I can almost hear you saying, “What is yuca?” (pronounced YOU-kuh). It is a very interesting root found in many tropical countries, from Africa to the Carribbean, Central and South America, many South Pacific islands, and parts of Asia. I learned to like it when my husband introduced me to it while we were living in Texas.

It is a very starchy, fibrous root with a kind of bark-like skin and white flesh. It cooks similar to a potato, but it is a bit drier and has a rather bland flavor. You may have heard of its other name, cassava, as it is called in many English speaking countries, such as Jamaca. It is also the root from which tapioca is made.

The other night, my husband found this site that talks about many of the properties of yuca, and we were surprised to find that it is a good source of calcium, as well as anti-inflammatory.

My son is allergic to potatoes, which makes buying gluten-free mixes and products virtually impossible. However, tapioca flour and starch can substitute very well for potato flour and starch in GF recipes, and he is not allergic to it at all.

In Texas, we used to buy it for about $1 a pound. Not terribly cheap, but still affordable. We had to remove the skin and the ends, and I learned the hard way to chop it open in the store to check for pure white flesh (instead of flesh with gray lines in it). Sometimes I would find a lot that was good, and then I would skin it all and freeze whatever we didn’t plan on using in the next few days. It could be taken from the freezer and put directly into hot water to cook, and it tasted almost the same as fresh.

Then we moved to Oregon, and the yuca here is almost $3 a pound. So we never buy it. Not to mention that I doubt it will be good quality up here. But my husband found frozen shredded yuca at a Philippino market for about $1.25 per 1 lb bag. He used about two pounds to make a yuca casserole for Christmas dinner (yuca on top and bottom with seasoned veggie burger filling), but it’s a bit expensive to use for the family on a regular basis, and takes a bit of work. However, we discovered that if we took some of the yuca (which is so finely shredded that it is more like a thick batter than anything else), added some salt, and pan fried it in small patties, Manny would devour them. He’s been known to eat more than half a pound of it at one sitting!

Lately poor Manny, who is definitely allergic to eggs, milk, and all nuts and seeds except flax and hemp, has become more and more sensitive to beans. I can’t just feed him grains–most of them aren’t a complete protein, and even if they were, the quality of protein isn’t enough for a growing child. He won’t eat greens (and with the limited amount of food he can eat, it’s next to impossible to hide greens in anything), so using greens to supplement his protein isn’t really a viable option. So we decided to try a little turkey. Daddy bought some at the health food store today. He chopped it fine, mixed it with the yuca, made the patties, and cooked them with a little palm oil (which oxidizes slower than olive oil, is flavorless, and healthier than canola oil). We started with about 2 ounces of turkey and half a pound of yuca. I’m not sure how many patties he ate, but there were only 2 two-inch patties left when he was full.

Turkey isn’t something we’ll give him every day. What we bought today cost over $2, and I’m not positive it was organic  or free range (it didn’t say it was; he bought it pre-cooked and sliced in the deli, not raw). I can buy similar turkey from Azure Standard, only it IS organic and free-range, and costs over $6 for each 6-oz package (just under $6 each if I buy a 10-pack). I figure buying it pre-cooked is better, so I don’t have to deal with raw meat in my kitchen (a friend made that suggestion, and I totally agree with her!).

As a third-generation vegetarian, feeding meat to one of my kids is something I really hesitate to do. But we don’t seem to have a lot of options right now. I really hope that he will outgrow many of his allergies eventually, and in the mean time he really needs to avoid anything that makes him more itchy. If giving him a little turkey now and again will make that easier, then so be it.

Now if we could just move to a tropical country where yuca and other non-potato roots are staples in the diet… Hey, there’s no law that says I can’t wish, is there?

Okay, this is going to be a random post full of random details about my life.

Unless you haven’t read anything on my blog lately, I am pregnant. Working on month 4 now. I’ve been bad and haven’t had any prenatal check-ups yet. But I figure at this point, I’m not too worried. It will be easier to deal with that after we move next month. That, and I’m procrastinating trying to find someone who is covered by my insurance who will do the prenatal care knowing that I am planning a home birth with a midwife. The one place I tried said they wouldn’t do it. They referred me to a birth center, and I haven’t asked my insurance if they cover that. But I’ll do it. Soon. I promise.

Morning sickness is almost gone. I still get queasy moments, but I don’t have to eat before breakfast anymore, and I haven’t thrown up for at least a week, so I know the queasiness will disappear soon.

I bought some wheat grass recently. It was on sale, and I figured that it would be good for the baby and me. I need all the nutrition I can get. (Speaking of which, did I take my second dose of prenatal vitamins today? I don’t remember.) For two days, my son loved it. I’d put it in his milk, and he would drink it as if it were chocolate milk! Then he decided he didn’t like it anymore. And I haven’t found a way to disguise it yet. His meals are too plain for that. Oh well… It was nice while it lasted! I, on the other hand, love the stuff. In juice or a smoothie. Especially a smoothie. Tonight I had it with a banana and blueberries. Mmmmm! That was bliss!

I wish it would stop raining. We are supposed to be out of this house by February 20. Since that’s a Monday and a holiday, we are having things picked up from here on the 17th. They have done some work, but it’s been raining so much that the contractor hasn’t been able to get as much done as would be ideal. That, and the other contractor who said he could do the septic, well, it turns out he isn’t licensed to do septic systems, and he didn’t know what he was doing, which meant he stalled and wasted two weeks. Because he isn’t licensed, we were able to void the contract, and Rafael got his money back last night. Thankfully the guy has an account at the same bank we do, so he was able to verify that there were funds for the check and the money was transferred instantly. This is good, because he needs to write a check tomorrow to the new contractor!

The long and short of it is that we may end up taking a neighbor of ours up on his offer to sleep in his tiny camp trailer. We spent a couple of weekends there this last summer. Rafael will take the bus to work (it’s cheaper than gas and will give him time to study that isn’t being interrupted by noisy children) and I will have the kids and the car. We have our freezer at his place already, but I hope we don’t have to stay there long, because the fridge in the camper is super tiny and Manny’s special diet requires that we cook double. But it will be nice to be back in the country, where the kids can run wild and explore and play outside. They are tired of our back yard here. It’s just grass, nothing else, unless you count the puddles from all the rain, and they just don’t seem interested in it anymore.

We are also filing suit against some of the people involved in the purchase of our home. I won’t go into details now, because the suit is just about to be filed, but let’s just say, I hope we win at least part of it, because we really need the money. Extra, unexpected costs, such as a more expensive septic system, have drained every last bit of money we have, except our $1,000 emergency fund (which is almost nothing for a family of almost 5). We even had to use the money we got to replace damaged goods like furniture and clothing to pay contractors. Which means we won’t have anything to replace those things with. Which means we can’t afford to buy them. Which means we lose the depreciation. We have lost so much money on this place, because we didn’t know a few things that we just didn’t know about knowing, being first-time home buyers. If we had known even one or two of them, we wouldn’t have made an offer! And I haven’t even begun to talk about how the stress has affected our family, and especially my husband…

But on the bright side, we do have a good lawyer. Honest lawyers are hard to find, but this one really seems to be. She bent over backwards to help us on the first part of things, getting a reasonable amount from the insurance company, for less than pretty much any lawyer would accept. So even if not for us, I hope we win something out of this lawsuit! I mean, 3 or 4 times she came to our home on her way home from work (she lives near us) to discuss details of this or that related to what we were doing, thus saving us the trouble of finding a babysitter and making a trip to her office (about 20 minutes away). And she’s always been on top of things, very prompt and assertive in dealing with each aspect of things. I can’t recommend Sandy Webb enough!

Something else I’ve been trying to do lately is be a bit more organized. Flylady has been helping me with that. If you’ve never heard of her, you should go check her out.

Which reminds me… it’s late and I need to go shine my sink and then go to bed. Manny was congested last night and didn’t sleep well, resulting in Mom and Dad not sleeping enough. So I need to go to bed earlier than I did last night and pray he sleeps peacefully all night!

Good night!

So I am just ending the first trimester of pregnancy, and with it goes the misery of morning sickness. And this time around, I have found some unconventional things that helped it.

You’ve probably heard of the typical soda crackers and eating frequent, small meals, especially immediately upon rising or before even getting out of bed. Well, soda crackers never helped with my first two pregnancies, and since I’m allergic to wheat, I didn’t feel like getting any. I tried rye crackers, but found them too bland.

Then the secretary at the chiropractor’s office mentioned that she had a friend who found that protein helped her more than anything else. After some trial and error, I discovered that if I nibbled on almonds while I sipped my morning glass of water right after getting up, I’d be able to get breakfast and eat it without any problems–or at least, get away with keeping my breakfast in my stomach, even if I was plagued by a little nausea after eating. Sometimes a cheese sandwich would help, or a little tofu.

There were times when I couldn’t think of anything I wanted to eat, and lunch or supper was almost ready. Juice wouldn’t really help, but I discovered to my great surprise that Melaleuca’s Sustain Sport electrolyte drink would actually help calm my stomach for 15-30 minutes. One might expect this would be from the sugar, temporarily bringing the blood sugar up (because when blood sugar drops, then the nausea tends to get worse), but it is sweetened with sucralose, not sugar, so I think it really was the electrolytes. I am not sure how Gator-aid would compare, since Sustain Sport has twice the electrolytes and is naturally flavored. Not to mention, it tastes good–not salty.

Every pregnancy has been different so far. The first time, that first trimester is rather fuzzy–I don’t remember much of it. I do remember not knowing when or if I might lose a meal and have to eat again. I also remember that eating fruit would help–I’d eat a little container of applesauce or fruit–those individually wrapped ones–before getting out of bed. Second time, anything sweet nauseated me. Apples would make me throw up about an hour after eating them. Bananas were instantaneous–I didn’t even have to swallow them! Cake lost its appeal (and I have a huge sweet tooth). This time, the worst trigger has been water. If I drink more than 2 or 3 swallows at a time, I’d better be in the bathroom! So I’ve gotten rather dehydrated. Thankfully, that is going away with the disappearing morning sickness, so I plan on drinking as much as I can soon!

So I don’t have a ton of ideas, but add them to the ideas of others, and something is bound to help. And don’t be afraid to throw up–you’ll most likely feel better afterwards.

What have you found helps you during morning sickness? Please share!

Since I am currently pregnant with our third child, I found this article to be very insightful–and comforting!

Did you ever wonder if you become a bit dumber once you have children? Many women are concerned about losing their “intelligence” after having a baby as a result of being surrounded by milk bottles and diapers all the time. You must have heard stories about women putting nipple cream on their toothbrush and just being forgetful about many things. Childbearing does take a toll on your body and some feel on the mind as well. However, this is far from true. In fact, there is now evidence that suggests that giving birth does nothing but boost your brainpower so that you end up getting smarter post pregnancy.

What does this actually mean?

The “smartness” experienced by women post-pregnancy can be broken up into five categories, with each category supported by animal and, in some cases, human studies. The first category, which is perception, deals with the five senses and studies have shown that pregnant women have more advanced sense of smell and sight. What this means is that they are able to notice more things and are capable of sensing any unfavorable smells, both of which help them in protecting their baby.

Studies have also shown pregnant women to experience a boost in three other categories, resilience, motivation, and efficiency. Pregnant women are more fearless, get better at multitasking, and can also handle stress better. In fact, the hormone oxytocin, which is important for labor and breastfeeding, also boosts your ability to learn and memorize many new things.

The fifth category, emotional intelligence, is where mothers benefit the most. They gain the ability to see the world from someone else’s eyes. To be a good mother and understand your child better you automatically learn to broaden your mind and your perspective.

When you become a mother, you also learn to strategize and prioritize. You may have noticed new mothers exchanging information while their babies played. What they are actually doing is collecting each other’s experiences to make things easier for their own baby. This may include anything from teething troubles, bedwetting, the best school, the best daycare, and so on.

Things to do yourself to boost your brainpower

Even though there are many changes that automatically take place in your body to make you smarter during your pregnancy, there are some things you need to be careful about and consciously do to improve your brain power post pregnancy. Don’t be lazy to breastfeed your baby as the oxytocin hormone released during breastfeeding helps to calm you and bond better your baby. You are bound to be sleep-deprived, but make a time table or a schedule and ask your husband to help you out and share some of the sleepless nights with you. Getting adequate sleep will help in keeping your brain sharp and alert.

Just because you are pregnant does not mean you sit in one place and munch away. Engage yourself in some form of experience, but only after consulting your doctor. Eat fresh vegetables and fruits; studies have shown that these help in preventing decline in brain function. Don’t forget to socialize. Make friends with other new mothers. Join a mother-toddler group and share your experiences with each other. Not only will this help in better brain functioning but also helps in warding off postpartum depression.

Have a positive outlook

Lastly, new mothers or mothers-to-be must realize and appreciate the level to which your brain gets challenged by learning so many new things. Even if you feel exhausted, just concentrating on the amount of learning you are experiencing in such a short span of time, is enough to energize and keep you on your toes.

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About the author: Ellen Spencer is a blogger and writer. She is a health freak and very environmentally aware. These days she is busy in writing an article on Psoriatic arthritis. Beside this she loves reading. She is also a big fan of Baby Strollers.

If you are familiar with the Flylady, you are probably familiar with the phrase, “You can do anything for 15 minutes.” Obviously, there are limits to that. I mean, unless you’re single, you probably can’t–and wouldn’t want to–limit your shopping to 15 minutes per store. But the idea is that if you don’t think you can do something, or simply don’t want to, you can make yourself do it for 15 minutes.

That’s how it was with me this evening. I had an orthodontist appointment in the late morning, but it’s an hour’s drive away and my husband needed to go somewhere else, so he dropped me off half an hour early. So we ate breakfast, packed a lunch for my son, and didn’t clean anything before we left. I ate lunch after the appointment (before the soreness set in) and took the train & bus back home–about a two-hour trip. It was 3:00 pm when we got home. And I was tired.

So instead of tackling the dishes and the laundry and such things, I sat down in a recliner and tried to nap. When my son decided to join me (but wouldn’t sit still), I put in a nice video for him to watch, turned the volume way down, and went to bed.

I got out of bed a little before 5:00, and was feeling rather groggy. Morning sickness had been mostly nil all day, and I still didn’t notice any, but I was tired and sluggish. Then my husband got home about 10 minutes later, and brought a whole bunch of fruit that he had gotten either free or cheap on the way home. I ate one of the oranges, feeling that I needed to eat something, and almost instantly my tummy began to complain. I moved away and sat down, hoping the feeling would go away like it sometimes did, but it just got worse. So I browsed facebook and tried to ignore my stomach for an hour or so, until I just couldn’t ignore it anymore.

I’ll spare you what happened next, but once I did what I needed to do and was feeling better, I ate a granola bar and decided that happy tummy or no (I was still not feeling 100%), I needed to do some shopping or we wouldn’t be able to eat cooked cereal in the morning (I’m hoping it will be gentle on my sore teeth–the orthodontist really tightened things up this time). So off I went to the store around 7:30.

When I got home at 8:30, I was feeling better, but I was also tired and didn’t want to face the kitchen. My husband had been very busy with things related to our house, so he wasn’t able to clean up–at least he had fed Manny while I was feeling so sick, so I didn’t feel it right to complain. But I didn’t want to clean up either. It looked like about a half hour of work to get the kitchen in order.

Then I remembered the Flylady and her favorite saying: “You can do anything for 15 minutes.” Yes, I told myself, I can clean the kitchen for 15 minutes. I’ll set a timer, and whatever is left when it goes off can wait until morning. After all, if we’re just having cooked cereal with nuts and fruit, there won’t be a lot of dishes after breakfast, so adding in a few from the day before won’t be a problem. And having some clean counters and a cleared-off stove will make breakfast so much less stressful.

So I put a cup of water in the microwave, set a timer for 15 minutes, and got busy. When the water was hot, I added a tea bag and left it to steep while I worked (I like to steep my tea a long time).

In 10 minutes, I was well over half way done. I stopped washing and rinsing  to clear and wipe the counters and stove, then washed a few more. When the timer went off, I took and extra 15 seconds to rinse the soapy silverware, and then took a look around. All that was left was my pressure cooker and a frying pan, neither of which I will need first thing in the morning. Everything else was done and the counters cleared and wiped.

And my reward? A nice cup of raspberry zinger tea. Mmmm!