Amanda Miller
Columnist
Lettuce Eat Local
The silence in my house right now is deafening — which is a very odd thing to say when there are four children three years old and younger in my care.
This morning we got eight-month-old twins for foster respite care for five days; they’re just a couple weeks older than Kiah, so it’s like we have triplets! The time leading up to and getting into naptime was, shall we say, not so quiet, but by some strange yet beautiful miracle, all three babies eventually fell asleep. Not only are they all still sleeping at the same time, but Brian also came in to grab a late lunch and took Benson out to the shop with him.
I got the dishwasher started and picked up a bit, then started to feel a little disoriented about what to do next. I’m clearly not going to do anything that makes any noise at the risk of upsetting our fragile ecosystem, and I completely expect any or all of them to get up at any second. And yet, here I am.
I feel a little frantic to type as quickly as possible to best utilize this somewhat unfathomable lapse in clambering babies, although that pressure made me sit and stare in writer’s paralysis for a few minutes. I can hear Baby Girl occasionally stirring on the monitor, and Baby Boy’s lullabies playing in his room. Kiah hasn’t made a peep yet.
I’ve always wanted twins, but triplets feels like a bit much. I am clearly outnumbered everywhere I look — and the number of diapers I’ll change in the next few days won’t change that feeling. Until this magical naptime, I had on average one baby crying at any given time; I won’t count on this silence happening every day, but my goodness it’s a nice way to start it off.
I did try to head into this as prepared as I could be. Friends are scheduled to come by every day to help hold babies, something I confirmed before I said yes to the twins. The babies obviously didn’t need a lot of food prep, but since I just don’t know at all what to expect, there are some easy-to-grab components stashed in the fridge for the rest of us. I want my friends and their kids to have plenty to eat and snack on while they’re here helping of course, but when I started thinking about what to have on hand I realized it’s not quite so simple as sandwiches or pizza.
Apparently I jive with people with food allergies: between everyone (including myself) it needs to be without gluten, dairy, garlic, honey, peanuts, potatoes, and pork. And that doesn’t include the family that has to follow an autoimmune protocol diet, which has too many restrictions to list. Hence the “components” — everyone can find something and make their own combination as needed. Rice, beans, browned hamburger, roasted cauliflower and sweet potatoes, salad fixings, watermelon, a dozen random leftovers, etc. (And yes, chocolate stashed all over the house and an extra batch of my pudding in the fridge.)
Snacks are just as important for keeping up your baby-watching stamina, and cookies seemed like the right kind of thing to leave sitting out all day to nibble on. I make all sorts of “weird” varieties of cookies (the peanut butter chickpea ones I made recently were delish), but not often with this certain subset of ingredients, and it’s fun to try something new — like having triplets for a few days.
And like having triplets, I might not do ready-for-anything meal planning like this all the time, but every once in a while, it’s really kind of fun. Especially when it comes with days of babies.
Cinna-nana Cookies
I’m going to be honest, these cookies did not overwhelm me with their deliciousness…yet I kept coming back for another, as there’s something more-ish about them. I could work on tweaking them more, but for now, they’re good enough, and they worked for all our many needs as well as being good for the “triplets” too, so I call that a win. Benson and I whipped them out in mere minutes, so whether you have three babies or not, it’s hard to complain about almost-instant cookies.
Prep tips: add some maple syrup if you need these cookies to be sweeter or are skipping the chocolate (which you should only do if your diet requires it; always say yes to chocolate).
2 very ripe bananas
2 eggs
¼ cup coconut oil, melted
½ cup coconut flour
2 teaspoons cinnamon
½ teaspoon baking soda
¼ teaspoon salt
optional: chocolate of choice, melted
Mash the bananas, then whisk in eggs and oil. Mix in remaining ingredients. Scoop out desired amount and form into a ball, pressing with a fork once on a baking sheet; repeat with remaining dough. Bake at 350° for about 15 minutes, until golden on the edges. Let cool fully, then drizzle with melted chocolate.
