Dearly beloved,
It's been almost 6 years since my last entry on "Fork the System", and I think that means it's time to revisit the idea of putting my culinary and intellectual pursuits together in an easily digestible format. While not necessarily a commitment to dive back into the blogosphere whole-heartedly, I'd like to explore resurrecting the avenue to share thoughts and recipes as time and inspiration allow.
A quick personal update: I graduated with my Masters in Social Work in 2011, and soon after accepted a position working with city government coordinating a massive juvenile detention reform effort. I stayed in this position for over 4 years, learned an immense amount about the inner workings of various child-serving agencies, implemented some incredible juvenile justice initiatives, and effectively burned myself out in near-record time. In a 17 month span I got married, had a baby, bought a house, reduced my job to part-time hours (and full-time work), and became pregnant with a second child. Exhausted, I officially left my position; worked part-time as a consultant on a detention facility assessment, did some grant writing and reviewing, and concentrated on my growing family.
After being home for nearly a year, I started to feel anxious. My world was feeling very small, and I began to miss feeling connected to larger ideas and people who spoke in complete sentences. So I started putting on my business casual attire, dropping my babies off for lunch dates with their dad or grandma, and making the rounds; visits to old bosses, colleagues and contacts who were doing work I found interesting and important. I applied for a lot of jobs from the internet, too, even did a few phone interviews, but had no real leads panned out until an old colleague met me for breakfast to tell me about a position opening up in her university-based psychology lab, managing the evaluation of a school-based police diversion program I helped conceptualize and implement back in 2014. It could actually be part-time, she assured me, and I'd be able to dip my toes back into the world I was drowning in a few years earlier.
I started my new job at the end of May, and although it's full of learning curves, I'm getting back into a space where I feel I can contribute meaningfully and efficiently, and also continue learning and expanding my skill sets (I'm looking at you, data analysis!).
While the transition back to work has been relatively easy for me on a completely personal level, my little boys (now 1 and 2.5) have had less of a smooth adjustment. It's now necessary to find new time to prepare food that is not only relatively healthy, but that both of my newly sensitive kids (one of whom only eats about 4 foods on any given week and the other of whom doesn't tolerate dairy) will eat and enjoy. When a new mom-friend from the playground shared the recipe for these Raspberry Oat Bars, I knew I could modify them to be dairy-free and it might be a small way to be with my kids throughout the day even when I am at the office learning how to write syntax in SPSS or figuring out the most efficient way to de-identify thousands of paper files from social service providers. I'm still playing around with this one, but the base is pretty solid, and my older guy loves helping make them. It's a fun project to bake on days when I'm home, and even better to have them ready to grab for the mornings I have to be out the door to catch the train by 7:20am. My older son calls them "Mama Bars", and in my most optimistic moments I like to think he understands that even when I'm not physically with him all the time, I've put some real care into these super-portable breakfasts/lunches/snacks.
"Mama Bars"
Ingredients:
1/3 c. soy milk
6 dates (pitted)
2 bananas
2 tbsp. tahini
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 c. whole wheat flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 c. oats
1 tsp cinnamon
1 c. fresh blueberries
Directions:
Preheat oven to 350. Line a baking dish with parchment paper.
Add soy milk, dates, bananas, tahini and vanilla to food processor, and let a gleeful toddler finally push the button until smooth.
Add flour, baking powder, oats, and cinnamon, and let said toddler PUSH IT AGAIN.
Pour batter into the baking dish, and add berries on top, pushing fruit lightly into batter.
Bake 25 - 30 minutes, remove from oven and cool, and then cut into squares.
Enjoy within a few days (they keep best in the fridge), and sprinkle with a little extra love before you leave for work. Whoever you make them for will notice.
