Turkey and Black Bean Soup

I discovered the original recipe (Beef and Black Bean Soup) last year on Allrecipes and made a few changes to it.... and my family gobbles it up. The kids have never once complained about it....and so that makes for a relaxing dinner. I also like that it's economical and very healthy. But best of all, it's just plain delicious.


Recipe

1 lb. ground turkey
1/2 t. garlic salt
2 (14.5 oz) cans chicken broth (I just use water with bouillon stirred in)
1 (14.5 oz) can diced Italian diced tomatoes, undrained
8 green onions, thinly sliced (OR 1 yellow onion, chopped)
5 medium carrots, thinly sliced
1 cup frozen corn
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 T. sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons dried basil
1 t. salt
1 t. dried oregano
1 heaping t. chili powder
1 heaping t. cumin
2 (15 oz) cans black beans, rinsed and drained
1 1/2 cups cooked rice (I use brown)

Brown the ground turkey until done, sprinkling with the garlic salt while cooking. Drain.
Transfer to a slow cooker. Add everything else, except the rice. Stir to combine and cook on low for 8 hours or high for 4-6 hours, depending on when you need it done. Add the rice about 1 hour before you want to eat.
Serve with a little grated cheese and some corn chips.

Yield: Enough for my family of 2 adults, 3 kids under 5 to have 2 full dinners and a little leftover. Hey, we like leftovers! And this soup is just as good, if not better, a couple of days later.

Corban's Birth Story

So Grant was hoping I would post "his" birth story, or rather, his account of Corban's birth. I never did write my version, so we'll have to rely on his for accuracy. :) He did a great job...he actually wrote it the day Corban was born and surprised me with it.

Well Everyone, Corban David Mora is here! Our son was born at 1:31 am on October 20, 2003. He weighed 8 lbs, 1 oz; and was 23 inches long! Very LONG AND LEAN! Apparently the pain Rebekah was feeling under her collar bone really was Corban kicking (ok so it was only her lower lung…) He currently has a LOT of brown hair, and very deep baby blue eyes… lets hope he keeps those colors!

As some of you know, Rebekah and I strongly support and desire natural child birth, but were not opposed to Medical Intervention if either her or our child were threatened. Here is the short version of our labor story written by me, alone, with out Rebekah’s review, VERY quickly, while checking on the dog before returning to her and Corban at the hospital… for a more accurate and complete version you will have to ask Rebekah… Oh, for those of you who think to be concerned about Corban’s vitals through the Labor, rest assured he has a fantastically strong heart and was never in any stress… in fact it appeared as though he enjoyed the stimulation!

Rebekah went into labor on Saturday morning at 9:30ish, and was admitted to Labor and Delivery at 7:00 pm (Dilated at 3 cm, 80% effaced). We arrived with more gear than you could shake a stick at, one nurse didn’t even know what our birthing ball was, and all were impressed by Rebekah’s ‘Birth Plan’, foresight to have a medical power of attorney for me, and her overall knowledge, and preparation.—My wife is remarkable and I AM SO PROUD OF HER!

Back to the story,
Rebekah remained in Active 1st stage labor until early Sunday morning. At 10:00 pm we had only progressed to 4 cm but were 100% effaced. By midnight Saturday night, after 2 more hours of even harder contractions we were disappointed to be informed that she was only at 5 cm. The rest of the night and early morning Rebekah labored hard, REALLY HARD. We thought for sure we would have that baby soon! Alas, that was not what God had in store for us.

We think Transition Stage (where you go from 7-10 cm, and is typically the hardest and shortest Stage of Labor lasting between 10 minutes and an hour) began at about 5:00 on Sunday Morning, however, we know that by 8:00 am when her midwife checked her she was at 8 cm, there she remained for the next 7 agonizing hours (though she spent a total of 12 hours at 8 cm). At about 12:30 pm she was checked again and it was discovered there had been no forward progress, we decided to intensify her contractions with natural methods to no avail, that is, the contractions came faster and harder but when she was checked again at 2:30 pm we were again told we were still at 8 cm.

At this point While I was very tired, I hadn’t been laboring for 30 hours like Rebekah… she was exhausted both because of the labor and because of sleep deprivation and food deprivation… hey guys, you try eating when you can’t even walk from an intense muscular contraction you can’t stop or rest from…. Let’s put it in perspective… do you exercise? Try doing bench press, pushups, incline press, decline press and every variation there of to totally smoke one muscle group… FOR 30 HOURS STRAIGHT… and see if you have the heart to do what Rebekah then did…

As Rebekah’s Coach, I knew my Athlete really wanted a natural delivery, and I truly believed that we were close, really close, to the magic 10 cm mark. I gave her a good pep talk after discussing some not so fun options with our midwife and doctor, which included the mention of a Cesarean Section. We then did our best to intensify contractions again with natural techniques, and by 3:00pm things were REALLY moving. Doing her best to relax through her contractions, and focus on surrendering to the labor, allowing her uterus to do the work it was designed to do, Rebekah fought through another hour of what was some of the most amazingly intense contractions you could imagine.

When the agreed upon time came for our midwife to check her again, Rebekah was still only dilated at 8 cm. – I could not bring myself to coach her though another hour like that, not at the exhausted state she was at… we needed a break, Rebekah needed some rest or she would never be able to push Corban out. Fortunately both of us felt that an Epidural was the way to go, followed by the breaking of her waters. We did not break her waters previously because the Bag of Waters serves as a great natural cushion to keep the intensity of uterine contractions from overwhelming a laboring mother…

At 5:10 pm on Sunday, Rebekah received an Epidural and at about 5:35 her waters were broken. Two hours later she was still at 8 cm… despite these two interventions. Again the Doctor brought up the subject of a Cesarean Section, and again we wanted to avoid it, an internal monitor was fed into her uterus in order to be ‘squeezed’ and therefore get a very accurate reading on the strength of her contractions. We discovered that because of the extremely long labor, her uterus was no long able to give contractions powerful enough to finish dilating the Cervix, let alone be able to birth our son. We opted for Pitocen, a medication that stimulates uterine contractions, in order to finish the labor.

Finally at Midnight on Sunday night Rebekah had reached 10 cm, but still had no overwhelming urge to push. After another hour of contractions Rebekah had an urge to push… and at 1:00 am on Monday she began pushing.

Second Stage Labor… Rebekah originally intended to give birth to Corban in the squatting position using a squatting bar. However, the Epidural made this an impossibility. The next best position, which was our alternate planned position, should Rebekah’s knee give out, was the Assisted Classic Position. In this position, the Labor Coach sits behind the Athlete and acts as a backrest while pulling back on the Athlete’s thighs ‘simulating’ a squat from a seated position. All the Labor and Delivery Staff were amazed to see this… I guess they don’t see to many couple that do their homework or train for this like Rebekah and I did.

After only a half hour of pushing Corban came screaming into this world and was immediately placed on Rebekah’s chest for bonding. With digital cameral in hand I snapped our first family photo, minus our dog.

Third stage labor we won’t discuss, as most people leave during the credits of a movie anyway…

Well there you have it, the story of the birth of our little boy, Corban David. A total of 40 hours of labor, 12 of which she spent at 8 cm dilated… my hat is off to my wife, she has more than proven my claim that she is capable of anything. Our little boy is a strong little tike with lots of hair, and fantastic leg muscle definition, I am sure his Uncle Eric is already dreaming of the Mountain Bike races he will one day coach his Nephew to destroy his opponents in.

Grant stopped by a bakery and got this adorable ice cream cake for us to celebrate. We ended up giving most of it to the nurses, because we certainly couldn't eat it all!

Marissa's Birth Story

Fish Mama over at LifeAsMom just had a darling baby girl and is hosting a birth story swap today. I thought I'd join in with my favorite birth thusfar, Marissa's. (Note: I wrote this just a few days after she was born.)

The date was October 28, 2005. Marissa was due in 6 days, and my mom was arriving on the 31st. I felt like I had a lot of deep cleaning to do before everything went crazy, and I had started scrubbing our downstairs vinyl floor by hand the previous day and had more than half left to go. I worked all morning on the floor, despite the remembrance that just the previous night I had commented to Grant that I should probably take it easy and not work too hard, since the baby could come at any time and I didn’t want to be too exhausted when labor began.

Grant and I had arranged with a neighbor girl, Laura, to baby sit for us that night while we went on one last date before Marissa’s arrival, to the movies. After lunch, Corban and I headed out to the movie theater to buy tickets for the new Zorro movie. Then we stopped by the grocery store to pick up some frozen pizzas, then home to get Corban down for a nap. I called Laura’s mom to inform her of the ticket times and when we needed Laura to be there. She asked how I was feeling and I replied, “No baby yet!” and laughed.

I headed downstairs to finish my Suduko puzzle from the newspaper before taking a little snooze myself. As I reclined on the couch, I felt a sharp little pain in my cervix area, as though Marissa had punched me a good one. Suddenly, I began to feel a little wet. Instantly the thought crossed my mind that my water had broken, but I was in complete denial and just kept working my puzzle. I kept feeling wetter, but continued ignoring it for several minutes, thinking, “This just can’t be happening right now”. It became impossible to ignore and I headed to the bathroom, realizing that no, I had not peed on myself and yes, this was a serious situation. Fortunately, the liquid was clear, so no worries about meconium. My heart pounding with the realization that this baby was inevitably coming, I headed upstairs to the master bathroom, in which there was a phone.

It was about 2:45 pm. I called Grant, who was driving back to work from some errands. I said, “Honey, we’re not going to make it to that movie”, to which he replied, “Are you in labor?!” very excitedly….when I said “Yes”, he wasn’t disappointed about the movie at all. He said he would be home very soon and that he would call the doctor’s office for me (he had the number more available than I did). He called me back a few minutes later and informed me that Lois, my midwife, was out of town (as he was told by the receptionist at the office) and that we were instructed to head to the hospital as soon as possible.

I couldn’t believe it, she had told me she would be around and was planning on being at my labor and delivery. Well, nothing could be done and I had to proceed anyways! I called Laura’s mom back and made arrangements for her to come over and watch Corban for the night, then jumped into the shower. I knew I had a long night ahead of me and wasn’t about to have those post-baby pictures taken with greasy hair!

Then I got to start packing. We hadn’t done any of that yet! I was so convinced that she would be late that I hadn’t made it a priority. I was having mild contractions, nothing major at all, but still leaking a lot of fluid. Grant got home, the babysitters arrived, we finally finished packing and saying goodbyes to Corban (who had gotten very clingy and obviously knew something big was happening), and headed out the door. I was so nervous about leaving Corban. He had never spent a night away from me, so I guess I was anxious for both of us! I could hardly believe that when I came back home, I would have a new baby. Life would really never be the same.

We stopped at Walgreen’s on the way, mainly to get some bottled water. Grant ended up buying a load of candy, too (great for celebrating once she was born). Once at the hospital, Grant was uploading some CDs to his MP3 player so we could have music without the boom box in the hospital room. I was uncomfortable, but still not in significant pain. We got into the hospital around 6:00.

The unit was quiet, I was instructed to change into a gown, and basically we were left alone. A nurse finally came in to start the processing paperwork, and she told us there would be a shift change at 7:00. The contractions were picking up in intensity, about every 4-5 minutes, but I was coping very well. Our nurse for the evening, Judy Lassiter, came in to meet me, and she continued with the paperwork, questions, etc. I told them I would need an IV for the antibiotics for Strep B, but it was not a rush for them. Dr. Hill showed up in the room around 8:00, examined me and said I was 3 cm dilated, 70% effaced. He told me he’d give me till morning to see if I needed Pitocin.

Finally I got the monitors off and the IV in and was able to get out of the bed to move around. I headed immediately to the bathroom, and the contractions picked up as soon as I was standing. By 9:30, I was really concentrating on breathing and relaxing through contractions and was in a lot of pain, wondering if I could really do this natural childbirth thing. I told Grant I wanted to get checked, and that if I wasn’t making GOOD progress, I was seriously considering an epidural. He summoned Judy and she checked me immediately. I think we were all surprised when she announced 6 cm! Whew, I WAS making progress. At that point, I knew I could hang in there awhile longer.

I had decided that sitting on the bed was the most comfortable position for me. Grant sat behind me so I could lean on him during contractions and between them he rubbed my back with this heavenly lavender vanilla massage oil from Bath and Bodyworks. As the contractions swept over me, I put every ounce of concentration I could muster into relaxing all the muscles in my body and visualizing my cervix opening like a flower. Transition seemed like it lasted forever…..I was shaking and sweaty and convinced that I couldn’t stand another minute of pain, and at 10:30 I demanded to be checked again.

Whoa, 8-9 cm! I was almost there!!! The nurse kicked it into high gear at that point, saying she was calling Lois right away. I was confused…Lois???? I thought she was out of town. Oh, she was back and was planning on attending my birth. Thank God!! Why didn’t anyone tell me this earlier? (I later found out that Lois was not informed of how fast I was progressing and was extremely sorry that she wasn’t there to help out. She loves attending natural births and I was one of her few patients having one).

I had another urgent need to use the bathroom and managed to make it there in the few seconds between contractions. As I sat on the toilet, I could feel my body starting to push. I wasn’t doing it on purpose, and I really couldn’t stop it! It was the strangest feeling. I made it back out to the bed and told Grant we’d better get Judy in there fast.

She came in to check me again (about 10:40) and said I was fully dilated! She told me to try not to push and to pant through contractions. Lois should be there soon! Boy, that was the hardest thing ever…..to keep from pushing. My body rebelled against me and I just could not control it, panting though I was. Judy was preparing the room for delivery because she could tell I wasn’t gonna last much longer. Another nurse, Martha, came to assist. I think it was a few minutes till 11:00 when Judy determined that baby was coming NOW and I might as well push with all my might.

So I did. My goodness, the intensity of those few moments. I thought I couldn’t bear the pain, but it was exhilarating to know that I was delivering a precious baby and that my body was doing exactly what it was made to do. Marissa’s head came out and unbeknownst to me, the cord was wrapped around her neck. Grant could tell something was wrong because the color of her head was not normal; it was quite purple. Despite his immediate concern, he managed to stay completely calm and just followed Judy’s example in urging me to push.

Judy swiped the cord off Marissa’s neck with one finger and just stated firmly, “Push now, get that baby out.” I had no idea anything could be wrong, but I pushed as hard as I could and she slid out. At that very instant, Lois arrived. Marissa was handed up to my chest for a few seconds…It barely registered in my mind that she wasn’t the right color or crying….she was gurgling and wet and had so much hair and all I could think was “I did it! I did it! Thank God it’s over!”

Then I realized that Grant wasn’t cutting the cord, that Judy did it and then took Marissa away. After turning her upside down and patting her, she started crying. They got her under a warmer for a few minutes while Lois checked me out. I had a minor tear which required a few stitches (my goodness, the shots to make me numb were so painful!) and thankfully that was over quickly.

Marissa was doing fine and was brought over to me to nurse. Lois and Judy, after insuring everybody was okay, left us in peace to have some bonding time with our precious new daughter. She took to nursing right away and Grant and I just looked at her and marveled at how perfect she was. We were both still in a bit of shock at how fast the labor progressed…..we knew it would be faster than Corban’s, but we truly had no idea the total time would be just 8 hours 20 minutes. Praise GOD!!!

Weekend Fun

We started out the weekend by going to Fort Monroe for their free pool/beach evening, complete with live music. This was our second time going this summer, and it truly is a lot of fun.

We took along some friends from church (who brought a great dinner for us to share, Thanks Lyndsay!) and splashed around in the pool awhile before heading to the beach. It was a cool evening, and the pool was quite chilly, so Corban didn't get to practice his swimming as much as he wanted, but the beach was a nice diversion.

Annika has discovered that she does actually enjoy the sand!

Corban loved climbing on the dragon and jumping off.

Saturday we got to go to a birthday party for a neighbor boy at the Virginia Living Musuem (one of the kids' favorite places), during which they got to pet a screech owl and a corn snake. Very cool.
And Sunday was perhaps best of all, for Corban, anyways. In the afternoon, he and Grant had made an excursion to Wal-Mart to pick up some modeling glue for a little dinosaur skeleton model Corban got at the birthday party Sat., and they ended up coming home with a new bike!

Corban has been WAY too big for his first bike for a long time now, and he's still too short to ride the cool black bike that Grandpa fixed up for him (without training wheels, anyways, and he will NOT go back to those), so he really needed an in-between bike. He is more than delighted with his new wheels and wants to ride nonstop.

Of course, since he now has no use for the old bike, he and Grant immediately decided that Marissa needed to learn how to ride a bike. Mind you, she's still two months away from turning three and just mastered the tricycle in the past few months, but nevertheless, out came those old training wheels and she was hooked up within minutes.

Check this out.

Getting started....

Getting that extra help from Daddy up to the driveway...

One proud little girl.

We've let her bring the bike inside to get some practice. Seems like it wasn't that long ago that Corban was riding it in the house. Was it just last year? I think it was. We took the training wheels off for him last August and then the bike became just an outside activity.

Corban is determined to teach Marissa all he knows about bike riding and takes the role of teacher very seriously. It's pretty funny to listen to their conversations.

Blueberry muffins

Grant travels for work fairly often, and when he's spending evenings in a hotel room with not much to do, he ends up watching television, channels we don't get here at home. For months, he managed to see this infomercial about an exercise program called P90X. It's an extreme fitness regime for people who are already in considerably good shape to whip their bodies into the physiques of Greek gods over a period of 90 days, doing at least an hour of workouts six days a week. He finally caved and purchased it a few weeks ago.

And it's extreme, let me tell you. Good grief. (I am getting to the muffin recipe, bear with me here!) I didn't take the pre-fitness test (which takes a good 40 minutes and involves pull-ups, push-ups, leaps, jumping jacks, bicep curls, etc) and I certainly didn't take the "before" photos (no need to see that, now). But I have attempted to complete a couple of the cardio videos.

In the easier, only 43 minute one, I can complete nearly all of the exercises. However, the "mother of all workouts", Plyometrics, is a doozy. It's an hour of jumping, leaping, squatting, lunging, leg burning that has both Grant and I panting and wobbly-legged at the end of the warm-up. We have managed to finish it and still be able to walk, barely. And there are several exercises in there in which we have terrible form and can't really claim to have accomplished. But we're trying and giving it a darn good effort. And we'll get better. Really.

Anyways, the program also came with a nutrition guide (which I can tell you right now will NOT be followed by me....swordfish, anyone?) and a bonus little healthy recipe book. I have made a few of the recipes from the bonus book and they were all really good. Our definite favorite is this blueberry muffin. (Note: I have modified it a tiny bit, just because I can. And I hate to waste egg yolks, okay? So instead of using 1 egg and 2 egg whites, I just use 2 whole eggs. You can do whatever you want.)

Recipe
1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour
3/4 cup flax seed meal
1 cup brown sugar
1 tsp. baking powder
2 tsp. baking soda
1/4 tsp. salt
2 tsp. cinnamon
2 tsp. pumpkin pie spice
1 tsp. ground ginger
2 apples, peeled, cored, shredded
3/4 cup milk
2 eggs
1 tsp. vanilla
1/2 cup blueberries (more if desired...1/2 cup isn't very much)

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Mix all dry ingredients together, including apples.


• Combine eggs, milk, and vanilla and beat for 30 seconds


• Pour liquid ingredients into dry ingredients. Stir and fold in blueberries.


• Fill each (greased or nonstick) muffin tin 3/4 of the way full. Bake at 350 for 15-20 minutes.

I make 12 full size muffins and 9 miniature muffins.

We ate these for breakfast this morning. Here are some photos of the kids stuffing their faces. I'm glad no-one got a picture of me!

Annika (11 months)

Marissa (2.5 years)

Corban (4.5 years)

Plate of delicious muffins. Of which there were none left over. Make some!

Funny Girls

A few days ago, Marissa started making Annika laugh as we were finishing dinner and it lasted for quite awhile. I managed to get some of it on camera. At the end, Corban was not to be outdone and swooped to try to get some giggles of his own. Although usually his antics are quite successful, this time Annika was not amused.

Hint of Berry Bon Bons

This past weekend, we had the pleasure of hosting Grant's Aunt Marily, cousin Jessica, and brother Eric for dinner. Since I knew I would be far too busy during the weekend to make stuff, I made a few things ahead, including this wonderful treat. I discovered this recipe from Taste of Home magazine a few years ago and have loved it ever since.

Recipe

1 cup chocolate chips (semi-sweet or milk chocolate)

1 package (8 oz) cream cheese, softened (light is fine)

3/4 cup crushed vanilla wafers (works out to be about 30 for me)

1/4 cup fruit preserves (this time I used all fruit seedless raspberry; strawberry is also delicious)

12 oz semi-sweet chocolate chips (OR you can use chocolate candy coating and omit shortening)

1 t. shortening

3 T. white chocolate chips (Or white candy coating - 1 to 2 squares)

• Melt the chocolate chips in the microwave. Let cool a few minutes
• In a mixer, whip cream cheese until no lumps remain.
• Add melted chocolate to cream cheese and mix well.
• Stir in the crushed vanilla wafers and preserves, combining thoroughly.
• Stick in the fridge for a couple of hours, until easy to handle
• Line a cookie sheet with wax paper and roll the mixture into balls, whatever size you like. I usually make them about the size of a pecan. But round.
• Melt the 12 oz chocolate chips with the shortening (OR the chocolate candy coating) and stir until smooth.
• Dip the bon bons in the chocolate and cover completely. I use a fork to do this.
• Refrigerate to set up; then melt the white chocolate and spoon into a little sandwich bag into one corner. Cut off the very end of the corner and drizzle the bon bons to look all cute.
• Store in the Refrigerator or Freezer! These keep well for months in the Freezer, and barely have to thaw at all to be eaten. Not that I would know that from personal experience. HA!