hopefully inspire you to consider the choices you make and whether or not what you are currently doing is really the best choice for you, your family and your values.