Cloth Diaper Review

About a year ago, I published a series of posts about cloth diapering. A year later, I still feel the same way: Cloth diapering is a great way to save money and reduce trash. However, after nearly five straight years of cloth diapering (with a two month break between Benny getting potty trained and Lila being born), I am pretty much over cloth diapering. Or really diapering of any sort.

With that being said, I have had the opportunity to try out some new brands of cloth diapers thanks to my generous friend, Caley, who sends me diapers when she's cleaning out her closet. We started out with 16 Fuzi Bunz. I have been somewhat disappointed with the diapers' longevity. The elastic around the legs is shot and Lila's pee sometimes runs out of the diaper completely. However, I do love the adjustable snaps. Other than the elastic, I have nothing to complain about. They are still relatively absorbent. They still look great. I don't think they'd hold up for another kid, but that doesn't matter for our family.

I can say, with some authority, that I don't like Velcro on cloth diapers - not one bit. It's one extra thing to remember when washing the diapers (keep the tabs fastened otherwise they'll chew other stuff up). Also, Lila  can undo Velcro tabs in seconds flat. The snaps, not so much. I've tried Bum Genius, Eco Bunz and a handful of other diapers and Fuzi Bunz still win.

Hopefully I'll have some potty news to report in the not-so-distant future!

Benny sporting his Fuzi Bunz.

Giving Local

Thanks for stopping by for another installment of Green Means Go(od)!

My giving local experiment hasn't worked out quite the way I wanted it to this year. I haven't visited any local Denver shops to purchase gifts. I did, however, take advantage of "shopping local" when I visited Minneapolis last weekend. I had a great weekend visiting one of my best friends - sans children. We spent Friday night catching up with two friends of mine from grad school and attending an intense criminal defense attorney Christmas party (and I don't use "intense" lightly!). On Saturday we relaxed a bit and spent the afternoon in Stillwater, Minnesota, about 30 miles outside of Minneapolis.

I wasn't having a lot of luck finding gifts for my family. Then we stumbled on the Stillwater Olive Oil Company. It's a teeny tiny shop that only sells olive oil and balsamic vinegar. Amazing. I tasted about 10 olive oils before settling on some really great ones for some people on my list. I even found some great accessories, like spouts for the bottles.

At a small home store, I spotted a spinning art toy that Benny has been coveting. He'll be surprised that Santa is so tuned in to what he wants!

Otherwise, the local shopping will be fairly nonexistent this year. We're using Amazon for a couple of gifts, found some sheets for Benny's bed at IKEA (gasp - so not local) and went to Target (gasp again) for some new underwear and socks to stuff in his stocking.

But, we are staying true to our experience gifting plan. We're taking Benny out for a night on the town next week (his request) and we have a special weekend planned for my parents. I can't divulge much about that until after Christmas. I'd give this year's buy local project a C at best. I'll try harder next year!

Greens from the Garden

An example of Lila's food: A mixture of spinach, Swiss chard and peas. Just look at that deep green color. So many wonderful nutrients that came about 12 whole feet from our back door. Pretty amazing, if you ask me.

If you want to read more about making baby food, check out my post here. I mostly follow Super Baby Food with some major modifications.

There are many rewarding aspects of making baby food, but one of the most visual is the bright colors that come from homemade food. You just don't get these amazingly deep hues from jarred food.

Other benefits, particularly by making baby food from the garden: The food doesn't have to travel to get to Lila, we don't use herbicides or pesticides, the food is fresh and it costs less. Win, win, win for us, Lila and Mother Earth.

There are some not-so-great aspects of making your own food. It takes time. Not loads of it, but time nonetheless. Sometimes I just want to relax after full day of work and putting the kids to bed. Sometimes I just have to suck it up and make baby food.

Eating Adventures

My beautiful baby girl has graduated from her Bumbo chair to her high chair. And she couldn't be happier. She can bang on her tray and hang out while I cook, telling me stories from her day (which mostly go like this, "Da da da daaaaaa!"). She will eat just about anything we give her, including aspargus. She loves avocado and applesauce and sweet potatoes and carrots. She's not a huge fan of yogurt, but will tolerate it with a few bananas mixed in.

I had planned to breastfeed Lila until she was six months and then start tapering off. I cut out one pumping at work and started feeding her one bottle of formula during my time home with her. We made it to nearly seven months before she decided that she was totally over breastfeeding. Although I made it to my goal of six months, by the time I got there I decided that I could keep going for another few months. Now that Lila has decided that she is finished with the breast, I can't help but be a little disappointed. I have a feeling we'll continue our early morning feeding for awhile, but other than that, it's over.

I suppose I should be happy that Lila is moving on. There are some significant pros to being finished with breastfeeding, like 1) not having to pump at work any more, 2) not having to clean pumping equipment any more, 3) using my lunch break to go for a walk or run instead of spending my time pumping, 4) not having to go through a painful weening process, 5) not having to worry about pumping and dumping any more. But there are some surprising (and not so surprising) cons to the end of the breast, like 1) snuggling with Lila, 2) more bottles to wash, 3) paying for formula - yeeowza!

But with that face, I can't be too upset about anything at this point!

The 80-20 Rule

I make a lot of goals for myself. I'm a pretty driven person, so I end up achieving these goals one way or another without much thought. However, lately I've been rather disappointed in myself. I used to pride myself on my frugality. Frugality led me to being more aware of what I consume and my impact on the environment. I used to buy all of my clothes used and I always thought twice about buying anything, anything new.

As I've become busier and busier with a house, a husband, a job, and two kids, I find myself favoring convenience to frugality. That means less healthy meals, more new stuff, and infinitely more trash. So, I am reviewing my 80-20 Rule. This rule means that I need to try to buy 80 percent of my "stuff" used - from clothes, to furniture, to cars, to stuff for my kids. Nate and I do pretty well on the used furniture stuff. Of all the furniture in our house, we only bought five items new. The rest has a history. And I love that history. For example, we bought our desk from an antique store in Austin (the first piece of furniture we ever bought together). We bought our living room chair from a friend in Austin. We bought our dining room table from a family in the neighborhood. We bought our basement couch and chair from a nice guy in Boulder. We found all of this stuff on Craigslist. And the amazing thing is: It all looks fantastic. With a little patience, we'll furnish our whole house with used furniture. We even recycled our cabinets. We painted them and they look fantastic.

I'm also pretty good about getting kids clothes used (and for free). We're incredibly lucky to have a couple of neighbors who give us hand-me-downs. And I exchanged Benny's old clothes to a friend for some of her daughter's baby girl clothes.

So, I need to start practicing what I preach when it comes to other items in my life. I can't remember the last time I bought clothes at a thrift store or consignment shop. I need to start. If anyone knows of a great consignment shop in the Denver area, please send it my way! My new goal is to spend my Christmas gift cards at Banana Republic and then switch to used clothes. That way buying new every once in awhile won't feel so bad. In terms of food, I need to buy more fresh, locally produced stuff. Less packaging, less sodium, less icky stuff to put into landfills and our bodies. This is one goal that I do have to try a little harder to achieve. Now that I have two kids with impressionable little minds, I think it's imperative to really focus on these values so that they learn from example.

With all of that, I do have to admit that the new pair of brown boots that I just got in the mail are pretty freaking spectacular. I just can't feel guilty about boots, as hard as I try!

Book Review: Animal, Vegetable, Miracle

Finally. Finally. Finally. I finished Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver. I've been reading this book for at least six months. A two-hour flight gave me the time and motivation to polish it off.

It was a good book - definitely worth reading. My thoughts of it haven't changed since I wrote my half book review about it oh, so long ago. I am going to try to use it to continue to be more informed about my food choices. The garden is blooming, so I should have some success this summer. Radishes are already up. So is lettuce and kale. We're well on our way.

A preview of our garden:

Tuna Casserole

We started this week off right - in terms of food. As I mentioned in my last post, I'm quite disappointed about how our diets have evolved as we've become busier and busier. In an effort to take a step back to eating fresher and healthier, we sat down and made a list last night so we wouldn't short change ourselves this week. On the menu:

Pork Shoulder Roast (in the crock pot)
Potato Corn Chowder
Tofu and Vegetable Stir Fry

...and...

Tuna Casserole

We made the casserole tonight. I know it doesn't sound like much, but we didn't take any short cuts (well, hardly any short cuts). For example, most modern day tuna casseroles call for cream of mushroom soup. You just sort of throw everything together and put it in the oven. We made our own creamy concoction for our casserole. We did use pre-made egg noddles. At some point, I'd like to make egg noodles from scratch. All in good time. The casserole turned out to be very, very good. We made it better by adding celery and carrots. Check it out, if you're so inclined.

• Nonstick vegetable oil spray
• 1/4 cup dry white wine
• 4 teaspoons cornstarch
• 1/3 cup all purpose flour
• 1 1/2 cups low-fat (1%) milk
• 1 cup canned low-salt chicken broth
• 2 teaspoons minced fresh thyme or 1 teaspoon dried
• 2 tablespoons Neufchâtel cheese (reduced-fat cream cheese)
• 1 6-ounce can solid white tuna packed in water, undrained
• 1 6-ounce can chunk light tuna packed in water, undrained
• 1 cup frozen petite peas, unthawed

• 8 ounces farfalle (bow-tie) pasta

• 1/2 cup crushed baked potato chips (about 1 ounce)

Preheat oven to 400°F. Spray 8 x 8 x 2-inch glass baking dish with vegetable oil spray. Whisk wine and cornstarch in small bowl to blend. Whisk flour in heavy medium saucepan to remove any lumps. Gradually add milk to flour, whisking until smooth. Add broth and thyme and whisk over medium heat until liquid thickens and boils, about 4 minutes. Add cornstarch mixture and whisk until liquid boils and is smooth, about 1 minute. Remove from heat. Add Neufch‰tel cheese and whisk until melted. Stir in both cans of tuna with their liquid and frozen peas. Season to taste with salt and pepper.
It needs a little extra salt than you'd expect, but otherwise, it's downright tasty. Benny had three helpings, which is always the sign of a quality dish. We're on our way. Oh, yes. I'm also thinking about starting to make some cheese. I may need to slow down a little on that account. Happy tuna!

1/2 Book Review: Animal, Vegetable, Miracle

It may seem that my books have been gathering dust on my night stand over the past few months. In truth, they have. It's been difficult to get motivated to read when the kitchen is completely destroyed and we're trying to spend quite a bit of time on finishing it.

I have found the time to read about half of Barbara Kingsolver's Animal, Vegetable, Miracle. The book is a recounting of Kingsolver's family's experiment of living off the land for one year. It's more than that though. It discusses the politics of food and the impact of those politics on our health, our environment, and our quality of life (which, I suppose is included in both our health and our environment).

The book, more than anything, has made me realize how far I've strayed from my ideals when it comes to food. As my profile indicates, I was once a vegetarian. I didn't eat meat for many reasons. But one of the most important reasons was that I don't agree with how many animals are raised. As a vegetarian, I learned more about how all food is produced. I tried, as much as possible, to buy local. This summer Nate and I tried to grow some of our food ourselves.

However, now that I have a full-time job and I'm a mom, my schedule has slowly shoved me into thinking about ease of use of food as opposed to quality and sustainability of food. For example, here's an average weekly menu for the Struckman/Brown household.

• Sunday - grill
• Monday - burritoes, tacos, or nachos
• Tuesday - mac cheese (we have started to make our homemade recipe again, but still)
• Wednesday - out to dinner
• Thursday - leftovers
• Friday - sandwiches
• Saturday - soup

Throw in spaghetti or frozen pizza and you've got our weekly menu for an entire year. It's not fresh, it's not all that healthy, and it's boring.

I'm hoping that reading the remainder of the book will get me motivated to return to my ideals about food. It has reminded me that I do like to cook. I like to eat yummy, fresh fruits and veggies. I like to buy local. It makes me feel good and it makes me eat better.

I'll post the real review once I'm finished. Perhaps finishing the kitchen will help me return to my roots!