austrianinchicago's Profile

I am married to a type 2 diabetic. When we found out it really changed the way we ate. I used to bake a lot but I hardly ever do that now. We decided that we'd rather eat baked good sporadically but the real thing than to eat fake, processed, chemical food.
When I do bake I try to use less sugar or I bake for an occasion and we give most of the food away, so I are not left with two dozen chocolate chip cookies.

I also cut way down on the carb servings. A few times a week we skip the carbs completely and otherwise we mostly eat whole-grains. We also eat a high-fiber diet with lots of lentils and beans. Doctors told us that this is a great diet to follow anyway.

The most surprising thing for us was to find out how much sugar is in dairy. My husband switched to unsweetened soy milk, which I don't think is the best choice since it's supposed to increase estrogen levels but it did help to get his blood sugar down.

Don't hang paintings over your baby's bed - they can fall and seriously hurt your kid. Shattered glass in the crib is no fun. We have a wall decal, it might not look as stylish but it's a lot safer.

Also, half of these places will be taken apart as soon as the kids are able to walk. Or maybe my toddler is just especially interested in taking things apart ...

As a kid, I wasn't too fond of cheese. But that was because I didn't like the mild cheeses that we have in Austria. When I moved to Holland I discovered the world of aged Goudas and stinky French cheeses and now cheese is my favorite food in the world. With my 18 month old, I give her whatever we have and I found like myself, she prefers strong tasting cheeses over mild cheddars. Her favorite cheeses are Cotswold, Feta cheese and surprisingly - Jasper Hills Harbinger. She is CRAZY about the Harbinger, especially with some honey on it.

I am not a fan of cornbread usually but I love the skillet spoon bread from Dante's Kitchen in New Orleans. Here is the recipe:
http://www.nola.com/food/index.ssf/2011/05/dantes_kitchen_spoonbread.html

My standard chili is a three bean chili with bacon (no other meat), fire roasted corn, onions and roasted peppers (TJs sells these frozen which makes it a lot easier). If I make it for a crowd or if I have a meat craving I add chorizo sausage (not the dried one) and chipotle in adobo sauce. I am going to give coffee and cocoa a try though!

I have the standard Kosher, celery, spiced salts and garlic salt and then I have a few fancier ones like grey Fleur de Sel, Greek sea salt, black truffle salt, smoked Maldon salt, Himalayan pink salt, "Real salt" and some smoked Spanish, pyramid salt.

The only ones I use most of the time are the Maldon as a finishing salt, the black truffle salt, the Greek sea salt and the Kosher salt.
I LOVE the smoked Maldon and order it on Amazon.com in packages of 6.

Toughcupcake - ever since I read that on here, I can no longer eat figs.

I agree with Alisa - please consider donating first. Either to NICU babies or to a milk bank. I too have had supply issues myself and have done everything (and still doing everything) to get my supply up. A friend of mine gave me 200oz of her freezer stash and for the last two weeks my baby has been receiving breast milk exclusively and the difference is amazing. Her digestion is so much better, her skin cleared up (no more baby acne), she is happier, ...
I know if I can't manage to get my supply up enough in the next two weeks I will have to go back to giving her some formula and it breaks my heart. So please, please, please if you are able to donate some to babies in need, please do.

As some other poster said before I successfully planted spring onions from the little root scraps that I had left over. I did the same with leeks. They grow thinner than what you get in the store though.
My mom gave me seeds from an heirloom tomato brand called White Beauty once and I grew amazing tomato plants from them, better than any bought tomato plants that I had.

I have seen the Kinder eggs in Polish markets in Chicago as well (Fresh Farms in Niles has them) but they are not the same as what I grew up with in Austria. The best thing about the Ueberraschungseier was the special collections like the Crazy Crocos - google it. They are still collector items. There would be one in every 7th egg or something like that and we swapped them in school.

I can't believe American kids have to grow up without Kinder Eggs, they were such an essential part of my childhood.

I also really miss Kinder Milchschnitte, Kinder Maxi King and Kinder Pingui.