Tuesday, September 14, 2010

OT Tip Tuesday

Be sure to check out my current giveaway, a 20% coupon to Bed, Bath & Beyond!

This week's OT Tip is how to incorporate "tummy time" into your child's routine. Tummy time, or putting your child or baby on their stomach is a crucial part to their proper development of neck and trunk muscles for success in the school environment. 

Ever since the "Back To Sleep" program, babies have received less and less tummy time. Back to sleep has helped in diminish SIDS deaths in babies, so I don't want to say that it has been a bad thing. However, making sure they get enough tummy time is important. 

Some benefits of tummy time include: 
• Promotes muscle development in the neck
and shoulders
• Helps prevent tight neck muscles and the development of flat areas on the back of the baby’s head
• Helps build the muscles your baby needs to roll, sit and crawl

Here are some ideas to incorporate tummy time in your babies schedule.

* Sit your baby on your lap, facing you. Provide support as needed, and encourage the baby to hold his head up and centered. Turn his head equally to both sides. Again, a good position for feeding.
*Lie on the floor with your baby, face-to-face. Help your baby push up on his elbows to lift his head to look at you.
*Provide support under the chest to make lifting the head in the middle easier.
*Place toys in front of your baby while he is lying on his belly to encourage reaching and playing with both hands. Your baby may begin propping up on both arms and moving around the floor on his belly. Your baby may also begin to crawl from this position.
*While watching TV or visiting with friends, place your baby on his tummy over your lap. Change the baby’s position to encourage looking to both sides.

When should I start tummy time? 
At 3-4 months is a great time to start tummy time with your baby. At this age babies have better head control and are able to hold their heads up better when you place them on your tummy. Five to ten minutes at a time 2-3 times a day is a great way to start! 

For more ideas for tummy time activities and fun play time check out "Tummy Time Tools." by Colleen Coulter-O’Berry, P.T., Dulcey Lima, C.O., O.T.R./L. It is a pdf file that you can download and print out.

Don't forget your toddlers and preschoolers can benefit from tummy time. You can have them lay down on their tummy to put puzzles together, crafts, and fine motor activities. 

Also check out this tummy time article on parents.com.

I hope you find this information useful! Enjoy the precious time with your little ones, they grow up so fast! :) 






Disclaimer: I am a Certified Occupational Therapy Assistant. The advise in these tips is not a replacement for medical advise from a physician or your pediatrician. Please consult their advice if you suspect any medical or developmental issues with your child.

at least dptlah rasa suasana kampung di Kelantan

salam. first of all i would like to thanks my dear buddy - amalina cuz she is the one who made this big banner yg ade dkt atassss sekali blog ini. al maklumlah tuan pnye blog nih mmg ta reti edit2 ape ke bnde jadah ni. so, thanks again amalina!!! sgtlah menghargainye ;)

oh raya ke3 & ke4, sy di kelantan. maxis ade problemlah mahu on9. jd sepilah sy di sane. as usual, kelantan mmg super jammed ble musim raye. pheww. penyudahnye pergi rumah uncle 2 org + pasar Machang je tu pun b4 balik. semlm raya ke 5 - 1 hari dlm kereta dr kelantan ke Kuantan.

maybe sy ta bape rapat dgn fmly belah abah - Kelantanese, tp, sy ske blk Kelantan for a few reasons. 1st, i love those foods. 2nd, i love the kmpg environment. 3rd, i love the dialek. hee ;P


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tahun ni buah rambutan lebat berbuah. boleh main petik je!

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Same jgk buah dokong ke langsat camtuh. Ngee.seronok gile!


Tapi mase kutip and petik buah langsat tu, bnyk penyegat! Huaaaa. Lari lintang pukang! Disebabakan sampai Kelantan tuh da petang. So the next day baru kumpul fmly2.


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Melawat kubur arwah datuk.

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Sepupu termuda tercomel!!! ;D

Btw, dkt Kelantan pun still dpt duit raye lg. hee. Ske ske. Thank you pak cik eyu, pak ngah, mak ngah & pak cik awie!

So, kejap lagi pulanglah ke KL. Hee. Tak sabar!


Quelqu'un m'a dit...


Today it's been an strange day, full of strange news that made me feel weird. Its like a mix in my stomach that wants to go out, but can't do it.




So just for discconect myself, I'm looking to some pictures I made last week, when everything was so strange too, because you don't know what's gonna happen in your future. Here we are, sweet girls in a real world that isn't so sweet, trying to have some cuteness around us.


There's a football match but I'm not interested on it; I'm thinking about conversations I had today and conversations I had long time ago. These days, without internet, made me think a lot about the past years.


Oh yes, I know; we must learn about the past, and I always do that; but I think that I've change so much in the past five years. Well, not so much, but I've change my mind about things like love, life, family... things that are important for a human being, I mean.


And I realized that I'm not that sweet girl I used to be no more, and that's maybe why I need sweets around me: sweet girls, sweet friends, sweet cakes.


And now that autumn comes, I wish it was a little bit more colder just for drink some hor chocolate while we look through the window, or run with you under the rain with black coats and cute umbrellas, like in Edward Gorey's pictures, while I sing french songs in my pathetic french... That would be like heaven for me.


And as autumn comes, I look to all these sweet pictures I took last week and think in the future, in what would it brings to me, and if I would share it with somebody around me or not.

Yes, it's been a strange day.

Pictures from our last picnic (you can see Alba making bubbles and Vane with that lovely deer plushe), Lolita Bakery and El jardí café.

Chicken Scaloppini with a Shiitake Sake Sauce and Crispy Noodle Cake

  
     
Last weekend, I read an essay in the Sunday New York Times by a woman breaking up with her boyfriend.  What made the article different, and likely attracted the attention of the editors, was that the woman was breaking up with a woman that was gender transitioning to a man.  This wasn't a surprise to the woman, indeed, she was helping her partner throughout the process.  But, in the end, the relationship did not survive and the author was left with regret, guilt and relief.  Such a story may be normal fare in New York City, but is not something that usually attracts my attention.  I was struck however by her honesty.  She wasn't advocating a position one way or the other, right or wrong on substance, she was just communicating her emotions, confused and contradicting as they were.
  
A similarly confused outlook can be found in some cooking.  Even eyebrow raising "transitioning" language can be found in recipes such as Tal Ronnen's chicken scaloppini with shiitake sauce.  He has a vegan cookbook entitled The Conscious Cook and celebrity fans from Ellen DeGeneres to Oprah Winfrey.  He suggests preparing meals with ingredients like faux chicken stock and Earth Balance, which apparently is a butter substitute favored by vegans who eschew eating animals or animal products.  Ironically, this leads them into troubling products like Earth Balance, which is made in part from palm oil.  Unfortunately, palm oil and the slash-and-burn produced palm plantations of southeast Asia are one of the prime threats to endangered species habitat destruction and climate threatening carbon emissions.  So, while vegans are trying to spare animals by not eating them, their product choices are encouraging the destruction of virgin rain forests and the Orangutans and other endangered species within them.  Sounds about as confused as life in New York City.  And if going not only to a vegetarian but all the way to a vegan diet is too much, then there are products like Gardein, "a great transitional food for meat-eaters" according to Ronnen.  I can certainly agree that a mixture of plant-based proteins with a meaty texture would take quite a transition to adopt, but I won't be facing such a choice or experience.
     
What does all this tell us about how to cook?  Certainly, cooking is honest.  It is an honest reflection of the ingredients we use and the techniques we employ.  The results can be simple or confused, but they are ours, an expression of who we are and the choices we make.  Cooking can also be delicious, even from cooks with friends like Oprah and Ellen.  I personally am all for real chicken, stock and butter.  But Ronnen's ideas of using a precooked asian noodle base and sake as the wine component of the shiitake sauce are terrific.  Thus, we shouldn't close our eyes to inspiration from even the most foreign sources, and we should always feel comfortable to make it our own, as I did here.  If you want the vegan version, Ronnen's cookbook is out there, but I'm sure you will like the more traditional and yet very tasty version here.  Serves 2.
    
Ingredients:
2 small nests of cellophane bean noodles
6 tbsp olive oil
2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts, halved lengthwise into thin scaloppini
1/4 cup flour
1 cup dry sake
3/4 cup chicken stock
1/2 lb shiitake mushrooms, stemmed and sliced
2 tbsp butter
1 garlic clove, minced
1 cup packed pea shoots
1 tbsp minced chives
salt/pepper
     
Directions:
Preheat the oven to 200 degrees F.  Bring a medium pot of water almost to a boil and then turn off the heat.  Add the noodles and allow to soak for ten minutes.  Remove the noodles to a strainer and press to drain any extra moisture.  In a large saute pan over medium-high heat, add 2 tbsp of oil.  Place two 3" round ring molds in the pan and when the oil is heated add noodles to each to form a little cake.  Fry until browned and crisp on both sides, about 3 minutes per side.  Remove to a paper towel lined plate and put in the oven to keep warm.
Wipe out the oil used for the noodle cakes and add 2 more tbsp of oil.  Season the chicken scaloppini with salt and pepper and dredge through the flour.  Cook the chicken, browning on both sides, about 3 minutes per side.  Remove the chicken to a plate in the oven.  Add the mushrooms to the pan, along with more olive oil if needed.  Saute the mushrooms until softened and lightly browned, about 4 minutes.  Add the sake and deglaze the pan, scraping up any browned bits.  Simmer down the sake until it is reduced by half.  Add 1/2 cup of the chicken stock and simmer for 2 more minutes.  Turn the heat down to low to keep the sauce warm and whisk in the butter.  Adjust the seasoning as desired.  In a small pan over medium-high heat add 1 tbsp of oil.  When hot, add the garlic and release the flavors for 30 seconds.  Add the remaining 1/4 cup of chicken stock and the pea shoots.  Saute for 3 minutes.  Meanwhile, return the chicken to the sake sauce to reheat.  Plate the noodle cakes, top each with half of the pea shoots, and then the chicken, and then the mushrooms spooned out on top.  Add sauce in a desired amount and sprinkle with chives.  Serve.
     

Baked Fillet of Pouting with Roasted Potato Wedges and Garden Peas



There will unquestionably be a great many people reading this and thinking, "What is pouting?" Pouting - Trisopterus luscus - is actually a type of fish, a lesser known member of the cod family and one that is not generally considered good to eat. It is usually only caught by mistake by rod and line anglers when fishing for other species and either thrown back in to the sea or used as bait in the hope of a more desireable, alternative catch. I have to be honest in that I too subscribed to this belief until very recently, when I happened to be engaged in my frequent practise of browsing the fresh fish offerings in my local supermarket. When I saw, "Pouting fillets," my initial reaction was that it was some form of joke. Soon realising it was no joke, however, I decided to purchase some and have a first ever go at cooking pouting.



The first big positive of buying and cooking pouting for anyone who is perhaps on a restricted cooking budget is that they are incredibly cheap. The four fillets pictured above cost me only just over £1.00 and are easily sufficient to serve two people. The reason for this is unquestionably due to their lack of popularity and - as I hope to show - is in no way indicative of poor flavour.

Although I knew that pouting were a member of the cod family and that most cooking methods which could be applied to such as cod, haddock or whiting would most likely work perfectly well, I decided to take a quick look at Google for some potential inspiration. I was amazed by the lack of pouting recipes to be found in this normal goldmine of information and although I did find a few appealing suggestions, I decided to go it alone, cook pouting as I would whiting and hope for an at least acceptable result.



The first step in this recipe is to get the potato wedges on to cook. The potatoes I am using here (pictured above) were given to me from a local garden. They are very floury and thus perfect for roasting. Given their long, oval shape, I simply scrubbed them and cut them in half lengthwise.

It is imperative that the potatoes be put in to hot and never cold oil. I therefore added sunflower oil to a deep baking tray (enough to comfortably cover the base) and put it in to the oven, which I turned on to preheat to 400F/200C/Gas Mark 6.



After fifteen minutes, I removed the baking tray from the oven and added the halved potatoes, skin side down. I gently swirled them around to coat them as much as possible in the oil before using cooking tongs to turn them so that they were flesh side down. I then put them in the oven for twenty minutes, at which point I carefully turned them over to expose the flesh side and cooked them for a further twenty minutes.



When the potatoes have been turned, the pouting fillets should be prepared for the oven. A large sheet of aluminium foil should be lightly greased with a little butter. The pouting fillets should be placed skin side down, seasoned with a little salt and a freshly torn basil leaf scattered over the top. This will allow them to infuse with a little extra herb flavour as they cook.



The aluminium foil should then be folded in to form a sealed tent. There should be plenty airspace in the package to allow the steam to cook the pouting fillets. The tray should then be placed in to the oven for eight to ten minutes, dependant upon the size of the pouting fillets. This should of course be done to make the end of the cooking time coincide with that of the potatoes.

The peas which I have served with this dish were frozen. This means that they required to be added to boiling water for a mere three minutes. I put them in to the water immediately before I removed the pouting and potatoes from the oven to begin plating up. A wedge of fresh lemon also makes an optional but attractive garnish.

This is now the third time I have cooked pouting and I have every intention of doing so again. You can find my other pouting recipes (totally different to this one) via the link below:

How to Cook Pouting



I mentioned in this recipe that I use cooking tongs (pictured above) to turn potatoes in hot oil and for a whole host of other purposes in the kitchen. These incredibly versatile implements should be a must have for any kitchen. They not only make many jobs easier but considerably safer by reducing the risk of dropping hot food or causing oil to splash up, as would be the case with a spatula or spoon.

Below are examples of the bargain tongs currently available to buy from Amazon.com, or Amazon.co.uk.

Another new obsession

Been busy around the Gelino household lately, thus I haven't posted in a while. I'm still obsessed with fruit smoothies, I eat one everyday for lunch, and it gives me tremendous energy! Not only that, but it satisfies my sweet tooth. :)

Last month when I went home to Michigan and visited with my Mother & we had a serious scrapbooking session. I had never gotten into it before, and had so much fun doing it, that I swore I was going to clean out Michaels when I returned to sunny Florida. My first couple pages were pretty good, it came easy considering I'm pretty creative when it comes to design and layout. I'm definitely improving as I go. I got a small collection of supplies here at home now, and I've been going at it like mad! Not to mention that my girls Courtney & Laura both like to do it, so it makes it all that much better to do it with friends. ( Add a Margarita or two and its a party!)

Here are snapshots of what I've completed so far: (Click to Zoom)





 








Whew! A lot of pictures I know...I've been busy, haha. One thing I forgot to mention is the reasoning behind all this madness. For years now I've been taking pictures, and engaging in the routine of downloading them into my iphoto album, however it occurred to me not long ago that these hundreds of wonderful photos that post such great memories in time, are not even being enjoyed. They are simply a file in my computer's library. I think this is such a great fun way to capture those beloved memories, and to share with others. I believe someday I will look back and be so grateful that I have documented my life in such a way that not only is appealing, but tells a story on each page. I suggest you give it a try.

With that being said, I have another project to post. I always have multiple projects going on at a time, and this is why my art room is always so messy. haha. Or at least that's my excuse. My friend Harmony wanted me to do a painting as a gift for her mother. This one came out beautiful, and if she didn't want it, I'd keep it in a heartbeat. It's a whopping size at 4 ft. x 4ft.  A good size for these humongous walls we have here in FL.


I will leave you with that. I have more projects in the works that I have to get done...I'll be posting them soon! Thanks for stopping by all my lovely blog friends!

-Kat