Five Baby Proofing Essentials

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As parents, we can tell you that there is no greater joy than seeing your baby reach his or her first milestones. First solid food, first words, first steps…they all pale in comparison to that exhilarating moment when your child opens their first cupboard or drawer. Not! Depending on what you store in your cupboards and drawers that moment can be absolutely terrifying. We recently upgraded our baby-proofing gear because our son is now climbing to reach those off-limit spaces so we wanted to write a post covering the basics of getting the home ready for that mischievous explorer in your life. For those of you who have someone going around opening drawers; pulling out utensils, clothes, and God knows what, or even attempting to climb TV stands or dinning tables then this post is just for you. Here are five basic contraptions that you’ll need to baby proof your home, along with a glimpse of what they look like in our house and a shopping list of the specific products we went with.

1. Safety locks for keeping those adorable fingers out of drawers, cabinets, appliances, and trouble!

2. Flat TV straps to prevent your television from tipping forward and causing a serious injury (God forbid).

3. Edge and corner covers to cushion the blow when your child’s head collides with the furniture (because there’s a high chance it will…more than once).

4. Baby safety gate(s) to keep your little ones contained and away from the danger of stairs.

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5. Outlet Protectors…because the last thing you want to be worrying about are fingers and objects getting jammed in sockets.

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Baby Proof Shopping List
1. Safety locks: Sure Basics & Babies R US
2. TV Straps: QuakeHOLD
3. Edge and Corner Covers: Roving Cove
4. Baby Gate: Summer Infant
5. Outlet Protectors: Safety 1st

This is by no means a comprehensive list but we have installed all of these products and have found life with our hobbit to be much more manageable. They’re not the most stylish looking contraptions but they are easy to install and definitely get the job done. Of course, nothing works better than your own two eyes so being alert and using common sense is the best way to eliminate any baby hazards in your home.

What are your must-have baby-proofing gadgets? Let us know in the comments below. And as always…

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Lebanese Stuffed Eggplants (Sheikh al-Mahshi)

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Growing up in a Lebanese household meant that eggplant was no stranger to the dinner table. One of my favorite eggplant dishes was (and still is) Sheikh-al Mahshi; a Lebanese casserole made of golden fried eggplants topped with spiced beef or lamb and cooked in a light tomato sauce. My father, who loved to cook for us, would make this dish using large purple eggplant slices for the base, tender filet mignon chunks and Lebanese pine nuts for the topping, and fresh homemade tomato sauce. Delicious is an understatement.

A few months ago, I was at a local market when I came across these large 11-pound boxes of assorted baby eggplant for only $3. It was a total steal and I ended up taking a box home with me to experiment with the other colorful eggplant varieties. Although I ended up blanching and freezing many of them for a rainy day, I decided to recreate my father’s recipe using baby eggplants for dinner one night. I have always found the Lebanese dishes I grew up with simple to make but with graduate school and a household to tend to, any shortcut that doesn’t jeopardize taste is definitely welcome. While I prefer the taste of homemade tomato sauce, having a quality canned sauce on hand can really speed things up. Cooking with ground beef also saves you the hassle of having to prepare and cut your meat. Some of my modifications, however, are not just to save time but to make the recipe a teeny bit healthier. Instead of deep-frying the eggplants to soften them, I blanched them and then browned the skins in a bit of olive oil. The only issue was that I found the skins of the yellow eggplant variety too thick to eat. I personally would not use them again in a recipe like this even though the flesh had a very nice flavor. With that being said, this version was a huge hit with the family and we hope you’ll consider adding this simple, healthy dish to your recipe box.

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Lebanese Stuffed Eggplants (Sheikh al-Mahshi)

  • Difficulty: Easy
  • Print

Ingredients

10-12 baby eggplant
1 lb lean ground beef
1 medium yellow onion, diced
1/4 cup pine nuts
1 15 oz can of tomato sauce (we use Simple Truth)
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground all-spice
1/2 cup chopped parsley
Extra virgin olive oil
salt and pepper (to taste)

Directions

  1. Preheat oven to 350F. Rinse the eggplants and trim the stems, leaving the hulls.
  2. Bring a large pot of water to boil and blanche the eggplants whole for 8-10 minutes until tender. In the meantime, toast the pine nuts until golden and set aside.
  3. Once the eggplants have cooled, gently make an incision from the hull to the bottom of the eggplant.
  4. OPTIONAL: Drizzle a bit of oil in a deep pan and brown the blanched eggplants in batches for 2-5 minutes then set aside (see step 7).
  5. Drizzle a bit of oil in a deep pan and sauté the diced onions until translucent.
  6. Add in the ground beef, cinnamon, all-spice, salt, and pepper and cook until meat is well done.
  7. Ladle a few spoons of tomato sauce into the bottom of a glass baking dish and lay the eggplants slit side up.
  8. Spoon the spiced meat mixture into each eggplant and cover with the remaining tomato sauce. Top with half of the toasted pine nuts and half of the chopped parsley.
  9. Cover your baking dish and bake in the oven for 30 minutes until the sauce is simmering.
  10. To serve, garnish with remaining pine nuts and parsley next to a bed of steaming vermicelli rice.

Note: If you end up with extra meat, just spoon the remainder evenly on the top of the sauce before baking.

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Adventures in Hocking Hills

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If you live in the Midwest and you’re looking for a picturesque place to vacation, hike, or unwind then we have the perfect place for you. There is a hidden gem located in Ohio, called Hocking Hills State Park, and it is only a 4-5 hour drive from many bordering states. We know what you’re thinking. Ohio?! What can possibly be in Ohio besides cornfields and farmhouses?! Well, this.

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Yes, this exists in Ohio. And with a little bit of planning ahead you can refresh your soul and enjoy a relaxing getaway with a gorgeous view. There are plenty of activities for children and adults alike including hiking, fishing, canoeing, swimming, horseback riding and just all around enjoying nature. We have been visiting Hocking Hills since 2012 and have experienced its beauty both in the summer and winter. After our latest trip this past August, we decided to share a little bit about one of our favorite vacation spots for no other reason than we find it awesome and think you should visit. Our first adventure post…here goes!

Lodging
Where you lodge makes all the difference when you stay in Hocking Hills country. While there are hotels and motels you can stay in, we feel that the experience simply isn’t the same if you don’t stay in a log cabin. Rustic and cozy, these secluded cabins truly feel like a home away from home. There are so many different ones to choose from based on family size and amenities (like if you want a jacuzzi on your porch) but our personal favorite that we always come back to is Cabins by the Caves. Some cabins that you may come across online look dingy, tacky, and outdated but these ones are from it. The interiors have always been clean and inviting and the woods surrounding them are just serene. They are also very reasonably priced considering you’re getting a whole home to yourself. And if you go with a group and choose to share a cabin with friends or family, you’ll save even more. Just know that these cabins get booked far in advance (especially weekends and holidays) so if you’re thinking about a trip in the summer then consider booking soon.

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Food
If you do choose to rent a cabin then there’s likely a full kitchen inside and this is where that extra bit of planning comes into play. It’s amazing how a simple meal plan, grocery shopping, and a cooler can really enhance your experience. Who wants to stress about what to eat when you’re on vacation? Most of these kitchens come equipped with everything you’ll need to cook (some even have outdoor grills like ours) so just do a bit of prep work before you leave and make life easier for yourself. I made a meal plan a few days before we left and did the shopping and chopping the day before. My advice is to pick easy meals that are healthy and not too involved. You don’t want to be cooking a five-course dinner on vacation either. If your cabin comes with a grill then plan your meals around that. Burgers, steaks, portobello mushrooms, peppers, etc… You name it, you can throw it on the grill.

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To give you an idea, I made pizza dough the day before we left so that when it came time for dinner one of the nights, all I had to do was roll out the dough and top the pizzas before popping them in the oven. I also packed a gallon-sized ziplock bag with diced carrots, celery, and onions and added tuna, mustard, and mayo for a quick lunch of tuna salad sandwiches after one of our hikes. In the evenings when we had a sweet tooth, I would spoon homemade cookie dough that I made before we left and we’d have fresh, homemade chocolate chip cookies with cold milk. Having the meals decided and mostly prepped ahead of time really made the trip much less stressful.

Activities
We aren’t going to list every single activity there is to do because you can find all of them here but we will share some of the things we did and enjoyed along with some tips and tricks we learned for next time. One of the highlights of our trip was renting a pontoon from the Lake Logan Marina to ride around the lake for a few hours. While we thoroughly enjoyed the warm summer breeze and the scenery, it was a bit unnerving having babies on board. Our suggestion is that if you have young children to pack some toys to preoccupy them as they get restless pretty quickly. Also we hadn’t planned on boating until we drove by the small marina and so by the time we were out on the lake we realized it was lunchtime and we were starving. Next time we would plan for a picnic on the water because it would make for a memorable and fun experience. And why not?

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Our little hobbit soaking in some sun and mist.

Out of all the activities we definitely hiked the most (you can’t really zip-line or ride horses with babies). We don’t know how we would have done it without a baby carrier for our 14-month old because only one of the caves had a semi-paved trail for handicap access. Also some of the hiking trails (The Rock House & Cantwell Cliffs) are more treacherous than others so we did not include them in our plans for safety reasons. We recommend you skip them too if you have babies with you. You can also plan on your daily schedule looking a bit different (surprise surprise) if you’re traveling with little ones. When we used to go before we had children, we would just hike carefree for hours. This trip we had to divide the trails over a couple of days to accommodate nap time and baby attention spans. Because of that our days ended up looking something like this:

Afternoon Day 1: Ash Cave
Morning Day 2: Old Man’s Cave
Afternoon Day 2: Swimming at Lake Logan
Morning Day 3: Cedar Falls
Afternoon Day 3: Boat ride on Lake Logan
Morning Day 4: Conkle’s Hollow

It wasn’t such a bad thing though. By breaking it down, we got to appreciate the beauty and uniqueness of each trail and waterfall and we also drastically reduced the occurrence of fussiness and meltdowns. In between activities we would return to our cabin to rest up and eat so that we would have the energy to go back out again. Our cabin was fairly close to all of the hiking trails/parks and the scenic drive through hilly farm country was something we didn’t mind especially because our son was super excited to see all the horses and cattle.

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Stopping by the side of the road to say hello to this beautiful horse.

Well that pretty much covers all of the finer details of our trip. You surely must be wondering what is so special about this place that we keep coming back year after year. For that explanation we will just let our pictures do all the talking…

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Old Man’s Cave
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Taking time for a splash at Old Man’s Cave Lower Falls.

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Do you have any family favorite vacation spots? We’d love to hear all about it in the comments below 🙂

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Kitchen Undershelf LED Lighting

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In the three wonderful years we’ve lived in our starter home, we’ve done many DIY projects, with our kitchen renovation being the biggest. So it should come as no surprise that we have a TON to write about. I’ve written about many of the more involved aspects of our DIY kitchen project in other posts but one feature I have not talked about is the LED lighting I installed under our open shelving. This was one of the more exciting parts of the whole project for me because I think LED lighting looks cool in kitchens (let’s be real…it does) and I liked the idea of having some light around when navigating the kitchen for a late night snack. Not to mention, LED lighting is such a simple and inexpensive addition that can really brighten up a space. Researching online and reading through DIY forums gave me an idea of what I needed to do and helped me to settle on the perfect product. There are many brands of LED lights out there but I purchased the Tingkam Waterproof 5m 5050 SMD RGB LED Strips which had great reviews on Amazon and some really cool features including a range of colors and lighting options. The installation was fairly straightforward and despite costing only $20, the lighting and adhesive were high quality. We are 6 months out from our renovation and have not had a single problem, thankfully.

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If you are considering installing LED lighting under open shelving, there are a few things you will need to consider. 1) Is there an accessible power outlet where you can plug-in the connected LEDs nearby? 2) Are there large spaces between the shelves where you will be installing the LEDS under? If there is a significant space between shelves, you will need to cut and splice wires using the LED connectors and extension cable. You will also need to think about aesthetics. 3) Where will you hide the extension cable(s)? Because I planned to incorporate LED lighting during the design stage of our kitchen renovation, I was able to do the electrical work and run the cable through the wall before I got to drywalling and tiling the backsplash over it. Once you’ve settled these minor issues, you’re all set to install the lights. Here’s what you’ll need:

Supplies
Lights $20.39
LED Connectors $9.49
LED Extension Cable $7.99
Butt Splice Connectors $6.55

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Image via Amazon

Directions

  1.  Measure your shelf and cut the LED strips according to the length of your shelf. For the specific LED lights I purchased, you can cut the strip along every 3 LEDs where there is a scissor line (figure 1).
  2. Connect your LED strips using the LED connectors (figure 2). If your shelves have a wall or other obstacle between them and you can’t just run them continuously you will need the extension cable listed under the supply section. Make sure to measure the space between the shelves before you connect the LED strips together so you know what length to cut your extension cable. To connect your lights to the extension cable you need to splice the wires (see figure 2).
  3. Splicing: 1) Peel back the LED strip to reveal the copper stripes and connect them to the waterproof clasp of the LED connectors. 2) Cut the connector wire in half and separate the black, red, blue, and green wires so that you can align them with the corresponding colored wires on the extension cable (figure 3). 3) You can either crimp the wires together using the butt splice connectors or twist and tape them with electrical wire (figure 4).
  4. Once you are done splicing the LEDs, you can secure the lights to the bottom of the shelves using the self-adhesive backing. To get the best results, make sure your surface is completely dry and clean. If you are planning on hiding the wires then disconnect the LED lighting strips before you adhere them to the shelf and run the wires through the walls as needed (see figures 5-6).
  5. Now you can plug the LED lights in and enjoy experimenting with all the colors and settings (figures 7-8).
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figure 1

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Have you incorporated or considered incorporating LED lighting into any of your home renovation projects? Let us know in the comments below!

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Inspirational Wallpaper: December

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Ahhh December…one of the busiest times of the year. Don’t worry, we will make this brief. We just wanted to wish all our readers a very blessed holiday season (no matter what you celebrate) and to those of you that are students, we wish you the very best of luck on your final exams (we know how you feel). We will have a few more posts to wrap up 2016 but we are looking forward to sharing another wonderful year with you (God willing). And believe it or not, we are actually hoping for some snow. Cheers!

For download and Printing: letitsnow

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Labneh Pizza Toast

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Long before toast became a trend, my family had its own toast-y tradition. On weekend mornings that weren’t filled with scheduled activities, we would make these labneh “pizzas” using toasted pita rounds, labneh, and vegetable toppings. If you’ve never had labneh, you are truly missing out. A popular Lebanese breakfast staple, labneh is a strained yogurt that is thick and creamy with a deliciously tart taste that pairs perfectly with fresh tomato, cucumber, and mint. I always had fun making and eating these “pizzas” as a child and now I make them for my husband who really enjoys them (score!). This recipe is perfect for those family breakfast days and I guarantee you that children will love putting together their own pizzas. It even makes a wonderfully light and healthy lunch if you’re in a pinch and don’t know what to make. However you choose to make our Lebanese version of toast, we hope you’ll enjoy every bite of this creamy and crunchy, vegetarian deliciousness.

Labneh Pizza Toast

  • Difficulty: Easy
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Ingredients

Pita bread
Labneh
Tomatoes
Cucumbers
Olives
Scallions
Mint
Walnuts
Extra Virgin Olive Oil

Note: I did not include quantity because it really depends on how many you make and how loaded you prefer them. To give you an idea, I use one 16oz labneh container to make about 4-5 pizzas. 

Directions
1. Turn your broiler on low and toast the pita bread rounds until golden brown and crisp.
2. In a small bowl, whip the labneh with salt and spread evenly over the cooled pita rounds. If you don’t let the pita cool, the labneh will melt and you won’t get to enjoy that thick creamy texture characteristic of labneh.
3. Top your toast with diced tomatoes, cucumbers, scallions, olives, mint, and walnuts.
4. Drizzle with your best olive oil and enjoy every crunch.

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How do you eat your labneh? Share with us your favorite labneh pairings in the comments below. And as always….

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