We like Trader Joe's

It's always been kind of a struggle for me to prepare meals on a regular basis.

Probably because I'm lazy.

We've been going to Trader Joe's* for years. But for some reason, it has recently grown into my favorite place to shop!

If you look closely, she is eating a lollipop
while pushing a cartful of groceries.
Skills.

Here's a review of some of the things we've recently tried:

Produce
Organic bananas - At 29 cents a piece (or 19 cents for regular), they're a bit more expensive than some other stores when they're on sale. But in a pinch, they work just great.

That's about it for produce. We don't typically buy produce here when places like MacPherson's and Pacific exist!

Freezer section
Asparagus Risotto (pictured) - Looked a little disappointing at first, but it's actually not half bad for an instant side dish.

Orange Chicken - You know, it's just as good as Panda Express's!

Mushroom Turnovers - Are very good...although they're a bit expensive.

Raspberry Tart - We've never purchased this but had some when we were at some friends' house for dinner. So delicious!

Frozen Pineapple Bits - Okay, I don't know what the official name is...but the Camille loves these!

Organic Silver Dollar Pancakes - A new discovery that is loved by both our kids. They don't just like them. They loooove these little pancakes. In under 1 minute, they can be ready for consumption!

Refrigerator section
Full Fat Yogurt (pictured) - These were purchased for Camille. But I eat them. They are delicious. I'm a little afraid to read the nutritional information.

Carne Asada - A recent discovery. Chin is convinced they use some illegal substance to tenderize the meat. It is super tender and just perfectly marinated. Too busy to chop and stir fry up some peppers for your carne asada? Get the pre-made stuff from the freezer section!

Staples

Harvest Grains Blend - A perfect blend of Israeli style couscous, orzo, baby garbanzo beans and red quinoa! Chin isn't a huge fan of this blend because the baby garbanzos don't soften at the same rate as the other ingredients, leaving a crunch taste. I would agree with this. When we have time, I like to cook it longer than the package indicates so that everything is just the right softness.

Organic Polenta - In our pantry right now. Great with stews! We often fry, but you certainly don't have to.

A variety of pastas - I think our favorite has got to be the Organic Vegetable Radiatore. Camille loves this colorful mix! Their pastas used to be the cheapest. I don't think they're all that cheap anymore. But the prices are fair and for some reason, I just feel better eating stuff from TJ's.

Cocoa Almond Spread (pictured) - Yeah, it's a staple. And I think I might like it better than Nutella (it has slightly more calories per serving than Nutella, but there's 1/2 the amount of saturate fat). Not surprisingly, there are quite a few sites that have compared the two products: here, here, and here.

Banana Nut Crunch Cereal - I love this stuff!! It's a little spendy...but as Chin would say, "If you are going to eat it, buying grocery is always the right choice." He is so smart.

Joe's O's - They're fake-o Cheerios. But again, just for some reason, it feels better that it's from Trader Joe's.

Snacks
Simply Almonds, Cashews & [Dark] Chocolate Trail Mix - These are just all my favorite things in a trail mix. How'd they know?!

Multiseed Crackers with Soy Sauce - Crispy tasty snacks that are sure to be gone within 2-3 days around here. Chin & Camille are especially big fans of these.

There are too many snacks to list. Too many!

Other stuff
21 Seasoning Salute - Introduced to us not long ago by our friend Shelli (who puts it on everything), I have seriously become one of the biggest fans of this seasoning mix! A buck ninety-nine. *Kapow* My mind has been blown! I think I bring up this seasoning mix at least once a week with my patients who are struggling with diet control and are looking for salt alternatives. I love it.

Greeting cards - Okay, so I've never gotten these. But I think for the price of $0.99, they are a steal!!

And here are some more reasons that we love Trader Joe's:

• There's always something to sample. If I pick up two samples, that's like one meal for Camille. I often take her here for meals.
• They give out lollipops at the sample counter.
• They also have free coffee.
• They give out stickers at the checkout counter.
• At most TJ's, you can ring a bell to indicate that the service has been excellent.
• They have little shopping carts for kids (see picture above).
• The employees just all seem so happy to be there. Chin is convinced that marijuana is part of their employee benefits and they all toke out in the back.

While they don't have sales, clearance sections, or coupons, Trader Joe's is consistently a place that sells fairly-priced foods & goods. And I find that when we buy stuff from here, they get eaten!

There really wasn't a purpose to this post. I was just feeling a bit frustrated tonight and needed to write something completely different and mundane. But perhaps this post gave you some ideas about foods to try for your picky eaters? Or prompted you to go and buy yourself some good food to curtail your habits of going out to eat? Eh? Eh?

*I have not been paid by Trader Joe's to write any of this. But, TJ, if you guys want to pay me, that'd be totally awesome. Thanks.

Bao's take on baby products: A series

I've been wanting to blog on baby products for a while now.  Why?  I was given a lot of good advice by my wonderful friends on all things baby...and I want to give back to those who are expecting or are new parents.  I've read enough product reviews to last a lifetime.  Maybe I'll save you some researching time, eh?

Just a few disclaimers & disclosures before I start, though:

• I am no expert
• I was not paid by anyone to write these reviews (companies: if you want to pay me, though, that'd be aaaaawesome!)
• I may or may not have used all of the products I'm reviewing.  But unlike the books that I've reviewed, I've actually used most of them!
• Let's say you gave me product X and I give it a really crummy review, it doesn't mean that I don't like you or that I didn't appreciate your gift.  Heck, I received most of these products as gifts.  I am grateful for every single one of them!
• If you recommended product Y to me and I give it a crummy review, same applies.  I respect your opinion, etc. etc.
• If you own product Z and I give it a crummy review, same.
• If you heed my reviews and get the product and then later totally hate it, um, yeah, that's too bad...
• I can be very opinionated and critical and sometimes mean about things.  I am sorry if I offend you in any way.  That's totally not my intention.

I think that's about it.  So, here goes!!  You excited?  Me excited!

Also, tell me what you want me to review.  I generally have a lot to say about...everything! :)

Sleep is for the weak: Book reviews (*giggle*)

"The night is a very dark time for me." 

Chazz, Blades of Glory 

...

So, I haven't posted in a long time.  I've been catching up on sleep :)  Okay, that's a lie.  I've just been lazy and sleep-deprived.

As promised, this is the blog post solely dedicated to the review of baby sleep books I've never read.  I've picked up some of these books but I have not seriously read any of them.  So, here goes!

Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child
My smart friends who are not hippies all recommend this book.  You know who you are.

What I appreciate: As every parent knows, once you have something figured out, your child changes!  This book gets that.  There are solutions for different stages of development.  There are also several different solutions to choose from depending on your/your child's temperament or the parenting style you choose.

My concerns: The biggest point of contention for me is the advice to put your child down early.  He recommends between 6 and 8pm.  If the child has a lot of trouble with sleep, then even earlier!  Dr. Weissbluth talks about how parents and grandparents will keep children up past 8pm because they are selfish and just want to play with them.  Um, heck yeah!!  If Camille goes to bed at 6 or even 7, she'll never see Chin!  And that would mean she'd wake up at 6...which is totally uncool, in my book (my book, of course, is called "Sleep is for the Weak.").  I do appreciate, however, that I can still glean helpful information on the science of sleep from this book even if I don't buy into all of his philosophies.

On Becoming Baby Wise
Oh boy.  Many of my dearly respected friends use this book.  I love my friends.  The book?  Not so much!

What I appreciate: The authors talk about creating a routine and sticking to it so that baby can develop a sense of security based on this routine.  They discuss the sleep-eat-play cycle that you should get your children on so that they will know what to expect when sleepy time comes.  Good, sound concepts. 

My concerns: There are so many concerns, I need a bulleted list:

• He talks about stretching the feeding times so that babies do not develop the habit of "snacking" and will also thereby increase the amount of continuous sleep at night.  This sounds like good advice, but there are inherent hidden dangers.  Putting infants through a rigid schedule may result in malnutrition, dehydration, lost of trust, hunger strikes, decreased milk supply for moms, etc.
• The philosophies described in this book are largely legalistic and rigidly regimented.  It is perhaps something that works for other families.  Not for ours.
• I don't like the fact that he refers to a young baby's cry as being "manipulative."  That is hands down my biggest beef with this book.  I believe that babies cry to communicate.  Sure, baby could be communicating, "I want to be picked up just because I want to be held."  It is then up to the parents to decide whether to pick baby up.  When babies are young, their emotional needs and the need to be near parents are considered basic needs.  I believe that manipulation comes from kids whose parents have exhibited wide inconsistencies.  When kids know that parents will bend, they will manipulate.  I know it's all semantics.  But it's the same as calling an end-of-life patient "needy."  Do you get what I mean?
• Finally, I do not appreciate that there is a "Christian" spin to this book.  Sure, the author (Ezzo) has published Growing Kids God's Way.  But to claim to be an expert on sleep and child-rearing while he has no credentials is a real concern that parents must be aware of.  If anything, I would say that the Ezzos are the manipulative ones...claiming to be experts, preaching legalism, and weaseling their ways into Christian libraries to misinform God's people.

The No-Cry Sleep Solution
Many of my friends recommended this book to me.  I checked it out from the library to read while I was pregnant with Penelope.  There were definitely some valuable points to learn from this book.

What I appreciate: I like that the author's name is Elizabeth Pantley.  It's feminine.  Yet confident.  Okay...aside from that, I also like her tangible examples of setting routines for bedtime. 

My concerns:  I just don't think it works for every kid.  Some kids, I think including Camille, will cry no matter what.

12 Hours by 12 Weeks Old / The Baby Sleep Solution
I hadn't heard of this book until Camille was beginning to exhibit some sleep issues at 5-6 weeks.  I borrowed it from a friend and I learned some pretty interesting things.

What I appreciate: I like the concept that there is a distinct start to the day.  She said that we should set a time to start the day everyday so that babies know what to expect.  So even if babies wake up at 6:15am and you want the day to start at 7, feed the baby at 6:15 and then again at 7 so that baby will know that 7 is always associated with this "good morning" routine.  I also like that the author says you can conform baby's schedule to the individual need of your family.  She cited one rock band family who had a wacky late-night schedule so the baby was on a 12-hour schedule where she woke up at noon and went down at midnight or something crazy like that.  Whether or not this is scientific, I don't know.  But I appreciate that flexibility :)

My concerns: I don't mean to dismiss the experience of mothers, but I have a harder time trusting the author purely because she doesn't have any scientific knowledge of infants and infant sleep.  Sorry.  I am also skeptical of the promise of 12 hours of sleep.  Not that I don't think it is possible.  But I don't think it is healthy for a 12-week-old.  Much to my chagrin, I do think young infants are wired to wake up at night.  You can call it evolution or you can call it God's design, but I think it is healthy for them to wake up and (1) eat, (2) regulate their breathing, and (3) make sure they are safe.

The Baby Sleep Book
Written by the Sears, readers must understand that they come from the stance of attachment parenting.  If you are not willing to rock your baby to sleep, wear baby, co-sleep, etc., you're outta luck, Chuck! 

What I appreciate: I like attachment parenting.  I really do.  It's a lot of things my parents practiced when they were raising us.  I also appreciate the tangible safety tips on co-sleeping.  Bed-sharing can be very controversial in terms of safety and I feel that this book adequately discusses these concerns.

My concerns: If you are not bed-sharing and if you want to try cry-it-out, there isn't a lot of information for you in this book.  I've actually tried the method of laying a hand on Camille and soothing her to sleep standing over her crib.  That worked once...out of five times (sometimes I did this for 20 minutes)!  The book also talked about helping the child make a healthy association with sleep.  That sleep is a safe and peaceful time to enter into.  Really?!  Show me a child who likes bed time and I will show you why your little pariah has no friends.  Okay, I don't [completely] mean that.  But seriously, awake time is fun!  Who the heck wants to go to sleep?!  I hated nap times as a kid because there was always some fun to be had.  Maybe I just had an amazingly awesome childhood.  Yep, that's it! :P

The Happiest Baby on the Block
A lot of my friends recommended that I read this book.  So I looked it up on YouTube.

What I appreciate: Loved the 5 S's!!  I tried them all on Camille and they have all worked at some point in time.

My concerns: Beyond the first few months (what Dr.Karp describes as "the fourth trimester"), a lot of his calming methods do not work. 

Solve Your Child's Sleep Problems
This book is written by the father of the cry-it-out method, Richard Ferber.  The man.  The legend.  The verb - "ferberizing." 

What I appreciate: For a book that promotes cry-it-out, I like the scientific explanations and reasons behind the methods.

My concerns: Dr.Ferber's cry-it-out method (called "graduated extinction") calls for parents to go in and check at scheduled intervals.  Without a video baby monitor, I think this would be necessary.  But if you have a baby monitor, I feel that it is better to do pure extinction (no checks) so that the baby doesn't get confused about, "How come Mommy is here but she's not picking me up?"  Just my opinion...

...

"Baby sleep books are as suspicious as Nigerian scams, instinctively you know it."

I found this quote on a blog while looking for reviews on good infant sleep books.  And, ain't that the truth!  These books always begin with horror stories of nightmare babies who are miraculously transformed into sleeping angels as soon as their parents followed the advice by Mommy Whozits or Doctor Whatzits who wrote the book.  And, of course, how irritating is it that these books all contradict each other?!  *sigh* In the end, really, you were just scammed into wasting time that you could have spent sleeeeeeepiiiiiiing! 

That is precisely why I don't read. :)